1 - Introduction: Henry V and Westminster Abbey – Life, Death and Afterlife

Summary

Historiography and Sources

Any study of the objects as well as their historical and locational context must take account of the pioneering study on the funeral, tomb and chantry chapel published in The Antiquaries Journal in 1914 by William Henry St John Hope (1854–1919). Amongst other fascinating details, Hope noted that, in the chronicler Thomas Walsingham’s account of Henry V’s funeral, there was mention of three armoured horsemen, whose destriers were led to the High Altar of Westminster Abbey, ‘as is customary’, where the riders dismounted and were stripped of their armour. In an anonymous account of the king’s funeral which has been considered contemporary but which survives only in a sixteenth-century text, we read of four mounted men, one bearing a shield with the arms of England, another with the arms of France, with the other two bearing the helms and crest relating to the same. In addition, this account speaks of an ‘Erle armed complet’ but bare headed and carrying a battle axe with the point downwards, described as riding in the funeral procession behind another knight who bore the king’s standard, although there is no mention of the stripping of armour at the High Altar.

Even more significantly in terms of the study of any surviving objects, Hope discovered relevant expenditure in the records of Robert Rolleston, keeper of the Royal Wardrobe, which were preserved in the then Public Record Office, now The National Archives. Amongst various costs for the funeral can be found the purchase of four bastard saddles with harness (selle bastarde cum hernesio), the painting of a crest and helm for the king (pro pictura unius creste et unius helme pro Rege), the stamping of a shield with the arms of the king (pro vapulacione unius scuti de armis Regis), as well as the similar stamping of the saddles (pro vapulacione dictarum sellarum) and of a tunic with the arms of the king (pro vapulacione unius tunice de armis Regis). Here, as in the narrative accounts, we also find frequent reference to the recurrent use of coats of arms associated with the king, on horse trappers (also known as caparisons, cloth coverings for horses), banners, and on the garb of those involved in the funeral procession, indeed anywhere they might be placed.