History Facts

17.3.25

Amazing History Fact: In 1593 Ruthless Irish Pirate Grace O' Malley Charmed Queen Elizabeth I

Irish female pirate Grace O'Malley Met Queen Elizabeth I. Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

Irish female pirate Grace O'Malley met Queen Elizabeth I in 1593. Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

Grace O' Malley, Grainne Ni Mhaille

Formidable Grace O' Malley (Grainne Ni Mhaille) was born in 1530 in Umhaill on the west coast of Ireland in todays County Mayo. She was the well educated daughter of the seafaring clan chief Eoghan Dubhdara Ó Máille and his wife Me Ni Mhaille.

She was primarily raised on Clare Island, then called Inishcleer, three miles west of Clew Bay. Its castle became one of Grace's strongholds during her reign and it was called Caisleán Ghráinne meaning Grace's Castle.

Legend has it that a young Grace was not permitted to accompany her father on a voyage to Spain. He told her that her hair would get caught in the ships ropes. So, determined to set sail she hacked off her hair. This was when another of her names Grainne Mhaol was born; in Irish maol meant bald or cropped hair.

She became an unforgiving chief of Clan O'Maille and the "Pirate Queen." Passing ships crews felt her might as she demanded their treasures and money. She commandeered coastal castles from rival clans and she was content to spill blood to achieve her goals.

There were no contemporary portraits or sketches of her so her appearance remains a mystery to us. Yet those who met her and survived probably remembered her vividly.

Grace Marries Donal an Chogaidh O' Flaithbheartaigh

In 1546 Grace was dynastically married to neighbouring clan heir Donal an Chogaidh O' Flaithbheartaigh of Clan Ó Flaithbheartaigh or Clan O'Flaherty. Their lands lay in what is County Galway today.

The couple had three children. Eoghan or Owen, Meadhdh or Maeve and Murchadh or Murrough.

As an adult Eoghan was murdered by Tudor statesman Sir Richard Bingham, more about him later. Spirited Meadhdh emulated her mother and Murchadh refused to listen to or respect Grace because she was a mere female. He betrayed his family by allying himself with Bingham.

From 1542 the English monarch was also the ruler of Ireland according to Tudor law. By 1564 this was the fiery haired and strong willed Elizabeth I. The queen vetoed Donal's succession as clan chief and she placed his relative Murrough na dTuadh Ó Flaithbheartaigh in his place. Donal's dynastic hopes were destroyed.

Clan O'Maille Defeats Clans Joyce and MacMahon

His luck did not improve. The following year Donal was assassinated in an ambush staged by Clan Joyce. He had been engaged in a land dispute that Clan Joyce must have believed was over when Donal was slain but Grace shed few tears and set to work defending her property. She secured the defeat and retreat of Clan Joyce's army.

Grace took a sailor from a shipwrecked craft as her lover although this liaison was unexpectedly short because members of Clan MacMahon murdered him. Grace's revenge was to seize the MacMahon's Castle Doona and she slayed her lovers killers. She was known after this bloody assault as the Dark Lady of Doona.

Grace's second marriage in 1565/1566 was to Risdeárd an Iarainn (Iron Richard) Bourke, 18th Mac William Íochtar (of the Mayo Bourkes). Their son TIbbot na Long Bourke (Theobald) became the 1st Viscount Mayo in 1627.

The Tudor Conquest of Ireland

By 1576 Elizabeth I's Tudor armies had gained power in Ireland. The clans and their chiefs fell under the control of Elizabeth's Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sidney. Grace was often onboard ship conducting her lucrative piracy business and she seemed to accept the new order but it was claimed by the queen's Governor of Connacht Sir Richard Bingham that Grace plotted or participated in countless rebellions against Tudor rule.

Bingham loathed Grace and all that she stood for. In 1886 he had her incarcerated and she narrowly escaped the death sentence.

In 1593 Grace sailed to England to arrange an urgent meeting with Queen Elizabeth I at Greenwich Palace, London. In the days before Grace set sail her son Eoghan was murdered by Bingham and her youngest son Tibbot and her half brother Donal na Piopa were imprisoned by him.

She was determined to inform the queen in person that this was the latest episode in Bingham's long campaign of victimisation and that she wanted Elizabeth to order him to stop immediately.

"There came to mee a most famous femynyne sea captain called Grace Imallye, and offred her service unto me, wheresoever I woulde command her, with three gallyes and two hundred fightinge men ..."

Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy in a 1577 letter to his son Philip.

Grace O'Malley and Elizabeth I Unite

Grace gained access to the queen through her cousin and court favourite the Earl of Ormond and Elizabeth's chief advisor William Cecil, Lord Burghley. Cecil asked Grace to complete a long questionnaire referred to as the Articles of Interrogatory before he consented to her audience with Elizabeth.

Grace O'Malley must have charmed the queen. Elizabeth recorded that Grace "departeth with great thankfulness and with many more earnest promises that she will, as long as she lives, continue a dutiful subject, yea and will employ all her power to offend and prosecute any offender against Us."

Sir Richard Bingham received his orders from Elizabeth through Grace face to face. Inevitably he didn't believe Grace when she ordered him to release the prisoners, restore her lands and award her a pension in the queen's name. He delayed and was rebuked by Elizabeth. Grace took the queen's support in this matter as permission to return to piracy.

Sir Richard Bingham's Fall From Grace

Bingham had no intention of allowing Grace to terrorise the sailors passing through local waters into the Atlantic. He installed soldiers on her ships and he used her vessels to suppress his enemies and her allies. Grace was soon destitute. Again, she sought redress through the Earl of Ormond, Lord Burghley and Elizabeth I. The queen supported Grace's claim for freedom on her own ships. Bingham received another royal rebuke. This time he took note.

Two years into the Nine Year's War, an Irish revolt led by the Earl of Tyrone against English rule that began in May 1593, Bingham fled from Ireland and he was imprisoned in England. He died in 1599. His replacement Sir Conyers Clifford caused Grace less trouble.

Grace died in 1603, the same year as Queen Elizabeth I. Although the date and location of Grace's death have been disputed it's thought that she was buried in Clare Island Abbey which was the O'Maille dynasty's traditional burial place.

Sources

15.3.25

Napoleon's Waterloo #1: The Rabbits That Took on Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte took on a battle with rabbits.

Napoleon Bonaparte faced an unexpected battle with rabbits.

Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

The Mighty Napoleon Bonaparte

Most people think that the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 was the most crushing defeat that the Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte suffered, but there was another battle in 1807 that arguably ranks as his most humiliating. Napoleon, then considered to be the most powerful man in Europe, was defeated by a marauding army of rabbits during a rabbit hunt.

Napoleone di Buonaparte (1769-1821) left behind the modest life of an Italian nobleman’s son on the island of Corsica to attend military school in France, where he learned French for the first time, aged ten. He progressed through the ranks of the army, supported the French Revolution, and rose in prominence in the 1790s, achieving great military victories. He was elected the Emperor of the French in May 1804 with 99% of the vote.

Napoleon's Chief-of-Staff Plans a Rabbit Shoot

Summer 1807 brought the end of the War of the 4th Coalition when France defeated Russia at the Battle of Friedland on the 14th of June 1807. The signing of the two-part Treaty of Tilset by Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I of Russia (1777-1825) was completed on the 7th of July, and Prussia’s leader Friedrich Wilhelm III (1770-1840) added his signature on the 9th of July.

The French emperor decided that a celebration was necessary for himself, French dignitaries, and his key military officers. (The rank-and-file soldiers were unsurprisingly not on the guest list.) Napoleon asked his skilled Chief-of-Staff Louis-Alexandre Berthier (1753-1815) to arrange a day of rabbit hunting with a luncheon in the open air.

As with most stories, the exact number of rabbits that Berthier gathered on the hunting ground has been exaggerated with its retelling, but Berthier collected several hundred, perhaps thousands, of rabbits and placed them in cages at the edges of a field so that when his emperor took aim, he would find his prey plentiful and enjoy an excellent day’s sport. Napoleon could be difficult, and he wasn’t a renowned shot, so Berthier was meticulous in preparing the way for a jubilant emperor. Or so he believed.

Rabbits Rush Toward Nervous Napoleon

On the day of the shoot, the rabbits were released from the cages as the hunting party with gun bearers and beaters took their positions. The first of the released rabbits acted unexpectedly. Instead of bounding away from the party of gun-toting men, the rabbits bounced merrily towards them. At first, Napoleon and his guests were amused. Why weren’t the rabbits running? Did they want to be rabbit stew?

Their mirth turned to discomfort and then fear as all of the rabbits followed the first few and formed a formidable furry army that moved in a wave towards the world’s most eminent soldier. Many clustered around Napoleon’s feet, some began to clamber up his legs, and a few enterprising rabbits reached his jacket. He tried to swat them away with his riding crop, but the rabbits were undeterred.

Napoleon’s guests picked up sticks and attempted to liberate him. Again, the rabbits did not flee; they stuck close to their man. There was gunfire but no rabbit retreat. No one dared to laugh at the bizarre sight of their besieged emperor. The rabbits grew less friendly. They appeared to be hopping mad that they were being met with resistance.

Napoleon's Waterloo #1

A petrified Napoleon bolted, as quickly as the rabbits would allow him, to his carriage. He left his guests to fend off the bunny army. Cleverly, almost as though they had studied Napoleon’s military techniques, the rabbits divided into two regiments and made determinedly towards Napoleon’s carriage. The coachmen used their whips to scare them but to no avail.

Some adventurous rabbits managed to jump into the carriage with Napoleon, who had presumably seen far too many rabbits already that day. Only when the carriage was set in motion did the rabbits concede. The few invaders in the carriage were thrown out of the window by the emperor.

The Cause of the Emperor's Embarrassment

The explanation for the rabbit hunt debacle was simple, although Berthier did not readily accept blame. He was acclaimed for his organisational skills, but on this occasion, Berthier had made a monumental error. Instead of sourcing wild hares and rabbits in the field, he’d elected to take a less labour-intensive route.

Berthier and his men had approached the local farmers about securing a spectacular array of rabbits. What he hadn’t realised, even as they popped the rabbits in their cages for the shoot, was that the farmed rabbits were tame.

Berthier Dies in Mysterious Circumstances

The furry friends did not comprehend the risk to them when the hunt began. Whenever these rabbits saw a human approaching, it was with food, so when they looked at Napoleon and his party, they supposed that he was delivering food, so why would they not run towards him to secure the tastiest nibbles? Their subsequent pursuit of the man to his carriage where the food might have been was, as it transpired, wishful thinking.

The rabbits and Berthier lived to see another day, but he died in mysterious circumstances on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo. The question remains whether he fell, jumped or was pushed out of an upstairs window to meet his end. (Rabbit revenge?)

Napoleon passed away in exile in 1821. Presumably, he never kept a pet rabbit.

Sources

13.3.25

Nell Gwyn: King Charles II's Mischievous Mistress

King Charles II's fun loving mistress Nell Gwyn. Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

Eleanor "Nell" Gwyn

Nell Gwyn was born Eleanor Gwyn around the 2nd of February 1650. Her mother Helena worked in a bawdy house in Covent Garden, London, an area full of brothels, prostitutes and unsavoury public houses. Nell's father either died in debtor's prison or disappeared. Nell had an elder sister named Rose.

As children, Nell and Rose served drinks to the customers at the Rose Tavern. It's widely accepted that all three Gwyns' were prostitutes, even as minors. They knew what it was to be poor with no shoes for the winter and to suffer a scarcity of food, and there was no welfare system to save them. Nell was illiterate and unschooled in the conventional sense, but she was certainly not anyone's fool.

Rose persuaded fourteen-year-old Nell to become an orange seller at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, which was the permanent home of the King's Company of Actors. The orange sellers had another role; they acted as a conduit between men in the audience and the actresses backstage to arrange assignations.

Nell's wit and mischievousness made an impression on the theatregoers and Charles Hart, the leading actor in the company. She became Hart's mistress and also had a dalliance with her dancing instructor, John Lacy. By the end of 1665, the spirited orange seller was on stage acting, singing and dancing in comedies.

Nell Gwyn Wins Admirers, Including King Charles II

The audiences loved her sharp retorts, rebellious nature and indiscretion. In that era, the stage and the most sought-after theatre boxes were on the same level so she happily went off script to enjoy some banter with the rich and titled inhabitants of the boxes.

She was less adept at tragedy so she played in fewer of these roles and became acclaimed for her comic characters and romantic heroines. She originated roles for John Dryden and "pretty, witty Nell" was subject to a lot of attention from her male audience, including Lord Buckhurst, to whom she became mistress in 1667. Her time with Lord Buckhurst led to a short break from the theatre, but she returned to the London stage full of vivacity.

She was watching a play at a theatre one night when King Charles II noticed her, and he subsequently ignored the play.

Charles regularly visited the Theatre Royal after that meeting, and she engaged in jokes and unguarded comments with him as she performed. He was no stranger to either having mistresses or actresses as mistresses.

Nell became Charles II's mistress. She had haughty Louise de Kerouaille and the dominating, passionate and fading Barbara, Lady Castlemaine, as her rivals. Nell was the only one of Charles' mistresses that the public liked.

Charles II and Nell Gwyn's Sons: The Beauclerk Line

Charles gave her the use of an opulent property at 79 Pall Mall near St. James's Palace, and she arranged for her mother to have a nice house in Chelsea. Tragically, under the influence of brandy, Nell's mother fell into a stream and drowned in July 1679.

King Charles sneaked from the gardens at St. James's to Nell's bed unseen. Nell remained faithful to the king, and she lived a life of extravagance, hosting parties and living a life that she could only have imagined as an impoverished child. She accumulated huge debts, but her position as the king's mistress protected her from debt collectors.

Her last stage performance was given in January 1670. On 8th May 1670, Nell gave birth to Charles' son Charles Beauclerk. Legend has it that when Nell called to her toddling son, "come here you little b*****d" and the king objected, she rebuked him by saying that she had no other title to call her son by. Shortly afterwards Charles Beauclerk received his titles Baron Hetherington, Earl of Burford, and later 1st Duke of St. Albans. A second son, James, Lord Beauclerk, was born in 1671. He died in 1680.

"Let not poor Nelly starve."

Nell was an exceptional mimic and would regularly impersonate her rivals. Louise de Kerouaille would thunder out of the room as Charles laughed broadly at Nell's impressions of her. Memorably, one day when Nell was mistaken for the unpopular Louise as she stepped out of her carriage, she answered the jeers with the words, "Pray good people, be civil. I am the protestant whore."

It's thanks to Nell that the iconic Royal Hospital in Chelsea was established in the 1680s. She was appalled that a soldier who had fought bravely for Charles was begging on the street, and she asked (nagged) him to do something for heroes.

When Charles II lay on his deathbed in February 1685, Nell was not permitted to see him, but he implored his brother James to "let not poor Nelly starve." He knew that with his death, protection from her creditors would end.

James obliged. He paid off the majority of her debts and he gave her an annual allowance of £1500. However, Nell was not allowed to wear mourning after Charles' death or to attend his funeral.

Nell suffered two strokes, possibly triggered by syphilis, in March and May 1687. She was left partially paralysed. She passed away after a third stroke on 14th November 1687 at the pitiably young age of 37 years old.

Descendant Charles Beauclerk: Nell's Spirit Lives On

Nell and Charles' bloodline continues to this day. The 14th Duke of St. Albans is named Murray Beauclerk, born in 1939. His son and heir is the author Charles Beauclerk, born 1965. He refuses to be called the Earl of Burford, and he was banned for life from the House of Lords in 1999, suggesting that the rebellious streak in Nell has travelled well in the DNA through the centuries. You can read more about him here:

"A lord's last stand", published in The Guardian.

Sources

Nell Gwyn, Mistress of King Charles II of England | Unofficial Royalty
Nell Gwyn | English actress | Britannica
Nell Gwyn: A Biography by Charles Beauclerk. (Recommended, an excellent book).

Elizabeth Bathory: The Most Prolific Female Murderer in History

Remorseless serial killer Elizabeth Bathory. Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

A Serial Killer With Royal Links

Serial killer Elizabeth Bathory has been accused of being a vampire, as notable as Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Count Dracula. She retains the record as the most prolific female murderer of all time in the Guinness Book of Records.

Elizabeth was born into a privileged and prominent family on 7th August 1560 at Bathory Castle, Nyirbator, in the east of Hungary. Her uncle, Stephen Bathory, was the King of Poland. Prince of Transylvania and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Elizabeth's father, Baron George VI Bathory's brother Andrew, controlled Transylvania as its voivode or governor. Her mother, Anne, was the daughter of a former voivode of Transylvania.

She was raised at Ecsed Castle, approximately 75km from Budapest. According to History Hit, she suffered from seizures as a child, perhaps epilepsy.

Intelligent and acclaimed as a beauty, Elizabeth was betrothed at eleven or twelve years old, and in 1575, at age fourteen, she was dynastically married to a fellow Hungarian, Count Ferencz Nadasdy. He was twenty years older than his bride and served in the Hungarian military.

Count Ferencz Nadasdy

There was a persistent rumour that Elizabeth had borne a daughter allegedly fathered by a peasant lover before her marriage. Nadasdy was said to have castrated the lover and fed his body to a pack of wild dogs. The daughter was secreted away.

Elizabeth was of a higher status than her husband, so Nadasdy added her surname to his own. The Bathory and Nadasdy families gave the newlyweds Cachtice Castle in the Carpathian Mountains (today, the castle ruin lies in Slovakia) and seventeen surrounding villages.

Ferencz Nadasdy was wealthy, aristocratic and an ambitious soldier. He was rarely at home. He was eventually rewarded with an elevation to Earl of Pozsony Pressburg, Bratislava. He was notable throughout his career for his cruelty towards enemy Ottoman prisoners, even in those bloodthirsty times.

Between 1585 and 1595, Elizabeth bore Ferencz five children, Anna, Orsolya, Katalin, Andras (who died in infancy) and Pal. Governesses raised them as Elizabeth entertained a series of lovers at Cachtice Castle and sometimes at Sarvar Castle, which later fell under the ownership of the kings of Bavaria.

Elizabeth Bathory's Chilling Quest for Eternal Youth

After the death of the count on the battlefield in January 1604, horrifying suspicions of torture, murder and vampirism were voiced against Elizabeth. She was forty-three at the time of Ferencz's death and was known to be terrified of growing old and losing her beauty.

She studied the occult, and she was familiar with her husband's torture devices in the castle. He used them on invading Turks, and she utilised them on debtors. Then Elizabeth realised they could be used to aid her quest for perpetual youth.

Between 1590 and 1610, Elizabeth tortured and murdered in excess of six hundred virgin peasant girls and noble women, some of whom were just ten years old. She reputedly drank and possibly bathed in her victims' blood, and she tore or bit at their flesh as they hung upside down from chains, their throats slit.

"The Blood Countess"

Known to history as "the Blood Countess", Elizabeth believed that the stream of young girls' unspoiled blood must be replenished frequently to afford her eternal youth. With the total approval of her sorcerer and alchemist, she offered girls jobs at the castle from which they never returned home, and she ordered abductions. Her staff did not refuse her.

In 1609, Elizabeth had what she thought was an excellent idea. She established an all-female academy at the castle under the pretence of preparing twenty-five genteel girls at a time for a life in the nobility. This offered her a new source of young blood to ward off old age.

All too quickly, her pupils began to die or disappear in her care, and when four blood-drained bodies were thrown from an upstairs window and seen by suspicious villagers, they reported her to the authorities.

Bathory's Lack of Remorse for Her Crimes

King Matthias of Hungary instructed Elizabeth's cousin Gyorgy Thurzo, the Count Palatine of Hungary, to deal with the accusations. He led an investigation, took statements from approximately three hundred people in the local area, and implemented legal measures. Thurzo held no doubts about the depravity of the vile countess.

Elizabeth's servants were arrested as 1609 drew to a close. Her entire staff stood trial, and three servants were executed in 1611. Elizabeth Bathory was protected from arrest by her aristocratic position until the law was changed at Thurzo's request. In 1610, she was arrested and sat through a hearing that detailed her serial killing tendencies and estimated how many girls she had slain.

Her punishment for her unconscionable deeds was confinement in a small walled-up room in her castle. In Hungary, aristocrats could not be lawfully executed. During the four remaining years of her life, she offered not one word of remorse.

She died on 21st August 1614. Her descendants were banished from Hungary and emigrated to Poland. Some of them returned to Hungary in the mid-1600s, but the position of the Bathory-Nadasdy's was less significant but ever notorious.

Footnote:

The Bathory von Simolin line of Elizabeth's dynasty continues. The Ecsed branch expired several centuries ago. In 2013, Ferencz Nadasdy, the last male descendent of the Nadasdy dynasty, died without issue. The dynasty became extinct after over six hundred years.

Sources

Henry V: Final Warrior King of England and Victor at the Battle of Agincourt

King Henry V led his triumphant army at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

Henry of Monmouth and King Richard II

The future King Henry V was born on or around the 16th of September 1386 at Monmouth Castle in Monmouthshire, Wales and into the House of Lancaster. He was the eldest son of Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, later King Henry IV, and his first wife, Mary de Bohun. Mary passed away during the birth of their daughter Philippa in June 1394. By this time, in her mid-twenties, she had borne six children.

The Earl of Derby was the Duke of Hereford by 1398. He received the challenge of a duel with the 1st Duke of Norfolk over potentially treasonous comments Norfolk had made about the king, Richard II. The duel was ordered and then cancelled by Richard. Both men were exiled, and in 1399, Henry was prevented from inheriting the lands of his father, John of Gaunt, by the king.

The young Henry of Monmouth was not sent into exile. Richard II commandeered him for a life at court, and reports showed that he treated Henry well, making a wary friend and ally instead of an enemy of him. Henry was intelligent, well educated and coped with the rigmarole of court life well, vital for survival. In 1399, Henry was knighted.

Henry, Prince of Wales

In 1399, when Henry’s father returned to England, deposed Richard II and claimed the throne as Henry IV, his eldest son and heir was created the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Lancaster, Duke of Aquitaine and Earl of Chester.

In 1400, Henry, Prince of Wales, was awarded management of Wales, and in 1403, he and the Welsh rebels led by Owain Glyndwr commenced a five-year-long fight for supremacy. Henry was left with a facial scar after an arrow careered into him during one of the battles.

Contrary to Shakespeare’s depiction of him as a drunken hedonist at this stage in his life, he was an enthusiastic soldier, given to occasional recklessness, prone to cruelty. He was not a man who compromised, but he was keen to secure his authority over the people in his father’s realms.

Henry IV/Henry V

As the first decade of the 1400s drew to a close, Henry sought greater powers in the ruling council, an elevation in status that was opposed by an ailing Henry IV. When he felt strong enough, Henry Senior had his son removed from the council because his policies were at odds with his own.

A primary source of disagreement was Henry Junior's keenness to claim the throne of France, as he believed this was the right of all English kings. Henry IV was not interested in causing an inevitable war.

Henry V acceded to the throne on the 21st of March, 1413. His coronation on the 9th of April 1413 was a cold event; there was a snowstorm going on outside.

His reign was not without domestic discontentment. In early 1414, the Lollards, looking for reforms to Christianity, rose up. The following year brought a conspiracy led by the Duke of York, Earl of Cambridge and Lord Scrope of Masham, who had their own candidate for ruler. Both rebellions were suppressed. Henry was alerted to the danger and dispensed with his foe brutally.

War in France

What made Henry V such a remarkable figure in English history was his determination to seize and rule large areas of France that were either once in English hands or in new territories that he found attractive. Remembered as a warrior king with an astute mind that strategised magnificently, his campaign began when he secured the compliance of John, Duke of Burgundy, against the mentally vulnerable Charles VI of France.

Henry entered into half-hearted diplomacy that swiftly descended into bloodshed on French soil, most famously at the 25th October 1415 Battle of Agincourt where the outnumbered English triumphed.

He cut the French naval capabilities, rallied the English to champion the war and as Henry and his soldiers enjoyed victories that delivered new lands and powers, the soldiers made way for administrators who effectively helped the war to pay for itself. John, Duke of Burgundy was murdered in 1419 but this brought Henry good fortune. Burgundy became his territory.

Henry V Marries Catherine de Valois

Henry did not have the desired hasty victory over France. It was seven long years into his reign when he secured the amount of land, power and wealth that he needed, and countless men died fulfilling his vision. Only with the Treaty of Troyes in May 1520 was Henry V recognised as the heir to the French throne.

Less than two weeks after this treaty was signed, Catherine de Valois, daughter of Charles VI, was married to Henry. After taking Catherine to England and at some point impregnating her, he returned to France and war.

Their son Henry was born on the 6th December 1421; Henry V never met him because he died of dysentery or camp fever in Vincennes on the 31st August 1422. His body was dismembered and boiled before it travelled to England for burial at Westminster Abbey.

Henry VI Loses Henry V's Acquisitions

Nine-month-old Henry VI and his council presented a far weaker proposition for England’s enemies, and during his fifty-year reign over England (with Wars of the Roses interruptions) and from 1429 in France, Henry lost his father’s acquisitions with alarming rapidity.

As the Lancastrian element of the Wars of the Roses, he alternated with Yorkist rival Edward, as Edward IV, as monarch in the 1460s into 1470–1471. Henry VI met with a convenient death when incarcerated on Edward’s orders. It was not what warrior king Henry V would have envisaged for his dynasty. His moment of glory for the House of Lancaster and England at the Battle of Agincourt took on a mythical status.