Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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“And if I should conclude all by the King,

Henrie the Fift, what was his purposing,

Whan at Hampton he made the great dromons,

Which passed other great ships of the Commons;

The Trinitie, the Grace de Dieu, the Holy Ghost,

And other moe, which as nowe be lost.

What hope ye was the king’s great intente

Of thoo shippes, and what in mind be meant:

It is not ellis, but that he cast to bee

Lord round about environ of the see.

And if he had to this time lived here,

He had been Prince named withouten pere:

His great ships should have been put in preefes,

Unto the ende that he ment of in chiefes.

For doubt it not but that he would have bee

Lord and Master about the rand see:

And kept it sure, to stoppe our ennemies hence,

And wonne us good, and wisely brought it thence,

That our passage should be without danger,

And his license on see to move and sterre.”

When the king had determined, in 1415, to land an army in France, he hired ships from Holland, Zeeland, and Friesland, his own naval means not being sufficient for the transport; among his other preparations, “requisite for so high an enterprise,” boats covered with leather, for the passage of rivers, are mentioned. His fleet consisted of 1,000 sail, and it left Southampton on Sunday, the 11th of August, of the above-mentioned year. When the ships had passed the Isle of Wight, “swans were seen swimming in the midst of the fleet, which was hailed as a happy auspice.” Henry anchored on the following Tuesday at the mouth of the Seine, about three miles from Harfleur. A council of the captains was summoned, and an order issued that no one, under pain of death, should land before the king, but that all should be in readiness to go ashore the next morning. This was done, and the bulk of the army, stated to have comprised 24,000 archers, and 6,000 men of arms, was landed in small vessels, boats, and skiffs, taking up a position on the hill nearest to Harfleur. The moment Henry landed he fell on his knees and implored the Divine aid and protection to lead him on to victory, then conferring knighthood on many of his followers. At the entrance of the port a chain had been stretched between two large, well-armed towers, while it was farther protected by stakes and trunks of trees to prevent the vessels from approaching. During the siege, which lasted thirty-six days, the fleet blockaded the port, and at its conclusion Henry, flushed with a victory, which is said to have cost the English only 1,600 and the enemy 10,000 lives, determined to march his army through France to Calais. It was on this march that he won the glorious battle of Agincourt. On the 16th of November he embarked for Dover, reaching that port the same day. Here a magnificent ovation awaited him. The burgesses rushed into the sea and bore him ashore on their shoulders; the whole population was intoxicated with delight. One chronicler states that the passage across had been extremely boisterous, and that the French noblemen suffered so much from sea-sickness that they considered the trip worse than the very battles themselves in which they had been taken prisoners! When Henry arrived near London, a great concourse of people met him at Blackheath, and he, “as one remembering from whom all victories are sent,” would not allow his helmet to be carried before him, whereon the people might have seen the blows and dents that he had received; “neither would he suffer any ditties to be made and sung by minstrels of his glorious victory, for that he would have the praise and thanks altogether given to God.”