Kings, Cousins, Enemies

choi

Stephen Brumwell, Kings, Cousins, Enemies; The seeds of the Wars of the Roses were planted in the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V. Wall Street Journal, Dec 14, 2024, at page C7
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture ... ns-enemies-e0c5a500
(review on two books: Helen Castor, The Eagle and the Hart; The tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV. Simon & Schuster, Oct 15, 2024, and
Dan Jones, Henry V; The astonishing triumph of England's greatest warrior king. Viking, Oct 1, 2024)

Note:
(a)
(i)
(A) The (French, German, Spanish, and Haitian) surname Castor came from Greek mythology about Castor and Pollux (Castor and Pollux are Latin spellings, whereas Kastor and Polydeukēs are Ancient Greek spellings, according to Online Etymology Dictionary. See Castor and Pollux
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_and_Pollux
("In Latin, the twins are also known as the Gemini ('twins')")
(B) Latin-English dictionary:
* gemini (noun masculine, SINGULAR geminus a twin): "twins"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gemini
(C) Gemini (constellation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(constellation)
(section 3 Mythology" Babylonian astronomy described the constellation but did not call them Castor and Pollux)
(ii) hart (deer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_(deer)
(derived from Old English; "The surnames Hart * * * also derive from the animal, as do the variant spellings * * * Hurt [as in actor William Hurt].   Several places in Great Britain and the United States are named Hart" including Hartford, capital of Connecticut)


(b) "between 1595 and 1599 * * * William Shakespeare wrote * * * also a quartet of sterner dramas inspired by his country’' tumultuous history.   These four plays explored the fortunes of three successive kings of England: Richard II (who reigned from 1377 to 1399), Henry IV (1399-1413) and Henry V (1413-22). * * * they [the four plays] were studded with phrases that still resonate, among them 'the game's afoot' and 'band of brothers.' * * * In 'The Eagle and the Hart,' Helen Castor explores the contrasting characters and intertwined destinies of Richard II and Henry IV, the cousin who supplanted Richard on the throne before passing on the crown to his namesake son. While Henry V is best known as the military leader who defeated the French at Agincourt * * * Ms Castor, who taught history at the University of Cambridge [she earned PhD at at Gonville and Caius College (these two were founders' surnames), University of Cambridge, but holds no official title in that University] * * * [Mr Jones] injects novelistic immediacy to a work that is as direct and forceful as its subject."
(i)
(A) Daniel McCleod, The Game is Afoot – Meaning, Origin and Usage. The Grammarist, undated.
https://grammarist.com/proverb/the-game-is-afoot/
(B) Henry IV, Part 1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV,_Part_1

introduction: "The play * * * ending with King Henry's victory [over (noble) rebels] in the Battle of Shrewsbury in mid-1403.

section 1 Characters:
^ Of the King's party (King Henry IV himself; his eldest son Henry (the future Henry V), John of
^ Rebels: Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland; his younger brother Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester; "Harry Percy (nicknamed 'Hotspur') – Northumberland's [eldest] son"

section 7 Legacy
• Percy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy
• fate of rebels:
^ Henry Percy (Hotspur)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Percy_(Hotspur)
("The nickname 'Hotspur' was given to him by the Scots as a tribute to his speed in advance and readiness to attack. * * * The heir to a leading noble family in northern England [Northumberland is next to Scotland], Hotspur was one of the earliest and prime movers behind the deposition of King Richard II in favour of Henry Bolingbroke in 1399. He later fell out with the new regime and rebelled, and was slain at the Battle of Shrewsbury" at age 39)
Henry was his birth name, while Harry is nickname of Henry.

Northumberland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northumberland
^ "He was captured at the Battle of Shrewsbury and publicly beheaded in Shrewsbury two days later, on 23 July 1403." en.wikipedia.org for "Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester."
^ en.wikipedia.org for "Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland": "Since the earl did not directly participate in the rebellion [resulting in Battle of Shrewsbury], he was not convicted of treason. However, he lost his office as Constable. [He later rebelled twice more (both against Henry IV) and was killed in the last battle of his.]"
(D) The wording "The Game's afoot" appeared in Henry IV, Part I, Act 1, Scene 3, spoken by Earl of Northumberland, in collusion with Thomas and Harry. (In Act 1, Scene 3, either can be replaced with Roman numeral -- uppercase or lowercase.) The context and translation is found in
https://www.litcharts.com/shakes ... art-1/act-1-scene-3
("Before the game is afoot thou still let'st slip")
• The literal meaning of the quotation: Before the prey is on the move, you are still releasing the hunting dogs [prematurely].
• [Game is afoot] --- Did Shakespeare invent the expression? ------- Did it originally mean that a Game-Animal (e.g. a Fox ?) is now on foot (and running, fleeing) so our Hunting-Game is now started?  Reddit, 2022
https://www.reddit.com/r/etymolo ... speare_invent_the/?
(A: "The first occurrence is actually in Henry IV, where it appears in the sentence 'Before the game is afoot thou still let'st slip,' the idea being that you release the hunting dogs before the game has started moving.")
•  The figurative meaning is: Before our plan [to rebel] is ready, you [Hotspur] 动了声色 [because Hotspur is 跃跃欲试: The preceding sentence is: HOTSPUR "I smell it. Upon my life, it will do well" -- it being the plan]

The father counseled Hotspur to feign loyalty in the meantime.
(E) "in Conan Doyle's works this [wording] is only used once in The Adventure of the Abbey Grange, when Sherlock says to Watson: 'Come, Watson, come!' he cried. 'The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!' ": from the Web
"The language in which Shakespeare wrote is referred to as Early Modern English, a linguistic period that lasted from approximately 1500 to 1750. The language spoken during this period is often referred to as Elizabethan English or Shakespearian English. It falls between two major linguistic stages in the history of English: Middle English, the language written and spoken during the Middle Ages, most famously by Chaucer, and Modern English, the language we write and speak today.": from the Web
(F) The "st" in"let'st" will be explained in a new posting following this one.
(ii) For "band of brothers," see St Crispin's Day Speech
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Crispin%27s_Day_Speech
(iii) immediacy (n): "uncountable (formal) ​the quality in something that makes it seem as if it is happening now, close to you, and is therefore important and requires attention quickly   <the immediacy of the threat>"
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictio ... n/english/immediacy


(c) "Born within three months of each other in 1367, Richard of Bordeaux and Henry Bolingbroke were grandsons of Edward III, famed for his victories in the opening phase of the sporadic Anglo-French dynastic conflict later known as the Hundred Years' War. Richard's father, the eldest son of Edward III, was the celebrated Edward, 'the Black Prince,' while Henry was heir to the realm's foremost nobleman, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. * * * She [Castor] points to the 'Wilton Diptych' (ca 1395-99)—now in London's National Gallery, showing the king surrounded by saints and angels—which was painted on boards and hinged so that it could be folded away to accompany his travels. * * * [Richard II] intervened in a judicial duel—a 'trial by combat'—between Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. Both nobles were exiled * * * However justified, his [Richard II's] deposition was unprecedented: While Edward II had been dethroned in 1327, he was replaced by his own son.""
(i) Richard II of England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_II_of_England
, whose father was Edward the Black Prince
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Black_Prince
(died of dysentery; caption of a painting: "The Black Prince at Crécy by Julian Russell Story, 1888, shows the prince contemplating his slain opponent, King John of Bohemia.
Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia")
(ii) John of Gaunt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Gaunt
("was the fourth son (third surviving) of King Edward III of England, and the father of King Henry IV. Because of Gaunt's royal origin, advantageous marriages and some generous land grants, he was one of the richest men of his era and an influential figure during the reigns of both his father and his nephew, Richard II. As Duke of Lancaster, he is the founder of the royal House of Lancaster, whose members would ascend the throne after his death. His birthplace, Ghent in Flanders, then known in English as Gaunt, was the origin of his name")
is Red Prince. Both Black and Red Princes we can tell by their armors.

Ghent
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Ghent
(pronunciation)
(iii) Henry IV of England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_Englan'
("Henry was born at Bolingbroke Castle, in Lincolnshire, to John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster. His epithet 'Bolingbroke' was derived from his birthplace")
(iv) Wilton Diptych
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilton_Diptych
(Centuries later, the painting "passed to the Earls of Pembroke who kept it at Wilton House, from which it takes its name, until it was bought by the National Gallery in 1929. That it remained intact is remarkable because little religious pictorial art survived the Puritan iconoclasm that followed the execution of Charles I")
(v) Richard II "intervened in a judicial duel"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_England
("Yet before the duel could take place, Richard decided to banish Henry from the kingdom (with the approval of Henry's father, John of Gaunt), although it is unknown where he spent his exile, to avoid further bloodshed. Mowbray was exiled for life"/ section 3 Accession)
(vi) Edward II of England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_II_of_England
("was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327 [by his French wife Isabella, accompanied by their 15-year-old son (the future Edward III)]. The fourth [but the oldest surviving] son of Edward I


(d) "In 1403, at the age of 16, he [Prince Henry and future Henry V] sustained a dangerous wound during the Battle of Shrewsbury. Briefly raising his visor, Henry was struck full in the face by an arrow that lodged in the back of his skull. Thanks to the ingenuity of the royal surgeon, the stubborn projectile was extracted. The protracted operation must have been agonizing. * * * [During Battle of Agincourt] Henry was targeted by an oathbound group of knights who came close enough to hack a fleuron from the crown encircling his helmet.
(i) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_of_England
(section 2 Early military career and role in Government: The young prince "joined forces with his father to fight Henry 'Hotspur' Percy at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. It was there that the 16-year-old prince was almost killed by an arrow in his left cheekbone. An ordinary soldier might have died from such a wound, but Henry had the benefit of the best possible care. Over a period of several days, John Bradmore, the royal physician * * * ")
(ii) fleuron
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fleuron


(e) "In France, united opposition to Henry's [Henry V's] conquest of Normandy was hamstrung by rivalry between Burgundian and Armagnac factions. In 1420, when a rapprochement finally seemed possible, it was swiftly scuppered after the Armagnac figurehead—the dauphin Charles [future Charles VII], heir to King Charles VI—connived in the shocking murder of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. Now backed wholeheartedly by John's vengeful son, Philip the Good, Henry V promptly upgraded his war-aims from conquering land to seizing the French crown.   In May 1420, the mentally unstable Charles VI disinherited his son and appointed Henry [V] as regent during his own lifetime. The French throne would thereafter pass to Henry and his heirs. Philip [the Good] of Burgundy approved the deal. To seal it dynastically, Henry married the 18-year-old French princess Catherine of Valois."
Instead, Henry [V] left an infant son to whose long, fractious reign Shakespeare devoted a trilogy of plays [Henry VI, Parts 1-3]."
(i) Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armagnac–Burgundian_Civil_War
(ii) Armagnac (party)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armagnac_(party)
(The faction/party "was allied with the supporters of Charles, Duke of Orléans against John the Fearless[, Duke of Burgundy,] after Charles' father Louis of Orléans [Louis I, Duke of Orléans, who THE younger brother of French king Charles VI] was killed on a Paris street on the orders of the Duke of Burgundy on Nov 23, 1407.   The Armagnac Faction took its name from Charles' father-in-law, Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac (1360–1418)" )
(A) Armagnac
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Armagnac
(pronunciation)
(B) list of capitals of France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_capitals_of_France
("Paris (987–1419), the residence of the Kings of France, although they were consecrated at Reims")

Compare Henry V of England (1386 – 1422; reign 1413 - 1422)
(C) John the Fearless
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Fearless
("John murdered Charles's [Charles VI's] brother, [Louis I] the Duke of Orléans, in an attempt to gain control of the [central] government, which led to the eruption of the Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War in France and in turn culminated in his own assassination in 1419.   The involvement of Charles [Charles VI's son and future Charles VII of France], the heir to the French throne, in his assassination prompted John's son and successor Philip [the Good] to seek an alliance with the English, thereby bringing the Hundred Years' War to its final phase")
(D) Orléans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orl%C3%A9ans
(is "120 kilometres southwest of Paris")
(iii) Burgundy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgundy
(section 1 Etymology; section 2 History: "During the Hundred Years' War, King John II of France gave the duchy to his youngest son, Philip the Bold. The duchy soon became a major rival to the crown. The court in Dijon [which was capital of Burgundy] outshone the French court both economically and culturally. Phillip the Bold's grandson Philip the Good acquired" land)
(iv)
(A) Valois
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valois
(may refer to: "County [territory owned by a count], later Duchy, of Valois, France, governed by the counts and dukes of Valois")
(B) Counts and dukes of Valois
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counts_and_dukes_of_Valois
(in modern days: "Its capital was Crépy-en-Valois")
so you may know the approximate location of the county and duchy.

(f) At the end of the day, neither the WSJ review nor en.wikipedia.org explains the title of the book. However, Penguin.com has a Web page about the book: "Yet, as the animals on their heraldic badges showed, they grew up to be opposites: Richard was the white hart, a thin-skinned narcissist, and Henry the eagle, a chivalric hero, a leader who inspired loyalty where Richard inspired only fear. Henry had all the qualities Richard lacked, all the qualities a sovereign needed, bar one: birth right. Increasingly threatened by his charismatic cousin, Richard became consumed by the need for total power, in a time of constant conflict, rebellions and reprisals. When he banished Henry into exile, the stage was set for a final confrontation, as the hart became the tyrant and the eagle his usurper."
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/ ... helen/9780241419328
Penguin House and Simon & Schuster are unrelated. However, The Eagle and The Hart is also published by its imprint Allen Lane in UK (Allen Lane was one of the cofounders of Penguin).

choi

------------------------WSJ
In a surge of creativity between 1595 and 1599, William Shakespeare wrote not only comedies, including “The Merchant of Venice” and “Much Ado About Nothing,” but also a quartet of sterner dramas inspired by his country’s tumultuous history.

These four plays explored the fortunes of three successive kings of England: Richard II (who reigned from 1377 to 1399), Henry IV (1399-1413) and Henry V (1413-22). Unashamedly crowd-pleasing adaptations, which today would have been introduced with the disclaimer “based on a true story,” they were studded with phrases that still resonate, among them “the game’s afoot” and “band of brothers.”

Two notable works of nonfiction unravel the lives and times of the monarchs who evoked such enduring language. In “The Eagle and the Hart,” Helen Castor explores the contrasting characters and intertwined destinies of Richard II and Henry IV, the cousin who supplanted Richard on the throne before passing on the crown to his namesake son. While Henry V is best known as the military leader who defeated the French at Agincourt, Dan Jones’s “Henry V” gives equal weight to the years before and after the king’s accession at age 26. Ms. Castor and Mr. Jones therefore cover much common ground, albeit in their own distinctive voices.

Among the front rank of writers producing thoughtful and engaging popular history, Ms. Castor, who taught history at the University of Cambridge and whose previous books include “She-Wolves” and “Joan of Arc,” examines complex events and an extensive cast of personalities in clear, uncluttered prose. Meanwhile Mr. Jones, the author of “Powers and Thrones” and “The Wars of the Roses,” injects novelistic immediacy to a work that is as direct and forceful as its subject. Both authors deliver richly textured re-creations of an era in which chivalric ideals coexisted with deeds of treachery and brutality.

Born within three months of each other in 1367, Richard of Bordeaux and Henry Bolingbroke were grandsons of Edward III, famed for his victories in the opening phase of the sporadic Anglo-French dynastic conflict later known as the Hundred Years’ War. Richard’s father, the eldest son of Edward III, was the celebrated Edward, “the Black Prince,” while Henry was heir to the realm’s foremost nobleman, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster.

Ravaged by illness, the Black Prince died in 1376, a year before his father. Ten-year-old Richard inherited a kingdom wearied by warfare with a resurgent France. Reveling in the majesty of monarchy, and convinced of his own sanctified status, the young Richard bridled against powerful nobles—like his uncle John of Gaunt—who sought to counsel and control him.

In 1381, when oppressive taxation ignited the so-called Peasants’ Revolt, Richard met the malcontents outside London. After the rebels’ leader, Wat Tyler, was slain in a fracas, the teenager courageously spurred forward to calm the situation. “This was royal performance in deadly earnest,” Ms. Castor writes, but nothing in Richard’s subsequent reign matched that moment of instinctive leadership.

Unlike his stocky cousin Henry, who excelled at jousting and fathered four sons, the willowy Richard was uninterested in acquiring the martial skills expected of a medieval king, and his marriage to Anne of Bohemia produced no heirs.

Among her many insights, Ms. Castor highlights the rich material culture that reflected Richard’s image of himself. She points to the “Wilton Diptych” (ca. 1395-99)—now in London’s National Gallery, showing the king surrounded by saints and angels—which was painted on boards and hinged so that it could be folded away to accompany his travels.

Richard’s authority had been challenged in 1388, when “the Merciless Parliament” impeached and executed his favorites, but his downfall was precipitated a decade later after he intervened in a judicial duel—a “trial by combat”—between Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. Both nobles were exiled, but when Richard confiscated Bolingbroke’s sprawling family domains, Bolingbroke returned to reclaim them, going on to overthrow a ruler now viewed as a tyrant.

Widely regarded as temperamentally unfit to rule, Richard II was nonetheless a legitimate monarch whose succession was unquestioned. However justified, his deposition was unprecedented: While Edward II had been dethroned in 1327, he was replaced by his own son.

By contrast, Henry Bolingbroke could claim no such birthright for his usurpation. His coup, and Richard’s death in captivity soon after, haunted Henry for the rest of his life, sowing fears that he might one day share Richard’s fate. As he ruefully explains in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part 2,” “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

Henry IV soon faced plots fomented by the ousted Richard’s supporters, exacerbated by rebellion in Wales and hostilities with Scotland. These challenges were ultimately surmounted, as the severed heads regularly spiked above London Bridge and the gates of provincial cities like York and Chester grimly testified. But such crises exacted a physical and psychological toll that undermined Henry’s previously robust health, and he increasingly delegated responsibilities to his son.

Prince Henry served an apprenticeship in statecraft and warfare that he was lucky to survive. In 1403, at the age of 16, he sustained a dangerous wound during the Battle of Shrewsbury. Briefly raising his visor, Henry was struck full in the face by an arrow that lodged in the back of his skull. Thanks to the ingenuity of the royal surgeon, the stubborn projectile was extracted. The protracted operation must have been agonizing.

To Mr. Jones, Shakespeare’s portrayal of “Prince Hal” as an irresponsible rake who jettisoned his disreputable cronies once he became king is “a dramatic exaggeration drawn from a scrappy patchwork of evidence.” Yet the author argues that Henry’s transformation upon assuming the throne was real enough, likening it to the hardening of his features into a mask that henceforth would never slip.

Keen to exploit civil war within France, and to consolidate his Lancastrian dynasty by emulating the major territorial acquisitions of Edward III, in August 1415 Henry invaded Normandy. The port of Harfleur was captured after a costly siege, placing Henry in a dilemma: Should he content himself with that success, or enhance it by boldly marching some 150 miles northeast to English-held Calais, a gambit that risked interception by superior French forces? Spurning his cautious advisers, Henry pushed on.

On Oct. 25—St. Crispin’s Day—Henry’s exhausted and hungry troops were confronted at Agincourt by a French army that outnumbered them two to one. Despite such daunting odds, the English won a crushing victory in which Henry’s inspirational example was as crucial as the arrow storm unleashed by his longbowmen. In the thick of the melee, Henry was targeted by an oathbound group of knights who came close enough to hack a fleuron from the crown encircling his helmet.

As the fighting subsided, the appearance of fresh enemies led Henry to order his men to kill their prisoners to prevent them taking up arms again. As Mr. Jones points out, a pragmatic decision that some modern historians have condemned as a shocking war crime drew no such opprobrium at the time. Even Henry’s foes conceded that he was hard but fair, combining the qualities of piety, courage and justice that characterized the ideal medieval king.

In France, united opposition to Henry’s conquest of Normandy was hamstrung by rivalry between Burgundian and Armagnac factions. In 1420, when a rapprochement finally seemed possible, it was swiftly scuppered after the Armagnac figurehead—the dauphin Charles, heir to King Charles VI—connived in the shocking murder of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. Now backed wholeheartedly by John’s vengeful son, Philip the Good, Henry V promptly upgraded his war-aims from conquering land to seizing the French crown.

In May 1420, the mentally unstable Charles VI disinherited his son and appointed Henry as regent during his own lifetime. The French throne would thereafter pass to Henry and his heirs. Philip of Burgundy approved the deal. To seal it dynastically, Henry married the 18-year-old French princess Catherine of Valois.

Henry did not live to witness his vision of a dual monarchy. Suffering from dysentery contracted during another grueling siege, he died in 1422 at 35, seven weeks before mad King Charles finally succumbed.

On his deathbed, Henry revealed that once he’d achieved his objectives in France it was his intention to recapture Jerusalem, which had been in Muslim hands since 1187. Mr. Jones maintains that this was no “delirious fantasy.” Indeed, Henry had already sent the Burgundian knight Gilbert Lannoy on a fact-finding mission to the Holy Land in preparation for the crusade. Had Henry lived, Mr. Jones believes, the warrior king would have sought to fulfill his ambition.

Instead, Henry left an infant son to whose long, fractious reign Shakespeare devoted a trilogy of plays. In an ironic twist, like Richard II before him, Henry VI was unsuited to the challenges of kingship. Before he, too, was deposed and likely murdered, the hapless Henry presided over the loss of all England’s gains in France, save for Calais, and the descent of his kingdom into the internecine strife of the Wars of the Roses. In Shakespeare’s haunting words, this truly was a “hollow crown.”

----------Mr. Brumwell is the author of “Turncoat: Benedict Arnold and the Crisis of American Liberty.”