Who Was: St. Crispin

One of the most stirring scenes in Shakespeare's play is the windup to the Battle of Agincourt on October 25, 1415, when King Henry V rouses his men, his band of brothers, the happy few, with his speech on St. Crispian's Day.  Of course they win.  Plantagenets can kick tail with best.

So who was St. Crispian, and why have so many battles been fought on his feast day?

Crispin and Crispianus were twin brothers who preached to the Pagan Gauls in what is now Belgium in the 3rd century and supported themselves as leatherworkers while doing so.  They were captured by Roman authorities, tortured and beheaded in 286.  An alternative story places the brothers in Canterbury, England.  Their father became upset because they chose their mother's Christian faith, so she sent them London to learn the leatherworking trade.  Option B doesn't clear up how these two were martyred, but that was the usual criteria for Medieval saints.  They became the patron of tanners, cobblers and leatherworkers in general.  In time, the two melded into one saint, Crispian or Crispin.  They weren't military saints like Michael or George.  Nothing in particular to connect them with battles.

Except that a fair number of battles have been fought on their feast day.  Agincourt in 1415, Balaclava in 1854, El Alamain II in 1942, Henderson Field, Guadalcanal Campaign in 1942, Leyte Gulf in 1944, and several battles during the U.S. Civil War including Springfield II 1861, and Mine Creek, Kansas in 1864.  A possible reason lies in the time of year St. Crispin's feast falls, late October.  Traditionally, armies headed for winter quarters as the snow fell and freezes set in, simply because Winter was too hard to find food, keep warm and otherwise fight.  Armies would become active in the spring, skirmish and maneuver throughout summer and autumn, building up to a showdown battle before closing out the campaign season.  St. Crispin's Day happened to be an auspicious (for the victors) day for this very practical reason. 

War: The Revolt of 1173

All families have drama.  Novels, plays and movies make it seem as though the Plantagenets invented family drama centuries before soap operas and reality television.  The difference between a regular family and a royal family was that divisiveness within the family could quickly be exploited by other royal families and other countries, a la Game of Thrones.  And, the issues, power, land and inheritance.  In Medieval times, inheritance within a family wasn't so cut and dried.  Father-to-son passage of royal authority wasn't a given.  Each son had to scrape for themselves, proving their right to inherit and edging out the others, who fought for the scraps or died trying. 

Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine were the ultimate power couple of their age.  Henry was heir to England and Normandy, as well as Angers and other counties in France.  Eleanor brought Aquitaine and Poitou, basically most of what is now southern France to the table.  They had four adult sons, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey and John.  How to divvy up all this land and give each son a piece of the pie and prevent him warring with the others was a never-ending problem.  Henry, Jr., was married to a French princess and Geoffrey to a woman who was Duchess of Britany in her own right.  And, there was always France and Scotland to think about.  Both would take advantage of any apparent weakness in the Plantagenet family.

Young Henry was 18 years old in 1173, good-looking, a tournament hero and with just enough brains and ambition to be dangerous.  Having been crowned junior king in 1170, he wanted the authority and power to go with that.  No Plantagenet stood for being junior in anything, even to his old man.  Henry II wasn't about to give up any power to someone he still considered a young whippersnapper who needed to learn his place the hard way.  Then Henry II decided to give some land within Henry's inheritance to John and the lid blew off.  Junior went to his father-in-law, the King of France, who was always looking for a pretext to star a war with his old rival Henry II.  Richard and Geoffrey soon followed, and Geoffrey brought along his wife Constance, who had control of her own lands in Brittany. 

Eleanor of Aquitaine threw in her lot with her sons.  For all the ink that has been spilled on the romance between her and Henry II, the reality was that the old sparks had died.  Eleanor was aware that real power lay with her boys and it was her duty as a mother of lions to stand with them.  In particular, she was eager to protect her eventual heir, Richard, who stood to lose everything if Junior and Louis of France pushed matters too far.  Henry II intercepted Eleanor in Normandy and she was sent back to England.  She would spend the next 19 years as a prisoner shuttled from one castle to another in England. 

The war began in 1173 when two other independent realms, Flanders and Boulogne, invaded Normandy in a joint operation with France and knights loyal to Henry, Junior, including William Marshal.  William the Lion, King of Scotland, invaded the north of England.  Henry II defeated the invaders in Normandy and turned on Scotland.  Henry II proved he still had his military ability and drove William back, penetrating deep into Scotland.  William the Lion would regret coming into this family quarrel.  Then, Henry's own nobles in England got into the act.   The Earls of Norfolk and Leicester, backed with Flemish mercenaries, marched on London, taking advantage of Henry II being occupied in Normandy.  Henry's army in Scotland backtracked to deal with them and gained another victory.  One of Henry II's loyal barons reached the art of understatement by telling Henry that 1173, was "a bad year to be your enemy."

But William of Scotland wasn't through yet.  As the war persisted in Normandy, his brother David, Earl of Huntingdon led a coalition of disaffected English lords.  The rebels burned Nottingham and Norwich.  The barons were upset over their usual grievances, royal authority in general, and the murder of Thomas Becket in particular.  To win support in England, Henry II had to turn from military strategy to optics and diplomacy.  He did public penance for the killing of Thomas Becket and defeated the Scots at Alnwick, capturing William the Lion.  His sons knew that the game was up, and with Louis' assistance, brokered a peace that saved their inheritance, and their necks for the time being.

Henry knew how to hit the barons where it would really hurt and ordered several castles demolished.  If a noble lord didn't have a fortified base to gather an army and retreat to, he would be less likely to take on the king.  William of Scotland had to surrender control of his fortresses at Berwick and Edinburgh, thus laying the seeds for continued English intervention in Scotland.  It would be a matter of time before Henry's brood (and the Scots or French) got restless again. 

What Is It: Donjon versus Dungeon

We all have a visual picture of a Medieval dungeon.  A dark, damp, cave-like cell with a rack for torturing prisoners and chains on the walls for keeping captives.  However, a donjon in Medieval terms was slightly less benign.

Donjon comes from the Old French word for a keep, the central tower of a fortified castle.  The keep could serve a variety of functions.  It might be a residence for royalty or nobility.  It could also be an arsenal, a guardhouse, a treasure house, and the last line of defense if a castle were undergoing a siege.  Secondary to these functions would be a few cells for holding prisoners.  Racks and other instruments of torture were more of a Renaissance development, though torture was a legal method of interrogation for both prisoners of war or criminals alike.  The secondary meaning of dungeon as being a darkened cell beneath a castle where prisoners were tortured, held captive and never heard from again evolved during the later Middle Ages and stems from a very specific type of cell found in some castles, though this, too is rare.

It was called an oubliette, from an Old French word meaning to forget or be forgotten.  These cells often did not have a conventional door.  Instead, a prisoner might be lowered into a pit-like room far below the castle and kept for as long as convenient or necessary.  Darkness, damp, cold and sensory deprivation were torture enough.  There wouldn't have needed to be rack or other torture instruments to make an oubliette a place nobody wanted to go.  The secondary meaning of dungeon versus donjon was well understood by the Tudor era, Anne Boleyn asking the jailer at the Tower, "Mr. Kingston, shall I go into a dungeon."  Both in terms of a dark and uncomfortable prison cell and a place where one could be forgotten about, forever, never mind torture.

Status prisoners were often held in conditions of some comfort, being allowed furniture, food, clothing and personal attendance.  More often than not, this was to prove that they were alive.  When allowances for a particular prisoner stop is generally a good benchmark as to when they might have died, though no indication of how.  Even though they were murdered or conveniently died off somehow, many Plantagenet men spent time as status prisoners.  They would not have been held in a dungeon, as we understand it, or even in a donjon, or main keep, but somewhere secure within a castle complex. 

Descendant: Courteney Cox

In an interesting bit of 21st century news, promotions for the 2017 season of the genealogy program "Who Do You Think You Are" featured a segment on Courteney Cox, best known as Monica Geller in the sitcom Friends.  According to research, she is the descendant of a Lord Thomas Berkeley who, in the 14th century, may have been involved in the assassination of an English King.  The promotions don't say which king it was, but they give enough information for a healthy guess.

Edward II.

Edward II passed his last days in Berkeley Castle, under the care of Sir Thomas Berkeley.  According to the articles, Berkeley purchased items designed to make a room into a prison, such as locks and bars.  But he also purchased food and other items for Edward's use.  Edward died in 1327, and rumors persist to this day whether it was a death from disease or injury, or deliberate murder, and if so who ordered the hit.  While most historians discount the red hot poker up the bowel story, there is a high probability that Edward was killed in captivity.  Whether Berkeley was in on it or not will likely never be known.  He does, however, have a many times great-granddaughter who is a talented and popular actress.

Places: the Tower(s) of London

People often speak of the Tower of London as though it was a single edifice.  In fact, the Tower is an extensive complex of towers, walls, and a moat that still dominates the modern City of London.  Three Plantagenet kings left their stamp on this part of their kingdom, Richard I, Henry III and Edward I. 

The Tower of London proper is the iconic White Tower, with its white-colored Kentish rag stone finish.  This was begun during the reign of William the Conqueror in 1067, though it would be augmented by other kings after him.  While today the Tower is infamous as a prison, in fact the complex has served several uses over the years.  Built to overawe and control the Saxon capitol of London, and fortify the Thames waterway, the Tower was a military base, a royal residence, an arsenal, a safe-deposit for coin, jewels and valuables, and a prison.  Richard continued William's ambitious building program, by adding a moat, and creating a wall now known as the Inner Ward.  The Inner Ward has a wall studded with several towers which were constructed to provide covering fire of arrows against anyone who tried to attack it.  These towers were, Bell, Beauchamp, Devereux, Flint, Bowyer, Brick, Martin, Constable, Broad Arrow, Salt, Lanthorn, Wakefield, and the Bloody Tower.  Some of these towers had specific purposes.  The Bell Tower was a belfry.  The Bowyer tower was used for storage and repair of bows and arrows.  The Salt Tower held reserves of salt, an important preservative of the age.  Lanthorn is an archaic word for lantern, meaning that this was a signal tower.  The Bloody Tower received its name only in Tudor times, after it had gained an infamous reputation as being the final dwelling and possible murder-site of the last two Plantagenet princes/kings, Edward V and his brother Richard of York.

Henry III continued working on the Tower, expanding the walls to include a local church, St. Peter ad Vincula.  Ad vincula is a Latin word for "in chains" commemorating the Apostle Peter as a martyr in the later part of his life.  Thus, St. Peter in Chains became the parish church of the tower, including as a place of final worship and later burial for those unfortunate enough to be imprisoned and executed, either on Tower Green or Tower Hill.  Edward would add the walls known as the Outer Ward, including the now infamous Traitors Gate, or the Water Gate, as it was known at the time, as well as a series of docks and wharves along the Thames.  Originally just a means of access from the Thames River, Traitors Gate gained its reputation in the centuries after the Tudor era, when so many famous prisoners passed through it from their barges on the Thames, and never left again. 

Nor were humans the only prisoners in the Tower.  Henry III began the royal menagerie, which remained until early Victorian times.  Lions, tigers, elephants, ostriches and other exotic animals were kept here, often in miserable conditions, meant as showpieces for the Kings and their guests, and later for Londoners who were allowed to view them from time to time.  From Henry III, too, dates the custom of keeping a Jewel House at the Tower, to house the Crown Jewels and other valuable items, including precious metals, jewels, jewelry, objets d'art, gold and silver plate.  These items could be used during ceremonies such as coronations.  But they were also collateral, used to secure loans during times of war.  They formed an important part of the credit of the realm.

The White Tower held a royal residence, but it was never a main royal residence of any of the Kings.  There was only so many ways of making a fortification comfortable as a royal palace.  Tradition dictated that Kings and Queens would spend the night at the Tower prior to their coronations.  Generally, when a royal personage came to the tower for a long-term stay, it would be as a prisoner.  Edward II, Richard II, Henry VI and Edward V all did time in the Tower of London at the whim of their own family members and subjects.  Henry VI and Edward V would ultimately die here, in circumstances that have never been resolved or explained. 

What Is It: A Butt of Malmsey

It's one of the most enduring legends of the Plantagenet family.  George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence 1449-1478, younger brother of Edward IV and father of Margaret de la Pole, Countess of Salisbury, was offed in the Tower of London by drowning in a butt of Malmsey wine in February, 1478.  After all, Shakespeare says so twice over, in Henry VI, Part III and Richard III, and Philippa Gregory backs him up in The White Queen. 

Nah!  Couldn't happen.  Well, what exactly is a butt of Malmsey?  English barrel measurements for liquid measures started with the tun (approx. 210 gallons), then the butt (108 gallons), and on down the list.  So, a butt is a barrel capable of holding 108 gallons of wine.  That's pretty good size.  Enough room to hold someone you don't like face-down in a lot of heady, frothy wine.  Malmsey is a Madeira made from the Malvasia grape, a grape commonly grown in the Balearic Islands.  However, in George's day, and Shakespeare's, too, Malmsey referred to any heady, really sweet wine that had been fortified with other ingredients, sugar, honey, fruits, etc.  A little bit of Malmsey would've gone a long way.  So, the rumor could've been a back-swipe at George for being a heavy drinker, much like the song lyrics about putting a bottle to one's head and pulling the trigger.  All the historical record says is that George was tried, basically privately interrogated by Edward IV, and found guilty of treason.  Edward didn't want the public spectacle of having George executed and so he was "privately executed", most likely in the Bowyer Tower at the Tower of London. 

The Plantagenets had a family history of doing away with younger sons, nephews, cousins and former kings who might be in the way.  Hot spits up the bowel, starving or smothering to death, and poisoning were common rumored methods.  Why not a butt of sweet wine?  George's skeleton was discovered intact, so that rules out a beheading, so he had to die somehow.  And, the body had to be disposed of until it could be buried.  A butt of Malmsey is as plausible an alternative as any.   

King: Richard II of England

Questions surround Richard II and his reign.  Was he the cruel, irresponsible despot of Shakespeare or a typical Plantagenet king who didn't put up with any nonsense?  Was he crazy or was there a method to his madness?  Was he a poor king or just unlucky?  And, how did he die?

Richard (1367-1400) grew up surrounded by some of the most legendary men in his family.  His grandfather was Edward III, one of the longest-reigning kings in English history.  Lawgiver, military commander, patriarch of an impressive family that included both John of Gaunt and Edward the Black Prince.  Little Richard was born in Aquitaine.  Originally, he wasn't meant to be king.  His older brother, Edward of Angouleme, died in 1371, bumping Richard up a step in the succession.  The Black Prince had been a successful military commander, but he was slowly succumbing to the chronic dysentery which eventually killed him in 1376, when Richard was nine years old.  Edward III knew that he had to counteract the possibility of his older sons swooping in on the inheritance of a mere boy and quickly invested Richard as Prince of Wales.  Then Edward III died in 1377 and none of that mattered anymore.  Richard was king.

In an effort to keep Richard's uncles, particularly John of Gaunt at bay, it was decided that instead of single Regent, the government would be in the hands of a council.  John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock, Earl of Buckingham were still powerful, but their power was counterbalanced by that of other lords, which kept Richard safe for the time being.  He was described throughout his life as tall (he grew to six feet), articulate and intelligent.  Coming from a long line of military men, there was hope for him to follow in the family tradition.  Richard enjoyed tournaments and seemed headed that way.  He had inherited a realm weakened by repeated waves of famine and plague.  Edward III's regime had passed repressive measures aimed at raising revenue and keeping peasants working the land.  This boiled over into the Peasants Revolt of 1381.  Bands of peasants led by Wat Tyler, John Ball and Jack Straw marched on London.  For the first time, Richard began to make his views known, opting for mercy and negotiation.  He agreed to meet the peasants face to face.  With the death of Tyler the mob grew unruly.  Rather than flee or turn his armies on the people, Richard rode forward at 14 years old and told them, "I am your captain.  Follow me!"  He was able to keep the crowd in order until they agreed to disburse.

But neither Richard nor his advisers had any intention of keeping their promises.  Richard later rode with armies tasked with putting down the last embers of the revolt.  In 1382, Richard married Anne of Bohemia.  The couple would come to fall deeply in love and she would be a steady support to her husband.  He would need it.  Richard, like his great-grandfather Edward II, had a habit of trusting his government to favorites.  He made one favorite, Michael de la Pole, Chancellor.  Though the de la Poles later became quite prominent, at the time they were a wealthy merchant family, sure to make the other royals and nobles jealous.  Another favorite was Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, who was of noble blood, but still considered an upstart.  While the usual allegations of homosexuality surfaced against Richard, there was another possible reason for his trusting favorites over his own relatives and other nobles.  Favorites were dependent on the king alone and more easily controlled than over-powerful uncles, cousins and other subjects. 

Matters came to a head in 1386, with the demands of Parliament that in exchange for more taxation, the King must give up de la Pole and de Vere.  Richard stated that he wouldn't dismiss so much as a scullion out of his kitchen for Parliament's sake.  Thomas of Woodstock, Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick and other nobles brought an appeal, or accusations of treason against de Vere and de la Pole.  They were joined by Henry of Bolingbroke, Gaunt's son and Richard's eventual nemesis, and Thomas de Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham.  They force de Vere to flee for his life into exile.  De la Pole was arrested and ultimately executed for treason.  Richard would not forget this insult.  Plantagenets, too, paid their debts. 

John of Gaunt stepped forward to mediate a peace and provide a steadying influence just as the Scots invaded the North of England, forcing the King and his nobles to put their differences aside to meet the threat.  Richard dealt with the Scots and negotiated a peace with France.  He also achieved some military and diplomatic success in Ireland.  These triumphs may have made Richard feel that he had more political capital than he actually did.  He had several of the Lords Appellant, including Gloucester, Warwick and Arundel arrested for treason.  Arundel was tried and executed.  Gloucester, himself a Plantagenet, died under mysterious circumstances in prison and it was rumored that Richard ordered him poisoned to spare the public shame of executing a member of the blood royal.  With John of Gaunt's intercession, men loyal to Richard were created dukes, compensated with property of those lords who were, or would shortly be, condemned.  John of Gaunt and his son, Henry of Bolingbroke posed a serious personal threat to Richard, who was still childless despite two marriages.  When John died in 1399, any restraint against deposing King Richard died with him.

As Richard continued to focus on settling old scores, Henry of Bolingbroke was in France, amassing an invading army.  He landed in Yorkshire in June, 1399 and marched virtually unopposed toward London.  Edmund of Langley, uncle to both Richard and Henry, sided with Henry.  On August 19, 1399, Richard surrendered to Henry at Flint Castle, promising to abdicate if his life were spared.  He was brought to London and imprisoned in the Tower.  But Henry of Bolingbroke, now King Henry IV, wasn't entirely safe.  There were other adult members of the Plantagenet family more senior in the succession than he.  Henry claimed the right of kingship as the oldest son of a surviving son (John of Gaunt) from Edward III and was crowned King of England, thus kicking off the Wars of the Roses.

Richard was transferred to Pontefract Castle.  Meanwhile, some lords had remained loyal to Richard and were planning to rescue him and depose Henry.  Henry couldn't allow Richard to live, but couldn't put to death an anointed king of his own blood either.  Richard died approximately February 14, 1400, from being starved to death, though there's no proof of exactly how he died.  He wouldn't be the first, or the last, Plantagenet male to die under mysterious circumstances in prison.  Being a prince/king in the tower was a family tradition.  His body was displayed at Old St. Paul's Cathedral before being buried in King's Langley Church.  Later, his body was reinterred next to Anne of Bohemia in Westminster Abbey. 

Richard would be known as a patron of the arts.  He sponsored painters, writers such as Chaucer and Gower, and sponsored architectural achievements like the rebuilding of Westminster Hall with an ornate hammer-beam roof.  He also introduced more elaborate court etiquette, being the first king to be addressed as majesty, rather than as highness.  In the end, although Richard had his strong points, his reliance on personal favorites and his focus on settling scores and indulging in intrigue was his undoing.