Free The Secret Diary of Eleanor Cobham by Tony Riches Page A

family. There would be venison and hot mulled wine. Travelling mummers would perform plays and dances, their faces painted and wearing colourful costumes, so one could only guess at their true identity. A favourite of the duke in those happy times were what we called the mystery plays. The story of Christ was turned to simple entertainment, with Humphrey easily persuaded to take the part of King Herod as an evil villain and I would sometimes play the innocent virgin Mary, much to his amusement.

    Another of Humphrey’s favourite pastimes was to regale us all with reminiscences of the victory at Agincourt. It had been the making of him, and of course his brother King Henry V. He repeated the story when he had been drinking, so I was well used to his account of how the French were so completely defeated on that victorious battlefield in Normandy. He would tell how the English were outnumbered twenty to one by the French army, yet won the day through courage and bravery. Duke Humphrey was modest about his own role in the battle, but would admit to taking part in hand-to-hand fighting with his men at the front.
    Many years later he gave me quite a different account of the events of that fateful day. I had known of the deep scars on his body but when I asked about them he was usually dismissive, calling them his ‘war wounds’.   One evening, long after we were finally married, he had drunk a few glasses of his favourite wine and was in a reflective mood. I asked him to tell me what it really had been like for him in that muddy French field at Agincourt. He was finally ready to talk.
    He told me how proud he was to be chosen to sail with his brother, King Henry V, on his splendid flagship the Trinity Royal in support of his claim for the French crown. It was the autumn of 1415 and King Henry V had raised one of the biggest English fleets ever assembled, numbering over one thousand four hundred vessels. They needed every seaworthy ship because they were carrying two thousand men-at-arms and some eight thousand of the finest longbowmen from England and Wales.
    Humphrey said their army was accompanied by Welsh miners and master masons, experts at besieging castles, as well as heavy horses to haul a dozen of the new great cannons and siege equipment, which were loaded with much difficulty onto the decks of the biggest ships. The king brought his entire retinue of servants, including his trumpeters and minstrels, a sure sign to Humphrey it was to be a long campaign. Also on board the king’s flagship were the most respected surgeons and apothecaries in England, a more worrying sign that his brother the king expected his mission to claim the crown and kingdoms of France to also be a bloody one.
      Their destination was the city port of Harfleur, one of the most important harbours on the coast of Normandy, which they planned to use as a base for a march up the banks of the Seine, all the way to Paris. It was a great adventure to Humphrey, who until then had always lived in the shadow of his brothers, King Henry and John, Duke of Bedford, who was to take charge of the country in the king’s absence. It was also his chance to show his military skill to those who dismissed him as a scholar, and prove he was a fit and able heir to the throne, if the succession was ever to pass to him.
    The voyage started with a bad omen, as one of the ships caught fire and was quickly ablaze when it was barely underway. A good breeze caused the flames to set light to the sails of the ships closest to each side before they could manoeuvre away. All three ships were lost, with most of those on board, as few could swim to safety. Despite himself, Humphrey saw this as a portent that all would not be easy in the months to come, but the same winds that had fanned the flames also sped the fleet quickly across the English Channel. They anchored in the bay of the Seine a few miles from Harfleur, without further incident.
    The port town of Harfleur was found to