King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164] --- Part 01

DESCRIPTION: The English king sends to the French king a reminder of tribute due. The French king says our king is too young to be a threat and sends tennis balls instead. Our king takes an army, excluding married men and widows' sons, and succeeds against the French
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1028)); many undated manuscript copies predate this [for example, Bodleian Harding B 1(38)], and D'Urfey had something similar
KEYWORDS: war royalty battle
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1413 - Accession of Henry V
1415 - Henry V attacks France, captures Harfleur, and wins the Battle of Agincourt
1415-1421 - Continuing campaigns in France
1421 - Henry marries Catherine (the youngest daughter of Charles VI "the Mad," the king of France) and is declared the heir of France
1422 - Death of Henry V
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,NE,SE)
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Child 164, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #6, #1}
Bronson 164, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (10 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads 164, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 version: #1)
Hales/Furnival-BishopPercysFolioManuscript, volume II, pp. 597-599, "King Henry V, his Conquest of France" (1 text, not from the Percy Folio)
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Ballad #1, pp. 52-56,241, "King Henrie the Fifth's Conquest" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 151-154, "King Henry FIfth's Conquest" (1 text)
Browne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 60-62, "Henry V and the King of France" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lyle/McAlpine/McLucas-SongRepertoireOfAmeliaAndJaneHarris, pp. 139-141, "As The King lay musin on his bed" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #6}
Flanders-AncientBalladsTraditionallySungInNewEngland3, pp. 145-148, "King Henry the Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2 a/b, although the three transcriptions are all slightly different musically}
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 192-195, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2a}
Wells-TheBalladTree, pp. 43-45, "King Henry V's Conquest of France" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Leach-TheBalladBook, pp. 463-466, "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France" (2 texts)
Dallas-TheCruelWars-100SoldiersSongs, pp. 115-116, "King Henry Fifth and the King of France" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sidgwick-BalladsPoemsIllustratingEnglishHistory, pp. 46-48, "King Henry the Fifth's Conquest of France" (1 text)
Niles-BalladBookOfJohnJacobNiles 49, "King Henry Fith's Conquest of France" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, ZN305, "As our King lay musing on his bed"
DT 164, HENRYV*
Roud #251
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1028), "King Henry the Fifth's Conquest of France" ("As our king lay musing upon his bed"), J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819; also Harding B 1(38), "King Henry V. his Conquest of France"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Agincourt Carol" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fency King and the English King
Henry's Tribute
The Tennis Balls
NOTES [302 words]: The career of Henry V marked the high point, for the English, of the Hundred Years' War. That war, fought between England and France with some participation by other countries, was a long, incredibly complex business (as you'd expect for a war that lasted from 1437 to 1453 -- though with many long periods of truce).
Because this is so complicated, I ended up with what is (as of this writing) the third-longest entry in the Ballad Index. I have therefore broken it up into the following sections, divided among four different entries in the Ballad Index. which you can search for if you don't want to read the whole thing. These aren't really chapters; the note is meant to be read continuously. But it may help you to find the part you most want.
Contents:
*** Included in this entry:*
* Full References for the song
* Bibliography
*** Included in the Entry "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]" --- Part 02 (File Number Link C164A):*
* The Causes of the War
* The Reign of Edward III
* Strengths and Weaknesses of France and England
*** Included in the Entry "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]" --- Part 03 (File Number Link C164B):*
* Edward III, Sluys, Crecy, Poitiers, and Bretigny
* The Failure of Bretigny; Richard II and Henry IV
*** Included in the Entry "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]" --- Part 04 (File Number Link C164C):*
* The Reign of Henry V
* 1415: Harfleur and Agincourt
* The Second Invasion and Troyes: Henry the Heir of France
* The Death of Henry V and the Regency of Bedford
* Orleans
*** Included in the Entry "King Henry Fifth's Conquest of France [Child 164]" --- Part 05 (File Number Link C164D):*
* The Death of Bedford and the Loss of France
* England After the Wars: the Overthrow of Lancaster
* The Historical Content of the Ballad
Bibliography

Allmand: Christopher Allmand, Henry V, University of California Press, 1992
Ashley-GB: Maurice Ashley, Great Britain to 1688, University of Michigan Press, 1961
Ashley-Kings: Mike Ashley, British Kings and Queens, Barnes & Noble, 2000 (originally published as The Mammoth Book of British Kings and Queens, 1998)
Ashley-Stuart: Maurice Ashley, The House of Stuart, J. M. Dent, 1980
Barber: Richard Barber, Edward Prince of Wales and Aquitaine: A Biography of the Black Prince, 1978 (I use the 2000 Boydell Press paperback edition)
Barker: Juliet Barker, Agincourt,2005 (I use the 2007 Back Bay paperback edition)
Bennett: Michael Bennett, The Battle of Bosworth, St. Martin's Press, 1985
Burne: Lt-Col. Alfred H. Burne, The Crecy War, Eyre & Spottiswoode,1955 (I use the 1999 Wordsworth paperback reprint)
Butler: Raymond Reagan Butler, Is Paris Lost? The English Occupation 1422-1436, Spellmount, 2003
Cheetham: Anthony Cheetham, The Life and Times of Richard III (with introduction by Antonia Fraser), George Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1972 (I used the 1995 Shooting Star Press edition)
Christie-Murray: David Christie-Murray, A History of Heresy, Oxford, 1976
Curry: Anne Curry, The Hundred Years War, St. Martin's Press, 1993
Davis: John Paul Davis, The Gothic King: A Biography of Henry III, Peter Owen, 2013
Dockray: Keith Dockray, Edward IV: A Source Book, Sutton, 1999
Doherty: Paul Doherty, Isabella and the Strange Death of Edward II, Carroll & Graf, 2003
Earle: Peter Earle, The Life and Times of Henry V, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1972
Featherstone: Donald Featherstone, The Bowmen of England, Clarkson N. Potter, 1968 (I used the 2003 Pen & Swoard paperback edition)
Given-Wilson: Chris Given-Wilson, Henry IV, Yale University Press, 2016
Gillingham: John Gillingham, The Wars of the Roses, Louisiana State University,1981
Goodman: Anthony Goodman, The Loyal Conspiracy: The Lords Appellant under Richard II, University of Miami, 1971
Griffiths: Ralph A. Griffiths, The Reign of King Henry VI, University of California Press, 1981
Guerard: Albert Guerard, France: A Modery History, University of Michigan Press, 1959
Harvey: John Harvey, The Plantagenets, 1959 (I used the 1979 Fontana edition)
Hutchison: Harold F. Hutchison, Edward II: 1284-1327, 1971 (I use the 1996 Barnes & Noble edition)
Jarman: Rosemary Hawley Jarman, Crispin's Day: The Glory of Agincourt, Little Brown, 1979
Keegan: John Keegan, The Face of Battle Viking Press, 1976 (I use the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition)
Keen: Maurice Keen, The Pelican History of Medieval Europe, Pelican, 1968
Lander: J. R. Lander, The Wars of the Roses, 1965; revised edition 1990 (I use the 1997 Grange edition).
Lyon: Ann Lyon, Constitutional History of the United Kingdom, Cavendish, 2003
Magnusson: Magnus Magnusson, Scotland: The Story of a Nation, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000
Myers: A. R. Myers, England in the Late Middle Ages, being volume 4 of The Pelican History of England, eighth edition, 1971 (I use the 1979 Pelican paperback printing)
Neillands: Robin Neillands, The Hundred Years War, Routledge, 1990
Ormrod: W. M. Ormrod, The Reign of Edward III, updated edition, Tempus, 2000
OxfordCompanion: John Cannon, editor, The Oxford Companion to British History, Oxford, 1997
Perroy: Edouard Perroy, The Hundred Years War, Capricorn, 1965 (a translation by W. B. Wells of Perroy's French original La Guerre de Cent Ans, 1945)
Powicke: Sir Maurice Powicke, The Thirteen Century, 1216-1307, Oxford, 1962 (I use the 1998 Oxford paperback edition. And if you're wondering how the thirteenth century came do be defined as 1216-1307, it is the reigns of Henry III and Edward I)
Prestwich: Michael Prestwich, The Three Edwards: War and State in England, 1272-1377, 1980; I use the 2001 Routledge paperback edition
Renouard: Yves Renouard, The Avignon Papacy: The Popes in Exile 1305-1403, translated (and with some additional content) by Denis Bethell, 1970 (I use the 1994 Barnes & Noble editin)
Ross: Charles Ross, The Wars of the Roses, Thames and Hudson, 1976
Royle: Trevor Royle, Lancaster Against York: The Wars of the Roses and the Foundation of Modern Britain, Palgrave, 2008
Rubin: Miri Rubin, The Hollow Crown: A History of Britain in the Late Middle Ages, Penguin, 2005.
Saul: Nigel Saul, Richard II (part of the Yale English Monarchs series), Yale, 1997
Saunders: Frances Stonor Saunders, Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman, Faber and Faber, 2004
Sedgwick: Henry Dwight Sedgwick, The Black Prince, no copyright date (I use the 1993 Barnes & Noble reprint)
Seward: Desmond Seward, The Hundred Years War: The English in France, 1337-1453, Atheneum, 1978
Sumption: Jonathan Sumption, The Hundred Years War I: Trial by Battle, University of Pennsylvania Press 1990
Tuck: Anthony Tuck, Crown and Nobility 1272-1461, 1985; I use the 1986 Barnes & Noble edition
Wagner: John A. Wagner, Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War, Greenwood Press, 2006
Wilkinson: B. Wilkinson, The Later Middle Ages in England, 1216-1484, Longmans, 1969 (I use the 1980 paperback edition)
Wolffe: Bertram Wolffe, Henry VI, 1981 (I use the 2001 paperback edition in the Yale English Monarch series with a new introduction by John L. Watts)

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File: C164

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