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instead of his elder brother, and hoped that Henry would die soon without an heir so Thomas would inherit. There had been a rising against Richard II when he had left the country, and Richard had lost his throne; perhaps Henry would find that the same thing happened to him? War was dangerous, in more ways than one. And what did he hope to gain? If he meant just to make a short raid, he would not be met with much of a welcome when he returned – having taxed the country so heavily and forced so many towns and lords to make loans to him. And if he meant to undertake a longer campaign, he would find armies more numerous and better-trained than his army now gathering at Southampton. Henry could not rely on the king of France and the duke of Burgundy fighting each other.
    In response to all this the esquire could only say that, with God’s help, there would yet be peace. The two men then parted, Fusoris to ride on to Dover and sail for France with the ambassadors and the Celestine monks from Sheen. If Henry was not going to build them a monastery, and insisted on going to war with their country, they were not going to stay. As Fusoris said, for a Frenchman in 1415 England was a good country to have visited but a bad one in which to linger.
    Thursday 11th
    When Henry Beaufort had left Winchester he had carried a number of Henry’s instructions back to London with him. These were all issued in formal letters over the next few days. Henry instructed the collectors of customs in London and various other ports to repay a loan to the Venetians of 1,000 marks, to pay £285 0s 6d for sails, ropes and tackle for the king’s flagship, Trinity Royal ; and to repay £9,000 to the treasurer of Calais. 33 Sir Ralph Rochford was reimbursed £102 6s 8d for his expenses in going to the council of Constance; and Dr Jean Bordiu, archdeacon of Médoc, was reimbursed £171 16s 8d for his mission tonegotiate with the king of Castile at Fuenterrabia, from which he had returned in February. A number of sergeants-at-arms were appointed; and Henry ordered that the wages of the keeper of the privy seal be paid. 34 A royal judge, William Loddyngton, was given permission to celebrate Mass in an ancient chapel. Formal assignments were drawn up concerning the major jewels pledged. In particular, an indenture conveying the Crown Henry to Thomas, duke of Clarence, was sealed, stating that he could dispose of it as he saw fit if the king had not redeemed it by 2 February 1417. This document also stipulated that he should not break it up – a direction that Thomas ignored, dividing it among his followers as security for future payment of their wages. 35
    Friday 12th
    Henry arrived at Southampton. He wrote a letter under the signet to the council – probably those members with Chancellor Beaufort in London – enclosing a schedule of four carracks that the earl of Huntingdon had been promised. He urged that a warrant be issued to the masters of these ships for each of them to take a hundred mariners to serve in them. 36
    With the king was one of the royal ‘esquires of the body’, John Cheney. He was about to set out with three men-at-arms on the mission to Harfleur. Today he penned one of the few private letters to survive from this year, addressing Sir John Pelham, who was also due to sail:
Right worshipful and worthy Sir, I recommend myself to you with all my heart thanking you for the great kindness and gentleness that you have shown me up to now without fail, praying you might always be of good continuance; and you will wish to know that the king and all the lords here are well blessed by God. And as regards my lord the earl of Huntingdon now at sea at last, the bearer of this letter shall declare it more plainly by mouth than I can write it at this time. Furthermore, right worshipful and worthy Sir, you will want to know that I am here, and have been at great costs and expense, wherefore I need to borrow a notable sum before I go and fare from my house,