152 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 
Wales and Scotland in the other, cannot have failed to create a tremendous 
impression at the time, and this impression, according to the theory 
which has been repeatedly applied to the Iliad, for example, should have 
perpetuated itself in tradition. Yet what traditions do we find? Of 
William the Conqueror, that he fell on landing, and that he destroyed a 
number of towns and villages to make the New Forest. Of Edward I, that 
his life was saved by his queen, and that he created his newly born son 
Prince of Wales. All these traditions are completely devoid of historical 
foundation. Of the real achievements of these two great monarchs 
tradition had nothing to say whatever. 
Similarly the only traditions of Henry II and Richard I are the fabulous 
tales of Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamund, and of Blondel outside the 
castle. 
With the traditional accounts of Henry V, those that have been made 
famous by Shakespeare, I shall deal at greater length. ‘They tell us that 
he spent his youth in drinking and debauchery, in and about London, in 
company with highwaymen, pickpockets, and other disreputable persons ; 
that he was imprisoned by Chief Justice Gascoigne, whom after his 
accession he pardoned and continued in office ; and that on his accession 
his character, or at any rate his conduct, changed suddenly and completely. 
The authorities for these stories are Sir Thomas Elyot’s The Governor 
(1531) and Edward Hall’s Union of the Noble and Illustrious Houses of 
Lancaster and York (1542). ‘These two highly respectable authors seem 
to have relied largely on matter already in print, some of it dating from 
within fifty years of Henry V’s death. I know no argument for the 
historicity of any traditional narrative which cannot be applied to these 
stories—yet there is not a word of truth in any of them. 
The facts are these. In 1400, at the age of thirteen, Henry became his 
father’s representative in Wales, made his headquarters at Chester, and 
spent the next seven years in almost continuous warfare with Owen 
Glendower and his allies. In 1407 he led a successful invasion of Scotland. 
In 1408 he was employed as Warden of the Cinque Ports, and at Calais. 
In the following year, owing to his father’s illness, he became regent, and 
continued as such until 1412. During this period his character as a ruler 
was marred only by his religious bigotry, and what seems to be the only 
authentic anecdote of the time describes the part he played at the burning 
of John Badby the Lollard. In 1412 an attempt was made to induce 
Henry IV, whose ill-health continued to unfit him for his duties, to 
abdicate, but his refusal to do so, together with differences on foreign 
policy, led to the withdrawal of the future Henry V from court, probably 
to Wales, till his father’s death a year later. He did not reappoint Sir 
William Gascoigne as Chief Justice, and there is no truth in the story that 
the latter committed him to prison. 
These facts are drawn from the Dictionary of National Biography, which 
sums up the question by saying that ‘ his youth was spent on the battle- 
‘ field and in the council chamber, and the popular tradition (immortalised 
‘ by Shakespeare) of his riotous and dissolute conduct is not supported by 
‘contemporary authority.’ According to Sir Charles Oman, “his life was 
‘ sober and orderly. . . . He was grave and earnest in speech, courteous 
