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That his health may not have been as robust as has been assumed might be inferred from the substantial and recurrent entries for purchase of medicaments in his household accounts as prince. As king, he often appears to have consulted university-trained physicians, and the names of Masters Peter de Altobasse, John of Coventry, Jean Tiphaine, Gilbert Kymer and Jacopo of Milan recur through the household accounts. During his last illness, his need for skilled medical attention was indicated by the summons, on the king’s express order, of Master John Swanwych, MA, Bachelor in Physic, from England to France, to ‘do him service’. Henry’s physicians, given the fever from which he was suffering, had apparently been afraid to give him medicines to be taken internally, and he seems to have taken action on his own initiative. Swanwych was, on 14 July 1422, paid 100s. ‘which the … king, with the assent of his council, ordered to be paid to the same master, to have as his gift for his expenses in coming [to him] for the aforesaid reason’. The regular provision at this time of portable urinals, housed within the king’s ‘privy seat’ (privata cathedra), transported in leather cases, might suggest a response to urgent medical needs. And the ‘chronic intestinal condition’ from which he was to die had certainly manifested its severe symptoms by mid-June 1422, when he became too ill to ride. An earlier testimony of Richard Courtenay, bishop of Norwich, a close intimate of the king, to the astrologer Jean Fusoris, in 1415, is noteworthy in this respect. Courtenay was apparently concerned for Henry’s state of health and requested Fusoris to draw up the king’s horoscope, or birth chart, thereby offering some prognosis.

Malcolm Vale, Henry V: The Conscience of a King (Yale University Press, 2016)

#henry v #the death of henry v #henry v's health #richard courtenay bishop of norwich #jean fusoris #historian: malcolm vale

Bishop Courtenay fell ill on Sept. 10 and died on the following Sunday, to the great grief of the king, who with his own hands bathed his feet and closed his dying eyes. He was the eldest son of Sir Philip Courtenay of Powderham, and as a young man had been remarkable for his good looks and handsome figure. On Oct. 3, 1399, when only 18 years of age he had been appointed to a canonry in Exeter Cathedral, being at the time precentor in the cathedral at Chichester. He was then only in subdeacon's orders, but on Dec. 14, 1399, Pope Boniface IX granted him a dispensation to be ordained deacon and priest as soon as he should be 20 years of age. He was fully ordained accordingly in St Michael's Chapel at Chudleigh on Dec. 18, I400, and constantly mounted higher up the ladder of promotion. But he was always a delicate man and he was seriously ill in Paris during both of his embassies in August 1414 and March 1415, at which time he was getting very stout and constantly complained of lightheadedness, especially on getting out of bed, Fusoris, the French astrologer, advised him to consult the best doctors when he got back to England, prescribing in the meantime a sippet of toast in hippocras in the early morning. When the Frenchman saw him next at Winchester in July 1415, he found him very nesh and delicate and advised him not to cross with the expedition as he could scarcely expect to escape the contagion to which all could be liable both on the voyage and in the camp, especially in the autumn months. During the siege of Harfleur he had occupied a tent adjoining the king's and at times had actually shared the royal tent itself. Men called him the king's bishop, and by his death there is no doubt that Henry lost a real comrade of like tastes and an intimate personal friend. He died at the age of 35, leaving large estates to his nephew Philip, son of his brother John Courtenay, who was at the time under age. His body was sent across to England and buried near the Confessor's shrine behind the high altar in the Abbey at Westminster, though there is now no memorial to mark the exact spot where it was laid.

James Hamilton Wylie, The Reign of Henry the Fifth: Volume 2 (1415-1416) (Cambridge University Press 1919)

#jean fusoris #raoul le gay #henry v #richard courtenay bishop of norwich #historian: james hamilton wylie #the siege of harfleur

During all this time [Raoul Le Gay, a French priest captured by the English at Harfleur and kept for ransom] kept demanding his liberty and asking for a safe-conduct, and on Sunday, Aug. 25, they took him before the king, though of this interview he unfortunately gives us no particulars, except that the king asked him if he had been taken in arms. In the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 27, he was passed on to Bishop Courtenay's tent which was close to the king's. Here he lay on a mattress in his clothes and when the bishop came in he wanted to rise, but Courtenay told him to lie still while he went into his retreat behind a curtain and changed his dress preparatory to paying a visit to the king. The next morning the bishop heard Mass in his tent about 9 o'clock, and then Le Gay was taken to the king's chapel where he heard the king's choir and was struck with the beauty of the service. Afterwards the bishop asked him if he knew one of his friends named Jean Fusoris who was a canon of Notre Dame in Paris, this being the French astronomer whose visit to Winchester a few weeks before has been already recorded. The bishop then promised that he would set him free if he would carry a message to the canon, holding out to him also the prospect of a good benefice and that he should be a rich man ever after.

At first Le Gay refused, never having been in Paris before, but fearing lest they might ship him across to an English prison he at last agreed to the terms, and on Thursday, Aug. 29, Bishop Courtenay took him into his retreat, where he handed to him a letter written on paper and tied with thread to which was attached a seal with the figure of a swan. He gave him also a small parchment schedule, a finger-length long, making mention of certain pumpkins, melons, almonds and other fruits which Fusoris was to get from the Prior of the Celestines in Paris and send back with his answer and for which he would receive payment. The bishop likewise charged him to tell Fusoris that the king of England had landed with 50,000 men, 4000 barrels of wheat, 4000 casks of wine and 12 large guns and sufficient material for a 6 months' siege of Harfleur, and to ask whether the king of France was agate and whether he had decided to oppose him, and if so whether Mons. de Guienne (i.e. the Dauphin) and Mons. de Bourgogne would be with him and how many other lords and with how many men. One of Courtenay's chaplains also, whose name he gives as William but who appears in the letter as Jenkin, commissioned him to deliver a letter to a friend of his in Paris called Denisot le Breton who was in the service of the Princess Catherine. The text of both these curious letters is still preserved. In the former, the bishop writing in Latin with his own hand on Aug. 29, 1415, addresses Fusoris as "my dearest friend and comrade," refers to their previous acquaintance (inchoata noticia), how they had frequently talked together face to face and how he had lately heard of him from his clerk T. B. He urged him to reply in writing within the next 8 or 10 days, but to be careful in his answer not to mention either of their names, as the matter was an entire secret from everybody except the king "who is very close, as you know." "Jenkin," the chaplain, writing in French, told his friend in Paris that the king had come to France to win his right and for the love of Madame Katherine," and asked if she was married or engaged, ending up with: "Commend me to all my ladies, especially to the one who gave me an apple." No one ever found out who was meant by this last pretty allusion, for when the judicial inquiry was subsequently held, Le Breton who was lame had left the Princess' service and nobody knew where he was; neither could anything be made of the melons, and the Prior of the Celestines could only suggest that it was a mistake as no such things grew in his garden, though perhaps the bishop might have seen some in their house at Mantes. With his letter Courtenay handed to Le Gay a silk-covered leathern purse containing 20 half-nobles, into which he placed the letters and the schedule, fastening it round his neck and underneath his shirt, and so he passed through the English lines and started westward as if on the road to Paris.

James Hamilton Wylie, The Reign of Henry the Fifth: Volume 2 (1415-1416) (Cambridge University Press 1919)

#jean fusoris #raoul le gay #henry v #richard courtenay bishop of norwich #historian: james hamilton wylie

That evening the king left Winchester to join the fleet, and when Fusoris returned to his quarters for the night and found that the French ambassadors were preparing to depart on the morrow, he told his chief that Henry could not have started on a more unlucky day, for the moon was combust and it was common knowledge that no one could look for a happy issue for any business begun in the crook of the moon. On the departure of the king Bishop Courtenay removed from Wolvesey to a house in the town, where being anxious about his money Fusoris and his man called on him quite early the next morning only to find that he was indisposed and not yet out of bed. Next door to the bishop's lodging was a tavern, and as Fusoris had to wait he went in there for a drink of malmsey or vernage with a priest and a merchant from Harfleur whom he had met as an old acquaintance. Then, as he had soon to start with the envoys, he sent his man to get ready the horses and bring them round, while he himself paid a last visit to the bishop. Returning to the house where Courtenay was lodged he was admitted by a servant, who took out 100 nobles from a coffer and gave them to him in payment of his claim, together with a schedule by means of which he would be able to get them changed in Paris, but when he said that he had lost 33 crowns in changing the first 100 nobles some months ago, the servant explained that these were all good. Hearing that the bishop was still in bed he left a message that it would be better for him not to cross with the king if he could avoid it, but if it could not be helped he had better put it off as late as possible. Meanwhile his man had come round with the horses and the two rode after the ambassadors and set their faces towards home. Three days after leaving Winchester the whole party arrived at a country town whose name is not given. Here they stayed for the night, and after supper an English squire rode up to the Count of Vendome's inn bringing cups and other presents for the leading members of the embassy. At once the news spread, and it being still light, everybody went to the inn to see if there was anything for them, but Fusoris could not get near for the press. However he fell in with the squire, who gave him 40 nobles from the king and Bishop Courtenay, with thanks for the books and the astrolabe.

James Hamilton Wylie, The Reign of Henry the Fifth: Volume 1 (1413-1415) (Cambridge University Press 1914)

#jean fusoris #henry v #richard courtenay bishop of norwich #historian: james hamilton wylie #the agincourt campaign

Every day during the week spent at Winchester, when the envoys attended the Council at Wolvesey where the court was lodged, Fusoris went with them as far as the door of the Council Chamber and waited about for his chance of seeing Bishop Courtenay. He often saw him passing to and fro, but it was not till the middle of the week that he got an opportunity of speaking with him. On that day the bishop shook him by the hand and said in his genial kindly way: "You are welcome, Master John!" but did not pay him his money. On the following morning (i.e. the day before the final rupture) he went as usual to Wolvesey accompanied by two French squires, and as they waited in the hall they were accosted pleasantly by an English doctor in theology who told them that they were a little late as the king was in council, and as they would have some time to wait he invited them to have a drink, which the two squires refused. Fusoris, however, accepted and as they chatted over the wine, the English doctor spoke of a certain college in Paris where two English students could be taken in on condition that the like terms were allowed to two French students in some college in England, but that all would depend upon whether peace was arranged. He then asked if there were many astrologers in Paris, to which Fusoris replied that it was not a science that paid, though there were many like themselves who were keen on the science of the motions without meddling with judgements, whereupon the Englishman took a sextern out of his gown containing many figures of the heavens and revolutions of years since King Henry's nativity. Fusoris would have liked to see it had there been peace between the two countries, but as it was, he would not look at it, as he had now no hope that there would be any treaty at all. Then the doctor said how much he would have liked to spend a year or two in Paris "if only your ambassadors had come sooner," for then he thought the marriage might have been arranged, though he still had hopes that another English embassy might be sent after the army had crossed the Channel. This inquisitive visitor appears to have been the Dean of the King's Chapel, but Fusoris had been quietly taking his measure, and when he reported the conversation to Archbishop Boisratier he told him that his questioner was called an astrologer, but that he was really ignorant of the very elements of the science and could not understand even what was told him. Then the Frenchman rejoined his compatriots in the hall and after some further waiting he saw Bishop Courtenay coming down from the king's room towards the chapel where he was due to say mass. Fusoris passed into the chapel with him, and while the bishop was setting the altar they had a few minutes conversation together. About the money the bishop said that the reason why he had not paid it before was that he could not get a dependable messenger to send it over with to France, but "Master John," he said, "you shall have your money though at present I have not got a penny with me in the house," meaning that after the king had gone he would be turning out into other quarters of his own and would then see that the money was paid. He then asked Fusoris if he had brought anything good with him, who said that he had brought the compositions and the other things they had agreed upon. The bishop asked if he had them with him, but finding they were at Fusoris' lodgings he told him to bring them to-morrow morning at mass when he would present him in person to the king. Fusoris sought to be excused, for he foresaw the rupture and knew even before the ambassadors themselves did that the expedition would certainly go forward, but the bishop said that the king would particularly like to see him as they had so often talked about him together.

So early the next morning his servant Jean du Berle put up the astrolabe and the book and the other things in bags and he and his master went together to Wolvesey for the last time. The French ambassadors were closeted with the king in his room but all their attendants stood about in the hall. Fusoris waited till Courtenay came down, and after bowing to him followed him into the chapel. When the mass was over Courtenay signed to him among the crowd of onlookers and they went together into the king's pew. The bishop introduced him, saying: "My lord, this is Master John Fusoris that I spoke of, who thinking there would be a treaty of peace, has brought with him a composition for your solid sphere, another for an instrument wherein may be seen the motions of the planets, their conjunctions, oppositions and aspects, together with a figure of the heavens at all hours, a small astrolabe with a practice and a sextern of problems, which he offers to Your Majesty," and therewith he presented the various articles one by one. The king merely said in Latin: "Thank you, Master John!" adding "Grans mercis!" in French, to which Fusoris replied: "Ad bene placitum vestrum serenissime princeps" and the interview was at an end. While it lasted Fusoris had stood with bent knee and he was one of the guests at the king's dinner afterwards before the final answer was given to the French envoys on that fateful day.

James Hamilton Wylie, The Reign of Henry the Fifth: Volume 1 (1413-1415) (Cambridge University Press 1914)

#'“You are welcome Master John”' but did not pay him his money.#lmao king shit.#jean fusoris #henry v #richard courtenay bishop of norwich #historian: james hamilton wylie

...Bishop Courtenay, when in Paris in the autumn of 1414, had sent a message that he would like to see [Jean Fusoris]. Accordingly he called on the bishop at the Hostel de Bourbon and had a long conversation with him on "the science of astrology," by which we are not to understand merely forecasts of events, but a scientific study of the motions of the stars so far as that generation understood it, for Courtenay had been three times Chancellor of the University of Oxford and was keen for every genuine extension of knowledge. As a result of their talk Fusoris sold him seven instruments for 400 crowns, and as the bishop had to leave Paris the next day he asked him to have a copy of rules written out for him showing how the instruments should be worked, and to call on him at St Denis for the money. On the following day Fusoris attended at the sign of the Sword which fronted the Abbey at St Denis, where he dined with the bishop and began to draw up the "practice" as requested, but as it was already late he was asked to stay the night and go on with the English as far as Pontoise, where he would certainly receive his money. As the party rode along to Pontoise on the next day, the conversation turned on the burning question of the famous thesis of Jean Petit [i.e. Petit's defence of public killing as tyrannicide, occasioned by the assassination of Louis, Duke of Orleans], as to which they were not all of one mind, and Fusoris, who had strong Burgundian leanings, did not like the flippant and insulting way in which some of them spoke of the University of Paris. He stood up for the honour of his University and brought down upon himself some very threatening language from the Lombard physician, Pietro of Milan, who was crossing with Bishop Courtenay to England. At Pontoise the bishop paid Fusoris 100 English nobles, which in the ordinary course should have been equivalent to 200 crowns, but in this case they only realised 167 on the Paris exchange. For payment of the remaining 200 crowns he had to be put off again, as the bishop had already spent so much in books, mirrors, jewellery, vernigals [drinking cups] and other goldsmith's work that he had had to borrow in order to pay his way home.

When Courtenay was again in Paris in the spring of 1415, Fusoris called on him at his lodgings in the Hostel de Navarre where he sold him some books, and when the bishop had presented the English demands Fusoris consulted the figure of the heavens and assured him that they would probably be successful, and once over the dinner table the bishop told him how much King Henry would like to make his acquaintance as he took great interest in astrology, and having with him the astrolabe and an almanac which he had bought of him at the time of the first embassy, he asked his visitor whether the king's proposed marriage with the Princess Catherine would be good for England, whereupon they looked up the figure and found that it was good. Then they said : "Let us see whether the marriage will be accomplished in this embassy," and they found that the figure was not good. They then fell to talking of astrology and Fusoris said that there were certain judgements that might be sustained, as for instance about bodily illness and such like, but that others which had to do with events depending upon man's free will were uncertain and had no sound foundation. Then Courtenay told him that he was getting alarmed about King Henry's health, for if the king should die it would be a great blow to his fortunes as he had always been a good and gracious lord to him, and with this he took Fusoris aside and showed him the king's nativity, asking whether he was likely to live long, but the Frenchman was cautious and said that he was not good at that kind of knowledge and that it would take him more than a year to find that out. As to the debt of 200 crowns the bishop was again obliged to ask him to wait, but he pressed him to come over to London with the next embassy that was to be arranged, holding out a prospect to him of an appointment as physician to Queen Joan as they had no good English doctors, and promising that he would procure for him several large benefices. He hoped that he would stay at the court for at least three or four months and he must be sure and bring with him or send, if he could not come himself, the "practice" that he was making for the astrolabe, together with a sextern of puzzles or problems (ludos) in geometry, and a composition of the solid sphere and of the seven planets, all these being intended as a present for the King of England. So Fusoris returned to Paris, where he made the compositions and problems in a plain fashion with a demonstration at the end of each chapter, and waited for an opportunity to cross to England himself.

James Hamilton Wylie, The Reign of Henry the Fifth: Volume 1 (1413-1415) (Cambridge University Press 1914)

#jean fusoris #henry v #richard courtenay bishop of norwich #historian: james hamilton wylie

Been thinking about the motif of disease in the testimony of Jean Fusoris.

This testimony has never been published in a full English translation, so I can only go off how his testimony has been discussed and summarised in English works, which predominately focus on Henry V's court and the English side of the Hundred Years conflict.

#jean fusoris #henry v #richard courtenay bishop of norwich #blog

Did I just buy a book about science in the Middle Ages for three pages about Richard Courtenay? Why, yes I did.

In fairness to my bank account, Seb Falk’s The Light Ages is really pretty and was already on my to-read list but finding out Courtenay was referenced in it made me pounce. And hell, I got to buy it from my favourite indie bookshop and it ended up getting here within a couple of days of ordering so score. I’m looking forward to reading the whole book soonish too.

Courtenay is only mentioned in three pages, largely about his connection to Jean Fusoris. There’s not a whole heap of information about Courtenay that’s new to me but I picked out three of my favourite quotes to share.