good heavens!" said an old woman among the spectators, "and that besides our having had a considerable pestilence last year, and that they say that the English are going to disembark in a company at
Harfleur."
By the time Shakespeare was writing Henry V in 1599, it would have made English hearts swell with pride to hear the war cry that Will put in Henry's mouth at the battle of
Harfleur -- "Upon this charge cry God for Harry, England and St George!"
The war diary of the battery gives very little detail regarding movements of the ordinary ranks but it is clear that in December George had been sent to the Royal Garrison Training ground at
Harfleur.
(44) When the bellicose king declares he will not leave
Harfleur 'half-achieved' (3.3.8), he employs the familiar trope of characterizing a city as female: 'Till in her ashes she lie buried', Henry declares, 'The gates of mercy shall be all shut up' (3.3.9--10).
Twelve large siege cannon were used by the English at the siege of
Harfleur in 1415.
I slid around, made trial attempts and slid back, invoked the spirit of Henry V before
Harfleur: Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more ...
We begin in
Harfleur with the surrender of the French garrison and the English army's triumph--but Henry's army is suffering under the twin weights of sickness and exhaustion after enduring a long period of siege.
Henry's speech to the citizens of
Harfleur, for example, uses violent imagery to effect surrender.
And in 1415, the newly crowned Henry V, aged 28, crossed the Channel to attack the Norman port of
Harfleur, near Le Havre.
Starting point is ancient
Harfleur in Normandy, an old fortress town near the mouth of the Seine.