Exeunt SCENE II. The same. The Presence chamber. Enter KING HENRY V, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants KING HENRY V Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury? EXETER Not here in presence. KING HENRY V Send for him, good uncle. WESTMORELAND Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege? KING HENRY V Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolved, Before we hear him, of some things of weight That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.
Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and the BISHOP of ELY CANTERBURY God and his angels guard your sacred throne And make you long become it! KING HENRY V Sure, we thank you.
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed And justly and religiously unfold Why the law Salique that they have in France Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim:
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord, That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, Or nicely charge your understanding soul With opening titles miscreate, whose right Suits not in native colours with the truth;For God doth know how many now in health Shall drop their blood in approbation Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person, How you awake our sleeping sword of war:
We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;For never two such kingdoms did contend Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops Are every one a woe, a sore complaint 'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords That make such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration, speak, my lord;
For we will hear, note and believe in heart That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd As pure as sin with baptism. CANTERBURY Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers, That owe yourselves, your lives and services To this imperial throne. There is no bar To make against your highness' claim to France But this, which they produce from Pharamond, 'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:'
'No woman shall succeed in Salique land:'
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze To be the realm of France, and Pharamond The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm That the land Salique is in Germany, Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons, There left behind and settled certain French;Who, holding in disdain the German women For some dishonest manners of their life, Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female Should be inheritrix in Salique land:
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala, Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
Then doth it well appear that Salique law Was not devised for the realm of France:
Nor did the French possess the Salique land Until four hundred one and twenty years After defunction of King Pharamond, Idly supposed the founder of this law;Who died within the year of our redemption Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French Beyond the river Sala, in the year Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say, King Pepin, which deposed Childeric, Did, as heir general, being descended Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair, Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also, who usurped the crown Of Charles the duke of Lorraine, sole heir male Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great, To find his title with some shows of truth, 'Through, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught, Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare, Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth, Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, Could not keep quiet in his conscience, Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother, Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare, Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorraine:
By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great Was re-united to the crown of France.
So that, as clear as is the summer's sun.
King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim, King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear To hold in right and title of the female:
So do the kings of France unto this day;
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law To bar your highness claiming from the female, And rather choose to hide them in a net Than amply to imbar their crooked titles Usurp'd from you and your progenitors. KING HENRY V May I with right and conscience make this claim? CANTERBURY The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
For in the book of Numbers is it writ, When the man dies, let the inheritance Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord, Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;Look back into your mighty ancestors:
Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb, From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit, And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince, Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, Making defeat on the full power of France, Whiles his most mighty father on a hill Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp Forage in blood of French nobility.
O noble English. that could entertain With half their forces the full Pride of France And let another half stand laughing by, All out of work and cold for action! ELY Awake remembrance of these valiant dead And with your puissant arm renew their feats:
