In 1682, describing the monuments in Westminster Abbey, Henry Keepe noted that above the tomb of Henry V, there was a Chantry Chapel, ‘where the Saddle which this heroick Prince used in the Wars in France, with his Shield and other warlike furniture is to be seen’. In 1723, John Dart described the shield as ‘small, the Handfast broken away, and the Colours of it not to be distinguish’d’. The shield, together with other items from Henry V’s funerary achievements, is currently exhibited in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey (Figs 7.1 and 7.2). Although the front had lost most of its painted decoration by the early eighteenth century, the shield remains one of the most intriguing objects from the achievements.

In a rare survival, it retains much of its textile lining, including an armpad. The careful crafting of the lining, and traces of straps for carrying the shield, offer proof that this object was not newly made for the funeral, but was an existing shield repainted for the occasion, and the decoration of the lining tells us about its previous ownership.

Construction

In 1972, the shield was sent for conservation to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The image of its textile-lined back taken before conservation (Fig. 7.3) gives an impression of the complex layer structure of the shield as well as of the delicate task that faced the conservators. The shield is heater-shaped, with a gentle curve, concave towards the body. It is constructed of three pieces of European lime wood (Tilia vulgaris), a dense wood that does not split easily. It measures 62 × 49 cm, and 0.9 cm deep, a small size, appropriate for mounted combat. It weighs approximately 1.75 kg.

The Back of the Shield (Figs 7.2 and 7.3)

Layers covering the timber

The front and the back of the shield were finished differently. On the back, attention was given to comfort and shock absorption. The wood was first covered in two layers of coarse undyed brown linen, then in a layer of untreated bast fibres of flax (Fig. 7.4).