When Henry V died in France in 1422 aged 36, he had left instructions for a Chantry Chapel to be built in Westminster Abbey so prayers could be said in perpetuity for the repose of his soul. It has only rarely been opened to the public but as part of the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, the Abbey kindly invited members of the Thorney Island Society to visit the chapel.
It was a delight worth waiting for. We climbed up a very narrow spiral staircase to the bijoux chapel situated immediately above Henry's tomb. It is open on three sides to the rest of the Abbey - though you would never know that walking around downstairs – and affords spectacular views of the other tombs and down the nave of the Abbey itself.
On the fourth side is the altar under which Henry's wife Catherine of Valois is buried - having been moved several times to different resting places in the Abbey on account of marrying beneath her station after Henry's death. Above are six resplendent statues of patron saints of England and France including St George (with his spear penetrating the dragon), St Denis of France and on the right St Edmund carrying his head in his arms having reputedly been beheaded by Ivar the Boneless. The blank plinth in the middle was probably of the Trinity but did not survive the iconoclasm of the Reformation. At the very top of the Chapel there is a shaft of light from Henry VII's Chapel illuminating a charming stained glass window of kings of England. Sadly, photos are not allowed inside the Abbey.
As if this was not enough our expert guide, the verger Ben Sheward, sprang a surprise - a visit to the Jerusalem Chamber, the actual place - if Shakespeare is to be believed - where the future Henry V tried on the crown of England thinking his father Henry IV was dying, only for him to wake up in anger. Father and son were reconciled and Henry IV realised that dying in this room fulfilled his destiny:
"It hath been prophesied to me many years,
I should not die but in Jerusalem,
Which vainly I suppos’d the Holy Land.
But bear me to that chamber, there I’ll lie,
In that Jerusalem shall Harry die."
Our thanks to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey for a most memorable visit.
