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beloved Katherine, daughter of our said father and of our most dear mother Isabel his wife, those same Charles and Isabel are made our father and mother, and honour them as such, and as it fi tteth such and so worthy a prince and princess, to be honoured especially before all other temporal princes of this world …
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    At the same time, instead of demanding a dowry, Henry agreed to fund his queen to the extent 40,000 ecus a year from the realm of England, which amounted to some £7,500; that being what ‘Queens of England hitherto were wont to take and have’, with an additional 20,000 francs from his lands in France if he should predecease her
    .3 The Eng lish lands were to be assigned principally out of the Duchy of Cornwall and the Earldom of Chester. The Estates General, the Sorbonne and the City of Paris all endorsed the treaty. A few days later, on 2 June 1420, Henry and Catherine met for the fi rst time and were betrothed. Although Shakespeare’s famous account of their meeting is fi ction there does seem to have been a genuine chemistry between them, which was just as well because a few days later they were married. The ceremony was performed in the parish church at Troyes by the Archbishop of Sens and their honeymoon was spent recovering the town of Sens from the Armagnacs, which when taken was restored to the Archbishop with considerable bloodshed. Philip of Burgundy said of Catherine at this point that ‘she had passionately longed to be espoused to King Henry, from the moment that she saw him …’, which would suggest that she had fi rst set eyes on him at the abortive meeting in 1419, although they had not actually

    met.4 After their turbulent honeymoon the bride seems to have returned briefl y to her parents, who were at Bray-sur-Seine, until the time of their state entry into Paris, which occurred in December.
    The Treaty of Troyes was a realignment of forces rather than a genuine peace, because the Dauphin remained (understandably) unreconciled and was quite strong enough to continue waging war in defence of his own position. How, his propagandists complained, could Catherine claim to transmit a claim to the throne of France to her heirs while he was still alive? That was not, of course, the point, because it was Henry who was recognized as Charles’s heir, not his daughter. The Salic Law, in any case, would have prohibited any claim transmitted by her but it was a telling point for a French audience anxious to work up a head of steam against the ‘betrayal of the fl eur de lys’. So the war continued and although Catherine was established with a generous English household (for which Henry paid) she was not expected to accompany her husband on campaign, remaining instead at Bray-sur-Seine, where Henry was a frequent visitor. Her time came when there were triumphs to be celebrated and, although 16

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    back in France, pursuing the Dauphin along the Loire, where he took Dreux on 8 August. By November Catherine had retreated into the customary seclusion at Windsor, and there on 6 December she was safely delivered of a son.
    8 The c hild lived and fl ourished and the Queen had performed her most important and inescapable duty. There was an heir to both thrones.
    Before Easter she had joined her husband, leaving their son in the safe care of his nursery and they spent the Whitsun time together in Paris, before Henry set off again on campaign. She was, presumably, served by her normal retinue of ladies, whom she would have paid, but for some unknown reason she was also on this occasion accompanied by several additional women whom the King rewarded. Lady Margaret Roos, Elizabeth Fitz Hugh, Catherine Chideock, Joanne Belknap, Joanna Troutbeck and Joanna Carey cost the exchequer an additional
    £140, but why they were employed is a mystery and their rewards are listed as ‘extraordinary’. Perhaps the King owed their kindreds an obligation. More surprisingly, her confessor,