The Waller family story is, predictably, a romantic one.  It has Richard Waller finding the Duke, buried but unharmed beneath a pile of bodies. The Duke then surrendered to him whilst they were standing under a walnut tree, in consequence of which Waller was knighted on the field of battle and then hosted the Duke at his manor house at Groombridge in Kent for the next 25 years awaiting payment of the probably huge ransom.  It is claimed that he was given permission by Henry V to augment his arms by adding the Duke’s arms of three fleur de lys, showing them hanging from a walnut tree.  There is a stained glass window celebrating Richard Waller’s story in Groombridge’s parish church of St Mary Speldhurst in Kent. However, it is very different from Penn’s Waller window as can be seen on speldhurstchurch.org which dates it to c.1800, possibly the work of James and Margaret Pearson.

More sober authorities tell a rather different story.  Charles, Duke of Orleans, although only 20 years old at the Battle of Agincourt, held a high command as the King of France’s nephew.  After the battle ended he was indeed found unwounded but trapped under a pile of dead bodies and surrendered to his captor.  King Henry V ordered that he be taken back to England and that he was not to be ransomed or harmed. The refusal to allow a ransom to be paid was presumably because the Duke would be a focus of resistance to the English invasion of France.  He therefore spent 25 years as a prisoner in England.  He was initially imprisoned in the Tower of London, but his captivity was not particularly difficult.  He was then moved around the country between various noble households and castles, but often treated more like a guest under surveillance than a prisoner.  He wrote many poems and ballads in both English and French and  according to one source was speaking better English than French by the time he was finally able to return to France in 1440 where he married and had a son who later became Louis XII.

The addition of the Orleans fleurs de lys to the Waller arms did take place, but apparently much later, sometime between the Herald’s Visitations of 1592 and 1619, long after it was possible to verify the legend.  There is a good deal of comment on the internet and one convincing suggestion is that this permission to augment the Waller arms was based on a confusion – that Richard Waller did serve as a man-at-arms at Agincourt under the Duke of Clarence and also served in France on later occasions, that he did not capture the Duke of Orleans, but that he was responsible for the custody of the Duke’s younger brother, Jean, Count of Angoulême, then aged 12, who had been given as a hostage to the Duke of Clarence following the 1412 campaign in France and who was not released until 1445.

In sum, Richard Waller was at Agincourt, but there seems to be no evidence that he discovered the Duke or that he subsequently looked after him for years on end.  However, if he did have some responsibility for the Duke’s younger brother then it is possible, even probable, that the Duke at least visited his Groombridge manor house.   Family memories were inflated over the generations, as they often are, and a belated application was made many years after the event to augment the Waller arms with the fleur de lys and walnut tree.  There are unresolved uncertainties here which must await a future researcher.

The Waller family story is, predictably, a romantic one.  It has Richard Waller finding the Duke, buried but unharmed beneath a pile of bodies. The Duke then surrendered to him whilst they were standing under a walnut tree, in consequence of which Waller was knighted on the field of battle and then hosted the Duke at his manor house at Groombridge in Kent for the next 25 years awaiting payment of the probably huge ransom.  It is claimed that he was given permission by Henry V to augment his arms by adding the Duke’s arms of three fleur de lys, showing them hanging from a walnut tree.  There is a stained glass window celebrating Richard Waller’s story in Groombridge’s parish church of St Mary Speldhurst in Kent. However, it is very different from Penn’s Waller window as can be seen on speldhurstchurch.org which dates it to c.1800, possibly the work of James and Margaret Pearson.

More sober authorities tell a rather different story.  Charles, Duke of Orleans, although only 20 years old at the Battle of Agincourt, held a high command as the King of France’s nephew.  After the battle ended he was indeed found unwounded but trapped under a pile of dead bodies and surrendered to his captor.  King Henry V ordered that he be taken back to England and that he was not to be ransomed or harmed. The refusal to allow a ransom to be paid was presumably because the Duke would be a focus of resistance to the English invasion of France.  He therefore spent 25 years as a prisoner in England.  He was initially imprisoned in the Tower of London, but his captivity was not particularly difficult.  He was then moved around the country between various noble households and castles, but often treated more like a guest under surveillance than a prisoner.  He wrote many poems and ballads in both English and French and  according to one source was speaking better English than French by the time he was finally able to return to France in 1440 where he married and had a son who later became Louis XII.

The addition of the Orleans fleurs de lys to the Waller arms did take place, but apparently much later, sometime between the Herald’s Visitations of 1592 and 1619, long after it was possible to verify the legend.  There is a good deal of comment on the internet and one convincing suggestion is that this permission to augment the Waller arms was based on a confusion – that Richard Waller did serve as a man-at-arms at Agincourt under the Duke of Clarence and also served in France on later occasions, that he did not capture the Duke of Orleans, but that he was responsible for the custody of the Duke’s younger brother, Jean, Count of Angoulême, then aged 12, who had been given as a hostage to the Duke of Clarence following the 1412 campaign in France and who was not released until 1445.

In sum, Richard Waller was at Agincourt, but there seems to be no evidence that he discovered the Duke or that he subsequently looked after him for years on end.  However, if he did have some responsibility for the Duke’s younger brother then it is possible, even probable, that the Duke at least visited his Groombridge manor house.   Family memories were inflated over the generations, as they often are, and a belated application was made many years after the event to augment the Waller arms with the fleur de lys and walnut tree.  There are unresolved uncertainties here which must await a future researcher.

Miles Green, September 2025.