Consecratio Navis: Ships and Propaganda in Henry V’s England

Abstract

Sometime between 1413 and 1422, a special liturgy was compiled in the diocese of Canterbury for the consecration of Henry V’s warships. This liturgy (Consecratio Navis), contained in three contemporary pontifical manuscripts, was unprecedentedly elaborate and more resembled the service for the dedication of a church than the occasional blessings for ships. Evoking the terrors of the sea and the contingencies of maritime life, this blessing transformed the wooden walls of Henry’s ship into a repository of sacred power, invested with the presence of the Holy Trinity, angels, and the saints. Though the ship did not become a floating church, it did become a kind of sacred space, a bulwark against foes both material and spiritual. In addition to being an especially ostentatious apotropaic ritual, this liturgy is also an extremely significant piece of evidence for the politics and self-image of the English Church under Henry V. Using the imagery of the Ship of the Church, Consecratio Navis substantiated the alliance between the English Church and the Lancastrian monarchy. In short, this article shows how this liturgy ritually manifested a societal and gubernatorial ideal of the Church contained within and protected by the state.