Henry V's funeral shield on show

Henry V funeral shield - part of V&A's Gothic Exhibition
Henry V's funeral shield - part of the V&A museum's Gothic Exhibition Guardian

Among the medieval treasures of gold, silver, ivory and gems being heaped up for a major exhibition on Gothic art at the V&A Museum is a scruffy object which would not attract attention at a car boot sale.

Yet the assemblage of wormy lime wood, flaking paint, horsehair and faded silk is one of the most romantic and enigmatic objects in the exhibition.

It is the funeral shield of Henry V, the victor of Agincourt. Kept at Westminster Abbey since his death in 1422, it has been taken to the V&A for the first close examination in centuries.

The study has uncovered some puzzles. On one side is crimson velvet pattern - not Henry V's coat of arms, but part of that of his stepmother, Joan of Navarre.

Claude Blair, an expert on ancient armour, believes the shield must have belonged to his father Henry IV, Shakespeare's ruthless Bolingbroke.

Yet nobody can explain why Henry V should have been buried with his parent's shield. "It still has more questions than answers for us," the V&A curator Eleanor Townsend said.

Henry V was 26 when he was crowned and reigned for only nine years, continuing his dazzling military successes, before dying in France: his death has variously been blamed on leprosy and venereal disease.

His funeral was a spectacular and costly affair - not one at which you'd expect a secondhand family shield.

The answer may lie on the reverse of the shield. It is covered with some of the oldest Chinese silk in Europe, of imperial quality, which was already antique when the shield was made. V&A experts believe the silk may have been part of a consignment of astounding quality, which presumably came into northern Europe from Tartar-ruled China along the ancient Silk Road, in the early 14th century - at a time when historians had believed the direct trade link was broken.

Whatever the answer, the shield, which has survived Tudor and Cromwellian iconoclasts and second world war bombs, will now go on display after no more than gentle cleaning.

Gothic: Art for England 1400-1547, October 9-January 18, the V&A, South Kensington, London