Te Deum

Te Deum is a named sacred song in the victory rites ordered by King Henry V after Agincourt. Sung alongside Non nobis and followed by the burial of the dead, it belongs to a scene where celebration, religious observance, and the costs of battle are held together.

Place in the Victory Rites

After the fighting, King Henry V directs that holy rites be performed and that Te Deum and Non nobis be sung. The wording makes the song a collective act: it is not presented as a private devotion, but as part of the ceremony conducted by the king for the company after battle.

Song and Burial

The order places the singing immediately beside the instruction that the dead be enclosed in the earth with charity. The sequence does not let victory stand alone: the songs are followed by care for those killed, then by the decision to go to Calais and afterward to England. Te Deum thus appears within a ritual that marks both the army’s success and its losses.

The Violence Around the Ceremony

The devotional close follows a battle in which King Henry V orders the execution of French prisoners after hearing that the French have reinforced their scattered troops; another account says the order followed the burning and looting of the king’s tent. Against that context, the song’s placement gives the rites a marked tension: public religious observance accompanies a victory whose conduct includes the killing of captives. The play names the song but supplies no lyrics, leaving its significance to the ceremony and the violence surrounding it.