Henry V of England

Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hundred Years' War against France made England one of the strongest military powers in Europe. Immortalised in Shakespeare's Henriad plays, Henry is known and celebrated as one of the greatest warrior-kings of medieval England.

Henry of Monmouth, the eldest son of Henry IV, became heir apparent and Prince of Wales after his father seized the throne in 1399. During the reign of his father, the young Prince Henry gained early military experience in Wales during the Glyndŵr rebellion, and by fighting against the powerful Percy family of Northumberland. He played an important part at the Battle of Shrewsbury despite being just sixteen years of age. As he entered adulthood, Henry played an increasingly central role in England's government due to the declining health of his father, but disagreements between Henry and his father led to political conflict between the two. After his father's death in March 1413, Henry ascended to the throne of England and assumed complete control of the country, also reviving the historic English claim to the French throne.

In 1415, Henry followed in the wake of his great-grandfather, Edward III, by renewing the Hundred Years' War with France, beginning the Lancastrian phase of the conflict (1415–1453). His first military campaign included capturing the port of Harfleur and a famous victory at the Battle of Agincourt, which inspired a proto-nationalistic fervour in England and Wales. During his second campaign (1417–1420), his armies captured Paris and conquered most of northern France, including the formerly English-held Duchy of Normandy. Taking advantage of political divisions within France, Henry put unparalleled pressure on Charles VI of France ("the Mad"), resulting in the largest holding of French territory by an English king since the Angevin Empire. The Treaty of Troyes (1420) recognised Henry V as regent of France and heir apparent to the French throne, disinheriting Charles's own son, the Dauphin Charles. Henry subsequently married Charles VI's daughter, Catherine of Valois. The treaty ratified the unprecedented formation of a union between the kingdoms of England and France, in the person of Henry, upon the death of the ailing Charles. However, Henry died in August 1422, less than two months before his father-in-law, and was succeeded by his only son and heir, the infant Henry VI.

Henry's reputation as a successful soldier-king has dominated his popular memory. French and Burgundian assessments were more divided, ranging from praise for his prudence and military discipline to portrayals of him as a vainglorious tyrant. Modern historians have been more sceptical of his political legacy, though they disagree over the degree to which he is to blame for the eventual collapse of his French conquests. Others have argued that Henry's most enduring contribution lay in the ideal of kingship he came to embody: that of the sovereign as "military commander, conqueror, guardian of religious unity, protector of law and order, administrator, diplomat and promoter of national consciousness."

Early life

Birth and family

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Henry's father, Henry IV

Henry was born on 16 September 1386 in the tower above the gatehouse of Monmouth Castle in Monmouthshire, and for that reason was sometimes called Henry of Monmouth. He was the son of Henry of Bolingbroke (later Henry IV of England) and Mary de Bohun. His father's cousin was the reigning English monarch, Richard II. Henry's paternal grandfather was the influential John of Gaunt, a son of Edward III. As he was not close to the line of succession to the throne, Henry's date of birth was not officially documented, and for many years it was disputed whether he was born in 1386 or 1387. However, records indicate that his younger brother Thomas was born in the autumn of 1387 and that his parents were at Monmouth in 1386 but not in 1387. It is now accepted that he was born on 16 September 1386.

Little is known about Henry's early years. Henry had a nurse, Joan Waring, who was paid 40 shillings to look after him. Due to the absence of Henry's father and the death of his mother, Henry was left in the care of his maternal grandmother, Joan, Countess of Hereford. Young Henry might have spent his early years there, in the care of a governess, Mary Hervy. It was said that Henry was small at birth and a lack of physical strength may have marked his early life. However, it disappeared when Henry reached his teens.

Following a quarrel between Henry's father and the Duke of Norfolk, Richard decided to settle the matter by a chivalric trial by combat. However, before the duel could take place, Richard banished both Henry's father and Norfolk. Upon the exile of Henry's father in 1398, Richard II took the boy into his own charge and treated him kindly. The young Henry accompanied Richard to Ireland. While in the royal service, he visited Trim Castle in County Meath, the ancient meeting place of the Parliament of Ireland.

In 1399, John of Gaunt died. In the same year Richard II was overthrown by the Lancastrian usurpation that brought Henry's father to the throne, and Henry was recalled from Ireland into prominence as heir apparent to the Kingdom of England. He was created Prince of Wales at his father's coronation and Duke of Lancaster on 10 November 1399, the third person to hold the title that year. His other titles were Duke of Cornwall, Earl of Chester and Duke of Aquitaine.

Education

In his teens, Henry was possibly tutored by his uncle, Henry Beaufort, the Chancellor of the University of Oxford and later Bishop of Winchester. However, claims that Henry actually studied at Queen's College, Oxford under Beaufort have been rejected by modern scholarship. Nevertheless, Henry learned to read and write in French, Latin, and English, the vernacular; the latter made him the first English king that was educated in this regard.

Early military career and role in government

From 1400 to 1404, he carried out the duties of High Sheriff of Cornwall. During that time, Henry was also in command of part of the English forces. He led his own army into Wales against Owain Glyndŵr and joined forces with his father to fight Henry "Hotspur" Percy at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403.

At the Battle of Shrewsbury on 21 July 1403, the sixteen-year-old Henry fought alongside his father against the rebel forces of Henry "Hotspur" Percy. During the engagement, he was struck in the face by an arrow that penetrated six inches into his skull, lodging near the left cheekbone and narrowly missing vital arteries and the brain. Henry received the best available care. The royal physician John Bradmore treated the wound with honey, which acted as a natural antiseptic, and designed a specialised mechanical screw-tool to extract the arrowhead without causing further damage.Bradmore later recorded the procedure in his Latin manuscript Philomena, describing how he widened the wound, inserted the instrument, and gradually withdrew the arrowhead over several days while flushing the wound with white wine to prevent infection. The operation was successful but left Henry with permanent facial scars, which he bore as a mark of his battlefield experience.

The Welsh revolt of Owain Glyndŵr absorbed Henry's energies as a result of the king's ill health, Henry began to take a wider share in politics. From January 1410, helped by his uncles Henry and Thomas Beaufort, legitimised sons of John of Gaunt, he had practical control of the government. Both in foreign and domestic policy he differed from the king, who discharged his son from the council in November 1411. The quarrel between father and son was political only, though it is probable that the Beauforts had discussed the abdication of Henry IV. Their opponents certainly endeavoured to defame Prince Henry.

Henry's friendship with Lollard sympathiser John Oldcastle, and his opposition to Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, may have raised Lollard hopes of toleration. Their disappointment when he became king may explain why ecclesiastical writers such as Thomas Walsingham reported that, on his accession, Henry was suddenly changed into a new man.

Reign (1413–1422)

Accession

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A gold noble coin of Henry V

After Henry IV died on 20 March 1413, Henry V succeeded him and was crowned on 9 April 1413 at Westminster Abbey. The ceremony was marked by a terrible snowstorm, but the common people were undecided as to whether it was a good or bad omen. Henry was described as having been "very tall (6 feet 3 inches), slim, with dark hair cropped in a ring above the ears, and clean-shaven". His complexion was ruddy, his face lean with a prominent and pointed nose. Depending on his mood, his eyes "flashed from the mildness of a dove's to the brilliance of a lion's"..

Domestic affairs

Henry tackled all of the domestic policies together and gradually built on them a wider policy. From the first, he made it clear that he would rule England as the head of a united nation. He let past differences be forgotten—the late Richard II was honourably re-interred; the young Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, was taken into favour; the heirs of those who had suffered under the last reign were restored gradually to their titles and estates. Yet, where Henry saw a grave domestic danger, he acted firmly and ruthlessly, such as during the Oldcastle Revolt in January 1414 and the execution by burning of Henry's old friend, Sir John Oldcastle, in 1417 to "nip the movement in the bud" and make his own position as ruler secure.

Henry's reign was generally free from serious trouble at home. The exception was the Southampton Plot of July 1415, in which conspirators Richard of Conisburgh, Henry Scrope, and Thomas Grey aimed to depose Henry and place Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, on the throne. However, Mortimer revealed the plot to the king, and the conspirators were swiftly executed.

Starting in August 1417, Henry promoted the use of the English language in governmentand his reign marks the appearance of Chancery Standard English as well as the adoption of English as the language of record within government. He was the first king to use English in his personal correspondence since the Norman Conquest 350 years earlier.. Medievalist John Hurt Fisher argued that Henry's reign was the "turning point in establishing English as the national language of England".

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English chancery hand. Facsimile of a letter from Henry, 1418.

Parliament and legislation

Henry's relations with Parliament were cooperative throughout his reign. As Prince of Wales he had observed his father's difficulties managing the assembly, and on the second day of his own reign he issued writs of summons, opening what his biographer Christopher Allmand has called "a joint enterprise in government." Parliament was called eleven times during the reign, and Henry attended six of those sittings.

The addresses to Henry's first six parliaments were composed by Henry Beaufort and projected a consistent image of the king as one who upheld the law, defended the Church, and stood firm against the national enemy. When Parliament assembled at Leicester in April 1414, Henry was reminded that as king he must enforce the law, act justly, and seek "bon governance." Allmand reads these addresses as a managed projection of Henry as a ruler who fulfilled every aspect of the royal office.

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Henry marching his forces against the Lollards

Much of the legislative business of the reign concerned the suppression of Lollardy and the restoration of local order: disturbances in Staffordshire, Cheshire and Northumberland were addressed at the Leicester parliament of 1414, and further unrest in Lancashire and Cheshire between 1419 and 1421 appears in the parliamentary records of seven of the eleven sittings. Lawlessness at sea was tackled by the Safe Conducts Act 1414, passed at Beaufort's urging to protect English merchants from piracy, and by new duties on wool, wine, and hides to support maritime interests. Few statutes of the reign originated as parliamentary petitions; of those passed in 1413, only ten did so.

Parliament also proved generous in supply. In 1413 it granted Henry a four-year subsidy on wool and woolfells, together with tonnage and poundage for one year – terms more favourable than any granted to his father – and extended tonnage and poundage in 1414. In February 1415 two further subsidies, calculated at £37,000, were voted to fund the expedition to France, and after Henry's victory at Agincourt, Parliament granted tonnage and poundage for life. Henry also used parliamentary approval to promote men to the peerage, and to restore nobles who had fallen out of favour under Henry IV.

War in France

Dispute with France

Henry had set his sights on war with France from early in his reign: he was already soliciting contributions for a French expedition by June 1413, and by 1414 cannon were being cast at the Tower of London in readiness. The contemporary case for war drew on a familiar stock of grievances, such as old commercial disputes, or the assistance France had given Owain Glyndŵr. This was reinforced by the disordered condition of France itself, where the mentally unstable Charles VI presided over a court increasingly split between Armagnac and Burgundian factions. A later tradition held that ecclesiastical statesmen had encouraged Henry into the French war in order to divert attention from troubles at home; this is the version that reached Shakespeare through the Tudor chroniclers. Historians have generally doubted it, and in any case Henry's preparations were well advanced before any such pressure could have been brought to bear. Beneath these immediate pretexts lay the old dynastic claim to the French throne first pursued by Edward III, which in English opinion provided the justification for war.

Edward's claim had rested on his descent, through his mother Isabella, from her father Philip IV of France; when the direct Capetian line failed in 1328, however, the French preferred Philip VI, of the cadet house of Valois, and defended his succession by appeal to Salic law, which allegedly barred inheritance through the female line. The resulting quarrel opened the Hundred Years' War in 1337. Active warfare had largely subsided under Richard II and Henry IV, but in 1415 Henry V revived the dynastic claim and renewed hostilities. What Henry actually demanded owed less to the bare claim to the throne than to the 1360 Treaty of Brétigny, whose terms he and his father had both tried to enforce: the return of lands it had granted to England, and the unpaid remainder of John II's ransom. Henry negotiated for over two years with both French parties while renewing a series of truces with the crown; successive embassies to Paris in 1414 and 1415 opened with sweeping territorial claims, retreated to more modest ones, and returned empty-handed. Modern historians have read this diplomacy not as a serious search for peace, but a way of extracting concessions and holding the posture of the aggrieved party while preparations for war went forward.

1415 campaign

Main articles: Siege of Harfleur and Battle of Agincourt

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The Battle of Agincourt as depicted in the 15th-century St Albans Chronicle by Thomas Walsingham.

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The morning of the Battle of Agincourt

On 11 and 12 August 1415, Henry sailed from Southampton and landed near Harfleur on the Norman coast by 14 August. His forces then besieged the town's fortress, capturing it on 22 September. Many of his troops succumbed to illness; therefore, he decided to begin marching his army towards Calais on 8 October, against the warnings of his council. Around mid-October, he encountered a blockade of the classic ford at Blanchetaque near Abbeville, forcing Henry inland in search of another crossing. On October 19 and 20, Henry and his army crossed south of Péronne at Béthencourt and Voyennes, then turned north again towards Calais. On 24 October, on the plains near the village of Agincourt, a French army intercepted his route. Despite his men-at-arms' being exhausted, outnumbered and malnourished, Henry led his men into battle early on the morning of 25 October, decisively defeating the French, who suffered severe losses. The French men-at-arms were bogged down in the muddy battlefield, soaked from the previous night of heavy rain, thus hindering the French advance and making them sitting targets for the flanking English archers. Most were simply hacked to death while completely stuck in the deep mud. It was Henry's greatest military victory, ranking alongside the Battle of Crécy (1346) and the Battle of Poitiers (1356) as the greatest English victories of the Hundred Years' War. This victory both solidified and strengthened Henry V's own rule in England and also legitimized his claim to the French throne more than ever.

During the battle, Henry ordered the killing of the French prisoners taken so far, an act the eyewitness author of the Gesta Henrici Quinti explained as a response to the threat of a renewed attack by the still-uncommitted French rearguard. The Burgundian chroniclers Jean Le Fèvre and Jean de Waurin, both present at the battle, record that Henry's men-at-arms were reluctant to comply because they stood to lose substantial ransoms. No contemporary chronicler explicitly condemned Henry for the order, and even hostile French chroniclers such as Jean Juvénal des Ursins treated it as a misfortune of war rather than a moral outrage.

The victorious conclusion of Agincourt, from the English viewpoint, was only the first step in the campaign to recover the French possessions that Henry felt belonged to the English crown. Agincourt also held out the promise that Henry's pretensions to the French throne might be realized. After the victory, Henry marched to Calais and the king returned in triumph to England in November and received a hero's welcome. The brewing nationalistic sentiment among the English people was so great that contemporary writers describe firsthand how Henry was welcomed with triumphal pageantry into London upon his return. These accounts also describe how Henry was greeted by elaborate displays and with choirs following his passage to St. Paul's Cathedral.

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The ratification of the Treaty of Troyes between Henry and Charles VI of France, Archives Nationales (France)

Most importantly, the victory at Agincourt inspired and boosted the English morale, while it caused a heavy blow to the French as it further aided the English in their conquest of Normandy and much of northern France by 1419. The French, especially the nobility, who by this stage were weakened and exhausted by the disaster, began quarrelling and fighting among themselves. This quarrelling also led to a division in the French aristocracy and caused a rift in the French royal family, leading to infighting. By 1420, a treaty was signed between Henry V and Charles VI of France, known as the Treaty of Troyes, which acknowledged Henry as regent and heir to the French throne and also married Henry to Charles's daughter Catherine of Valois.

Diplomacy

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Gold florin of Sigismund of Hungary

Following the Battle of Agincourt, King Sigismund of Hungary (later Holy Roman Emperor) made a visit to Henry in hopes of making peace between England and France. His goal was to persuade Henry to modify his demands against the French. Henry lavishly entertained him and even had him enrolled in the Order of the Garter. Sigismund, in turn, inducted Henry into the Order of the Dragon. Henry had intended to crusade for the order after uniting the English and French thrones, but he died before fulfilling his plans. Sigismund left England several months later, having signed the Treaty of Canterbury acknowledging English claims to France.

Command of the sea was secured by driving the Genoese allies of the French out of the English Channel. While Henry was occupied with peace negotiations in 1416, a French and Genoese fleet surrounded the harbour at the English-garrisoned Harfleur. A French land force also besieged the town. In March 1416 a raiding force of soldiers under the Earl of Dorset, Thomas Beaufort, was attacked and narrowly escaped defeat at the Battle of Valmont after a counterattack by the garrison of Harfleur. To relieve the town, Henry sent his brother, John, Duke of Bedford, who raised a fleet and set sail from Beachy Head on 14 August. The Franco-Genoese fleet was defeated the following day after the gruelling seven-hour Battle of the Seine and Harfleur was relieved. Diplomacy successfully detached Emperor Sigismund from supporting France, and the Treaty of Canterbury – also signed in August 1416 – confirmed a short-lived alliance between England and the Holy Roman Empire.

1417–1421 campaigns

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Late-15th century depiction of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Valois. British Library, London

With those two potential enemies gone, and after two years of patient preparation following the Battle of Agincourt, Henry renewed the war on a larger scale in 1417. After taking Caen, he quickly conquered Lower Normandy and Rouen was cut off from Paris and besieged. This siege has cast an even darker shadow on the reputation of the king adding to the loss of honor following his order to slay the French prisoners at Agincourt. The leaders of Rouen, who were unable to support and feed the women and children of the town, forced them out through the gates believing that Henry would allow them to pass through his army unmolested. However, Henry refused to allow this, and the expelled women and children died of starvation in the ditches surrounding the town. The French were paralysed by the disputes between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs. Henry skillfully played one against the other without relaxing his warlike approach.

In January 1419, Rouen fell. Those Norman French who had resisted were severely punished: Alain Blanchard, who had hanged English prisoners from the walls of Rouen, was summarily executed; Robert de Livet, Canon of Rouen, who had excommunicated the English king, was packed off to England and imprisoned for five years.

By August, the English were outside the walls of Paris.

The Treaty of Troyes

After six months of negotiation, the Treaty of Troyes recognised Henry as the heir and regent of France. The treaty was made possible by the assassination of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, on 10 September 1419 at a parley on the bridge of Montereau-Fault-Yonne by partisans of the Dauphin Charles. The murder alienated John's successor, Philip the Good, who sought revenge and entered into an alliance with Henry V. This Anglo-Burgundian alliance gave Henry the political leverage to force Charles VI to accept terms that disinherited the Dauphin and recognised Henry as heir and regent of France. The treaty also arranged Henry's marriage to Catherine of Valois, daughter of Charles VI, with a dowry of 600,000 écus. The agreement was ratified by the Estates General in Paris in July 1420, though it was never accepted by the Dauphinist territories south of the Loire.

On 2 June 1420 at Troyes Cathedral, Henry married Catherine, with their son, the future Henry VI, born on 6 December 1421 at Windsor Castle. Only two days after his marriage, Henry besieged Sens, which fell in less than a week. He then moved to take the fortress at Montereau-Fault-Yonne, which capitulated by 1 July. He besieged and captured Melun by November 1420, returning to England after three and a half years of fighting in France. In 1428, Charles VII retook Montereau, only to see the English once again take it over within a short time. Finally, on 10 October 1437, Charles VII was victorious in regaining Montereau.

While Henry was in England, his brother Thomas, Duke of Clarence, led the English forces in France. On 22 March 1421, Thomas led the English to a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Baugé against a Franco-Scottish army. The duke was killed in the battle. On 10 June, Henry sailed back to France to retrieve the situation. It was to be his last military campaign. From July to August, Henry's forces besieged and captured Dreux, thus relieving allied forces at Chartres. On 6 October, his forces laid siege to Meaux, capturing it on 10 May 1422.

Death

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Effigy of Henry V in Westminster Abbey (the head is modern)

Henry fell ill in June 1422, shortly after the siege of Meaux. Contemporary sources such as Jean de Wavrin claimed the king was afflicted by smallpox, leprosy, or erysipelas ("St. Anthony's fire"), while Thomas Basin suggested the king had contracted dysentery in Meaux. Scholars believe dysentery is the most probable explanation as unsanitary conditions in the English camp facilitated the spread of the disease. In late June 1422, he appeared well enough to lead his forces toward Cosne-sur-Loire to engage Dauphinist troops, but he suffered a relapse, possibly from heatstroke or a resurgence of dysentery, and was carried in a litter. Henry was taken back to the Château de Vincennes east of Paris, where his condition deteriorated. In his final days, he dictated codicils to his will, naming his brother John, Duke of Bedford, as regent of France and appointing a council to govern England during his son's minority. Henry died in the early hours of 31 August 1422, aged 35; he had reigned for nine years.

After his death, his body was embalmed and transported to England, where a solemn funeral procession preceded his burial in Westminster Abbey on 7 November 1422. Henry's tomb carries the 16th-century Latin inscription "Henry V, hammer of the Gauls, lies here. [...] Virtue conquers all. [...] Flee idleness". The monument is a few yards away from the grave of his close companion and Privy Counsel member Richard Courtenay; they are not buried together, and the graves are not on top of each other as stated by some sources.

Legacy

Political

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A statue of Henry V in the interior of Canterbury Cathedral

Henry V's death at thirty-five years of age was a political and dynastic turning point for both the kingdoms of England and France. The Lancastrian ruler had been set to rule both realms after Charles VI's death, which occurred in October 1422, less than two months after Henry's own premature death. This caused his infant son, also called Henry, to ascend the throne as King Henry VI of England, at the age of nine months. Due to the new king's age, a regency government was formed by Henry's surviving brothers, John, Duke of Bedford, and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. This acted as the sole governing force of England and its possessions in France until Henry VI came of age in 1437. Although for a time this largely proved to be a success, with England achieving their greatest territorial extent in France under the command of Bedford, the later reign of Henry VI saw the majority of the territories held by the English lost or returned to the French, through reconquest or diplomatic cession; English military power in the region eventually ceased to exist. This marked the end of England's sustained military success in the Hundred Years' War, with all their historic possessions in France being lost, with the exception of the Pale of Calais, which remained England's only foothold in the continent until it was lost in 1558. The loss of land in France contributed significantly to civil strife over the succession of the English crown in the ensuing decades, culminating in the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487) between Henry V's descendants, the House of Lancaster, and its rival, the House of York.

Architectural

Henry V is not only remembered for his military prowess but for his architectural patronage. He commissioned the building of King's College Chapel and Eton College Chapel, and although some of his building works were discontinued after his death, others were continued by his son and successor Henry VI. He also contributed to the founding of the monastery of the Syon Abbey in west London, which was completed under Henry VI. In the 16th century the monastery was demolished as a result of the growing movement of the English Reformation during the reign of King Henry VIII.

Reputation

Contemporary commentary on Henry V was extensive but shaped by political circumstance and, frequently, by direct patronage. In England, praise centred on the image of Henry as a conqueror. John Lydgate, whose Troy Book had been commissioned by Henry himself in 1412, concluded that work in 1420 by placing the king "in the highest place of the hous of fame", and his verses on the Kings of England (c.1426) ranked Henry among the Nine Worthies. Thomas Hoccleve, a clerk of the Privy Seal, hailed Henry after the 1420 Treaty of Troyes as the "Swerd of knyghthode" and a "worthy Conqueror." An English eyewitness verse account of the siege of Rouen (1418–19), conventionally attributed to a "John Page" named in the text, described Henry above all as a "conquerowre", although the historicity of the account remains debated. This image was developed at greater length in the Latin biographies produced during and shortly after the reign: the anonymous Gesta Henrici Quinti (c.1417), Thomas Elmham's Liber Metricus (c.1418), the anonymous Vita et Gesta Henrici Quinti (mid-1430s) and Tito Livio Frulovisi's Vita Henrici Quinti (c.1438). Historians Roskell and Taylor argue that the Gesta was composed as political propaganda intended to support the English delegation at the Council of Constance, and the four works together are generally read by modern historians as products of, or adjuncts to, Lancastrian commemoration.

French and Burgundian assessments were more divided. The Saint-Denis chronicler Michel Pintouin credited Henry with "magnanimity, prudence and wisdom", judging him better equipped than any prince of his age to conquer a kingdom, and the Burgundian chroniclers Jean de Wavrin and Jean Le Fèvre praised the strict discipline of his armies. Other voices were sharply critical: Enguerrand de Monstrelet claimed there was widespread fear of Henry in France, Georges Chastellain portrayed him as a tyrant driven by vainglory, and the Norman writer Robert Blondel interpreted Henry's early death as divine punishment for his brutality.

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Later portrait of Henry, late 16th or early 17th century

Later assessment

Henry V's reputation has rested above all on his record as a soldier. Allmand observes that "ever since his own day there has been virtual unanimity" on his ability as a military commander, and contemporary English writing established the image of a disciplined, divinely supported conqueror that later authors inherited. The Tudor chronicle tradition, culminating in Raphael Holinshed, developed Henry further into "more like a moral stereotype than a historical figure of flesh and blood," and it was principally from Holinshed that Shakespeare drew the material for Henry V, the play that has since dominated popular perception of the king.

Modern scholarship judges Henry's political legacy in France with greater scepticism. Following E. F. Jacob, Allmand describes Henry's bequest to his son as a damnosa hereditas (harmful inheritance), concluding that within a generation the French enterprise had become "an ever increasing political and financial liability". John Matusiak has challenged this verdict, arguing that the collapse of the English position in France was not structurally inevitable but turned on contingent events after Henry's death, such as the death of Charles VI in October 1422. Normandy, Matusiak notes, was held for a decade, and by 1429 the siege of Orléans came close to delivering a decisive English victory. More recently, Malcolm Vale has argued that the Shakespearean image of a "warmongering monarch" obscures Henry's domestic record with his most durable achievements: restoring relations between crown and nobility, working productively with parliament, and re-establishing political unity after his father's reign. Matusiak goes further, contending that from Henry's own perspective, domestic governance, diplomacy, and martial prowess were "part of an integrated whole," and his wars were closely co-ordinated with diplomatic initiatives rather than pursued for their own sake.

According to historian Dan Jones, Henry "had a reputation for being austere to the point of desiccation, yet he was also theatrical and astonishingly adept at the art of public spectacle. He was a hardened warrior. [...] Yet he was also creative, artistic, and literary, with a bookish temperament and a talent for composing music and playing a number of instruments." Jones concludes that Henry V was "the greatest man who ever ruled England."

In popular culture

Main article: Cultural depictions of Henry V of England

In literature

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Lewis Waller as Henry V in the play Henry V by William Shakespeare

Henry V has been depicted in many literary works, the most famous and influential depiction being William Shakespeare's series of plays Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V (which, along with Richard II, are known collectively as the Henriad in Shakespearean scholarship). Shakespeare's plays dramatise Henry's transformation from a reckless youth who keeps bad company into a virtuous ruler who wins France for England.

It may be that the tradition of Henry's riotous youth is partly due to political enmity. The most famous incident, his quarrel with the chief justice, has no contemporary authority and was first related by Sir Thomas Elyot in 1531. The closest contemporary source of such behaviour are allusions by then Bishop of Norwich, Richard Courtenay, who stated that the king had given up youthful pursuits and become chaste, although as a longtime friend of Henry, Courtenay must be considered a suspect source. The story of Falstaff originated in Henry's early friendship with Sir John Oldcastle. Shakespeare's Falstaff was originally named "Oldcastle", following his main source, The Famous Victories of Henry V. Oldcastle's descendants objected, and the name was changed (the character became a composite of several real persons, including Sir John Fastolf).

Henry is a minor character in William Kenrick's sequel to Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2, titled Falstaff's Wedding. He is the subject of the historical novel Good King Harry by Denise Giardina. He also appears as a minor character in the historical novels Simon the Coldheart by Georgette Heyer and Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell.

In film and television

Henry V has been depicted in many historical films and operas such as Laurence Olivier's 1944 film Henry V; Olivier played the lead role himself, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Henry also appears in the 1935 film Royal Cavalcade, in which he was played by actor Matheson Lang. Henry is played by Kenneth Branagh in the 1989 film Henry V, for which Branagh was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, Best Director, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Henry V appears as a major character played by Keith Baxter in Orson Welles's 1966 film Chimes at Midnight. He is also played by Timothée Chalamet in 2019 Netflix film The King directed by David Michôd. He is portrayed by Tom Hiddleston in the BBC television series The Hollow Crown.

In comics and video games

Henry V is a character in the comic series The Hammer Man in the BBC comic strip The Victor featuring him as the commander of the hero, Chell Paddock. King Henry V is a character in the video game Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War and also in the Age of Empires II: The Conquerors in which he was featured as a paladin.

Arms

Henry's arms as Prince of Wales were those of the kingdom, differenced by a label argent of three points. Upon his accession, he inherited the use of the arms of the kingdom undifferenced.

• Henry's achievement as Prince of Wales
  Henry's achievement as Prince of Wales
• Royal achievement as king
  Royal achievement as king

Marriage

While he was Prince of Wales, it was suggested that Henry should marry the widow of Richard II, Isabella of Valois, but this had been refused. Negotiations took place for his marriage to Catherine of Pomerania between 1401 and 1404, but ultimately failed.

During the following years, marriage seemingly assumed a lower priority until the conclusion of the Treaty of Troyes, which provided for Henry to marry Catherine of Valois in June 1420, the daughter of Charles VI of France and younger sister of Isabella of Valois. Together the couple had one child, the future Henry VI of England, born in December 1421.

Ancestry and family

Descent

Ancestors of Henry V of England

8. Edward III of England 4. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster 9. Philippa of Hainault 2. Henry IV of England 10. Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster 5. Blanche of Lancaster 11. Isabel of Beaumont 1. Henry V of England 12. William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton 6. Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford 13. Elizabeth de Badlesmere 3. Mary de Bohun 14. Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel 7. Joan FitzAlan 15. Eleanor of Lancaster

See also

• Dafydd Gam
• Dieu et mon droit
• English longbow
• List of English monarchs
• List of earls in the reign of Henry V of England

Bibliography

• Andrews, Allen (1976), Kings and Queens of England and Scotland, London: Marshall Cavendish Publications
• Allmand, Christopher (1 January 1992). Henry V. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0413532800.
• Curry, A. (2013). "The Making of a Prince: The Finances of "the young lord Henry", 1386–1400". In Gwilym Dodd (ed.). Henry V: New Interpretations. York Medieval Press. ISBN 978-1-9031-5346-8.
• Fisher, J. (1996). The Emergence of Standard English. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-0852-0.
• Fraser, Antonia (2000). A Royal History of England – The Wars of the Roses I. Los Angeles & Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-22802-3.
• Harriss, Gerald Leslie (2005). Shaping the Nation: England 1360–1461. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-1982-2816-3.
• Harvey, John Hooper (1967). The Plantagenets. London: Collins.
• Kingsford, C. (1901). Henry V: The Typical Mediæval Hero. GP Putnam's Sons.
• Labarge, Margaret Wade (1 January 1976). Henry V: The cautious conquerer. Stein and Day.
• Lang, S. J. (1992). "John Bradmore and His Book Philomena". Social History of Medicine. 5 (1). doi:10.1093/shm/5.1.121. PMID 11612773.
• Matusiak, John (24 October 2012). Henry V (1st ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0415620277.
• Mowat, Robert Balmain (1919). Henry V. London: John Constable. p. 176.
• Mortimer, Ian (2007). The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-Made King. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-2240-7300-4.
• Mugglestone, Lydia (2006). The Oxford History of English. UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-924931-8.
• Patterson, Annabel (1996). "Sir John Oldcastle and Reformation histiography". In Hamilton, Donna; Strier, Richard (eds.). Religion, literature, and politics in post-Reformation England, 1540–1688. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47456-6.
• Rezachevici, Constantin (1999). Miller, Elizabeth (ed.). "From the Order of the Dragon to Dracula". Journal of Dracula Studies. St John's, NL, Canada: Memorial University of Newfoundland. 1: 1–6. doi:10.70013/2P97R4A5 . Archived from the original on 14 April 2008. Retrieved 18 April 2008.
• Richardson, R. (2011). Kimball G. Everingham (ed.). Plantagenet Ancestry. 2 (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.
• Seward, Desmond (1999). The hundred years war: The English in France 1337–1453. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-028361-7.
• Weir, Alison (1999). Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 978-0-099-53973-5.
• Weir, Alison (2008). Britain's Royal Family. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-09-953973-5.
• Weis, René (1998). Henry IV, part 2. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-283143-7.
• Wilson, M (16 September 2025). "Henry V. of England in France, 1415-1422". The Scottish Historical Review. 20 (77). JSTOR 25519493.

Further reading

• Allmand, Christopher (2013) [1968]. Henry V. Association Pamphlets, General Series. 68 (revised ed.). London: Historical Association.
• Cowper, Marcus (10 September 2010). Henry V. Command. 8. Illustrated by Graham Turner. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84908-370-6.
• Curry, Anne. [[[:Template:Google books]] Henry V: From Playboy Prince to Warrior King].
• Dockray, Keith (2001). Warrior King: The Life of Henry V. Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7524-3046-1.
• Dockray, Keith (2004). Henry V. Tempus Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-7524-30467.
• Earle, Peter (1972). The Life and Times of Henry V. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-99428-2.
• Hutchinson, Harold Frederick (1967). Henry V: A Biography. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
• Jones, Dan (2024). Henry V – The Astonishing Rise of England's Greatest Warrior King. London: Apollo.
• Kingsford, Charles (1891). "Henry V (1387–1422)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 26. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• ——, ed. (1911) [1513]. The First English Life of King Henry the Fifth. Oxford: Clarendon Press. hdl:2027/yale.39002004659539.
• Morgan, Kenneth O., ed. (2007). The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-289326-0.
• Mortimer, Ian (2009). [[[:Template:Google books]] 1415: Henry V's Year of Glory]. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 978-0-224-07992-1.
• Muir Wilson, I. M. U. (1922). "Henry V of England in France, 1415–1422". The Scottish Historical Review. 20 (77): 34–48. JSTOR 25519493.
• Pollard, A. J. (Anthony James) (3 February 2014). Henry V. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-9763-1.
• Ripley, George & Dana, Charles A., eds. (1879). "Henry V". American Cyclopædia (2nd ed.). New York: D. Appleton & Company. 8. pp. 644–646.
• Seward, Desmond (1987). Henry V as Warlord. Harmondsworth.
• Wylie, James H. & Waugh, William Templeton (1914–1929). The Reign of Henry V. Cambridge University Press.

External links

• Henry V (biography), Archontology, retrieved 28 November 2009
• "Henry V", BBC History
• Henry V (official website), UK: British Monarchy.
• "Henry V Biography", Who2
• Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe (17 February 2011), "The Myth of Henry V", BBC History
• Tyler, J Endell, Henry of Monmouth: Memoirs of Henry the Fifth, Project Gutenberg.
• BBC Radio 4 Great Lives on Henry V – listen online: "Henry V", Great Lives, BBC Radio 4
• Portraits of King Henry V at the National Portrait Gallery, London

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