Henry V

Very well researched and very well written I highly recommend this book by Dan Jones who gives us the full story of this warrior king from birth to death. Excellent.
My thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for this eARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

If any king needed a biography, it’s a Henry. Much of that mythos is bound up in Shakespeare, St Crispin’s Day and the idea of England as a lion-hearted country. Jones has form in this area and he takes a masterly, well-researched look at the king.

The inciting incident is The Battle Of Shrewsbury, in 1403. A teenaged Henry is putting down the Welsh rebels, when he takes an arrow in the face. The details of its removal are gory, but nothing in comparison to the grit and gore of medieval England, with burning of heretics, a rebel hanged twelve times in twelve different cities and pregnant woman left for wolves. Faint hearted readers, tread carefully.

The attempt is to reposition Henry as a man, not a warrior. And it succeeds in that, depicting him as someone who loved books and music, not the favourite of his Father, but becomes king of a turbulent England and prosecutes a brutal war with France.

Agincourt is portrayed as the middle; not the end of a campaign. Henry marries Catherine (after being offered her at 7, 9 and 12). He dies at the age of 35, either of smallpox or dysentery. Jones has succeeded in an essay of a man, not a king. It’s published by Head Of Zeus on September 12th and I thank them for a preview copy. #henryv

I've read a few of Dan Jones' books and enjoyed them all, especially The Plantagenets but this one comes a close second. I think because I only really know about Henry V through film or theatre, I based everything I know on a fictionalised version of him; it's easily done. There are lots of books about him but I know Dan Jones writes in a less academic style and is very readable, descriptive and knowledgable. He does his research!
Henry V is certainly a unique man - not interested in bedding lots of women (or men), cerebral, musical, a man who enjoyed some entertainment in his life but was mostly pious, righteous and determined. He was also born to be a soldier - his father's son. He was set into battle at about fifteen years old in Wales and elsewhere in an effort to keep rebels under Henry IV's watchful eye. He was shot in the face with an arrow which lodged under his cheekbone when he was sixteen; England's top surgeon saved his life, removing the arrow whilst also keeping the wound infection free. Henry was made of tougher stuff. His father was determined all his sons (Henry, Thomas, John and Humphrey) would be in service to their country through their military prowess. Only Henry and Thomas succeeded, the other two becoming accomplished politicians and only competent soldiers. Henry V was obsessed with the idea that God had given him a mission to save his father's territories in France and considered those stealing his land as enemies God wanted him to defeat. I read the book pretty quickly, took in all his battles, Agincourt being the most famous. I was astonished both by his military prowess but also his ability to completely ruin not only villages and cities but also all the people in them; including allowing women and children to starve, crops to be destroyed, houses to be burned etc etc. Dan Jones' last chapter basically asks the reader to determine what they really make of Henry V. He offers us contemporary reports of the man, then secondary sources, Medievalist historians et al. I'm still not sure what to make of him. In his own context, he was a good king, a true warrior, a brilliant soldier and maybe it would be unfair to think all the ugliness of his successes - starvation, arson, rape, murder, pillage, theft wasn't just the done thing then. A very interesting book, highly recommended.

I've been a fan of the author's podcasts for a while and found this book to be just as engaging. He has the knack of clearly laying out the story in a straightforward manner while sacrificing none of the labyrinthine detail. He also clearly illustrates the human stakes and brings all the colour of the Mediaeval period to life. A fantastic read.

I love Dan Jones non-fiction history books and this is no exception. I’m not coming to this one as a neophyte, either, knowing a lot about that period of history and Hery himself. Jones gives a balanced portrayal, devoting a good cunk of the book to Henry’s life before he became king. This is a vital look at what shaped him from his father’s complete inability to manage money, despite putting the infrastructure for modern law and order in place, to Henry’s own ability to ‘spit straw into gold’ in the most unpromising of circumstances. There’s a lot more to Henry V than Agincourt and Jones does a brilliant job of depicting this. Highly recommend.