Henry V

Though only reigning for nine years, Henry V is one of the most famous monarchs that England has ever had.

Unusually for his time, Henry V was born the son of an English father and an English mother: he was, in the truest sense, an English King.

In the aftermath of his father’s reign, he calmed the vying factions of nobles and united the whole of England, before leading an almost exclusively English army against the ancient foe upon the field of Agincourt.

Henry V would become the archetypal national hero, his rule, his verve, and his ideals becoming the very idea of England and giving rise to something greater: the idea of national patriotism.

To this day he is still seen by some as the originator of some of our greatest forces, a restorer of the Navy, and a founder of military, international and maritime law.

Drawing upon the chroniclers of the time and vast array of literature that has since followed across the centuries, this study goes behind Shakespeare’s immortalised hero to explore what made Henry V the king he was, debunking myths along the way.

Robert Balmain Mowat (1883-1941) was an acclaimed Scottish historian, appointed Professor of History at Bristol University in 1928. During his lifetime he wrote a number of books regarding British and European history, ranging from the Ancient World up until the late Victorian era.

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