Henry V of England

Birth and family

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.^[2][3][4] He was the son of Henry of Bolingbroke (later Henry IV of England) and Mary de Bohun.^[5][6] 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.^[7][3] 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.^[2] 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.^[8] It is now accepted that he was born on 16 September 1386.^{[9][10][11][14]}

Little is known about Henry's early years.^[15] Henry had a nurse, Joan Waring, who was paid 40 shillings to look after him.^[16] 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.^[17]

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.^[18][19] Upon the exile of Henry's father in 1398, Richard II took the boy into his own charge and treated him kindly.^[20][21] 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.^[22]

In 1399, John of Gaunt died.^[18] 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.^[23] A contemporary record notes that in 1399, Henry spent time at The Queen's College, Oxford, under the care of his uncle Henry Beaufort, the chancellor of the university.^[24][25]

Education

Henry was placed under the tutelage of his uncle, Henry Beaufort, the Chancellor of the University of Oxford and later Bishop of Winchester.^[26] Under Beaufort's guidance, he received an education unusual for the nobility of the time, encompassing music, literature, and fluency in English, Latin, and French.^[27][28] His proficiency in English was particularly notable; upon his accession, he became the first English king since the Norman Conquest to use English as his primary language in personal correspondence and official documents, promoting the Chancery Standard.^[29] He was also a patron of music and literature, granting pensions to composers and poets.^[26][30]

The arrow wound at Shrewsbury

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.^[32] An ordinary soldier would have perished, but 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.^[33] 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.^[32] The operation was successful but left Henry with permanent facial scars, which he bore as a mark of his battlefield experience.^[34]

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.^[21] 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.^[21]

It may be that the tradition of Henry's riotous youth, immortalised by Shakespeare, is partly due to political enmity. Henry's record of involvement in war and politics, even in his youth, disproves this tradition. The most famous incident, his quarrel with the chief justice, has no contemporary authority and was first related by Sir Thomas Elyot in 1531.^[21][35] The closest contemporary source of such behavior is vague statements made by then Bishop of Norwich, Richard Courtenay, stating that the king had given up youthful pursuits and become chaste. This source is suspect at best as Courtenay was a longtime friend of the young King and was typically unreliable.^[36][37]

The story of Falstaff originated in Henry's early friendship with Sir John Oldcastle, a supporter of the Lollards. 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). That friendship, and the prince's political opposition to Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, perhaps encouraged Lollard hopes. If so, their disappointment may account for the statements of ecclesiastical writers like Thomas Walsingham that Henry, on becoming king, was suddenly changed into a new man.^[21][38]

Accession

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.^[39] 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".^[40]

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 Lollard discontent in January 1414.

The Southampton Plot

The only significant domestic conspiracy of Henry's reign was the Southampton Plot of July 1415, uncovered just days before his embarkation for France. The conspirators were Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (grandfather of the future Edward IV), Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham (a trusted royal companion and former treasurer), and Sir Thomas Grey of Heaton.^[45] Their aim was to depose Henry and place Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, on the throne. Mortimer, however, revealed the plot to the king, demonstrating his loyalty.^[45] Henry acted swiftly: all three conspirators were arrested, tried, and executed within days. Cambridge was beheaded on 5 August, Grey on 2 August, and Scrope—whose betrayal deeply affected Henry due to their close friendship—on 5 August 1415.^[46] The executions underscored Henry's determination to eliminate threats to his rule and secured his rear before the French expedition.^[47]

Starting in August 1417, Henry promoted the use of the English language in government^[48] and 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.^[49][50]

War in France

1415 campaign

Main articles: Siege of Harfleur and 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 fortress at Harfleur, capturing it on 22 September.^[51] 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.^[52] 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. The French army intercepted Henry on 24 October near Azincourt, which led to the famous Battle of Agincourt.^[53] On 25 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, 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.^[52] 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.^[54] 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.^[55]

During the battle,^[56] Henry ordered that the French prisoners taken during the battle be put to death, including some of the most illustrious who could have been held for ransom. Cambridge historian Brett Tingley suggests that Henry ordered them killed out of concern that the prisoners might turn on their captors when the English were busy repelling a third wave of enemy troops, thus jeopardising a hard-fought victory.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[55]

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.^[55]

Diplomacy

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.^[57] Henry had intended to crusade for the order after uniting the English and French thrones, but he died before fulfilling his plans.^[58][59][60] 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.^[21] 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^[61] 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

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.^[21]

In January 1419, Rouen fell.^[21] 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.^[62]

By August, the English were outside the walls of Paris. The intrigues of the French parties culminated in the assassination of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, by the Dauphin Charles's partisans at Montereau-Fault-Yonne on 10 September. Philip the Good, the new duke, and the French court threw themselves into Henry's arms.

Parliament and legislation

Relations between Henry and his Parliament were cordial and based on mutual understanding. As Prince of Wales, he attended several parliaments and oversaw his father's mishandling of the representative assembly. Henry already respected the political status Parliament played as a national institution in local, political and social life. Henry also understood how to handle Parliament carefully and the advantages that it could bring him. On the second day of Henry's reign, he issued writs of summons to Parliament, indicating he wanted to establish a working relationship in what biographer Christopher Allmand called "a joint enterprise in government." Parliament was called eleven times during his reign and Henry attended six of them.^[67]

Addresses given to the first six Parliaments were entirely the work of Henry Beaufort, which showed how over period of four years the King's most senior minister and influential adviser oversaw Henry's role as king. An overarching theme was the fulfillment of the royal office. A year later when Parliament assembled at Leicester, Henry was told that as king, he must enforce the law, act justly and seek "bon governance."^[68] According to Allmand, these addresses were made as a part of managed and intentional projection of Henry as a man who fulfilled the aspects of kingship in every way. They depict him as one who followed the law, defended and protected the rights of the Church and took a firm stance against the country's main enemy.^[69]

Legislation of the age were enacted to restrict the influence of the Lollards and local disorder.^[42] Disorder in areas such as Staffordshire and Cheshire, felonious activities in Northumberland were given attention in the Parliament assembled at Leicester in April 1414. Firm action was taken by Henry by the summer of that year led to an restoration of social order. Following social disturbances in Lancashire in both 1419 and 1420 with similar disturbances in Cheshire in 1421 were specifically mentioned in records of Parliament seven times out of the eleven times Parliament met. This indicate how law and order held certain importance in Henry's reign. Lawlessness at sea was addressed by strict action and sound policy. Beaufort, supported by the King and City of London interests, called for decisive action against lawless conduct at sea. Parliament enacted taxes on wool, wines, hides and other goods to shield English maritime interests. Parliament also enacted the Safe Conducts Act 1414 to help English merchants against bandits at sea.^[70] Few statutes passed during Henry's reign originated from petitions to Parliament with ten statutes enacted by Parliament in 1413 being petitions.^[47]

Henry used Parliament as an institution whose approval he sought to award and promote men to the peerage, or restoring members of the nobility who fell out of favour with his father.^[71] Henry was granted a subsidy by Parliament on wool and woolfells for four years in 1413 with tonnage and poundage for one year.^[72] This surpassed any that was made to Henry IV with tonnage and poundage being extended in 1414. In February 1415, Parliament voted to grant two more subsidies, which was calculated to bring in £37,000, to fund Henry's upcoming expedition to France that year. Following Henry's victory at Agincourt, Parliament made the grant of tonnage and poundage for life.^[72]

Political

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,^[76][77] 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;^[78][79] English military power in the region eventually ceased to exist.^[80][81] 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.^[82] 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.^[83]

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

Henry V is remembered by both his countrymen and his foes as a capable military commander during the war against France and is one of the most renowned monarchs in English and British history. He is largely seen as a symbol of English military might and power, which inspired later kings and queens of England. His effect on English history, culture, and the military is profound. Henry's victories created a national sensation and caused a patriotic fervour among the English people that influenced both the medieval English army and the British army for centuries. His victories against the French during 1417–1422 led to many romanticized depictions of Henry V as a figure of nationalism and patriotism, both in literature and in the works of Shakespeare, and in the film industry in modern times.^{[84][better source needed]}

According to British 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 does however conclude that Henry V is "'the greatest man who ever ruled England.'"^[85]

In popular culture

In literature

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.

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.

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