Henry V was born in Monmouth Castle to Henry IV and Mary de Bohun. Henry’s exact date of birth is not known, but he is believed to have been born on either August 9 or September 16, in 1386 or 1387. At the time of his birth, Richard II was King of England and Henry was not expected to inherit the English crown.
The Early Life of Henry V
Following the exile of Henry IV, in 1398, Richard II took Henry V under his wing, where the primary sources say that he was treaty well. During this time, he accompanied Richard to Ireland, where he visited Castle Trim, in Meath. The following year, Henry IV was restored to the English throne, following the deposition of Richard II. As a result of the toppling of Richard, Henry V became the heir to the English crown. At the same time, Henry was also declared the Prince of Wales.
In October, 1401, Henry V was placed in charge of the administrative apparatus of the Kingdom of England. In 1403, Henry was given his first military command, following the outbreak of an uprising led by Owain Glyndwr. Later that year, Henry took part in the Battle of Shrewsbury. During the battle, Henry was struck in the face with an arrow. Over the course of several days, John Bradmore, Henry IV’s personal physician, treated Henry’s wound with honey, which acted as an anti-septic and then set about crafting special tools, with which to remove the arrow. Afterward, he flushed Henry’s wound with alcohol. Henry survived the operation, but was left was permanent scars on his face.
The rebellion of Owain Glyndwr occupied of the attention of Henry IV until 1408, when the King’s health began to fail and the future Henry V began to take a more active role in court politics. With the assistance of his uncles, Henry and Thomas Beaufort, Henry V was able to seize practical control of his father’s government.
Primary sources indicate that Henry V differed with his father over foreign and domestic policy and that Henry was expelled from his father’s council of advisors in 1411. The disagreement seems to have been strictly political in nature, but is thought to have resulted in Henry’s reputation as being a rebellious youth. This reputation for rebelliousness was encouraged by William Shakespeare’s play Henry V. Modern historians contend that based on Henry’s early interest in politics his reputation for rebelliousness is unfounded.
The Reign of Henry V
In the wake of the death of his father, Henry IV, in March, 1413, Henry V was crowned King of England on April 9 at Westminster Abbey. Henry’s coronation was marked by a blizzard and there was a lack of consensus as to whether this was good omen or not.
After he became King, Henry’s first act was to tackle all of the kingdom’s domestic policy issues at once, with the intent of merging them into a single wider policy. From the start of his reign, Henry made it clear that he intended to rule England as a united nation. He allowed past differences to be set aside, making it possible for Richard II to receive an honourable burial. Henry also saw to it that those who suffered during the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV were compensated for the loss of their lands and titles. In August, 1417, Henry V called for the use of English as the language of the English government. Henry also wrote his personal correspondence in English, unlike his predecessors, who had communicated exclusively in French. Henry V was the first English king to do so in more that 300 years.
With his hold on the crown secure, Henry was able to turn his attention to foreign affairs. Some medieval chroniclers claimed that Henry was encouraged go to war with France by the Church, as a means of providing a distraction from problems at home. Modern historians are sceptical of these claims, however, and point to long standing commercial disputes and French support of England’s internal enemies, such as Owain Glydwr, and France’s own lack of political stability, as Henry’s reasons for going to war with France. Additionally, the situation was made worse by the fact that Charles VI, the King of France, was prone to mental instability.
In the wake of the Battle of Agincourt, Sigismund, the King of Hungary, visited Henry in the hopes of securing peace between England and France. Sigismund was entertained lavishly by Henry. While in England, Henry inducted Sigismund into the Order of the Garter. In response, Henry was inducted into the Order of the Dragon. Henry intended to crusade with the Order of the Dragon, but died before he was able to do so. Sigismund left England several months later, after signing the Treaty of Canterbury, in which he recognized the English claim to the French crown.
Henry may have regarded the assertion of his claim to the French crown as part of his royal duties, but the permanent settlement of Henry’s claim to the French throne was also critical to the success or failure of English foreign policy.
Henry V and the Hundred Years' War
On August 11, 1415, Henry set sail for France. Upon landing in France, Henry’s army laid siege to the fortress of Harfleur. Following the capture of Harfluer, on September 22, Henry marched his army across the French countryside with the intent of attacking Calais. However, Henry’s army was intercepted by the French, near the small village of Agincourt. Ignoring the condition of his troops, who were hungry and exhausted, Henry led his outnumbered army into battle, winning a decisive victory over the French, who suffered significant losses. The primary sources claim that credit for Henry’s victory is due in part to the heavy rain that turned the battlefield at Agincourt to a sea of mud. The resulting mud made the French advance extremely difficult and left the French vulnerable to accurate English and Welsh arrow fire. However, repeated investigations of modern forensic experts have determined that the French were hacked to death by the English. Nevertheless, Henry’s victory at Agincourt earned England a reputation for producing large numbers of highly skilled archers. Also a result, Agincourt ranks along side Crecy and Poitiers as one of the best known battles fought by an English army in the Middle Ages.
During the battle, Henry made a decision that has tarnished his otherwise sterling reputation, to a certain extent. Henry ordered that the French prisoners, that had been captured early in the battle to be put to death. Among the prisoners captured by the English were some of the wealthiest nobles in France. Some medieval chroniclers later claimed that Henry took this step in order to protect his troops as they fought off a third wave of French cavalry, so as not to risk a hard won victory.
Henry secured command of the sea by denying France’s Italian allies access to the English Channel. While occupied with the peace talks in 1416, a Franco-Italian fleet succeeded in trapping the English garrison at Harfleur. In an attempt to raise the Siege of Harfleur, Henry sent his brother, the Duke of Bedford to raise the siege. On August 14, the Duke of Bedford set sail from England. The Franco-Italian fleet was defeated the next day.
In 1417, Henry expanded the scope of the war, quickly re-conquering Lower Normandy and cutting Rouen off from Paris. The Siege of Rouen further tarnished Henry’s reputation. With food and supplies running low, the city gates were opened and the city’s civilian population was allowed to leave. However Henry was not willing to open the ranks of his army to allow them pass through. As a result large numbers of women and children starved to death, trapped in the no-man’s land between the English siege works and the city walls. At the same time, the French were paralysed by disputes between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs. Henry was able to take advantage of the situation and successfully played the two factions off against each other. In January, 1419, Rouen fell to the English. Anyone who resisted was severely punished. Alan Blanchard, who had hanged English prisoners from the city walls, was summarily executed, while Robert de Livet, the Canon of Rouen was taken captive and brought to England where he remained imprisoned for five years. By August, the English were encamped outside the walls of Paris and the intrigues of the French court resulted in the assassination of John the Fearless, the Duke of Burgundy, on September 10, 1419. In the wake of these events, the French nobility allied itself with Henry V. After six months of negotiation, Henry V and Charles VI signed the Treaty of Troyes, which recognized Henry as the heir the French throne. In June, 1420, Henry married Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI. At the same time, Henry’s army besieged Montreau Castle, which fell to the English in July. Following the capture of Melun in November Henry returned to England.
The Death of Henry V
In 1421, Henry set sail for France on what became his final campaign. In July, Henry’s army laid siege to Dreux, which fell in August. That October, Henry’s army laid siege to Meaux, which fell to the English in May, 1422. Henry V died suddenly on August 31, 1422 at Chateau de Vincennes, just outside Paris. Henry had contracted dysentery during the Siege of Meaux. Just before his death, Henry named his brother, the Duke of Bedford, Regent of France in the name of his son, Henry VI, who was only a few months old at the time. In a twist of historical irony, Henry predeceased Charles VI by less than two months. Following his death, Henry’s body was taken to London where he was buried in Westminster Abbey, in November, 1422.
Sources
Earle, P, The Life and times of Henry V (London, 1972)
Hutchinson, H.F. , Henry V. A Biography (London, 1967)
Terry Long - I hold degrees in history and journalism. In addition to my contributions to Suite 101, I have also written for the Brampton Bulletin, the ...
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