HENRY V

Mostly known for winning the battle of Agincourt, Henry V turns out to be competent as well as pugnacious.

Author of Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty, Jones specializes in traditional great-men-and-politics histories of the Middle Ages, and this is a good one. Sticking to chronology, he begins with his subject’s 1386 birth, oldest son of a great nobleman, Henry Bolingbroke, during the reign of Richard II (1377-1399). Richard was unpopular, and Bolingbroke led a faction that deposed and finally murdered him. Taking the throne as Henry IV, Bolingbroke began his teenage son’s apprenticeship by taking him on a campaign against the Scots and then sending him off on his own to suppress a rebellion in Wales. Unlike many English rulers, Bolingbroke possessed good political skills, especially in dealing with parliament and raising money, which he passed on to his son. He became chronically ill several years into his reign, so young Henry took on more responsibilities. Assuming the throne, he determined that it was a perfect time to resume the Hundred Years’ War. France’s king, Charles VI, was often insane, and his nation verged on civil war as two factions struggled for power. The 1415 Agincourt campaign takes less than 30 pages, but readers will not complain as Jones proceeds to demonstrate how war is generally a bad idea, even one begun with an immortal victory. Henry V’s campaign continued, winning several less-than-immortal victories that cost increasing amounts of money and lives. In 1420 he married Charles VI’s daughter and was declared heir to the French throne but died even before Charles, in 1422, as France was getting its act together. Joan of Arc soon appeared on the scene, and most readers know how that turned out.

Expert life of a celebrated English king whose greatest legacy is probably Shakespeare’s play about him.