Henry V Biography

With his father, and Sir Henry Percy, and later alone, he led armies against Owen Glendower in Wales, gaining valuable experience.

Henry and his friends dominated the privy council in 1410/11. He favoured the Burgundians over the Armagnacs in France, in opposition to the king. A suggestion that he should succeed immediately to the throne led to his dismissal from the council, but he became king upon his father's death in 1413.

Upon accession, Henry dismissed the incumbent ministers, and made Henry Beaufort lord chancellor. A rebellion by the Lollards resulted in a strong parliamentary statute against the sect, but trouble continued until the execution of Oldcastle in 1417.

Determined to regain the lands in France held by his ancestors, Henry arranged a secret pact with Burgundy and prepared to attack France, thus reopening the Hundred Years War. His first invasion in 1415 captured Harfleur.

He defeated a superior French force in one of the most famous battles of English history, at Agincourt in 1415.

Henry continued his conquests and, in 1420, entered Paris, where he signed the Treaty of Troyes, agreeing to marry Catherine of Valois and to rule France in the name of her father, Charles VI.

The following year he returned with his wife to England. He made further military preparations, despite popular opposition to the continuation of war, and embarked on his third invasion of France.

Henry abandoned his early recklessness (celebrated and probably exaggerated by Shakespeare) and ruled with justice and industry. He fell ill and died in September 1422.