Henry V

by Keith Dockray

The wild and headstrong prince of Shakespeare’s Henry IV blossoms in Henry V into a veritable hero-king: an epic embodiment of military valour, concerned for the welfare of his subjects, and above all, an archetypal man of action. Such a portrayal reflected not only Shakespeare’s Tudor sources but contemporary estimates of King Henry V. To his earliest biographer, a royal chaplain and well-informed insider, he was a model Christian prince, clearly carrying out God’s wishes both at home and abroad; the chronicler Thomas Walsingham, writing in 1422, judged him a pious, prudent, and warlike ruler; and, to the humanist Tito Livio in 1437, he was an energetic, just, and shrewd military commander who, at Agincourt, fought “like an unvanquished lion.” Modern historians have perpetuated the flattery of chroniclers, but should they? Was the real Henry V a national hero, a jingoistic bigot, or neither?

Genres: Biography, Medieval History, Medieval, History

255 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[GBL]

Henry V by Keith Dockray is a workmanlike biography of the Lancastrian monarch.
Dockray does use many contemporary Chronicles and histories to explore the life of the king and his estate site research is a clear strength. However the book is rather unexciting and gives no real sense of the dynamic personality of the king. Henry was a dominant figure in the history of both England and France and he must have been a charismatic individual but I feel this book captures none of that.
On the back cover the question is posed, “ Who was the real Henry V?” I am not sure the book answers that question.