He was king of England from 1413 to 1422, a warrior king best known for his victory over the French at Agincourt in 1415.

What is Henry V famous for?

For the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, where his outnumbered English army, helped by the longbow and the mud, destroyed a much larger French force.

Why did the English win at Agincourt?

Their longbowmen, the narrow muddy battlefield that funnelled and bogged down the French knights, and English discipline combined to turn numbers against the attackers.

Did Henry V become king of France?

Not quite. By the Treaty of Troyes in 1420 he was made heir to the French throne, but he died in 1422 before the old French king, so he never wore the French crown.

He died in 1422, at about thirty-five, most likely of dysentery caught on campaign in France.

Is the Shakespeare play accurate?

Shakespeare's 'Henry V' dramatises the real campaign and the Agincourt victory, but it heightens the speeches and the drama; the core events are historical.

Henry V: the victor of Agincourt

Henry V was the warrior king of English legend, immortalised by Shakespeare, who led a small, sick and hungry army deep into France and won one of the most astonishing victories of the age. On a muddy field at Agincourt in 1415, his outnumbered soldiers and their longbows destroyed the flower of French chivalry.

A king at war

Born in 1386, Henry became king of England in 1413¹ and at once revived England's claim to the throne of France², reopening the long conflict later called the Hundred Years' War. In 1415 he invaded, took the port of Harfleur after a costly siege³, and then set out to march to English-held Calais with an army worn down by disease.

Medieval miniature of Henry V crowned and seated in a red robe — Henry V in a miniature from Jean Galopes' Le livre doré, a book made for presentation to the king about 1420 (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 213). Public domain

Agincourt

A far larger French army blocked his path near⁴ Agincourt on 25 October 1415. Henry drew up his tired men on a narrow field between two woods⁵, ground churned to deep mud by rain. When the heavily armoured French knights advanced, they were funnelled together, bogged down and shot to pieces by the English longbowmen. The slaughter was appalling and the victory total. At the height of the battle Henry ordered the killing of many French prisoners⁴, an act historians still debate.

Portrait of Henry V of England — Henry V of England. Public domain.

A small, starving army and its longbows broke the flower of French chivalry.

Heir to France

Agincourt shattered French confidence and let Henry conquer much of northern France². By the Treaty of Troyes in 1420 he was recognised as heir³ to the French throne and married the French king's daughter¹. It seemed he might unite the two crowns.

Illuminated miniature of the wedding of Henry V and Catherine before a bishop — The marriage of Henry V and Catherine of Valois in 1420, in a copy of Jean Chartier's Chronicle of Charles VII illuminated before 1494 (British Library, Royal 20 E VI). Public domain

An early death

It was not to be. Henry died suddenly in 1422, probably of dysentery contracted on campaign³, at just thirty-five, leaving an infant son and a conquest that would not outlast him. Yet the legend of the warrior king and his "band of brothers" at Agincourt has never faded.

See his great victory at the Battle of Agincourt, or explore the greatest battles of the Middle Ages.

Sources and notes

Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.

Westminster Abbey, “Henry V and Catherine de Valois” ↩ a b
Christopher Allmand, Henry V (Yale University Press (Yale English Monarchs), 1997). ↩ a b
World History Encyclopedia (Mark Cartwright), “Henry V of England” ↩ a b c
Anne Curry, Agincourt: A New History (Tempus, 2005). ↩ a b
Juliet Barker, Agincourt: The King, the Campaign, the Battle (Little, Brown, 2005). ↩
Wikipedia, “Henry V, Wikipedia”