Henry V Biography - The life of Henry V Documentary

[Music] [Music] the man known to history as Henry of Monmouth who would later become King Henry the fifth of England was born on the 16th of September 13 86 at Monmouth castle in southeastern Wales his mother Mary de Bohun was the daughter of the seventh Earl of Hereford Humphrey de Bohun and as well as Henry parented five more children including her third son John of Lancaster the eventual Duke of Bedford who would come to play a prominent role in the latter stages of the Hundred Years War however Mary would never see her children live to adulthood as she died in July of 1394 giving birth to her daughter Philippa of England Henry's father Henry of Bolingbroke or Henry Bolingbroke was the son of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster who was himself the third surviving son of King Edward the third who had started the hundred years war with France by claiming the French crown and had since brought England's enemy to its knees with spectacular victories on land and at sea such as the naval battle of SLOS in 1314 and the Battle of Crecy in 1346 despite these spectacular victories Edward never managed to secure ultimate victory over the French even though he was aided in his campaigns by his son Edward Prince of Wales who is today known as the Black Prince who won another famous victory over the French in 1356 at the Battle of poitiers in which the King of France john ii was taken prisoner this period arguably marks the zenith of English power over France which could only be challenged by the reigns of Edwards Plantagenet ancestor Henry the second and Edward the thirds great-grandson henry v himself however on each occasion england came to hold sway over mainland france the island nation would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and lose its continental territories to a resurgent Valois monarchy despite him not being able to finally claim the french crown at would the third could have been forgiven for thinking that the destiny of his kingdom would be in safe hands after his death as his son the black prince was one of the most respected and capable military commanders of his time however Prince Edward would never get the opportunity to become King of England as he died of dysentery in 1376 a year before his father Edward the third meaning that the throne then passed to the black Prince's infant son Richard ii instead over the coming years Richard proved himself to be nowhere near as capable as his father and grandfather as he is widely considered to have been a weak tyrannical and cruel King whose reign was dominated by military failures against both France and Scotland as well as numerous crises including the peasants revolt of 1381 and the power struggle with a group of his Nobles known as the Lord's appellant who were led by Richard's uncle Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Gloucester who was the youngest son of King Edward the third and even Henry Bolingbroke who would play a minor role in the uprising the reason for this division between the king and his nobles was in large part due to the influence of Richard the second favorite Robert De Vere Duke of Ireland who in their eyes had grown overly powerful due to the Kings favour and after negotiations failed the kingdom fell into civil war in which the king and de Vere were ultimately defeated at the Battle of RAD bridge in Oxfordshire on the 19th of December 1387 and afterwards the Kings favorites were either killed or forced to flee to France after which Richard was compelled at the so called merciless Parliament of June 13 88 to accept his nobles terms and purge his household of all persons they found undesirable this meeting of England's Parliament certainly earned its name as Richards favourites judges and household retainers were one after the other given a traitor's death in which they were publicly hanged gutted and decapitated in what was one of the most humiliating examples of noble and parliamentary power over the monarchy in English history however Richard who was at his time still only 20 could not forgive or forget his nobles cruelty to his favorites by this time Henry Bolingbroke son Henry of Monmouth the future henry v was embarking on an education befitting a boy of his class in which he undertook training in martial arts horse riding and hunting along with music lessons literature and finally languages including Latin French and English despite enjoying the diet of a nobleman that included fine meats and fish rather than the bland root vegetable based diet peasants and serfs had to endure some account state that young Henry was unusually small and thin for a boy of his age which was soon remedied as the years rolled by and as he grew Henry would also visit the royal court with his father as he was after all the eventual heir to the Duchy of Lancaster and was the king's nephew in the 18 months since the Merciless parliament richard ii had ruled England in conjunction with his councillors however when he reached maturity at the age of 22 in 1389 he assumed control over the governance of the country and ruled benevolently for a time however the king much like his great-grandfather edward ii had not forgiven his nobles for killing and hounding his closest companions out to the country and in the late 13 90 s richard began to become increasingly authoritarian and paranoid in his rule particularly after the death of his beloved wife anna bohemia' in 1394 who he bitterly mourned for months afterwards as well as this Richard had been unable to bring about an advantageous peace with France and the sleeve then sought to make peace terms with his King Charles the sixth which eventually led to a 28 year peace treaty being agreed between the two kingdoms providing Richard agreed to marry Charles his six-year-old daughter Isabella which was controversial as the French princess would not be able to produce an heir for nearly a decade not to mention the fact that making peace with the French after decades of fighting was unpopular amongst the English population and nobility it was perhaps this growing sense of hostility towards him that prompted Richard to then exact revenge on those he thought were against him or had wronged him in the past and spurred on by his paranoia Richard then ordered the arrests and execution of his own uncle Thomas of Woodstock as well as the other leaders of the Lord's appellant including the Earl of Arundel who was beheaded whilst the Earl of Warwick who was sent into exile had his lands and titles seized the King was aided in this campaign of revenge by Henry the Fitts grandfather John Duke of Lancaster who along with those Nobles who supported Richard were richly rewarded after the purge and even though gaunt son Bolingbroke had supported the appellant he was nonetheless given the title of Duke of Hereford by Richard ii as the land seized from those who had risen against the king was redistributed amongst the kingdom's remaining Nobles including another of the minor appellant Thomas de Mowbray he was created Duke of Norfolk all now seemed well from Richards perspective however the kingdom was seen gripped by intrigue once again in 1398 when Bolingbroke informed the king the Mowbray had informed him that Richard was planning to seize the Duchess of Lancaster he referred and Norfolk and imprisoned both John of Gaunt burning broke a Mowbray himself although historians now believed that Bolingbroke and Mowbray already hated one another by this time and that two separate factions one supporting and one opposing Lancastrians had formed in the royal court by this time upon hearing these accusations Richard believed Bolingbroke and had Mowbray arrested for inciting treason however Mowbray then denied that he told Bolingbroke that the king was planned to seize his family's lands and to resolve the dispute that could not be proven or disproven either way the two men agreed to fight one another in a trial by combat the victor of which would be proven with God's help to be telling the truth therefore on Monday the 16th of September 1398 in a field near Coventry the two men dressed in full plate Armour appeared before large crowds as well as the king himself and after entering the field and swearing their oaths the Dukes chose their weapons and mounted their steeds after which Bolingbroke charged headlong towards Mowbray who did not move but before the rivals could clash at the last moment King Richard cried out ho ho ho calling a halt to the proceedings then after conferring with his advisors the King declared that the trial was over and to both men's shock banished them from the kingdom Bolingbroke for 10 years that was later reduced to 6 a Mowbray for life perhaps because Richard saw an opportunity to banish his former enemies however in exile in Bolingbroke the King was making a fatal mistake with two more of his past enemies seemingly dealt with Richard should have felt more secure in his rule however he would soon become more harsh paranoid and tyrannical than ever before as he built up his number of retainers and whilst court would sit silently watching those around him who had to bend the knee if they caught the king's gaze in short Richards or thought Aryan rule combined with his total distrust of his Nobles whose titles and lands he would seize on a whim destroyed the circle of trust that had under Edward the third existed between the king and his leading magnates and as Richard became more paranoid and tyrannical his list of loyal friends decreased which only made him more paranoid in turn then on the 3rd of February $13.99 the Duke of Lancaster John of Gaunt died at Leicester Castle meaning that his lands which were the richest and most numerous in England other than the Kings would you to be inherited by his banished son Henry Bolingbroke who the paranoia filled Richard ii now feared more than ever as he had made the mistake of making an enemy of his most powerful noble true to character Richard then chose seize the entire Duchy of Lancaster for himself and his noble retainers whilst Bolingbroke who had been staying at the court of Charles the 6th in Paris looked on as the king took his lands and titles away from him whilst the rest of England asked itself the question whose lands and titles would be taken next Richard had essentially proven himself to be nothing more than a crowned thief as he had alienated England's most powerful Nobles and earned the hatred of the kingdom's commoners which would upon Henry Bolingbroke inevitable return from France lay the foundations of his downfall that the King then hastened even more by making the staggering mistake of leaving England altogether in 1399 to campaign in Ireland the reason for this decision is unknown however it is certain that Richard was paranoid about a coup as he took the crown jewels with him along with young Henry of Monmouth as his prisoner in turn meaning that he must have suspected Bolingbroke would attempt a coup by landing in England but must have still felt secure enough to leave for Ireland as he left the realm under the protection of his uncle Edmund of Langley the Duke of York upon hearing the news that the King had left the back door to England wide open Bolingbroke with the backing of his allies in France as well as the disaffected Nobles still in England such as Henry Percy the Earl of Northumberland and Ralph Neville the Earl of Westmoreland crossed the English Channel and progressed along the kingdoms east coast before finally landing in the mouth of the river Humber on the 4th of July $13.99 with a small retinue of a hundred men-at-arms as he progressed inland Henry soon attracted hundreds and then thousands of men to his banner during which peasants gave his men food and shelter whilst Knights and nobles swelled his ranks with fighting men meaning that before long it was abundantly clear that Bolingbroke's rise to power was inevitable and one chronicler even states that Henry's host eventually numbered in the region of 100,000 men which given the grand swell of support he now enjoyed may not have been in exaggeration Richard whose absence had sealed his doom could do nothing to stop Henry by this time and soon even his uncle Edmund of Langley was forced to accept Bolingbroke supremacy and despite returning from island via Wales where he attempted to raise an army it was abundantly clear that rich as time was up and he finally surrendered to Henry on the 19th of August at Flint Castle in north east Wales before being taken to London where the king was imprisoned in the tower in early September Bolingbroke had first claimed that he intended to help Richard rule his country better upon apprehending him but now evidently sought to take the crown for himself instead but face the problem of legitimizing his ascension but as Bolingbroke had the support of the country's nobility the church as well as Parliament itself Rich's disposition was merely a formality therefore citing the Kings unworthiness to rule parliament finally agreed to depose king richard ii on the 1st of october $13.99 then on the 13th of October Henry Bolingbroke was crowned King Henry the fourth of England at Westminster Abbey although the new king had little to no love or loyalty left for Richard his son Henry seems to have cared a great deal for the deposed King as he had been treated well whilst on campaign in Ireland and had even been knighted during the expedition whilst one source also claims that after Henry's father had secured his power base in the Palace of Westminster he sent for his son who instead left to visit Richard in the tower who compelled young Henry to go to his father instead initially Henry Bolingbroke had publicly intended to keep Richard alive after taking the crown but when a plot to assassinate Bolingbroke and released the deposed King was discovered Henry realized that as long as his cousin remained alive his throne would not be secured and thus lead the decision was taken to transfer Richard to Pontefract castle in Yorkshire where sometimes during the winter of 1400 the deposed King was starved to death aged just 33 although Richard the second reign had been a catalogue of disasters Bolingbroke seizure of the English throne would come to have dire consequences in the years to come as the killing of an anointed monarch by a man who was after all not the next in line to the throne would set a dangerous precedent as when Edward the 3rd 2nd son Lionel Duke of Clarence his last surviving heir Edmund Mortimer 5th Earl of March died in 1425 his lands and titles were inherited by Richard Plantagenet 3rd Duke of York the grandson of Edward the third sport surviving son Edmund of Langley who would ultimately deposed Henry the fifth son Henry the 6th and ignite the Wars of the Roses in a matter of months Henry of Monmouth had gone from being the heir of a disinherited English Duke to being heir apparent to the kingdom of England itself and in the weeks following his father's coronation Henry now aged 13 was created Prince of Wales Duke of Lancaster Duke of Cornwall Earl of Chester and Duke of Aquitaine after his father's coronation Henry or Harry as he was known travelled to Queens College Oxford where he finished his education under the tutelage of his uncle Henry Beaufort who was the university's Chancellor and then in 1400 Prince Henry traveled to his Duchy of Cornwall where he acted as High Sheriff for four years which was the king's judicial representative his responsibilities being to keep the peace and dispense justice despite this Henry's adolescent years would be shaped by conflict as his father Henry the fort's reign would prove to be relatively short and bloody as the king aided by his son will be forced to fight for the very crown he had taken from richard ii the first crisis that befell the new king was a full-scale uprising in wales against England's overlordship under our England or here in 1400 launched a revolt and even proclaimed himself Prince of Wales prompting Henry the 4th to send Prince Henry to campaign in the Principality however he was soon recalled in 1403 to aid his father at the Battle of Shrewsbury on the 21st of July where the king's army defeated a rebel force under Henry Percy also known as Hotspur who had risen up against Henry the 4th when he failed to grant the Percy family promised rewards after his ascension to the throne which they had helped him to achieve Prince Henry now sixteen was by this time proving himself to be an extremely capable soldier and commander as he was in the thick of the fighting at Shrewsbury and at one point was almost killed by an arrow hitting him in the face near his nose and it was only with the expert help of the Royal physicians that his life was saved but despite this young Henry would bear the scar of battle for the rest of his days along with many other wounds he obtained during his numerous campaigns after Shrewsbury Henry returned to Wales in an attempt to bring a ringling door to heal but the self proclaimed Welsh Prince proved himself to be a stubborn enemy who soon United the majority of the Welsh populace behind him in what became a full-scale war rather than a rebellion indeed one of the titles that Lindor uprising is known as today is the last war of independence which would continue for another decade as time went by Prince Henry was compelled to leave Wales for London as his father the King had contracted a mysterious illness in the summer of 1405 the historians have since guess could have been leprosy or even epilepsy or cardiac problems as chronicle state that Henry the fourth suffered from attacks which got more frequent and serious as the years went by meaning that the Prince of Wales increasingly had a greater say in the governance of the Kingdom although Henry soon began to argue with his father over foreign and domestic affairs resulting in him being dismissed from the King's Council in 1411 in contrast William Shakespeare's portrayal of Henry v the prince does not seem to have enjoyed a riotous youth but instead by the time of his ascension to the throne was a battle-hardened commander who no doubt enjoyed the respect and loyalty of his subordinates which is evidenced in some accounts that state there was a body of opinion within the kingdoms nobility that the increasingly ill Henry the fourth should abdicate the throne and allow his son to take his place in the end neither England's magnates or Prince Henry himself would have to wait for long as Henry the fourth soon succumbed to his illness in the Jerusalem chamber at Westminster Abbey on the 20th of March 1413 from what historians think may have been a stroke so ended the reign of one of the most controversial Kings in English history as will his death their hitherto divided Kingdom of Engler was united under the youthful strong and energetic Henry v little over a month after his father had drawn his last breath Henry of Monmouth was crowned king henry v of england on the 9th of april 1413 at Westminster Abbey whilst a ferocious snow blizzard fell from the gray London skies which onlookers and chroniclers could not decide was a good or bad omen Henry was 27 at the time of his coronation and stood at a considerable six foot three inches in height and was clean-shaven with dark cropped hair whilst his face although battle-scarred had a healthy complexion with a prominent and pointed nose in his centre whilst his eyes depending on his emotional state flashed from the mildness of a doves to the brilliance of a lion's much like the greatest kings of the Plantagenet dynasty such as Edward the first and Edward the third Henry the fifth if he chose to look her plenty of evidence of what was expected of a medieval King of England as the less successful containers such as King John edward ii and richard ii had all alienated their nobles and paid the price as a result was the more effective of henry's forebears understood that a king of england could only reign in collaboration with his nobles as their support was crucial in virtually every area of governance from war to taxation and even diplomacy also given the fact that Henry had received a good education fought at the head of his father's armies in several campaigns and for nearly a decade aided his father in running the country it is perhaps fair to state that the young king was better prepared for rule than the majority of his Plantagenet predecessors or successors ultimate proof of which was to come over the next decade in what many consider to be one of the most successful reigns in English history it therefore must have come as a relief to the kingdom's magnates there Henry soon after becoming King adopted a policy of appeasement and pardon with respect to the kingdom's nobles who had rebelled against his father and as well as this Oh England or died in unknown circumstances in Wales in 1415 meaning that Henry was soon able to pay off the remaining Welsh and March of rebels although it is perhaps fair to state that the fact that the new king had been born in Wales himself they also benefactor in securing peace in the Principality then continuing with his strategy of reconciliation Henry also had Richard the second body relocated from its original resting place in Kings Langley in Hartford sheer to Westminster Abbey however the new king was soon met with a serious challenge from a religious group known as the Lollards who were a Protestant like Christian religious movement that were opposed to what they saw as the false religious dogma and idolatry of the Catholic Church and argued for an end to capital punishment the celibacy of priests exorcisms and the Catholic practice of confession as they stated that only God had the power to forgive sinners this movement had inevitably been suppressed by both church and state before Henry's reign but when several Lala's were imprisoned in the Tower of London an organised insurrection broke out under John old castle a close former friend of Henry v who then hatched a plan to kidnap the king himself and demand religious reform however the old castle rebellion as it is now known soon failed as old Castle himself was eventually captured tried and executed as a heretic after which the Lollards were driven underground by further reprisal x' as his position in england was now secured henry was able to turn his attention to continental affairs and his intended resumption of hostilities with the french who had supported o england doors welsh rebellion with money and troops however another reason for henry wanting to resume hostilities was due to France being in a state of turmoil as its King Charles the sick had for a number of years been suffering from mental illness as he believed he was made of glass which led him to have iron rods sewn into his clothing so that he would not shatter if he bumped into people or nearby objects as the French King was incapacitated there was in fighting amongst his Nobles over the control of the kingdom particularly because King Charles's son Louie was too young to assume power therefore henry v sought to capitalize on this weakness at the heart of the french monarchy and resolved to once again lay claim to the French crown and demanded the reinstatement of the original Plantagenet holdings in the Duchy of Aquitaine which had been greatly reduced in size during the reign of Richard ii in an effort to come to an agreement between England and France a Great Council was cooled in the spring of 1414 at which Henry stated that he would give up his claim to the French throne if they paid him 1.6 million crowns in compensation which was the outstanding ransom of the late French king john ii who had been captured by the Black Prince and the Battle of Portier in 1356 and on top of this Henry also demanded that the French concede English ownership of Normandy terrain Anjou Brittany and Flanders as well as Aquitaine itself this wishlist was then added to when Henry also proposed to marry the daughter of Charles the sick Catherine of Valois for which he also demanded a two million crown dowry that evidently was too much for the French to take as they responded with a counteroffer consisting of Catherine along with a six hundred thousand crown dowry as well as an enlarged Aquitaine but with no mention of the outstanding ransom of John the second or the other territories Henry had requested in short Henry's demands were far too high for the French to agree to as they would have to empty their treasury as well as surrender Princess Catherine along with the majority of mainland France just to end English claims on the French throne and as a result negotiations broke down by 1415 leading the English to claim that the French had mocked them and even insulted Henry personally which Shakespeare would later portray as the French gifting Henry a chest full of tennis balls seeing that war was inevitable Henry started preparations for a full-scale invasion of France and in December of 1414 secured funding from the English Parliament to aid his preparations and four months later also secured the agreement of his Nobles to go to war with the French however before Henry could leave for the continent a threat to his person was uncovered in the so-called Southampton plot of 1415 the goal of which was to place Henry's cousin Edmund Mortimer fifth L of March onto the English throne and was led without Mortimer's knowledge by Richard of Connie's borough Earl of Cambridge Henry Scrope 3rd Baron scrote of masam and Sir Thomas Gray whose son was married to the Earl of Cambridge his daughter Isabel however this plot was soon uncovered in Southampton leading to all three men being beheaded on the 5th of August 14 15 enabling Henry to leave for France at the head of his army on the 11th of August which then landed in Normandy on the 13th after landing the English King moved to attack Hoffler three miles downstream from modern-day Lahav that was garrisoned by only four hundred men and after setting up camp on the 18th of august the English army which consisted of 2,000 men at arms and 6,000 longbowman proceeded to pound the town's walls with twelve great guns after which Henry ordered a full-scale assault and realizing their number was up the French surrendered a month later on the 22nd of September although his siege of Harfleur had been successful the squalid conditions Henry's troops were forced to live under then resulted in an outbreak of dysentery which historians estimate killed or incapacitated between 1/4 to 1/3 of Henry's entire force and then perhaps realizing that his army was greatly weakened and in an effort to evade a large French army which was heading towards Normandy Henry then chose to leave her Fleur on the 8th of October 1415 and head northeast towards English territory of Calais where he planned to overwinter in safety the French had raised an army by this time in the name of Charles the sixth son Louie the dough fan in the area of Rouen although he was not ready to fight in time to relieve the city of Harfleur however when Henry moved to march towards Calais the French then sought to block his advance by Manning the crossing points of the river Somme which stood between the English king and his objective after moving south in an effort to find a Ford the English were finally able to cross the river Somme at voir n after which they once again turned north and march towards Calais whilst in the meantime the French who evidently still did not feel strong enough to challenge Henry continued to shadow the English army the French force that was under the command of Charles to old Bray the constable of France and a number of French Dukes including the two cavalli on and the Duke of Alba then sent our request for reinforcements and also open negotiations with the English in an effort to delay them as the French army was after all fresh whereas the English had marched almost 250 miles in two weeks and were on the point of near starvation and still suffering from the effects of dysentery finally on the 25th of October 1415 Henry decided to stand and fight the French who were encamped across a narrow Valley near the castle of Agincourt that echoes down the centuries as the battle that would follow would perhaps become the most famous of the Hundred Years War and even the most famous battle in medieval history that being the Battle of Agincourt despite its legendary status the Battle of Agincourt self is still shrouded by myth speculation and legend as the exact site of the battle is still contested although most historians agree the approximate location of the confrontation to be in or around the modern-day village of a zinc or and as well as this the sizes of both armies is also contested with estimates stating that the English army consists of between six to nine thousand longbowman and men-at-arms was the French army is estimated to have consisted of 12 to 36,000 men at arms archers crossbowmen and knights one of the crucial deciding factors in the Battle of Agincourt was the geography and topography of the battlefield itself as the English took up a defensive position between two woods which contained the castle of a zinc ore and the village of tram core which forced the French to advance on a narrow front meaning that they were unable to outflank the English making them extremely vulnerable to arrow fire Henry organized the English into three divisions or battles as they were known with the right wing being commanded by Edward Duke of York the center being led by Henry v himself and the English left by Baron Thomas Kamui's whilst Henry's long bowmen were commanded by Thomas Erpingham who is one of the king's most experienced commanders that in accordance with Henry's orders stationed his longbowmen on the flanks at the English battle line in preparation for the battle the English King had ordered his men to remain silent the night before as he was suspicious that the French would launch night attacks that was an order he enforced by threatening to cut off the ears of any man who so much as spoke aloud and even told his troops that he thought it was better to die in an upcoming confrontation than to be ransomed as a prisoner chroniclers also stained than the English king made an inspirational speech before the fighting commenced which now has legendary status due to William Shakespeare's play Henry v however in reality Henry the Fitts actual words before the Battle of Agincourt were almost certainly not as poetic or inspiring as in Shakespeare's play as some accounts state that he told his archers that the French would cut their bow fingers off so they could never draw a longbow again the French army in contrast was not only larger than the English but consisted of large numbers of no woman who no doubt considered themselves to be greatly superior to the lowborn English archers in front of them and perhaps been ignorant of the devastating effect the longbow had had earlier in the Hundred Years War many of the young French Knights and Nobles positioned themselves in the French vanguard the French army itself was deployed in three lines of battle one in front of the other which were flanked by mounted men at arms and knights and supported by thousands of archers and crossbowmen although as previously mentioned the true number of the French put into the field at Agincourt is unknown but it is widely considered to have been 2 to 3 times as many as the English after forming up opposite one another on the morning of the 25th of October 1415 what followed was a three-hour an easy face-off as both sides were weary of making the first move however Henry was aware that more French troops were on the way and so reluctantly took the decision to seize the initiative and ordered his army to advance forward to within range of the French Vanguard and ordered his long bowmen to drive prepared sharpened wooden stakes into the ground to protect them against cavalry the French cavalry then seized the opportunity and charged towards the English longbowmen doubtless expecting to steamroll at their adversaries however when they came within range they were hit by a hail of missiles they're more often than not felled or panicked the horses rather than the men riding them and before long hundreds of screaming animals lay dying in the churned up blood-soaked muddy ground in front of the English Stakes whilst the remainder charged back through their own lines crushing French men-at-arms as they went these cavalry charges also turned the ground between the two armies into a cog mire however regardless the main French battle line then started to advance through the muck towards the English in their heavy plate Armour that weighed upwards of 50 pounds apiece meaning that by the time the French got anywhere near the English positions they were either exhausted or weighed down by mud was being fired at by the English longbowmen who historians estimates remained effective on thin plated armor up to as far as 200 metres nonetheless thousands of French men-at-arms still managed to reach the English lines where they were meant by relatively fresh English men-at-arms commanded by Henry and his nobles who were reinforced on their flanks by common longbowman who then down their bows and joined the melee with daggers hammers swords and axes in the ensuing chaos the English longbowmen fought for their lives as the majority of them were commoners who would be killed and not ransomed if captured after the battle whilst men at arms were generally of noble birth who had a reasonable chance of survival if captured after a battle it was perhaps this desperation to survive which saw the English longbowmen fighting hand-to-hand or even shooting their arrows at point-blank range combined with the exhaustion and disorganization of the enemy attack there soon resulted in the French army beginning to crumble and when the fighting died down Henry realized he had taken more French prisoners than fighting men in his own army it was then that Henry saw in the distance the remaining French rear guard and fearing that if they attacked his army would be overwhelmed the English King chose to ignore the rules of chivalry and ordered his troops to execute their French prisoners which they initially refused to do as it was against your Varick practices and also ruled out any possibility of obtaining ransom money however when Henry threatened to hang any man who defied his orders his troops reluctantly began to slaughter their French captives after which Henry then ordered a charge against the remaining French rearguard that lacking leadership and no doubt terrified of being slaughtered themselves fled the field the Battle of Agincourt to be a great victory for the English who had taken on a force much larger than their own and had by combination of the terrain the weather their enemies arrogance and disorganization as well as the longbow and King Henry's tactics killed as many as six thousand French and in return only lost between 100 and 600 been themselves the most notable casualty from an English perspective was the Duke of York who had according to some saved Henry from being killed himself before he was dispatched by a blow to the head whilst the French on the other hand lost three Dukes eight counts of I count an archbishop and a large number of nobles and knights including the armies commander and constable of France Charles du Brey himself although the Battle of Agincourt is amongst the most famous battles in medieval history his strategic impact was minimal to start with as it did not lead to any immediate English conquests largely because King Henry do to his troops exhaustion and the onset of winter left France via Calais on the 16th of November and returned to England where he was received as a conquering hero in London on the 23rd although the French nobility had been decimated during the battle the country did not collapse as a result of Henry's victory as the English King needed time to build up his forces once again however 14/16 was marked by an English victory at sea when Henry's brother John Duke of Bedford defeated a franca Genoese fleet that was aiding a French sea of Harfleur that Henry had captured during his Agincourt campaign after concluding his preparations during 1416 henry renewed his war on France in 1417 when he returned to Normandy captured the city of Kampf and then besieged the duchies capital of Rouen however this siege would cast a further shadow over Henry's character as when the starving women and children of through one attempted to leave the town and pass through the English lines Henry refused meaning that hundreds if not thousands of women and children died of starvation and exposure around the city's walls as a result finally in January of 1419 the city of Rouen fell largely because the French were wracked with divisions at this time between the Burgundian and armand act parties or factions within the French Court which had started when John the fearless Duke of Burgundy had in 1407 ordered the death of his rival Lily Zhu Cavalli on resulting in a blood feud breaking out between the Duke of Burgundy and the assassinated Duke of allianz son Charles along with his father-in-law and protector Bernard counter varma nack however the young Charles Duke of bullion had been captured by the English at the Battle of Agincourt which was then compounded by the count of Almanac being murdered in 1418 meaning that the Burgundians took control of the majority of France including King Charles 2/6 himself who in 1415 had lost his son and heir Louis the dough fan leaving his last surviving son Charles as the new toe fan this infighting within the French Court then ceased for a time in 1419 when the Duke of Burgundy and Charles the dough fan negotiated a truce in order to fight the English however supporters of the dough fan then murdered John Duke of Burgundy in September of 1419 on the streets of Paris which reopened the feud between the rival parties and continued to weaken French resistance to the invaders the month before August of 1419 had seen the English advance from Normandy towards Paris after which they encounter outside the French capital's walls meaning that after the assassination of his father Philip the new Duke of Burgundy who now sought revenge against the dough fan formed an alliance with the English which would last for the next 16 years of the Hundred Years War as the English were outside the walls of Paris it was evident to the French that defeat was imminent therefore negotiations began between Charles 2/6 and Henry v for a cessation of hostilities what will be known as the Treaty of tois in which the French agreed to disinherit Charles to doe fan meaning that Henry would become the next king of France after Charles's six death and to seal the treaty a marriage was also agreed between Charles's sixth daughter Catherine of Valois and Henry v this treaty effectively signaled Henry's total victory over the French and would have ended the Hundred Years War if all had gone according to plan in the years to come however in the meantime Henry was recognized as regent of France and marriage preparations then began that culminated in the English king marrying Catherine of Valois at tois Cathedral on the 2nd of June 1420 Charles the doe fan along with many French Nobles did not accept Henry's ascension and had no intention of bending the knee to an English King therefore in defiance of his father's treaty with the English Charles continued to resist the invaders in order to claim what he saw as his birthright meaning that the war was to continue as much of Mahlon France still resisted Henry's supremacy the English King then returned to England in 1420 leaving the English armies in France under the command of his brother Thomas of Lancaster Duke of Clarence who he ordered to conduct raids in Anjou and Maine during the spring of 1421 however unbeknownst to Clarence the Scots who had been in an alliance with the French since 1295 had recently sent troops to France and along with the French formed a sizeable army which then met the English at the Battle of börje on the 22nd of March 14:21 now which Clarence's forces were soundly defeated leading to the command of the Scots John Stewart Earl of Buchan being made constable of France shortly afterwards this reversal would come to have far-reaching consequences for the war as a whole as Henry was at this time in London overseen the coronation of his wife Catherine of Valois on the 23rd of February 14 21 and had afterwards undertaken a tour of England during which they heard the news of Clarence's defeat that prompted Henry to return to France 10th of June 14:21 with 5,000 men-at-arms after which he resolved to beseech a number of towns that were loyal to the dolphin during this campaign had we met particularly stubborn resistance of the dough fan held town of more which he besieged at the beginning of october 14 21 however the town held out against the English until May of the following year however it was during the winter of 14 21 that the English King was greeted with good news from England as his Queen Catherine have given birth to his son in air on the 6th of December 14 21 and Windsor Castle who would eventually become Henry the 6th of England however the English King would never meet his son a name sank let alone see him grow into adulthood as after the full of more in August of 14 22 the English King began to fall ill and died suddenly on the 31st of August 1422 had the chateau de vincennes just east of Paris aged just 35 it is possible and thought by many that Henry had contracted dysentery during the siege of moher however it is likely that if the English King had died of dysentery he would have been incapacitated surely after the end of the siege in mani rather than in August and some also theorized that Henry may have died of heatstroke as he had been riding in full plate Armour the day before his death in the searing heat of the French summer it goes without saying that the death of Henry the fifth was a colossal blow to the English hopes of victory in France however before his death the English king named his brother John Duke of Bedford as the regent of France in his infant son's name and two months later the French King Charles the 6th also died himself in October of 1420 - meaning that if Henry had lived another few months he would have been crowned King of France over the coming weeks the Kings body was brought back to England where he was finally buried in Westminster Abbey on the 7th of November 14:22 whilst in France his brother the Duke of Bedford proved to be effective in prosecuting the war however English fortunes would soon go into steep decline after the rise of the made of ollie on or Joan of Arc who breathes fresh inspiration into the hitherto demoralized French forces and after a series of victories the doe fan Charles was finally crowned Charles - 7th King of France in Reims Cathedral on the 17th of June 14:29 whilst Joan of Arc herself was captured by England's Burgundian allies in 1430 and burned at the stake a year later in response to the dophins coronation England and oversaw the coronation of young Henry the sixth in not sanam Cathedral in 1431 making him the only King of England to be crowned the King of France however young Henry's chances of victory in the Hundred Years War were soon ended when Philip Duke of Burgundy reconciled with Charles the seventh in the Treaty of Arras in 1435 after which the French steadily retook all the English territories one by one culminating in England's final defeat at the Battle of castellón on the 17th of July 1453 leading to the full of border itself that October which had been in English hands since 1189 it was this final defeat along with the inexperience and ineptitude of Henry the sixth they would eventually compel his cousin Richard Plantagenet Duke of York to rise up against the Lancastrian King initiating the conflicts known to history as the Wars of the Roses which would see Henry the sixth deposed in favour of Richard Duke of York's son Edward who became the first York his King of England Edward the fourth whose sons Edward and Richard were according to some be murdered in the Tower of London under the order of Edward the false brother Richard who then took the English throne as the infamous Richard the third however the Lancastrians would finally emerge victorious from the Wars of the Roses as Henry the Fitz wife and Henry the six mother Catherine of Valois after her husband's death married a minor Welsh nobleman named Sir Owen Tudor whose grandson Henry Tudor would defeat the last Plantagenet King of England Richard the third at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and become the first King of the Tudor dynasty Henry the seventh King Henry the fifth of England is today considered to be one of his country's most effective and talented many evil kings as during his nine-year reign the youthful Henry brought England to the verge of victory against France in the Hundred Years War in which he secured one of the most famous victories in history at the Battle of Agincourt however despite the fact that we see Henry as the archetypal medieval warrior king he also proved himself during his short reign to be a highly competent ruler and an expert diplomat his detractors particularly in France criticized Henry's killing of prisoners and the Battle of Agincourt as well as the neglect of civilians in his subsequent sieges however English historians would say these tactics are ruthless and or pragmatic whereas French historians might call them barbarous or criminal however a possible fair conclusion regarding Henry's character is that it will forever be a matter of perspective and as such will always be hotly debated what virtually all historians can agree on however is that Henry v was one of the most capable and formidable warrior kings of the Plantagenet dynasty whose victories rank alongside those of Richard the Lionheart Edward the first Edward the third and the Black Prince and we can only imagine what might have been had he lived which will be forever one of the greatest what ifs of history what do you think of Henry v was he a ruthless war loving King who executed prisoners and abandoned chivalry or was he one of England's greatest medieval kings who thanks to his victories and a little help from William Shakespeare will forever be immortalized as one of his country's greatest heroic monarchs let us know what you think in the comment section and in the mean time thank you very much for watching you you

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Views: 579,093

Rating: 4.7816057 out of 5

Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles, Biography channel, the biography channel

Id: HNjH-old6dY

Length: 46min 29sec (2789 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 31 2019