Henry V by Dan Jones

The book is Henry V by Dan Jones. It was originally published in 2024 by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. I read the 2024 hardcover edition. I read it in May of 2024.  

The title is the subject of the book. It’s a biography of Henry V. My first introduction to King Henry V was from the Shakespeare play. I thought it was cool but I didn’t really get it, or at least it didn’t make much of an impression on me. That might be because I was in high school and Shakespeare is difficult.  

I read this book for the book club. It was my nomination. I’d never read Dan Jones before and this is his latest book. I came to admire Henry V by listening to a series on the Rest is History podcast with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. They went into detail beyond the Shakespeare play and I was very impressed with Henry’s story.  

Dan Jones is obviously a fan of Henry V. He writes about him favorably, but he doesn’t shy away from the controversial parts of Henry’s life. I was also glad to see that Jones does not judge historical figures by modern standards. He keeps him in the context of his time. 

Sometimes historians treat historical figures like they’re living in the world today. It cannot be underestimated how drastically worldviews and cultures can change over time and geography. We can look around and see all the cultural and social norms and think they’ve always been this way but that is not the case. Another mistake we make is thinking that we have inevitably progressed into a morally better society. That’s also untrue. 

Moral truth does not change over time and place. Social acceptability and cultural norms can change but God’s moral truth stays the same. With this understanding I look back to the medieval world and make judgements against their catholic Christianity. It was a time when the face of the church was smeared with mud. The world has never been without true Christianity altogether and we have always had God’s Word and revelation. But the catholic church was and is not the true Church. Catholicism was Henry’s religion and he adhered to the doctrines over and against the faithful Lollards. For this reason it’s safe to say that Henry was not a true Christian and for that we cannot hail him as a true Christian hero. Although, politically and historically he should be honored upholding Western Civilization amidst the infestation of Islam and battling against his fellow catholics. He is a hero for Western Civilization. 

My main takeaway is that Henry is a magnanimous stud. He’s brave, competent, confident, and sober-minded. He’s a serious man. 

“Piety, earnestness, sobriety, and the pursuit of justice and God’s will: these traits will henceforth define who Henry is.

In time he will demonstrate that religiosity and pitiless generalship can very easily go hand in hand; if he is like any churchman, it is a warrior monk.” (p184-185)

A warrior monk. That’s awesome. I want to be a man that can be both warrior and monk. Pious religiosity and pitiless generalship. This is how men should be. This is why I love Henry V. 

This book made me think about the Shakespeare play. I watched The Hollow Crown while reading this book. It’s a TV mini series of Shakespeare’s plays over four movie-length episodes, Richard II, Henry IV parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. It’s a great series. The acting is excellent by a star-studded cast. Jeremy Irons plays Henry IV and Tom Hiddleston plays Henry V.  

I was surprised how different Henry’s real life was compared to the Shakespeare play. In the play Henry is depicted as a scoundrel who is avoiding the responsibilities of royal life. He’s a reluctant leader. I love that legendary story of Henry as well. Shakespeare’s Henry has a fear of failure succeeding his epic father. Big shoes to fill. But when it counted the most, he rose to the occasion to his own great success. I love that. 

The names and places got a little tricky to keep track of. So many guys named Henry. 

  

Dan Jones is a good history writer. He’s fair. I learned a lot from this book, most notably that I need to read a lot more history. 

I’d recommend this to history buffs and anglophiles. Men should study Henry V. He’s a hero to emulate. 

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Quotations

For boys a noble life is physical, and Henry must learn to ride, hunt, and fight— then practice relentlessly.

Meanwhile, Henry takes to his books as naturally as he takes to the physical pursuits. (p11)

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He [Bolingbroke] has traveled the world, proven himself a vigorous Christian warrior, and raised a young family.

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Duels between peers of the realm are rare. The Church has frowned on the use of forms of ordeal to determine judicial cases ever since the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. In the same year, the Magna Carta stated clearly that in England the judgment of a man’s peers was to be the preferred means of dispute resolution. (p38)

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Bolingbroke sat, to more cheers, and Arundel preached a sermon. England would now be ruled by grown-ups, he said. “When a boy reigns … willfulness reigns and reason is exiled… constancy is put to flight and then great danger threatens. From this danger we are now liberated, for a man is ruling.” (p60)

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Owain Glyndur’s claim to be Prince of Wales puts him squarely at odds with young Henry, who holds that title by his father’s grant, solemnly confirmed by Parliament. And now that Henry is fourteen, his father decides he should learn to defend what is his. So in October 1400 Prince Henry is sent to Chester, the border town he last saw when he was returning from his imprisonment in Ireland and his father was taking his first steps toward removing Richard from the throne. His mission is to suppress Owain’s revolt by any means necessary. (p71)

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Henry fights amid it all, but it is exhausting, thirsty, terrible work. At some point he lifts his visor —perhaps to take a drink, perhaps to get a clear sight of the changing melee all around him. Something hits him in the face, below his right eye.

He pulls at it. A shaft of wood comes away.

Adrenaline is a powerful thing. Hands grab him and try to drag Henry off the field, but he will have none of it. (p88)

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Richard was the rightful king, but a fool. Henry’s father is a capable man, but a usurper. Sometimes it is hard to know which of these positions is worse. (p94)

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A vital skill of the warrior prince, which Henry learns in depth during the years 1407-8, is the ability to look in two directions at once: seeing at the same time the enemy in the field and the allies at home on whose goodwill and trust success ultimately depends. (p116)

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Peacekeeping and defense of the realm have always been the two essential duties of any king: this is why the double-sided royal seal typically shows the king in two guises: with scales of justice and a sword. They are, in a sense, the essential compact of kingship: the king offers peace at home and safety from invasion, and the realm supports him. As Beaufort’s address hints, and subsequent events will show, Henry understands this concept of kingship instinctively. A just, righteous ruler will give his people discipline and his enemies nightmares. (p135)

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No prince can afford to flinch at the sight of blood or the smell of roasting human flesh. (p138)

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Busy as he is becoming in 1410 and into 1411, Henry still finds time to enjoy one of his lifelong pleasures: reading.

The bookish bent is a family trait, which goes back to the first duke of Lancaster, Henry Grosmont, and waxes strong in the youngest generation. (p146)

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He openly defied his father’s wishes. He did so because he believed that backing John the Fearless against the Armagnacs was the right policy. He also did so because he has reached a point in his political career where he thinks that he knows best. (p157)

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He advises him to employ upstanding religious men as his own confessors and to “be not fond of ease, but always engaged either about the things of God, or about the good of the kingdom for the sake of God, or about some of those pleasures and excellent sports, which have in them nothing of the foulness of vice.” (p172)

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He sends away his former friends, whom in Shakespeare’s rendering include Sir John Falstaff, and, just in time, knuckles down to the serious business of rule. This is an attractive story, and in Shakespeare’s hands it is masterfully told. But it is a dramatic exaggeration drawn from a scrappy patchwork of evidence. (p182)

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Piety, earnestness, sobriety, and the pursuit of justice and God’s will: these traits will henceforth define who Henry is.

In time he will demonstrate that religiosity and pitiless generalship can very easily go hand in hand; if he is like any churchman, it is a warrior monk. (p184-185)

“”””

To lose one’s grip on finance risks political crisis. What is more, to Henry’s mind, to be broke is unkingly, even shameful. Henry wishes to depart for France, as one report produced by his treasury officials to illustrate the state of the royal finances puts it, “as a well ordered Christian prince” with a “clear conscience.” With this in mind, he throws himself into the details of financing his expedition to France with an urgency unmatched by any king in living memory. (p215)

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Hours later the whole fleet is cruising past the Isle of Wight on toward the French coast beyond. One of the newest ships is painted with a motto Henry has taken to heart: une sanz pluis (“one and no more”). It is a cryptic phrase, but on this day it could be read to mean that there is one God, one king, and one mission. (p223)

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In his last letter to Charles VI, sent at the end of July 1415, Henry warned the French king that he intended to direct his war according to the ancient laws of Deuteronomy.

Henry positions this as a fair transaction: he is their rightful lord, and it is their duty to obey him. But he frames his offer in scriptural terms, and when the defenders reject it, he lets them know that they can expect biblical vengeance. (p226-227)

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If only, says Hungerford, they had ten thousand more of the best English archers.

“That is a foolish way to talk,” snaps Henry. He swears by the Almighty that “I would not, even if I could, have a single man more than I do. For these I have here with me are God’s people, whom he deigns to let me have at this time. Do you not believe that the Almighty, with these his humble few,* is able to overcome the opposing arrogance of the French?” (p245)

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Henry chooses a riskier path. For the two or three hours that the fighting goes on, he is in its midst, trusting perhaps that just as God saw fit to spare him at Shrewsbury, so he will save him again today. (p250)

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This is a deadly serious situation. Already during the battle a band of peasants has robbed the English baggage positioned at the rear of their lines, stealing Henry’s sword of state and his crown. Danger still lurks everywhere.

His tired soldiers are raising up Frenchmen in their midst to take them captive. If they are about to fight again, these prisoners will be at best a distracting burden and at worst a lethal threat within their own ranks. A few of the most valuable survivors dragged out from the corpse piles have been identified and taken away: among them are Marshal Boucicaut, the duke of Bourbon, and the count of Eu. Henry orders all the rest to be killed on the spot. (p251)

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I realize that God has given me the grace of having a victory over the French, not because I am worthy of it, but I believe in full certainty that God wanted to punish the French. (P253)

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A later inscription, which runs around the tomb platform, will advertise Henry as the “hammer of the Gauls,” and it will give readers two typically blunt pieces of advice, characteristic of the king inside the grave. “Virtue conquers all,” reads one. “Flee idleness,” says the other. (p352)

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In the eyes of Henry’s subjects, these were the things that mattered. To a Londoner, he was “that good and noble king, Harry the Vth after the conquest, flower of chivalry of Christian men.”

He indulged in “no fruitless labors.” He fled idleness. (p355)

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The evidence of his times cannot be read without concluding that Henry presented to most of his contemporaries as a rare leader who had somehow secured the full approval of God: a man whom they could trust with their money, their faith, and their lives; a general who would hold his nerve, come what may, never weakened or moved by sentimentality, but utterly consumed by the act of leadership. (p360)