Henry 5th 1413-1422 (25 when crowned)

Henry was and is still, thanks to Shakespeare, the best known and most popular of all English Kings. Before being crowned he was very much a lad about town with dubious older friends like Sir John Falstaff, plus many rogues and thieves and almost certainly many female lovers. After his coronation he dropped all his drinking mates and girl friends and became a model medieval King. Perhaps he is best remembered for his victory against the French at the Battle of Agincourt where 8,000 Englishmen mainly of peasant stock but lethally trained to use the English Long Bow, annihilated a French army of 50,000 men. On returning to England he became the most popular King of all time being greeted and congratulated by locals who rushed into the sea to carry him shoulder high onto dry land. The party continued all the way to London where on Blackheath he was greeted by the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs and Aldermen, Archbishops and Bishops.

He was made heir to the throne of France ahead of the French Kings eldest son the Dauphin but unfortunately died before he could be crowned. Perhaps he never would have been, because of a certain young French girl called Joan of Arc.  See Henry 6th. 

Chronological events

1413 Henry Crowned

Lollards rebel (Religious movement started in Oxford by John Wycliffe 1329-84 as the forerunner of Protestantism). Ruthlessly put down by Henry. Leader Lord Cobham captured in 1417 and burnt at the stake.

1415 Edmund Mortimer 5th Earl of March, the rightful heir to the throne and his supporters plan to overthrow Henry but the plot is leaked and Henry kills Mortimer’s supporters. June 1415

1415 August, Henry restarts the 100 years war with France because French king, Charles 6th is weak, perhaps even mentally sick and under pressure from two rival families based in Orleans and Dijon, Burgundy. Henry’s Barons who have been resting for a few years need no persuasions to start a fight in an attempt to get their French lands back. Henry sails from Portsmouth to the Normandy beaches and captures the costal town of Harfleur after a siege of five weeks.  The English army moves up the coast to Calais to rest but are followed by a huge French force of some 50,000 men who have set out from Paris. They meet at Agincourt in October. The English with only 8,000 men. The English win this most famous of battles due to their mastery with their Long Bow. 10 arrows a minute, range certainly 500 yards, pulling stain 180lbs. The battle lasted just three hours, 10,000 French killed, 15,000 taken prisoner. Henry returns to London a hero and an English national hero at that. He has finally thrown off the Plantagenet image of being partly French. 

1415-20 The final 4 year phase of this middle section of the 100 years war shows no more glamorous  Agincourt style victories, just a hard military slog against well defended French towns. However with the capture of Rouen and then the whole of Normandy in 1419 Henry could dictate his terms and in 1420 he enters Paris in triumph. Henry is given the position of Regent of France and heir to the French throne on the death of Charles 6th and returns to England with Charles’ glamorous 19 year old daughter Catherine as his bride along with her dowry of 2 million French crowns. Within the year they have produced a son to become Henry 6th.

Disaster strikes, Henry dies of dysentery in 1422 just one month before the death of the French King. Henry’s son Henry 6th becomes King of England and France but he is only 9 months old and the wars with France are set to continue. 

The Tudor connection

After the death of Henry 5th his young and glamorous French widow starts sleeping with one of the gentlemen of the royal household a certain Welshman called Owain ap Maredudd ap Tewdwr or in English Owen Tudor. They produced three sons all of which by virtue of Catherine’s marriage to Henry 5th were heirs to the throne of England. The second son Edmund Tudor lived long enough to father the boy Henry Tudor who became Henry 7th. There is no record of a marriage between Queen Catherine and Owen Tudor.