WS ABC Henry V

I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE NOBLE HENRY V.
As Shakespearesbestfriend, I enjoy reading and watching the play, but on the other, my knowledge of history and my desire to see the heroes as 'good guys' means that since I know that our Henry was a religious fanatic and a particularly cruel king and warrior, I am having problems relating to him.

What do I mean? After beating a much stronger army at Agincourt, he returned to England to great acclaim, as truly reflected by WS at the end of the play, but then had to go back to France to finish off some unfinished business, i.e. regain the rest of the land there that he thought was legally his.

                         Tom Hiddleton playing "Henry V."

This meant, that after conquering Lower Normandy, with relative ease, he set out to besiege Rouen in order to consolidate his gains. The net result of this long and miserable campaign was that he starved the townspeople and finally forced them to leave the city. There, 12,000 people, mainly women and children were forced to live in a ditch which surrounded the town during the autumn and winter of 1418 -1419. Many of them starved to death, their only relief coming on Christmas Day when Henry allowed two priests to bring them food.

Following this unChristian behaviour, Henry severely punished/executed all of the French lords who had opposed him
before going on to capture Paris and marry Princess Katherine Valois in 1420. This lady later became the grandmother of King Henry VII through her second marriage to Owen Tudor. Incidentally, WS does a great job in compressing and erasing five years of history (1415-1420) when he has Henry V woo and marry Katherine immediately after the Battle of Agincourt.

Henry V on a British postal stamp showing the iconic portrait of this king. It is said that he had this portrait painted of him in profile as he didn't wish an ugly scar from the of Battle of Shrewsbury (1403) on the other side of his face to be visible.


However, before carrying out any of the above nasty deeds, Henry also acted viciously at home in persecuting, imprisoning, burning and executing the Lollards, a Christian movement which had been established to reform the Catholic Church. One of its leaders was Sir John Oldcastle who was a friend of the king. But this didn't save him in the end when he organised a rebellion. The king put this down and Oldcastle was executed since 'justice had to be seen to be done.' (Incidentally, it is claimed that Oldcastle who was alleged to have been a good friend of Henry while he was a prince was WS's model for Falstaff while the stern king was a rumbustious Prince Hal.) 

Finally, in Act V, scene vii, it is reported that Henry has had many of his prisoners of war killed when he suspected that they may rise up and attack his men from the rear. According to the medieval (and current) rules of war, such behaviour was forbidden, and for this allegedly God-fearing king to have done so was a truly shocking event. As Fluellen the Welshman comments, "Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis expressly against the law of arms..." WS included this to show that however good a king Henry was, his character (like all of WS's heroes) was flawed.
  

OK, now that I've got that off my chest, Henry V has proved to be one of the more popular historical plays that WS wrote. After a slow beginning with a stress on the situation which eventually leads to Henry taking his army to beat the French at Harfleur ("Once more unto the breach, dear friends...") and Agincourt, ("We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...") and the pace for the second half of the play picks up.

What appeals to the English audiences is that the English are shown as brave, patriotic and manly as opposed to the French who come through as vain, boastful, argumentative and useless warriors. In addition, there are several scenes of light relief, including a 'French vocabulary-challenged' king trying to woo Princess Katherine as well as a scene or two involving the devious foot-soldiers, Nym, Bardolph and Pistol.

Kenneth Brannagh (actor & director) of the 1989 film "Henry V" at the end of the bloody and realistic section showing the Battle of Agincourt. To me he seems to be relieved that not only is the battle over, but that he has completed the filming of this long dramatic scene.

In addition to the above contrasts, we see other contrasts within the king himself. On the one hand, he is the born leader, the ambitious king standing at the front of his troops leading them into battle, ("Cry 'God for Harry! England and Saint George!'"), but on the other, he is the man of silent pre-battle prayer, ("O God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts...) as well as being the king who disguises himself to see how his men are feeling before setting out to fight the much larger French army. As John Goodwin writes in A Short Guide to Shakespeare's Plays, "Henry V is without doubt a celebration of war. But it is a criticism of war too."

 Next time: The Battle of Agincourt
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