Henry V

Henry V., eldest son of Henry IV., was born at Monmouth in 1388. He displayed great military ability during the reign of his father, but the jealousy of the latter appears to have excluded him from political influence. He came to the throne in 1413, and just as he was setting out to prosecute his claim to the crown of France had to punish a conspiracy in which Richard, Earl of Cambridge, his kinsman, was involved. He sailed from Southampton in August, 1415, and, after besieging Harfleur- and losing two-thirds of his army chiefly by famine and disease, set out on that perilous march to Cedais which ended in the victory of Agincourt (q.v.) (October 25, 1415). A naval victory followed in the next year, and in 1419 an alliance with Burgundy was concluded. The result was the Treaty of Troyes, by which Henry, as husband of the Princess Catherine, was acknowledged heir to the crown of France and Regent during the life of her father, Charles VI. The Dauphin and the Armagnacs refused to submit, but were defeated.

Henry died in August, 1422, while advancing against them. Henry V. was the most popular of English kings. He went still farther than his father in his repression of Lollardism, and this policy was generally approved. The stories of his early life, though not historical, are by no means wholly to be rejected. [Agincourt, Lollards.]