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- March 21 – June 9 2026, pp. 187 — *Henry V — Dan Jones* → open PDF p203 (file not included in this release)
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“Ambitious… With meticulous research and in lively style, Jones presents us with the man beyond the Shakespeare character.”—The New York Times “The best biography yet of England’s greatest king.”—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs and Jerusalem The New York Times bestselling author returns with a biography examining the dramatic life and unparalleled leadership of England’s greatest medieval king Henry V reigned over England for only nine years and four months and died at the age of just thirty-five, but he looms over the landscape of the late Middle Ages and beyond. The victor of Agincourt, he is remembered as the acme of kingship, a model to be closely imitated by his successors. William Shakespeare deployed Henry V as a study in youthful folly redirected to sober statesmanship. For one modern medievalist, Henry was, quite simply, “the greatest man who ever ruled England.” For Dan Jones, Henry V is one of the most intriguing characters in all medieval history, but one of the hardest to pin down. He was a hardened, sometimes brutal warrior, yet he was also creative and artistic, with a bookish temperament. He was a leader who made many mistakes, who misjudged his friends and family, but he always seemed to triumph when it mattered. As king, he saved a shattered country from economic ruin, put down rebellions, and secured England’s borders; in foreign diplomacy, he made England a serious player once more. Yet through his conquests in northern France, he sowed the seeds for three generations of calamity at home, in the form of the Wars of the Roses. Henry V is a historical titan whose legacy has become a complicated one. To understand the man behind the legend, Jones first examines Henry’s years of apprenticeship, when he saw the downfall of one king and the turbulent reign of another. Upon his accession in 1413, he had already been politically and militarily active for years, and his extraordinary achievements as king would come shortly after, earning him an unparalleled historical reputation. Writing with his characteristic wit and style, Jones delivers a thrilling and unmissable life of England’s greatest king.
Timeline
Below is a chronological timeline of the main events from Dan Jones’s Henry V: The Astonishing Rise of England’s Greatest Warrior King. Jones’s central framing is that Henry V cannot be understood only through Agincourt or his short reign; the book deliberately gives major weight to Henry’s apprenticeship as prince from 1386–1413 before turning to his kingship from 1413–1422.
Timeline of Main Events
| Year / Date | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 16 September 1386 | Henry is born at Monmouth Castle to Henry Bolingbroke and Mary de Bohun. | Henry is born into the powerful Lancastrian branch of the Plantagenet dynasty. At the time, he is not expected to become king, but he is born into one of England’s ruling aristocratic families. |
| 1394 | Death of Henry’s mother, Mary de Bohun. | Henry loses his mother while still a child. Jones emphasizes Mary’s influence on Henry’s love of music, books, piety, and noble culture. |
| 1396 | Henry travels to Calais for Richard II’s marriage to Isabelle of Valois. | This exposes the young Henry to high diplomacy, Anglo-French politics, and the unresolved legacy of the Hundred Years War. |
| 1397–1398 | Richard II moves against political enemies; Henry Bolingbroke is drawn into crisis. | Henry’s family becomes increasingly entangled in Richard II’s unstable rule. This period teaches Henry that royal politics can quickly become lethal. |
| 1398 | Bolingbroke is exiled by Richard II. | Henry’s father is removed from England, creating a dynastic crisis for the Lancastrians. |
| 1399 | John of Gaunt dies; Richard II seizes the Lancastrian inheritance. | Richard’s action pushes Bolingbroke to return to England. |
| 1399 | Bolingbroke returns, overthrows Richard II, and becomes Henry IV. | Henry suddenly becomes heir to the throne. Jones treats this as the decisive transformation of Henry’s life: he moves from noble child to Prince of Wales. |
| 1399–1400 | Henry becomes Prince of Wales. | Henry begins his political and military apprenticeship. Jones stresses that from about age thirteen Henry becomes active in public life, not merely symbolic. |
| 1400–1408 | Owain Glyndŵr’s Welsh revolt dominates Henry’s youth. | Henry spends much of his adolescence in the brutal politics and warfare of the Welsh Marches. This is where he learns command, logistics, siege warfare, discipline, and frontier government. |
| 21 July 1403 | Battle of Shrewsbury. | Henry fights bravely against the Percy rebellion and is struck in the face by an arrow. Jones opens the book with John Bradmore’s dangerous surgery to remove the arrowhead, making this one of the formative events of Henry’s life. |
| 1403–1404 | John Bradmore performs surgery on Henry. | Henry survives an injury that could have killed him. Jones uses this episode to show both Henry’s physical endurance and the contingency of history: without Bradmore’s success, there would be no Henry V. |
| 1405–1408 | Henry takes on greater military responsibility in Wales. | The Welsh war hardens him as a commander. He learns that kingship requires force, administration, finance, and control of local loyalties. |
| 1406–1411 | Henry becomes increasingly important in royal council politics. | As Henry IV’s health worsens, Prince Henry gains influence in government. This produces tension between father and son and among factions at court. |
| 1411–1412 | Prince Henry falls from political influence. | Henry’s opponents at court push him aside. Jones presents this as part of Henry’s political education: he learns the dangers of faction, reputation, and overreach. |
| 20 March 1413 | Henry IV dies. | The Lancastrian founder dies after a troubled reign marked by rebellion, illness, and legitimacy problems. |
| 1413 | Henry becomes King Henry V. | Jones marks this as a dramatic shift. Henry presents himself as morally reformed, politically serious, and committed to restoring royal authority. The book’s second half begins with Henry as king. |
| 1413–1414 | Henry consolidates power at home. | He works to stabilize the Lancastrian regime, reconcile former enemies where useful, and present himself as a just Christian king. |
| 1414 | Suppression of the Oldcastle / Lollard rising. | Henry faces religious-political dissent early in his reign. His response demonstrates his commitment to orthodoxy, order, and royal authority. |
| 1414–1415 | Henry prepares for war with France. | He revives English claims in France and frames the campaign as both legally justified and divinely sanctioned. Jones treats this as a calculated effort to unify England through foreign war. |
| July–August 1415 | The Southampton Plot is uncovered. | A conspiracy against Henry is discovered just before the French campaign. Henry acts decisively, executing the conspirators and removing a major internal threat. |
| August 1415 | Henry sails to France. | The Agincourt campaign begins. The book includes maps of the campaign and of France in the early fifteenth century, emphasizing the geographical and strategic setting. |
| August–September 1415 | Siege and capture of Harfleur. | Henry wins a major port but at heavy cost. Disease weakens the army, forcing Henry into a risky march across northern France. |
| October 1415 | Henry marches toward Calais. | The English army is exhausted, sick, and outnumbered. This sets up the crisis that becomes Agincourt. |
| 25 October 1415 | Battle of Agincourt. | Henry wins his most famous victory. Jones identifies Henry as the general who wins Agincourt and later becomes mythologized by chroniclers, Shakespeare, and English memory. |
| Late 1415 | Henry returns to England in triumph. | Agincourt transforms Henry’s reputation. He is now seen as a divinely favored warrior king. |
| 1416 | Diplomatic and military follow-up after Agincourt. | Henry uses the victory to enhance his standing in Europe and prepare for renewed campaigns. |
| 1417 | Henry launches a second major invasion of France. | Unlike the 1415 campaign, this is not merely a raid or demonstration of force. It becomes a systematic war of conquest. |
| 1417–1419 | Conquest of Normandy. | Henry captures towns and fortresses across Normandy, including Caen and Rouen. This is one of the central achievements of his reign: he becomes not just a raider but a territorial conqueror. |
| 1418–1419 | Siege of Rouen. | Rouen’s fall gives Henry control of Normandy’s chief city. The siege is also morally grim, marked by hunger, civilian suffering, and the brutal logic of medieval war. |
| 1419 | French civil conflict deepens between Burgundians and Armagnacs. | Henry benefits from France’s internal disorder. The murder of John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, helps push Burgundy toward alliance with England. |
| 1420 | Treaty of Troyes. | This is Henry’s greatest diplomatic triumph. The treaty disinherits the dauphin Charles and recognizes Henry as heir and regent of France. Jones notes that it was the most significant peace deal of the Hundred Years War since Brétigny in 1360. |
| 1420 | Henry marries Catherine of Valois. | The marriage seals the Treaty of Troyes. Henry is now tied directly to the French royal family and positioned to unite the crowns of England and France. |
| 1421 | Birth of Henry’s son, the future Henry VI. | The Lancastrian dynasty appears secure. Henry now has an heir who could inherit both England and France. |
| 1421 | Death of Henry’s brother Thomas, duke of Clarence, at Baugé. | English forces suffer a major setback. The war is not over, and Henry must return to France to stabilize his position. |
| 1421–1422 | Henry campaigns again in France. | His final campaign is marked by exhaustion, siege warfare, and the strain of maintaining conquest. |
| 31 August 1422 | Henry V dies at age thirty-five. | Henry dies before he can become king of France in fact. Jones emphasizes the irony: Henry achieves extraordinary victories, but his early death leaves the settlement fragile. |
| After 1422 | Henry’s legacy becomes mythic but unstable. | His infant son inherits a vast but fragile dual monarchy. Henry’s victories eventually feed into later dynastic instability, including the Wars of the Roses. Jones presents Henry as both an astonishingly successful medieval king and a ruler whose triumphs created long-term consequences. |
Condensed Arc of the Book
Dan Jones’s narrative moves through three broad phases:
- Formation: 1386–1399 — Henry is born into the Lancastrian world, loses his mother, witnesses high diplomacy, and is pulled into the collapse of Richard II’s kingship.
- Apprenticeship: 1399–1413 — As Prince of Wales, Henry learns war, government, council politics, rebellion management, and dynastic survival under the troubled reign of Henry IV.
- Kingship and Conquest: 1413–1422 — As king, Henry stabilizes England, revives war with France, wins Agincourt, conquers Normandy, secures the Treaty of Troyes, marries Catherine of Valois, and dies before his Anglo-French settlement can mature.
Part I — Prince, 1386–1413
1. The Boy in the Black Straw Hat
Henry is born at Monmouth Castle into the powerful Lancastrian dynasty, but his early life is shaped as much by vulnerability as privilege: plague, child mortality, aristocratic politics, and the death of his mother, Mary de Bohun. Jones emphasizes Henry’s early education in religion, music, books, languages, riding, hunting, and martial culture, showing the formation of a literate, pious, and physically trained noble child.
2. The Price of Peace
At age ten, Henry travels to Calais for Richard II’s marriage to the young French princess Isabelle, an event meant to secure a long truce in the Hundred Years War. The chapter introduces Henry to diplomacy, dynastic marriage, Anglo-French politics, and the contrast between Richard II’s peace-making kingship and the more warlike model Henry will later embody.
3. “Behold, I Will Open Your Graves”
Henry witnesses the dangerous escalation of Richard II’s tyranny during the Revenge Parliament of 1397. Richard destroys his political enemies, humiliates the nobility, and reveals the instability of a king who confuses majesty with unchecked personal will.
4. Rough Justice
Richard II’s regime becomes increasingly arbitrary, while Henry’s father, Bolingbroke, is drawn into conflict with Thomas Mowbray, leading to their planned duel and subsequent exile. Henry remains in England, now caught between family inheritance, royal suspicion, and the growing collapse of Richard’s legitimacy.
5. “Fair Cousin”
John of Gaunt dies, Richard seizes the Lancastrian inheritance, and Bolingbroke returns from exile to reclaim his rights. What begins as a restoration of property becomes a revolution: Richard is captured, deposed, and Bolingbroke becomes Henry IV, making young Henry heir to the throne.
6. “A Man Is Ruling”
Henry returns to a kingdom undergoing regime change and learns the brutal realities of political power after Richard II’s fall. Henry IV’s coronation is presented as both triumphant and precarious, because the new Lancastrian monarchy immediately faces legitimacy problems and potential rebellion.
7. Prince of Wales
Henry becomes Prince of Wales and begins his apprenticeship in government and war. The Welsh revolt under Owain Glyndwr becomes his first major responsibility, while tensions with the Percy family, especially Hotspur, foreshadow a wider crisis for the Lancastrian regime.
8. “Great Pain and Diligence”
Henry is forced to confront the practical difficulties of ruling Wales: shortages of money, military logistics, castle defense, rebellion, and unreliable allies. The chapter culminates in the crisis with Hotspur, whose rebellion brings Henry into the decisive battle of Shrewsbury.
9. “His Miraculous Power”
After being struck in the face by an arrow at Shrewsbury, Henry survives a dangerous operation by surgeon John Bradmore. Jones treats this as a formative moment: Henry’s survival reinforces his sense of divine purpose, while his Welsh campaigns teach him discipline, logistics, command, and religiously framed warfare.
10. Crimes and Punishments
Henry continues the struggle against rebellion while Henry IV faces conspiracies, northern unrest, and the political aftermath of the Archbishop Scrope affair. The chapter shows Henry growing into a hardened military and political actor within a kingdom still unsettled by usurpation.
11. “Virtuous Prince”
Henry IV’s illness creates a problem of divided authority: the king is alive but weakened, while Prince Henry increasingly appears capable of governing. Henry gains prestige as a competent, serious, and “virtuous” prince, but his growing authority also produces tension with his father and other Lancastrian power-brokers.
12. Coups and Councils
French politics descends into chaos after the murder of Louis of Orléans by agents of John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy. Meanwhile, Henry becomes central to English government through the royal council, gaining administrative experience while England watches for opportunities across the Channel.
13. Holy Fire
Henry’s government confronts heresy, especially Lollardy, symbolized by the burning of John Badby. Jones portrays Henry as increasingly orthodox, severe, and convinced that religious unity is inseparable from political order.
14. Ballads and Brawls
The chapter complicates the Shakespearean image of wild Prince Hal: Henry enjoys books, music, chivalric culture, and noble sociability, but he is not simply a drunken wastrel. Still, court rivalries, public rumors, and factional tensions damage his standing as his father’s reign deteriorates.
15. “The Storm of Descending”
Henry’s political fortunes collapse after English intervention in France becomes entangled in Armagnac-Burgundian civil war. His father sidelines him, and command of the major French expedition goes not to Henry but to his younger brother Thomas, marking Henry’s lowest point before kingship.
16. “Sons of Iniquity”
As Henry IV nears death, tensions within the Lancastrian family sharpen, but Henry ultimately survives political exclusion and returns to position. When his father dies in 1413, Henry inherits the throne unusually well-prepared but also burdened by debt, religious conflict, dynastic insecurity, and unresolved foreign policy.
Part II — King, 1413–1422
17. “A Different Man”
Henry V’s coronation marks a deliberate change in public image: he presents himself as austere, pious, disciplined, and morally reformed. Jones argues that Henry puts on a permanent royal mask, combining religious seriousness with martial ambition.
18. False Friends
Henry begins his reign with acts of reconciliation, including attention to Richard II’s memory, but he is quickly tested by the Lollard rising led by his former associate John Oldcastle. The rebellion confirms Henry’s severity toward heresy and treason and helps consolidate his authority.
19. The Road to War
After suppressing the Lollards, Henry turns decisively toward France. He builds legal, diplomatic, financial, and moral arguments for war, presenting his campaign not as conquest for its own sake but as a just claim pursued for peace.
20. “Fickle and Capricious Fortune”
Henry prepares meticulously for invasion, raising money, ships, supplies, and troops. The Southampton Plot, involving nobles close to the royal circle, threatens the campaign but is crushed, allowing Henry to sail for France with his authority strengthened.
21. Fires of Hell
Henry lands in Normandy and besieges Harfleur, presenting himself as a disciplined Christian warrior while using terrifying pressure against the city. The victory is costly: disease, delay, and casualties weaken the army, forcing Henry to choose between returning home or marching toward Calais.
22. “His Little Blessed Many”
Henry’s exhausted army marches from Harfleur toward Calais while French forces try to trap it. The chapter culminates at Agincourt, where Henry’s smaller, sick, and hungry army defeats a much larger French force, turning military desperation into legendary triumph.
23. Triumphs
Henry returns to England in glory, staging victory ceremonies that turn Agincourt into a providential national event. The chapter also shows how Henry uses triumph politically: to secure money, prestige, and renewed commitment to the French war.
24. “Feared by Everybody”
Henry resumes war with greater ambition, supported by diplomacy, naval action, and growing European prestige. By 1417 he is no longer merely raiding France; he is preparing for conquest, especially of Normandy.
25. “Who Is the Great Lord?”
Henry’s conquest of Normandy reaches its climax in the siege of Rouen. The city falls after immense suffering, and Henry emerges not simply as a battlefield victor but as a ruler capable of occupation, administration, and sustained territorial conquest.
26. “This Unlusty Soldier’s Life”
Henry negotiates with the French while continuing military pressure, but French politics are transformed by the assassination of John the Fearless at Montereau. The murder drives Burgundy toward alliance with Henry and opens the path to English domination of northern France.
27. “Things Are Different Now”
The Treaty of Troyes makes Henry heir and regent of France, disinheriting the dauphin and binding Henry to Charles VI through marriage to Catherine of Valois. Henry achieves the Plantagenet dream of a legally sanctioned claim to France, but the treaty also commits him to continued war against the dauphinists.
28. “A Long Battle”
Henry campaigns as regent of France, consolidating control with Charles VI, Catherine, Burgundy, and English forces in his orbit. He enters Paris and governs from a position of astonishing authority, but resistance remains strong and his empire requires constant military maintenance.
29. “À Clarence!”
Henry returns to England with Catherine and receives a triumphant welcome, but disaster strikes in France when his brother Thomas, duke of Clarence, is killed at Baugé. The defeat exposes the fragility of English control and forces Henry to return to France, where he will never again set foot in England.
30. To Jerusalem
Henry returns to France, restores military momentum, and continues pursuing his larger vision of Christian kingship, conquest, and perhaps eventual crusade. But illness overtakes him in 1422; he dies young, leaving behind a spectacular but unstable Anglo-French settlement and an infant heir unable to preserve it.