Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph Of England's Greatest Warrior King by Dan Jones

 

Author Dan Jones could turn me into an Anglophile. Henry V is great reading entertainment, and could be a useful learning tool in writing, history, and literature classes. 

Jones wrote almost all of it in present tense, out of the norm for history books, but his strict adherence to the writing basics would not let me go. It worked. 

I lived in London for a year, working for my master’s degree. I took some historical walking tours, read what I had time for, but I knew I’d never learn it all. However, Henry V helps me fill those gaps very quickly. I’d like to read more of Jones’s work. He is an excellent teacher.

Henry V is best remembered as the warrior king that planned, and led, England’s overwhelming victory over the French at Agincourt in 1415. Some regard him as very possibly England’s best king, ever. Tragically, he died only a few years later of a mix of illnesses we would probably end much more easily cured now than in medieval times. 

Henry V also reminds the reader of the identity crisis, or transition, the English were in having largely been Norman French who conquered what we now call England. Many of those English still considered themselves French. Trying to unite England and France was one of Henry V’s goals. 

He died in France in 1422 at 35, but his body was transported to London for burial. 

I had the unexpected pleasant surprise of reading into a brief mention of an ancestor: Lord Edward Charlton of Powys, in Wales, led a group of locals near Welshpool in the capture of Sir John Oldcastle. Oldcastle, also an eventual favorite character of William Shakespeare, had been a fugitive for several years. The title Lord obviously means he had money. I have not been so lucky.

I received Henry V as a review copy, and sincerely appreciate it.