Henry V: The cautious conquerer

by Margaret Wade Labarge

Kirkus Review This firmly researched account of the career of Henry V of England brings to ground not only Shakespeare's (and Olivier's) gallant Prince Hal but also the historical view of Henry as an intemperate conqueror. Henry was ""astute, controlled, and methodical"" working well within the accepted concept of a late medieval monarch. By the time he was sixteen, he had experienced a full range of military activity and had witnessed the ruin and death of his childhood mentor Richard II and the defection of his model, Henry Percy (Hotspur)--the author feels that the latter could account for Henry's hardness and ""emotional isolation."" After successfully dealing with the Lollard conspiracy (more political than religious) and other domestic threats, inherited from his father Henry IV, the king planned intervention in France, which he shrewdly recognized as fatally divided. Using a policy of negotiation and threat, he set up his ""just war""--to the medieval mind a legal rather than moral concept. The author covers those infamous battles--Shrewsbury, Harfleur, Agincourt, etc.--and Henry's power plays manipulating the Burgundians, Armagnacs and France's weak, mad king. So Henry gained two crowns and died at thirty-five, leaving an infant son who was to lose both. A competent, scholarly book about a clever, tough and efficient king seen in the cold light of day--but it will not dull the legendary gleam of that ""little touch of Harry in the night.

Genres: Biography

219 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Margaret Wade Labarge, CM (July 18, 1916 – August 31, 2009) was a Canadian historian and author specializing in the role of women in the Middle Ages. She was adjunct professor of history at Carleton University.

Labarge attended Harvard and Oxford Universities, and taught at the University of Ottawa before her move to Carleton. In 1982, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada. In 1988, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She authored nine books about history.

Reviews

[Nicholas Najjar · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author somehow managed to make the life of Henry V boring which you might think would be an impossible task but apparently it is not. The structure of the book is really broken up and does not read like a narrative with any flow. Rather, it feels like individual essays covering the different periods in Henry V's life and analyzing the various roles he played. The chapter discussing the Welsh (Glyndŵr) rebellion along with the Lancastrian War against the Hotspurs was actually pretty good. The Battle of Shrewsbury is interesting even if the author was monotonous and meticulously prosaic in her description of the event.