A great history of the time with Henry 5th. A great insite to the time. ( )

Henry V, after winning the Battle of Agincourt, demanded that all poets give the glory to God, not to the king. Naturally, the result is that he became the most renowned, indeed worshipped, of all English kings -- the man who would have conquered France had he lived.

Most moderns take a more jaundiced view. Yes, Henry V won all his battles in France -- all one of them. Yes, he had taken over the government of France. Yes, he appeared to be on his way to absolute victory. But he still had a lot to do, and while he might have had the military power to conquer France, did he really know how to run it? And would it have been a good thing if he had?

Jarman doesn't worry about any of that. This volume probably shows more hero-worship of Henry V than any other study I've read of the Hundred Years' War. It pays little attention to the iron fist with which he ruled, to his lack of mercy, to his persecution of even the tiniest hints of disagreement with the Catholic Church. Nor does it point out his hypocrisy in claiming to be the legitimate King of France when this claim was based on the female line -- although there was a senior claimant to the throne of England in female line!

Much of what is found in this book is interpretation rather than fact, and the interpretation is consistently pro-Henry. Is it a bad book? No; it is interesting in its way, and it is only mildly off-base (certainly it's more accurate than, say, Shakespeare). But if you want a truly reliable history of Agincourt, there are plenty of them out there -- and, believe me, they'll give Henry V more than sufficient praise without going to this book's extremes. ( )

Not for the serious student of the Agincourt campaign but probably a good one for the beginner. Contains more than an Osprey book on the subject but has a few "questionable" facts included. ( )