King Henry V saw his reign and military efforts in France as a holy crusade to reclaim the French throne for his ancestors. Almost everything he did was governed by a well-thought-out philosophy that united political power, religious devotion and military success. This book includes the most up-to-date research on Henry V's reign, with a focus on historiography. His role in English history, as well as his actions as a ruler and military commander, are discussed throughout the text. This approach demonstrates how historians interact with a complicated academic literature that oscillates between hero worship and vilification of Henry. In the end, Henry V is measured by the standards of his day and was unquestionably a successful warrior king.

“This book is original in its broad overview of the voluminous and contentious scholarship on Henry V and its reasonable perspectives, steering between the romantic hero-worship now more than a century beyond its expiration date and more recent a historical denunciations made without sufficient regard for the fifteenth-century context.”—Richard Kaeuper, University of Rochester

Timothy M. Thibodeau is professor emeritus of history at Nazareth College of Rochester in New York. He has published extensively on the history of Christianity in the Middle Ages. He also has been a contributor to national and international media outlets, including the History Channel.