Born in 1386 or 1387, Henry was the son of Henry of Monmouth, then earl of Derby, who was the son of Chaucer's great patron, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster and third son of Edward III. Hal's mother, Mary, died in childbirth when he was seven or eight. Since the older Henry traveled frequently for Richard II, Hal and his five younger siblings (three boys and two girls) were left with nurses and servants. Like any boy of his class, Hal would have learned to ride, fight, and hunt; he probably learned the harp and certainly learned Latin. He also learned to appreciate English poetry, as he followed his father and grandfather in patronizing poets.
When Hal was about eleven, his father was made the duke of Hereford; shortly after, Hereford was exiled for ten years for planning to fight the duke of Norfolk (Thomas Mowbray, earl of Nottingham, who was exiled for life). Shortly after Hereford left England, Gaunt died, and all his property was confiscated by the king. At this point, Richard II was rather unpopular and had no clear successor. Without a child of his own, he had nominated as his successor Roger Mortimer, earl of March, but Mortimer had recently been killed, leaving his seven-year-old son Edmund as heir to the throne. When Richard took an army to Ireland to settle a revolt (taking twelve-year-old Hal with him), Hereford (now calling himself duke of Lancaster) brought a small army of his own to England. It is likely that Lancaster at first intended only to reclaim his inheritance, and that he decided to take the throne when he saw how much support he had, and how little the king had. Richard imprisoned Hal in an Irish castle, and re turned to England, only to be taken captive and deposed by Lancaster. A year after his banishment, Lancaster became Henry IV; Hal was now the Prince of Wales.
Although Henry IV had many supporters, including the powerful Percy family of northern England, some objected to the deposing of Richard. The Prince was immediately engaged in helping to govern the country, to suppress rebellions, to raise the money to pay his soldiers, and (unsuccessfully) to negotiate a marriage for himself. In 1400, when he was fourteen, Richard II died mysteriously and quietly, the secrecy leading to persistent rumors that he was still alive. In the same year, Owain Glyn Dwr (descended on both sides from princes) challenged Henry for the title of Prince of Wales; it took a decade to suppress the Welsh revolt, and during this decade young Henry became an experienced military leader.
Two years into the revolt, Henry "Hotspur" Percy (son of Henry Percy, the earl of Northumberland) and his uncle Thomas, earl of Worcester, were named the king's lieutenants in Wales. A year later, when the prince was seventeen, Hotspur and Worcester revolted, claiming that Richard was still alive, and listing grievances against Henry IV. They were probably in alliance with Glyn Dwr. Prince Henry engaged Hotspur and Worcester in battle at Shrewsbury before Northumberland could send reinforcements. Percy was killed in the battle, and Worcester executed soon after. Henry received an arrow in the face, and temporarily withdrew from the English war effort to recover from his wound and go on pilgrimage to Canterbury and Walsingham.
When he returned, it was as his father's lieutenant in Wales, where he won a victory against Glyn Dwr at Grosmont. Then he travelled to the Scottish border to suppress a revolt by Northumberland (who escaped into Scotland) and Richard Scrope, archbishop of York (who was executed). Parliament praised him for his "bone coer et corage" and his obedience to his father. Henry's brother John also distinguished himself in battle.
In his military campaigns, Prince Henry preferred to rely on soldiers who were long-term supporters of the Lancaster family. One of these followers was Sir John Oldcastle, a Lollard who was probably about ten years older than Henry and who has been pr oposed as a source for Shakespeare's Falstaff; another was Sir Roger Acton, also a Lollard. The prince spent his youth largely on the battlefield, among men well below his rank; one uncorroborated story was that he sometimes attacked other lords' followers, and once even his own. By age twenty, the prince was also an integral member of his father's council. In this area, he supported and was supported by his three uncles, sons of Gaunt's third wife, Katherine (Roet) Swynford: John, Henry, and Thomas Beaufort. The Beauforts' cousin Thomas Chaucer, son of Geoffrey Chaucer and Katherine's sister Philippa Roet, was prominent in Parliament.
In 1411, the English entered into serious negotiations with the duke of Burgundy: Burgundy offered to marry his daughter Anne to the Prince in return for political support in a divided France; Henry IV wanted Burgundy's aid in reclaiming Aquitaine, ceded to England in a 1360 treaty. As Hal began his campaign for Aquitaine, the ailing king apparently believed that the Prince was anxious to gain the throne; a story recounted years later alleged that the Prince, wrongly believing his father was dead, picked up the crown from his bed. However, when Henry IV died in 1413, he had been reconciled with his heir.
Henry V was a tall man with a long neck, face, and nose. He was clean-shaven, with brown hair and eyes. While he did not appear very muscular, he was strong and a fast runner. His demeanor was stately and reserved; one French observer thought he looked more like a priest than a soldier. Another probably apocryphal story is that the disdainful French sent tennis balls to Henry, implying that he loved pleasure and was inexperienced in war. Twenty-six at his coronation, he was considered "young in years but old in experience." Stories of his supposed conversion from irresponsible youth into serious ruler date from his conduct at this time, which all agreed was characterized by dignity and humility. One story, recorded fifty years later, was that Henry had visited and confessed his sins to a religious recluse at Westminster. Another, probably recorded twenty years later, was that he had dismissed his low friends and promoted those few who had earlier criticized his behavior.
In actuality, Sir John Oldcastle was excommunicated and sentenced to death as a Lollard shortly after Henry ascended to the throne. Henry granted him forty days to recant; during this time, Oldcastle escaped from the Tower of London and with a small b and including Sir Roger Acton, attempted to kill or capture the king and his brothers. The conspiracy was revealed, Acton was captured and executed, but Oldcastle escaped, probably into Wales. Two years later, in 1415, he may have been involved in yet another conspiracy, revealed by Edmund Mortimer, the man who had been Richard II's heir. Executed were Mortimer's brother-in-law Richard, earl of Cambridge, and Henry, Lord Scrope, nephew of the Scrope executed in 1405. Cambridge and Scrope may have expected Mortimer's support as well as that of Hotspur's son Henry Percy, who was living in exile in Scotland. Oldcastle was caught and executed in 1417, declaring that he would rise on the third day.
Both the Welsh and the northern rebellions petered out gradually, and as king, Henry showed himself merciful toward his opponents. In 1409, Glyn Dwr's wife, children, and grandchildren were taken captive, and after this he conducted only one more raid. In 1415, Henry attempted to offer him a pardon, but no one could find him; he probably died that year, but the details are unknown. In 1416, Henry restored the earldom of Northumberland to young Percy.
Henry won the war against France with a famous victory at Agincourt, and married Katherine, daughter of Charles IV, king of France. Shortly afterward, thirty-six-year-old Henry died of intestinal problems, possibly dysentery, which had plagued his army in France. Henry's eight-month-old son became king of England.
Allmand, Christopher. Henry V. Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of California, 1992.