Henry V
King Henry V was King of England from 1413 to 1422. He was born on 16 September 1387 as the eldest son of King Henry IV and his wife Mary Bohun and died on 31 August 1422. At the age of 25, he succeeded his father as King of England according to the law of primogeniture.
Henry V's life was dominated by many military campaigns, wars and battles, which made him a very experienced soldier and commander. At the age of 14 he already gained experience as a soldier when fighting the Welsh forces of Owen ap Glendower, and two years later he commanded his father's forces at the battle of Shrewsbury in which he was wounded.
After the death of Henry IV, the new king Henry V had to face competitors who had claims to throne. The Earl of March, a great-great-grandson of Edward III, and Richard II plotted unsuccessfully against Henry V. One of the nobles involved in trying to murder Henry was Sir John Oldcastle, one of Henry's lieutenants in the Battle of Shrewsbury. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, then managed to escape, but was caught and executed later. The 1415 plot to murder the king was planned by Lord Scorpe, a former Treasurer, and the Earl of Cambridge, a grandson of Edward III. This plot also failed, however, and both were executed in Southampton in the same year.
Henry V spent most of his reign with war against France. The reason for this conflict was that King Charles VI of France refused to accept the marriage Henry intended with his daughter, Catherine of Valois, and did not agree to give back the old Plantagenet lands of Normandy and Anjou, which used to belong to English territory. With this war, Henry wanted to regain the lost territories and distract from his competitors to the throne. In the famous Battle of Agincourt in October 1415, Henry's forces defeated the French despite their superiority. They conquered Harfleur on the Seine, which served as port and bastion, and then marched on to Calais. Henry proved to be a strong and courageous commander and also fought himself, with the consequence that his crown was split and his helmet dented.
As a result of this successful war, Henry V returned to England in November 1415 as a hero. Two years later he also conquered Caen, Normandy and, after six months of battle, Rouen. France surrendered after these English victories. As a consequence, the Treaty of Troyes was signed, which determined that Henry was to marry Charles VI's daughter Catherine and that he would succeed his father-in-law as King of France after his death.
After his return to England, however, Henry had to face the forces of Charles VII, the disinherited son of Charles VI, who refused to give up his claim to the French throne. In this conflict, Henry's forces suffered a defeat at Baugé in March 1421, in which Henry's brother, the Duke of Clarence, was killed. The battle for Orléans was also unsuccessful for Henry, but he managed to achieve a last military victory at Meaux in May 1422. It was obvious that the king was very sick by then, probably suffering from dysentery, and he died in August 1422. Unfortunately for Henry, Charles VI lived another two months until October 1422, so that he did not succeed him as King of France. Henry's one-year-old son Henry VI, whom his father had never seen, now succeeded Henry V as King of England.
Sources:
Cannon, John Ashton. "The Kings & Queens of Britain". Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.