If any king needed a biography, it’s a Henry. Much of that mythos is bound up in Shakespeare, St Crispin’s Day and the idea of England as a lion-hearted country.  Jones has form in this area and he takes a masterly, well-researched look at the king.  

The inciting incident is The Battle Of Shrewsbury, in 1403. A teenaged Henry is putting down the Welsh rebels, when he takes an arrow in the face.  The details of its removal are gory, but nothing in comparison to the grit and gore of medieval England, with burning of heretics, a rebel hanged twelve times in twelve different cities and pregnant woman left for wolves.  Faint hearted readers, tread carefully. 

The attempt is to reposition Henry as a man, not a warrior.  And it succeeds in that, depicting him as someone who loved books and music, not the favourite of his Father, but becomes king of a turbulent England and prosecutes a brutal war with France.

Agincourt is portrayed as the middle; not the end of a campaign.  Henry marries Catherine (after being offered her at 7, 9 and 12).  He dies at the age of 35, either of smallpox or dysentery.  Jones has succeeded in an essay of a man, not a king.  It’s published by Head Of Zeus on September 12th and I thank them for a preview copy.  #henryv.