Henry V

Anne Curry's study follows Henry V from his 1415 invasion of France, an enterprise that could easily have ended in disaster. Before he became king, Henry had been a disappointment, sidelined from politics amid whispers that he meant to overthrow his father. Once crowned, he remade himself: he endowed monasteries, hunted down heretics, and applied the law with unusual severity. Still, his grip on the kingdom remained shaky and his name carried little weight. Just as he was preparing to sail, he discovered that some of his most trusted companions were plotting to strip him of power.

No one expected Henry to triumph at Agincourt, yet he did, and within five years he had been named heir to the French crown. Curry argues that Henry's feverish attempts to erase his earlier failures, along with the crises that nearly undid his work, shaped the way he ruled. She also examines how that stunning victory altered his reputation among his own contemporaries and in the centuries that followed.