HENRY V., surnamed of Monmouth, from the place of his birth, was the eldest eon of king Henry IV., by his first wife, Mary do Bohan, and was born in the year 1338. Ile was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, under tho superintendence of his half-uncle, the groat cardinal Henry Beaufort. When his father was in exile in 1399, he and a son of the late Duke of Gloucester were carried by king Richard to Ireland, and placed in enstody in the castle of Trim, where they remained till the deposition of Richard. On his father's accession he was created prince of Wales, duke of Guienne, Lancaster, and Corn wall, and earl of Chester, and declared by act of parliament heir apparent to the throne. He was introduced to arms, while yet only in his sixteenth year, at the battle of Shrewsbury, where, though severely wounded in the face, he fought gallantly to the close of the bloody day. Immediately after this he was sent to Wales in com mand of the army employed against Glendwr, and for some years he was occupied in the contest with that able and aetivo leader, in the course of which he evinced extraordinary military genius, defeating his adversary in a succession of engagements,—in one of which, fought at Grosmont in Monmouthshire, in March 1405, he took his son Griffith prisoner,—and driving him from fastness to fastness, till all Wales, except a small part of the north, was reduced to submission. It is said that the renown and popularity the prince acquired by these successes so inflamed the jealousy of his father as to occasion his recal from the army, and that after this, allowing the energies of his ardent mind to run to waste in riotous intemperance and debaucheries, he drew upon himself as much reprobation and odium by his wild and dissipated life, as be had gained glory and favour among his country men by his previous conduct. The story of his being sent to prison by the lord chief justice Sir William Gascoigne, for striking him in open court, and other accounts of his disorderly and reckless courses, are familiar to every reader. These anecdotes however are not recorded by the more ancient chroniclers, and do not appear to have found their way into our written history before the middle of the sixteenth century, though they may have floated among the people as traditions from a considerably earlier date. It is likely that they had
some general foundation, though many or most of the details are probably fictitious.
Henry V. was proclaimed king on the 21st April 1413, the day after his father's death, amidst universal and enthusiastic joy. He began his reign with several acts of a generous stamp—transferring the remains of Richard II. to Westminster Abbey—releasing the young earl of March from the captivity in which he had been held all the preceding reign—and recalling the son of Hotspur from his exile in Scotland to be reinstated in his hereditary lands and honours. He had been seated on tho throne little more than n year when, warmly supported by the church, the parliament, both Lords and Commons, and by the nation generally, he entered upon the enter rrise of the conquest of France, which forms nearly the whole history of his reign. The claim which he advanced to the French crown was the same that had been put forward in the preceding century by Edward III., to whose rights he seems to have regarded himself as the legitimate successor in virtue of his possession of the throne, although he was certainly not the heir of that king by lineal descent, and this particular pretension was one that stood wholly upon descent by blood. After some time spent in negoci Miens with the French court, which led to no resnit, Henry, having appointed his brother, the Duko of Bedford, regent of the kingdom during his absence, set sail from Southampton, August 10, 1415, with a force of 29,000 foot and about 6500 cavalry, in a fleet of from 1200 to 1400 vessels, and reached the mouth of the Seine, about three miles from Harfleur, on the second day following. Three days were spent in disembarking the troops. Henry imme diately proceeded to lay siege to the strong and well-garrisoned fortress of Harflenr. It capitulated after a siege of six weeks, in the course of which time however a dysentery that broke out in their camp made a frightful devastation among the English.