The Warrior King and the Invasion of France

Desmond Seward

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781605989624
• eBook ISBN:
  9781605987255
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

In the course of the Hundred Years War, Henry V was the English figure most responsible for the mutual antipathy that existed between France and England. His art of attacking an opponent by making total war on civilians, as well as soldiers, created tremendous distrust and enmity between the two countries, which survives even to this day. He was a man of many contradictions, a perverse mix of rigorous orthodoxy—exemplified by his fanatical and intolerant religion—and of neurotic insecurity, stemming in part from the dubious nature of his claim to the English throne.Henry V owed his popularity at home to victories against the French that gratified an emerging English nationalism. A tremendously ardent military strategist who experimented with ballistics and built the first English navy, at the time of his early death at the age of thirty-six he controlled one-third of modern-day France. Utilizing new discoveries from local French historical societies, Desmond Seward draws a portrait of Henry V that shows him as a brilliant military strategist, ambitious conqueror, and, at least briefly, triumphant warrior king.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Preface to the New Edition
• Contents
• Maps
• Genealogical tables
• Chronology
• Introduction
• Chapter I The Usurpers
• Chapter II Prince Henry and Prince Owain
• Chapter III ‘He Would Usurp the Crown’
• Chapter IV ‘No Lordship’
• Chapter V The English Armada
• Chapter VI ‘Our Town of Harfleur’
• Chapter VII ‘That Dreadful Day of Agincourt’
• Chapter VIII ‘To Teach the Frenchmen Courtesy’
• Chapter IX The Fall of Caen
• Chapter X The Fall of Rouen
• Chapter XI The Norman Conquest — In Reverse
• Chapter XII The Murder of John the Fearless
• Chapter XIII ‘Heir and Regent of France’
• Chapter XIV The Fall of Paris 1420
• Chapter XV Lancastrian Normandy
• Chapter XVI ‘Rending of Every Man Throughout the Realm’
• Chapter XVII Meaux Falls
• Chapter XVIII Lancastrian France
• Chapter XIX Death
• Chapter XX Epilogue
• Glossary
• Notes
• Select Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Index
• Copyright