Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King

by Dan Jones Narrated by Dan Jones

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The celebrated author and podcaster takes us back in time to an age of grandeur, guts and glory. This is an astonishing account of a complicated king.

The New York Times bestselling author returns with a biography examining the dramatic life and unparalleled leadership of England's greatest medieval king

Henry V reigned over England for only nine years and four months and died at the age of just thirty-five, but he looms over the landscape of the late Middle Ages and beyond. The victor of Agincourt, he is remembered as the acme of kingship, a model to be closely imitated by his successors. William Shakespeare deployed Henry V as a study in youthful folly redirected to sober statesmanship. For one modern medievalist, Henry was, quite simply, “the greatest man who ever ruled England.”

For Dan Jones, Henry V is one of the most intriguing characters in all medieval history, but one of the hardest to pin down. He was a hardened, sometimes brutal warrior, yet he was also creative and artistic, with a bookish temperament. He was a leader who made many mistakes, who misjudged his friends and family, but he always seemed to triumph when it mattered. As king, he saved a shattered country from economic ruin, put down rebellions, and secured England's borders; in foreign diplomacy, he made England a serious player once more. Yet through his conquests in northern France, he sowed the seeds for three generations of calamity at home, in the form of the Wars of the Roses.

Henry V is a historical titan whose legacy has become a complicated one. To understand the man behind the legend, Jones first examines Henry's years of apprenticeship, when he saw the downfall of one king and the turbulent reign of another. Upon his accession in 1413, he had already been politically and militarily active for years, and his extraordinary achievements as king would come shortly after, earning him an unparalleled historical reputation. Writing with his characteristic wit and style, Jones delivers a thrilling and unmissable life of England's greatest king.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Rousing… Jones’s colorful narrative reads like House of the Dragon minus the dragons; it’s full of pageantry and tumult and betrayal… This stimulating portrait of an iconic ruler roots his glorious deeds in sordid reality.”–Publishers Weekly

“Jones specializes in traditional great-men-and-politics histories of the Middle Ages, and this is a good one.”–Kirkus Reviews

"The king of exciting narrative history triumphs again. A masterclass in making the medieval addictively readable."—Lucy Worsley, author of Agatha Christie

"Wildly gripping, swashbuckling, battle-scarred and blood-spattered, in equal parts ferocious, dynamic and political, intimate and humane, the best biography yet of England’s greatest king."—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs and Jerusalem

"With his customary combination of profound scholarship and fine narrative verve, Dan Jones brings Henry V to life better than anyone since Shakespeare himself."—Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill and Napoleon

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191768649
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/01/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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