A Few Thoughts on Henry V

Like many, I returned to our neighborhood art cinema theatre to see "Henry V", the Branagh version, about six times. (Speech from the film) It was released about twenty years ago, displaying the timeless dance of war - "the suffering and the sorrow and the glory and the pain" as the song goes. The book I am reading now, "Henry V" by Harold Hutchison, a work from the sixties, tells of his ruthlessness, his pig-headed one-mindedness that was presaged by his youthful fighting of Glendower in Wales, his relative neglect of domestic issues and the bankrupting of English resources - (the crown and the crown jewels were in pawn, for example), to raise the cash necessary for a small island nation to attempt annexation of the crown of France.

Agincourt, though a overwhelming tactical victory, did not give Henry France. It took a extremely well planned later invasion, and a totally wrecked situation among the French duchies to do that. In a generation, and it would have taken less time than that save some inspired soldiering by the English, it was nearly gone, as Henry VI "lost all". Back to the book now, it is very absorbing.