Plot Summary for King Henry V
Background: The young king of England, Henry V, faces some serious challenges. His father had overthrown the rightful ruler, Richard II, and made himself King Henry IV around 1400. Throughout his reign ambitious men had used this lack of legitimacy on the throne to foment rebellion. Now, in 1415, his son faces the same issues and so is planning a war with France to redirect his subjects’ attention away from the question of who should be king. The other challenge Henry V faces is his own reputation. As a young prince he was known as a playboy. He had hung out with a group of petty criminals, headed by an infamous reprobate, Sir John Falstaff. Among Falstaff’s followers were Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, Mistress Quickly and Falstaff’s page, called simply Boy. When, upon his father’s death, the wild Prince Hal became King Henry V, most Englishmen feared the worst. In reality, Hal had been preparing himself to assume the leadership of the country by deliberately lowering expectations about his ability.
Act I: Each of the five acts of the play begins with a prologue, delivered by a Chorus. In each the speaker asks the audience to forgive the limitations of the physical stage on which they are attempting to recreate momentous historical events. He asks the audience to use their imaginations in piecing out the action of the play.
In the opening scene two church leaders, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely, are discussing a problem. The Church faces a proposed reform in Parliament that would cost them a lot of revenue. They hope to appeal to the king to sidetrack the reform by offering him a large contribution toward his planned invasion of France. They will also give him a legal justification to claim the French throne. The two clerics agree that Henry V has defied expectation by his seriousness of purpose and his intelligence in governing.
The king enters with his court. He asks Canterbury to go over the details of his claim to the throne of France under the French Salic Law which governs succession. The churchman shows how Henry is the legitimate heir and urges him to assert his claim by invading; he offers money to help finance the campaign. Henry’s advisors concur. Henry raises the problem of taking an army to France, leaving England vulnerable to attack from Scotland. His court assures him that forces at home can protect the country while he is abroad.
Henry calls in the French ambassador to receive a message from the Dauphin, the Crown Prince of France. The message is to forget about any claim on the French throne and to amuse himself with a cask of tennis balls, a joke about Henry’s reputation as a playboy. Henry promises to make the Dauphin pay for his insult and prepares for the invasion.
Act II: The Chorus describes how the youth of England are eager to join Henry’s army. To counter the invasion threat, the French hire three members of Henry’s court to plot his assassination at Southampton where the fleet is gathering.
Henry finds out about the plot and tricks the three conspirators – Cambridge, Scroop and Grey – into condemning a drunken man for slandering the king. Then when he reveals that he knows about their betrayal of him, they cannot ask for mercy. Lord Scroop was a close friend of Henry’s, and his treason really shocks the king. The three traitors are taken out and executed. Henry prepares to lead his fleet across the Channel.
Meanwhile in London some of Henry’s old associates from his wild days as Prince Hal are preparing to join his army: Bardolph, Pistol, Nym and Boy. Pistol and Nym are having a dispute because Pistol has stolen Nym’s fiancée, Mistress Quickly. Each man threatens mayhem on the other, until Bardolph intervenes and helps them reach a compromise whereby Pistol will repay Nym some of the money he owes him. The Boy comes in with word that his old master, Sir John Falstaff, is gravely ill. The three men agree that Falstaff’s illness is the result of the king’s having banished him from court. They go off to visit their old friend before departing for France.
Falstaff dies, and his death scene is described by Mistress Quickly and Boy. On his deathbed Falstaff blames drink and women for his demise. Despite their sorrow at losing an old friend, the three men and the boy depart for the army at Southampton. In France they look forward to making a lot of money from plunder and other criminal activities.
In the French court the leaders debate how seriously to take the English threat. The Dauphin dismisses Henry as buffoon; the military advisor, the Constable, says the reports of Henry’s new-found seriousness are cause for concern. The French King reminds everyone of the earlier English victories in France and orders preparation for a possible invasion. The English ambassador, Henry’s uncle Exeter, arrives and demands that the French King abdicate his throne. Exeter delivers a particularly harsh message to the Dauphin and then tells everyone that Henry’s army has already landed in France.
Act III: The Chorus describes the invasion fleet crossing the English Channel. Henry receives word that the French King offers his daughter in marriage and some insignificant territory to make the English go home. Henry refuses and lays siege to the walled city of Harfleur.
The English cannons have managed to knock a hole in the wall. Henry delivers a stirring speech to his men to get them to charge through the breach and take the city. Down in the ranks Bardolph, Nym and Pistol refuse to join the attack. We learn from Boy that they are stealing lots of insignificant things and calling it legitimate plunder. The slackers are beaten by a Welsh captain named Fluellen and run from the battle. Fluellen is obsessed with military science as expounded by the ancient Roman writers and discusses with the English captain Gower the current stalemate at Harfleur. The Welshman praises the captain from Scotland, Jamy, but has contempt for the Irish captain Macmorris who is in charge of the unsuccessful efforts to dig under the walls of the city. As the four officers express their frustration, the inhabitants of the city ask for a parley.
Henry tells the governor of the city that they must surrender now. If the battle continues and his men finally break in, they will rape, pillage and murder, out of the King’s control. The Dauphin has been unable to send help to the city and Henry’s threat is so potent, the French surrender. Henry has his troops occupy the city and takes the rest of his tired and hungry army back toward their base at Calais.
At the palace of the French King, his daughter Katharine learns the English words for various body parts. The lesson ends when she discovers that two English words sound very close to indecent French words. Meanwhile the French leaders are enraged that the English, whom they consider to be a bastard race, have defeated them at Harfleur. The French King orders his nobles to gather all their troops and to crush the English as they try to get to safety at Calais.
The English soldiers capture a key bridge that will enable them to continue their march. However, Bardolph is arrested for stealing from a church, despite Henry’s orders against any looting. Fluellen, who has mistaken Pistol for a valiant soldier, is disgusted when Pistol offers the Welshman a bribe to help save Bardolph’s life. The old friend of Prince Hal is hanged with the King’s consent, and Fluellen vows that he will be revenged on Pistol for insulting the Welsh.
Montjoy, the herald for the French, arrives in the English camp and asks Henry how much ransom he will be able to pay when he is captured by the overwhelming French forces about to attack. Henry swears that he will not allow himself to be taken alive and warns the French not to try and stop his march. That night the French, having surrounded the English forces, argue among themselves and brag about how many English they will kill or capture in the battle of Agincourt the next day.
Act IV: The Chorus describes the English in the night waiting for the battle of Agincourt the next day with foreboding. Henry moves among his men inspiring them with confidence and determination, what is called “a little touch of Harry in the night.”
That night Henry disguises himself in a cloak as a common soldier and goes through the camp to judge the morale of his men. He encounters Pistol who pretends to be good friends with the King to impress the cloaked stranger. Henry overhears Fluellen complaining that there is too much loud talking in camp, something the great military leaders of ancient Rome would never have allowed.
Then Henry meets three common soldiers, Bates, Williams and Court, and engages them in a conversation about the Englishmen’s chances the next day. The soldiers tell Henry that if they die in battle, the responsibility for their souls will rest with the King. Henry disputes that and convinces them that each man’s soul is his own responsibility. When Henry assures them that the King plans to share their fate and will not allow himself to be ransomed, they laugh at his willingness to believe the best of their leader. In the ensuing argument Williams challenges Henry to a fight if they survive the battle. The men exchange gloves as a commitment to fight and as a means of recognizing each other.
Alone, Henry ponders the price that leaders must pay. They bear the burdens of all the people over whom they rule. The additional perks they receive do not compensate for their loss of contentment. Just before he goes to meet his officers Henry prays that God will make his men strong in battle. He pleads that the Almighty will overlook the sin of his father in taking the throne, a sin for which he has tried to atone.
The next morning the French laugh at the wretched condition of the English who face them. They are sure of a quick and overwhelming victory. It is a holiday, Saint Crispin’s Day, and the English leaders wish they had just a fraction of the men with them who are not working back home in England. Henry tells them that the fewer men they have, the more honor those who do fight will receive. He offers permission for any man to leave if he is not willing to fight. He then inspires his men by telling them that if they survive the battle they will be transformed, remembering this moment for the rest of their lives. He calls them a “band of brothers” and offers to raise the social rank of everyone who shares combat with him. Montjoy comes a second time to discuss Henry’s ransom, and the King angrily dismisses him. The English go off to battle with determination.
.In the battle Pistol captures a French soldier and demands ransom from him. The Boy tells us that Nym has also been hanged for stealing. All the boys in the English army are sent behind the lines to guard the camp, which is vulnerable to a sneak attack. The poorly organized French run into problems attacking the English. Thousands are killed in front of the English lines or captured. They become desperate and charge wildly. Henry learns that his cousin, the Duke of York and his friend, the Earl of Suffolk, have both been killed leading their troops. When Henry realizes that the French are mounting another attack, he orders his men to kill their prisoners. Some Frenchmen attack Henry’s camp and kill all the boys.
Fluellen and Gower praise the King’s decision to order the slaughter of the prisoners. Fluellen declares that Henry is as skilled a military leader as Alexander the Great, the paragon of ancient generals. Henry challenges the surviving French to leave the field or come and fight. Montjoy arrives to announce that Henry has won the battle and to seek permission to bury their dead.
Williams shows up wearing Henry’s glove in his cap. Henry gives Williams’ glove to Fluellen to wear and tells him took it from a French general. If anyone recognizes the glove, they are a French agent. Williams sees his glove in Fluellen’s cap and hits him; Fluellen grabs Williams as a spy. The King arrives to explain the joke and to reward Williams by filling his glove with money.
The English herald arrives with the details of the battle. Ten thousand French were killed, most of them of the upper ranks; fifteen hundred were captured. The English lost fewer than 30. Henry orders that his men thank God for the lopsided victory and they march on to Calais.
Act V: The Chorus describes Henry’s triumphant return and the jubilation of the citizens of London. Eventually Henry will return to France to seek a peaceful settlement. When his army returns to France, Fluellen confronts and beats the blustering but cowardly Pistol and forces him, because of past insults, to eat a raw leek, the symbol of Welsh soldiers. Pistol decides to return to England where he will have to turn to a life of crime, since his wife, Quickly, has died.
At the palace of the French King a peace conference begins, thanks to the efforts of the Duke of Burgundy as a mediator. With the help of Queen Isabel, the French King agrees to go over the list of Henry’s demands. While everyone else is involved in working out the final details of the peace treaty, Henry woos Katherine, the princess. He asks her how she might feel about their marrying and courts her, as he says, like a “plain soldier,” without fancy refinements of the courtly gentlemen of France. When she finally admits that she would welcome the match, Henry kisses her over her objections and tells her that they will produce a son who will lead both countries. The rest of the participants in the conference return and welcome the news of a royal wedding and peace treaty by which Henry becomes the heir to the throne of France.
The Chorus returns one last time and tells us that King Henry will die soon after the marriage and leave his infant son, Henry VI, on the throne. The mismanagement of the government during his childhood will lead to the English loss of France. Nevertheless, Henry V’s brief life was a glorious triumph.