In the latter years of the fourteenth century a child was born, so unimportant that even his exact date of birth is unknown. Yet before his twenty-seventh birthday the turn of fortune’s wheel had brought him the crown of England. The kingdom he inherited as Henry V was deeply divided after the seizure of the throne by his father, Henry IV, the first Lancastrian king. Within a short time, however, by sheer force of personality and will, Henry had mended the rifts, pardoned and released prisoners, and united the whole country behind his claim not just to be King of England, but also King of France.

One staggering victory against all the odds on the field of Agincourt brought him lasting fame, and took him within touching distance of succeeding in his claim. Henry V looks at the life and legacy of a king whose heroic achievements and tragic early death may truly be said to have changed the course of British history.

• Only chronologically arranged biography

  available, competing books very academic and thematic organised and not suited

  to the general reader

• Recent strong historical fiction titles from

  Bernard Cornwall (Azincourt) and

  Joanna Hickson (The Agincourt Bride)

  have introduced a whole new audience to the life of Henry V. Cornwall novel due

  to be made into major Hollywood movie directed by Michael Mann (director of

  historical epic Last of the Mohicans)

• 'There is so much to take from Cole's book' – History of War magazine