Henry V The end of the sequence. Henry V is the last play in a tetralogy. The larger story begins with the overthrow of Richard II (ineffective monarch and tragic hero of the first play) by the future Henry IV, who suffers pangs of guilt about his responsibility for Richard's death. The story continues with the father-son struggle of Henry IV and Hal, the heir apparent. At the close of Henry IV, part 2, the old king dies and the prodigal son assumes power, banishing his former friend and mentor, Sir John Falstaff. In the present play, Henry V proves good, establishing himself as England's greatest military general, the victor of the Battle of Agincourt. He is compared to the Dauphin, or heir to the throne of France, who sends him a tennis ball as a sign of contempt and who leads the French into the battle against Henry's weary troops. He triumphs and is deemed worthy of marrying the king's daughter, Katherine. Some of the old guilt passes on to Henry V, who remembers Richard II in his prayers at Agincourt (4.1.306-13). But he is vindicated and rules in the end over England and France, "the world's best garden" (Epilogue 7). Providential history. After the victory at Agincourt, Henry commands his troops to sing Non nobis, a choral setting of a verse from a psalm written to commemorate God's victory over Pharaoh's army at the Red Sea: "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory" (115: 1). The exodus of Henry's troops from France is as sure a sign of God's hand in history as the defeat of Richard III at Bosworth Field. Henry V knows his Bible, as the bishops say in Act 1, aand shows it when he says, "O God, thy arm was here (4.8.110, quoting Psalm 44: 3). The comic element. Hal's former associates from London's Eastcheap (called "Irregular Humorists" in the Folio) enlist for service in the war with France. Falstaff is not among them-he has died of sadness at the loss of Hal's company-but there is a new comic character in the Welshman Fluellen. It seems possible that the same actor played both roles in the different plays. War hero or war criminal? Henry is presented as a great hero who leads his forces into battle only because he cannot safely take them back to England. When he goes disguised among his troops on the eve of battle, he shows his broad humanity. When he delivers the great speech on St. Crispin's Day (October 25, 1415), he shows his charismatic power to rally support. All of this makes him Shakespeare's great war hero. There is a darker side, though. Worried about rumors of French reinforcements, he commands that "every soldier kill his prisoners" (4.6.38). Here Shakespeare follows Hollinshead's Chronicles, his source: "mistrusting further that the prisoners would … be able to aide his enemies [Henry] commanded by sound of trumpet, that every man (upon paine of death) should incontinentlie slaie his prisoner." This goes "against the law of arms," as Fluellen complains (4.7.2), but Henry does not ignore all the rules. He does not tolerate pillage, even by an old drinking companion, and for that reason has Bardolph put to death. And although he is a terror on the battlefield, Henry recognizes the responsibility that he takes on in declaring war (1.2.26-36). Nevertheless, there is a certain irony when he turns to his bishops for advice: they have already told each other (and the audience) that Henry wants their support and demands it as his price for revoking a bill in Parliament that would divert revenues from the church. Film adaptations. Kenneth Branagh's adaptation (Renaissance Films, 1989) makes numerous nods to the famous version by Sir Laurence Olivier (Two Cities Films, 1944). Branagh offers an interesting explanation of his directorial decisions in the preface to the screenplay (published by Chatto & Windus in 1989 and available at the main library). He notes, for example, that he uses some elements that Olivier omitted, including "the violence and extremism of Henry's behaviour and its effect on a volatile war cabinet. I reinstated the savage threat to the Governor of Harfleur [3.3.1-43], where the king talks of possible rape and infanticide, a speech which underlines the crueller aspects of an increasingly desperate English military campaign."

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