Unit information: Henry V - His Life and His Legacy (Level I Lecture Response) in 2008/09

Unit name	Henry V - His Life and His Legacy (Level I Lecture Response)
Unit code	HIST25014
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Gibbons
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

No less a man than Winston Churchill lauded Henry V as 'all that a king should be', and he is certainly not alone in being caught up in the myth of Henry as the ideal king and the ideal Englishman, plucky, persevering, cool-headed, stiff-upper-lipped, and effortlessly successful. There is a long tradition of mythologizing Henry V - beginning with Henry himself, in fact - and his image has been in constant development from the moment of his French triumphs, and not always towards the positive. The shadow cast by Henry over English history is quite incredible, particularly given that he was king for a mere nine years. But has a (sometimes) two-dimensional myth become more important than the man?

Teaching Information

10 x 1.5 hour interactive lectures.

Assessment Information

1 x 3000 word essay (50%) and 1 x 2 hour exam (50%)

Reading and References

INTRODUCTORY READING:

• Gesta Henrici Quinti: the deeds of Henry the Fifth, ed. & trans. Frank Taylor & J.S. Roskell (Oxford, Clarendon, 1975)

• Curry, Anne, ed., The Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretation (Woodbridge, Boydell, 2000)

• Allmand, Christopher, Henry V (London, Methuen, 1992; new edn., 1997)

• Burne, Alfred H., The Agincourt War: a military history of the Hundred Years War from 1369 to 1453 (London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1956)

• Curry, Anne, The Hundred Years War (2nd edn., Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)

• Dockray, Keith, Warrior King: the Life of Henry V (Stroud, History Press, 2006)

• Harriss, G.L., ed., Henry V: the practice of kingship (Oxford, OUP, 1984)