HENRY V. AN IDEAL KING
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On the death of Henry IV Part II, his son, Prince Hal, who had won all
English hearts by his youthful pranks--(such as trying on the crown
while his father lay dying, and hitting a very old man called Judge
Gascoigne)--determined to justify public expectation by becoming the
_Ideal English King_. He therefore decided on an immediate appearance
in the Hundred Years War, making a declaration that all the treaties
with France were to be regarded as dull and void.
Conditions in France were favourable to Henry since the French King,
being mad, had entrusted the government of the country to a dolphin and
the command of the army to an elderly constable. After capturing some
breeches at Harfleur (more than once) by the original expedients of
disguising his friends as imitation tigers, stiffening their sinews,
etc., Henry was held up on the road to Calais by the constable, whom
he defeated at the utterably memorable battle of AGINCOURT (French
POICTIERS). He then displaced the dolphin as ruler of Anjou, Menjou,
Poilou, Maine, Touraine, Againe and Againe, and realizing that he was
now too famous to live long expired at the ideal moment.