Henry V reigned over England for nine years and four months before he died at the early age of 35. He was known as a hardened, sometimes brutal, warrior, yet one who was also intelligent and artistic. He was a leader who made many mistakes, who misjudged his friends and family members, yet always seemed to triumph when it mattered. As king, he saved a shattered country from economic ruin, put down rebellions and secured England’s borders; in foreign diplomacy he made England a serious player on the world stage once more. Yet through his conquests in northern France, he sowed the seeds for three generations of calamity at home, in the form of the Wars of the Roses.

In September 2024 historian Dan Jones came to Intelligence Squared to tell the epic story  of this controversial historical figure. Drawing from his new book Henry V: The Astonishing Rise of England’s Greatest Warrior King, Jones explained why Henry is such an important figure in English history and why his legacy still inspires cultural and political leaders today. William Shakespeare deployed Henry V as a study in youthful naivety redirected as sober statesmanship. In the dark days of World War II, Henry’s victories in France were presented by British filmmakers as examples for a people existentially threatened by Nazism. Churchill called Henry ‘a gleam of splendor in the dark, troubled story of medieval England’, while for one modern medievalist, Henry was, quite simply, ‘the greatest man who ever ruled England’.