It's led to this modern sense that Henry V should be regarded as a war criminal, but other historians would argue against that. Strikingly the French chroniclers of whom there were many who commented in as in court did not criticize Henry for this action. So much of the time, our response to a single one of these plays depends on the context in which we go and which we see it. You realize what a Machiavellian is, you realize that he is setting himself up to become visibly flawless.
In the first of two programmes marking In Our Time's 20th anniversary on 15th October, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's versions of history, starting with the English Plantagenets. His eight plays from Richard II to Richard III were written out of order, in the Elizabethan era, and have had a significant impact on the way we see those histories today. In the second programme, Melvyn discusses the Roman plays.
The image above is of Richard Burton (1925 - 1984) as Henry V in the Shakespeare play of the same name, from 1951
With
Emma Smith
Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of Oxford
Gordon McMullan
Professor of English at King’s College London and Director of the London Shakespeare Centre
And
Katherine Lewis
Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Huddersfield
Producer: Simon Tillotson