1415: Henry V's Year of Glory
  • Published: 1 November 2010
  • ISBN: 9781845950972
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 656
  • RRP: $55.00
Categories:

1415: Henry V's Year of Glory

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EBook
29 Feb 2012
Paperback
1 Nov 2010
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An epic account of King Henry V and the legendary Battle of Agincourt, from the author of the bestselling Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England.

Henry V is regarded as the great English hero. Lionised in his own day for his victory at Agincourt, his piety and his rigorous application of justice, he was elevated by Shakespeare into a champion of English nationalism for all future generations. But what was he really like? Does he deserve to be thought of as 'the greatest man who ever ruled England?'

In Ian Mortimer's groundbreaking book, he portrays Henry in the pivotal year of his reign. Recording the dramatic events of 1415, he offers the fullest, most precise and least romanticised view we have of Henry and what he did.

The result is not only a fascinating reappraisal of Henry; it brings to the fore many unpalatable truths which biographers and military historians have largely ignored. At the centre of the book is the campaign which culminated in the battle of Agincourt: a slaughter ground designed not to advance England's interests directly but to demonstrate God's approval of Henry's royal authority on both sides of the Channel.
  • Published: 1 November 2010
  • ISBN: 9781845950972
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 656
  • RRP: $55.00
Categories:

About the author

Ian Mortimer

Dr Ian Mortimer is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England and The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England, as well as four critically acclaimed medieval biographies, and numerous scholarly articles on subjects ranging in date from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1998. His work on the social history of medicine won the Alexander Prize (2004) and was published by the Royal Historical Society in 2009. He lives with his wife and three children in Moretonhampstead, on the edge of Dartmoor.

portrait photo of Ian Mortimer

Also by Ian Mortimer

Medieval Horizons
The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain
Human Race
The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England Brain Shot
The Greatest Traitor
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
See all

Praise for 1415: Henry V's Year of Glory

Mortimer writes biographical history with formidable energy and panache... This is the most illuminating exploration of the reality of fifteenth-century life that I have ever read

Independent

Ian Mortimer's 1415: Henry V's Year of Glory is compelling, exuberant and erudite - combining the vivid drama of medieval character and battle with the vigour of revisionist history

Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Young Stalin

Mortimer creates a new and convincing likeness of medieval England's most iconic king

Nick Rennison, Sunday Times

Bold...new and unexpected

Anne Wroe, The Economist

Ian Mortimer... has virtually single-handedly put medieval history back in the hands of ordinary readers, combining scrupulous research with a wonderfully iconoclastic approach to storytelling

Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph

Highly recommended

Nicolas Vincent, The Tablet

Ian Mortimer's decision to tell this story in diary format, giving us an almost day-by-day account, would not have suited every historical study, but in this instance was a stroke of genius. The danger would have been excess of extraneous detail, but Mortimer's instinct is superb and what we get instead is the mythical hero-king- immortalised by the Lawrence Olivier film- rendered suddenly human and close. / The immediacy of the format makes Henry real and flawed; a disturbing and compelling individual.

Lesley McDowell, Independent of Sunday

Mortimer creates a convincing new likeness

Nick Rennison, Sunday Times

a three dimensional portrait

Telegraph

immerses the reader in the heady drama and the dull routine of a 15th century king's life

Ian Pindar, Guardian