HENRY V, King of England, son of King Henry IV by Mary de Bohun, was born at Monmouth, in August 1387. On his father's exile in 1398, Richard II took the boy into his own charge, and treated him kindly.
Next year the Lancastrian revolution forced Henry into precocious prominence as heir to the throne. From October 1400 the administration of Wales was conducted in his name; less than three years later he was in actual command of the English forces and fought against the Percies at Shrewsbury. The Welsh revolt absorbed his energies till 1408. Then through the king's ill-health he began to take a wider share in politics. From January 1410, helped by his uncles Henry Beaufort and Thomas Beaufort, he had practical control of the government. Both in foreign and domestic policy he differed from the king, who in November 1411 discharged the prince from the council.
The quarrel of father and son was political only, though it is probable that the Beauforts had discussed the abdication of King Henry IV, and their opponents certainly endeavoured to defame the prince. It may be that to political enmity the tradition of Henry's riotous youth, immortalized by Shakespeare, is partly due. To that tradition Henry's strenuous life in war and politics is a sufficient general contradiction. The most famous incident, his quarrel with the chief justice, has no contemporary authority and was first related by Sir Thomas Elyot in 1531. The story of Falstaff originated partly in Henry's early friendship for Oldcastle. That friendship, and the prince's political opposition to Archbishop Arundel, perhaps encouraged Lollard hopes. If so, their disappointment may account for the statements of ecclesiastical writers, like Walsingham, that Henry on becoming king was changed suddenly into a new man.
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