About the work
History play by William Shakespeare, written and probably first performed in spring 1599 at the Globe Theatre; a reference in the Chorus to the Earl of Essex's Irish campaign supports this dating. It was first printed in a shortened quarto text in 1600, with a fuller version appearing only in the First Folio of 1623.
Plot
Urged on by the Church, King Henry V presses his claim to the French throne and invades France. After uncovering a conspiracy against him, he captures the town of Harfleur and leads his heavily outnumbered army to victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt. The war ends with the Treaty of Troyes: Henry marries the French princess Katharine of Valois and secures his succession to the French crown.
Cultural significance
As the concluding part of the tetralogy that begins with Richard II and continues through the two parts of Henry IV, the play ranks among Shakespeare's most influential histories; the speeches before Harfleur and on the eve of Agincourt are among his most frequently quoted passages. Film adaptations by Laurence Olivier (1944) and Kenneth Branagh (1989) kept the material prominent in the twentieth century.