King Henry V was the son of Henry IV & Mary de Bohun. He began his reign reviving the Hundred Years War with France, taking back lost ancestral lands. A chivalric, warrior king, Henry V was an excellent military leader, famously defeating the vast French army at the Battle of Agincourt. Deeply religious and merciful to his enemies, King Henry V is one of England’s greatest kings, despite his short reign, and the last true medieval warrior king. King Henry V died a month before being crowned king of France, and tragically would never meet his only child, Henry VI, the future king of England and France.

King Henry IV was the son of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster, and the first Lancastrian king. He began his reign usurping the unpopular king, Richard II, but spent the next 13 years defending his crown from rebellions and assassination attempts. Incessant opposition from the powerful Percy family and the ambitious Prince of Wales, Owain Glyndwr, wore down King Henry IV and the treasury. Talks of abdication from the Archbishop of Canterbury, and growing support for Henry IV’s son, Henry V, drove the king to exhaustion and eventually his death.