Shakespeare’s Henry V and the Modernization of the State
In the Modern-era, leaders able to debate, persuade and flatter had a far greater advantage in commanding followers and consolidating power, thereby making rhetoric a critical tool in politics. As King, Henry can no longer rely on “the divine rights of kings” in order to govern. Indeed, throughout the play, he faces various levels of dissent among his men, including a treasonous attempt against the throne. His rhetorical skills are significant to his leadership. A demonstration of these skills is revealed in a number of speeches in the play. The speech preceding the Battle of Agincourt is one such example. Not unlike a football coach rallying his team before the big game, Henry tells his men to “summon up the blood,” and to “lend the eye a terrible aspect” (3.1.9-10). When he addresses his men by their social rankings, he commands them to disregard those rankings and perform the opposite of their breeding to proper effect.
To the noblemen he demands that they honor their heritage by “copy[ing] now to men of grosser blood/And teach them how to war!” (24-25), while he commands that the “good yeomen” (whose ranks are below that of a gentlemen knight) “show us here/The mettle of your pasture” (26). He goes further by assigning a noble aspect to even the lowest of the men in his army: “…there is none of you so mean and base/That hath not noble luster in your eyes.” (27-30) His rhetoric is to flatter (and certainly the English noblemen would be flattered knowing they are unlike their effete French counterparts) and to instill patriotic fervor in his men as he leads them bravely into battle. Given the manner in which this speech is meant to be delivered, it would be hard to imagine any one of his men not being swept away with this patriotic battle cry.
Another example of Henry’s rhetorical skills occurs later in the play when he woos Princess Katherine. As with his men, Henry flatters the princess, telling her that she is “the better Englishwoman” and that “[she] wouldst find me such a plain king that [she] wouldst think [he] had sold [his] farm to buy [his] crown” (123-132). He also tells her that were his courtship of her similar to his strength and prowess as a soldier, then he “should quickly leap into a wife” (135-141). His humility and self-deprecation is charming, though in this last quote Henry contradicts this humility when he puts in a last dig at the French’s defeat in battle-though here even he is conscious of his boastful declaration: “under the correction of bragging be it
spoken” (140).
Yet this is not the only time he brags of his skills. Though he states that he is “plain” or plain-spoken, he waxes poetic with all the similes and metaphors at a poet’s disposal-“I will tell thee in French, which I/am sure will hang upon my tongue like a new-married/wife about her husband’s neck” (178-9)-to win her heart. Henry’s self-deprecation and humility barely though cleverly conceal his arrogance. Yet his rhetoric is clearly designed to woo Katherine into thinking he is worthy of her “French love” by humbling himself in her presence while at the same time using figurative of speeches to impress her cultured heart with his command of the English language (something that would impress Katherine since earlier in the play she expresses an interest in learning the language).
Henry’s courtship of Katherine suggests a more modern interpretation of his view of royalty. Since Henry had already been promised Katherine’s hand in marriage before the war, this gentlemanly spectacle of courtship would seem unnecessary. Yet, this scene is significant for it reveals to the audience how Henry will thus woo his French subjects. We have witnessed Henry’s rhetorical skills in matters of war, but now we see how he puts these skills to use in diplomacy, for it is to be expected that Henry will not simply be satisfied in conquering France until he is honored there as well. He reveals this as much when he states to Katherine: “…in loving me you should/love the friend of France” (172-4).
Rather than simply taking the crown as his birthright (which is the justification he uses in going to battle against France), Henry instead needs to convince the French that he is deserving of the crown. He doesn’t simply want to rule the French, he wants to be loved by them, thus ensuring that they will never threaten his power and control. Marrying Katherine becomes the means to that end. Therefore, the rhetoric he employs on her-his humility, self-deprecation, acculturation, and flattery-will put him in good esteem with Katherine and her compatriots. This is a political move well steeped in modern conventions.
Henry’s use of military power as a political tool also has modern connotations. War is a tool political leaders must use in order to gain or maintain power. In Nicolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, whose screed has become the prototype of Modern-era political leadership, war is described as a necessity to the modern leader “for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank.” (Chap. XIV, par. 1).
While Henry has already risen in rank, his invasion into France adds “[M]ore feathers to [his] wings” (1.11.316) or rather consolidates his power. This not only includes all the dukedoms in France but the crown as well. Henry’s thirst for power gained through titles and lands is subtly alluded to in Act 1.1 when Canterbury states his fears that the Church will be “strip[ped]” of land, their armed forces, almshouses, and an annual income of a thousand pounds if it does not justify Henry’s decision to invade France (9-19). Already, a shift from the Church to the nation-state, with its emphasis on military defense, is changing the political landscape in England.
Henry is at the helm of this change. It isn’t enough simply to consolidate his power over France but also to “bend it to our awe” (131), because war is necessary to instill fear in his enemies. As Machiavelli states: “it is not reasonable that he who is armed should yield obedience willingly to him who is unarmed, or that the unarmed man should be secure among armed servants” (ibid). Henry’s rebuke to the French Ambassador who delivers tennis balls as the Dauphin’s response to his claims to the French crown, his deployment of troops along the Scotland borders to prevent the Scots from invading England while he is away are messages to his enemies: Henry will “[b]e like a king and show [his] sail of greatness” when he conquers France and still maintains the throne in England. He is unafraid of using force to gain and maintain that power. Thus, war is the message. This places Henry squarely within a Modern context.
Henry’s determination to control his self-image and legacy provide another example of his modernization. Indeed, all of Henry’s actions can be related back to how he manipulates his public image to his advantage. In his youth, he indulges in exploits not becoming of king, but once he ascends the throne, he renounces his old “vices”, including his friends, such as Sir Falstaff, and reveals his “true” nature. One might wonder why Henry would choose this route since his past exploits could be used against him, but this is precisely Henry’s aim. As with the aforementioned scene between the King and the French Ambassador, Henry’s past leads the French to underestimate him, thus giving him a greater advantage over his enemies. He also refuses to take responsibility for even his most minute decisions.
When he learns that three of his men, including his friend Lord Scroop, had betrayed him, he tricks the men into deciding their own fate by counseling a course of action toward an offense against the King. The men condemn the offender to death, unaware that they have signed their own death warrants. When they plead mercy, Henry replies that “[t]he mercy that was quick in us but late,/By your own counsel is suppressed and killed” (2.2.78-79). This rhetorical trick allows Henry to appear fair and judicious in his men’s eyes. He also refuses to accept responsibility for the deaths of his men during battle. Disagreeing with Williams, who believes that the King ought to bear some responsibility for the deaths of his men in a causeless battle, Henry believes he has no more responsibility for military deaths than “if a son that is by his father sent about merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea” (4.1.144-45).
Henry’s preoccupation with delegating responsibility plays into Machiavelli’s advice to “be sufficiently prudent that he may know how to avoid the reproach of those vices which would lose him his state; and also to keep himself, if it be possible, from those which would not lose him it” (Chap. XV, par. 2). By not taking responsibility for his decisions, Henry avoids the “reproach” such actions or consequences of actions might bring and the disagreeable opinion his subjects will thus hold of him. In order to maintain his authority, Henry must always be viewed as a just and righteous king.
Modern-day spin controls how the images of politicians will be digested by the public. The Chorus thus acts as a spin machine that carefully defends Henry’s historical image, despite the fact that this representation contradicts actual fact. When the Chorus states: “And leave your England as dead midnight still,/Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,” (3.Cho.19-20), when we already know that England is being guarded by more than old men and babies in Henry’s absence; or when it fails to mention that when Henry condescends himself among his men he does so in disguise-which is an act that is also a bit of spin control since he uses it to influence his soldiers’ opinions of the King (4.Cho)-then we see how fact, fiction, and spin collude when the public image of our political leaders is mythologized.
Another aspect of Henry’s modernization is how he shrewdly regards his own legacy as King. While political power and wealth spur many of Henry’s decisions, he is motivated ultimately by his fear that he will be a failure like his father. This fear is manifest in how his “father made in compassing the crown!” (4.2.287). His father Richard I’s execution which was ordered by Henry IV after a long internment was a shameful affair in Henry’s life, one which he intends to mitigate with his recent actions. His preoccupation with how history will judge him is revealed when he states: “Either our history shall with full mouth/Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave,/Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,/Not worshipped with a waxen epitaph” (1.2.231-234). The waxen epitaph Henry fears is the sins of the father visited upon the son, history repeating itself as farce.
Henry used military conquest and political power to shape an historical legacy that, if the Chorus is any indication, outlasted his reign. As Machiavelli wrote: “Nothing makes a prince so much esteemed as great enterprises and setting a fine example” (Chap. XXI, par. 1). Thus, Henry served as an example for much of Europe throughout the Modern era. Indeed, his true legacy was to help sweep modernization throughout Europe.
