HENRY V (1387–1422), king of England, eldest son of Henry IV, by his first wife, Mary, second daughter and coheiress of Humphrey de Bohun (d. 1372), last earl of Hereford, was born at Monmouth, according to the most commonly accepted date, on 9 Aug. 1387 (Paolo Giovio, Angl. Reg. Chron. p. 70, in Vitæ Illustrium Virorum, Basle, 1578; William of Worcester [753]). This is supported by the statements that he was in his twenty-sixth year when he came to the throne, and was born in August (Elmham, p. 17; Versus Rhythmici, 35–7, 59–61, in Cole's Memorials of Henry V). There is, indeed, no exact contemporary record of Henry's birth, but mention is made both of the young prince and of the birth of his brother Thomas in the wardrobe expenses of their father and mother between 30 Sept. 1387 and 1 Oct. 1388 (Tyler, i. 13). According to a local tradition Henry was nursed at Courtfield, near Monmouth, where a cradle alleged to be his was long preserved. His nurse was Johanna Waring, to whom, after he became king, he granted an annuity of 20l. (ib. i. 11–14). The records of the duchy of Lancaster mention that he was ill in 1395, and during the next two years there are notices of payments made for a harp, sword, and books purchased on his behalf. In 1395 there was talk of a marriage between him and Mary, daughter of John IV, duke of Brittany (Lobineau, Histoire de Bretagne, Preuves, ii. 791–3). The tradition that he was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, under the care of his uncle Henry Beaufort, ‘then chancellor of Oxford,’ first appears in the ‘Chronicle of John Rous’ (ed. Hearne, p. 207). Beaufort was chancellor in 1398, and, if the statement be correct, the prince's residence at Oxford must have fallen in this year. There is, however, no record relating to Henry at Queen's College, although a chamber over the gateway facing St. Edmund's Hall, now destroyed, was said to have been occupied by him (Hutten, Antiq. Oxford in Elizabethan Reprints, p. 64, Oxf. Hist. Soc.). That Beaufort was in some way charged with his nephew's education is not improbable, and to this connection Beaufort's subsequent influence over him may be due. Henry's mother died in June 1394. When his father was banished in 1398 the young prince remained in England, and King Richard, who treated him kindly, took him under his own charge. On 5 March 1399 a payment of 10l. was made to the prince, as part of 500l. yearly which the king granted him for his maintenance (Devon, Issues of the Exchequer, p. 269). Two months later Richard took Henry with him to Ireland, and knighted him there (Creton, Histoire du Roy Richard in Archæologia, xx. 299). When (in August) the news that Henry of Lancaster had landed in Yorkshire recalled Richard to England, young Henry and his cousin, Humphrey of Gloucester, were sent for safe custody to the castle of Trim. Otterbourne (i. 205) relates that the king complained to the prince of his father's treachery, but accepted the boy's assurance of his own innocence. Probably Henry joined his father at London towards the end of September (Adam of Usk, p. 28; Tyler, i. 48). On 11 Oct. he was made one of the knights of the new order of the Bath, on the 13th he bore the sword ‘Curtana’ at his father's coronation, and two days later was created Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, and Prince of Wales. He was afterwards declared Duke of Aquitaine, 23 Oct., and of Lancaster, 10 Nov. (Rot. Parl. iii. 426–8). On 3 Nov. the commons petitioned that ‘the prince may not pass forth from the realm,’ and in the same month proposals were made to the French court for a marriage between him and Isabella, the child-wife of Richard II. Together with his father and others of the royal household Henry suffered from an illness which was attributed to poison, and they were still ailing when, early in January 1400, a conspiracy to dethrone the new king was discovered. The king committed his sons to the keeping of the mayor and citizens of London (Gower in Wright's Pol. Songs, i. 452, Rolls Ser.), but the danger was soon over. Elmham (Vita, p. 6) makes the prince take part in the Scottish war in June, but this is unlikely, and he more probably remained at home as his father's representative (cf. Wylie, p. 145; and Ellis, Letters, 2nd ser. i. 1–5, where a letter from Lord Grey of Ruthin is addressed to him).
Henry accompanied his father in September on a rapid raid into Wales to repress the rebellion. The king left the marches in October, and the prince remained at Chester, apparently in a position of authority, for on 30 Nov. all Welsh rebels were summoned to present themselves to him there (Fœdera, viii. 167). On 10 March 1401 pardon was granted to various rebels at his request (ib. viii. 181), and on 21 March the council authorised him to discharge any constables of castles who had not performed their duty. The leading member of the prince's council was Henry Percy, the famous ‘Hotspur,’ with whom he advanced into Wales in April, and after recovering Conway Castle on 28 May, secured
