Henry V

The victorious king and the fiscal responsibility in Shakespeare’s historical plays

Abstract

Henry V was king of England between 1413 and 1422. He succeeded his homonymous father, who had been the first English monarch of the House of Lancaster. In William Shakespeare’s historical plays, his formation process is portrayed until his coronation, in parts 1 and 2 of Henry IV, and his competent and heroic performance (“the victorious king”), in Henry V. He was succeeded by his son Henry VI, king between 1422 and 1461 and between 1470 and 1471, whose military and political failure was the subject of Shakespeare’s plays titled after his name. However, at the very beginning of Henry VI part 1, in the scene of the victorious king’s funeral, a messenger informs that a large part of his conquests had been reversed by “want of men and money”. It is argued, in this article, that Henry V’s rule, though portrayed as victorious, can be interpreted as irresponsible from a fiscal point of view, as it generated liabilities that explain the failure of English military campaigns after his death. Although linked with a relatively vast bibliographic production on the relationship between Shakespeare’s work and economics (TURNER, 1999; FRANCO, 2009; ARCHER, 2012), the work seeks to innovate by specifically discussing the public sector and fiscal management issues.