les. In 1401-1408
he was engaged against the Welsh rebels under Owen
Glendower, and in 1410 became captain of Calais. His
youthful period is represented--probably with much
exaggeration, to which Shakespeare, in _Henry IV_,
contributed--as full of wild and dissolute conduct, but as
king he was distinguished for his courage, ability, and
enterprise.

Henry was crowned in 1413, about seventy-five years after
the beginning of the Hundred Years' War between England and
France, which arose from the claim of Edward III to the
French throne. For some years a feud had been raging in
France between the houses of Burgundy and Orleans, the rival
parties being known as Burgundians and Armagnacs. Led by
Simonet Caboche, a butcher, adherents of the Armagnacs rose
with great fury against the Burgundians. This was in the
first year of Henry's reign, and to him and other rulers
Charles VI of France appealed in order to prevent them from
aiding the outbreak, which was soon quelled by the princes
of the blood and the University of Paris. Order in France
was restored by the Duke of Orleans, and the Duke of
Burgundy withdrew to Flanders. But war between the two
factions was soon after renewed, and both sides sought the
alliance of England.

In these contentions and appeals for his interference Henry
saw an opportunity for pressing his designs to recover what
he claimed as the French inheritance of his predecessors. In
1414, as the heir of Isabella, mother of his
great-grandfather Edward, he formally demanded the crown of
France. The French princes refused to consider his claim.
Henry modified his demands, but after several months of
negotiation, with no promise of success, he prepared for
renewal of the ancient war.

The claim made by Edward III to the French crown had been questionable
enough. That of Henry was certainly most unreasonable. Edward had
maintained that though the Salic Law, which governed the succession in
France, excluded females from the throne, it did not exclude their male
descendants. On this theory Edward himself was doubtless the true heir
to the French monarchy. But even admitting the claims of Edward, his
rights had certainly not descended to Henry V, seeing that even in
England neither he nor his father was true to the throne by lineal
right. A war with France, however, was sure to be popular with his
subjects, and the weakness of that country f