Fortune Made His Sword

The life of Henry V of England is retold from the downfall of his father, Henry IV, to his own death and the foretelling of the rise of the Tudors. It is told in four parts from the perspective of Henry V himself (as a young man); of the daughter of the Welsh rebel, Owain Glendowr; of Henry V's fool; and lastly of an English knight at the battle of Agincourt; Henry's wife, Catherine of Valois; and lastly by the wife of the Bard of Gower.

I was a little curious as to why there were so many narratives - I guess it was an attempt to provides different views of Henry as he developed from a young prince to the hero-king of English history.

Overall - it is what it is - a 1970s historical novel which tend to provide an idolised version of the show more subject matter. show less

Narrated by five characters (one fictional), this is a fascinating account of the period in English history leading to the regency of Henry V. From his childhood to his death, Henry V was neither eulogized nor denigrated.
I really enjoyed this book. The picture of the king's fool with a carved smile was sympathetically drawn. The interplay of Owen Glendower and the English, the siege of Rouen, the battle of Agincourt, and the realistic descriptions of living conditions of the medieval made it a good read.

Written in the early 1970’s, Rofheart makes use of multiple first person narrations to relate the events of Henry V’s life (a technique she also uses in her book about Richard I, Lionheart). A couple of her choices for narrators and the accompanying story they tell seemed to have little relevance to Henry, although the narration of one of the knights from Agincourt was rather interesting.