Henry V of England was one of the great warrior kings of the Middle Ages. He was born at Monmouth, Wales, on either 9 August 1386 or 16 September 1387, and he reigned as King of England from 1413 to 1422.

Henry was the son of Henry of Bolingbroke, later Henry IV, and Mary de Bohun, who died before Bolingbroke became king. At the time of his birth during the reign of Richard II, Henry was fairly far removed from the throne, preceded by the King and another preceding collateral line of heirs. The precise date and even year of his birth are therefore not definitely recorded.

Upon the exile of Henry's father in 1398, Richard II took the boy into his own charge and treated him kindly. In 1399 the Lancastrian usurpation brought Henry's father to the throne and Henry into prominence as heir to the Kingdom of England. He was created Duke of Lancaster on 10 November 1399, the third person to hold the title that year.

After his father Henry IV died on 20 March 1413, Henry V succeeded him on 21 March 1413 and was crowned on 9 April 1413. Henry tackled all of the domestic policies together, and gradually built on them a wider policy. From the first, he made it clear that he would rule England as the head of a united nation, and that past differences were to be forgotten

By the time Henry died, he had not only consolidated power as the King of England but had also effectively accomplished what generations of his ancestors had failed to achieve through decades of war: unification of the crowns of England and France in a single person.