Is Henry’s War with France Justified?

In the prologue of Act four the chorus describes the scenes of both the English and French camps the night before battle. The reader sees how the tables have turned and the English fear death in battle because of how out numbered they now are. In the first scene of Act four King Henry talks to many soldiers in disguise throughout the night. Through his conversations the reader sees a new perspective on the war. It seems that many of the soldiers lack confidence in the King and the overall cause of the war. Bates, a soldier of the army, argues that the King should have accepted the ransom offered by the French and “a many poor men’s lives saved” (4.1:23).  In response to the French’s offer the King recognizes in Act three that “my people are with sickness much enfeebled, my numbers lessened, and those few I have almost no better than so many French,” (3.6: 144-146). King Henry claims that God will give them the assistance necessary and they will not back down. The King explains to the soldiers that to die for the King is honorable because “his cause being just and his quarrel honorable,” (4.1 127). The soldiers dispute this arguing if his cause is truly just. Williams, another soldier, discusses how if the cause is not just and they do lose the King must deal with all of their deaths, their families and debts. The King attempts to remove this weight from his shoulders and entrusting the fate of men in God who uses war as a form of punishment, which these men cannot outrun. This is the first time the King ever receives input from commoners and it is clear that their opinions bring to light some serious issues with the war and the King’s cause. With lack of support from the troops, and lack of evidence to support his own war besides the will of God, King Henry is put into a serious internal dispute.

Once alone Henry contemplates his role as king. King Henry asks if his title holds a greater purpose than “place, degree and form, creating awe and fear in other men?” but he remains, “less happy, being feared, than they in fearing” (4.1: 244-247).  The King explains that he feels that being king provides him with not much more than the decoration of royalty’s title. He goes on and reveals that he’d prefer to be a slave who can “sleep so soundly…with a body filled and a vacant mind, gets him to rest” (4,1: 266-268). In these statements it is clear that Henry’s cause for war is unjust.  If he does not understand his role as King as being more than an appearance and wishes to be a slave instead then why should he risk the lives of his men to rule over the entirety of France? The English soldiers were right in their assumptions of the Kings cause and Henry only magnifies how his youth deters him from understanding the roles of King and how this war should not continue. If a King would rather be a slave, he should not go to war to be a king of another land.