Agincourt: A Romance: The Works of G. P. R. James, Volume XX
1844
Agincourt: A Romance: The Works of G. P. R. James, Volume XX
1844
1413. Henry V has just taken the throne, and France trembles on the edge of war. Richard of Woodville, a young English squire, rides through a moonless countryside where he encounters Hal of Hadnock, a mysterious traveler whose sardonic wit masks something darker. Their night ride through the English countryside crackles with easy camaraderie and the electricity of an unexpected meeting, but the tone shifts abruptly when Richard learns that Catherine Beauchamp, a woman tied to his family, has met a violent end. What begins as a romantic adventure through medieval England transforms into something more sinister: a tale of political intrigue, stolen honor, and the shadows that gather before history's most celebrated battle. James, once hailed as the master of the historical romance before Scott's shadow fell across him, wrote this novel to capture not just the glory of Agincourt but the human cost behind it. The novel has survived in over fifty editions across three languages, a testament to its enduring pull, a window into how the Victorian age imagined its heroic past, complete with all the chivalric illusions and brutal realities that history obscures.
