From War Crimes to ‘Truce Thinking’ in Shakespeare’s Henry V

Abstract

Shakespeare’s Henry V (1600) concludes with a treaty between England and France, enabled through the marriage of King Henry and Princess Katherine, the compromises of France and Burgundy, Queen Isabella’s advocacy and even Henry’s own willingness to let his delegates speak on his behalf. Although the final scene dramatizes the historical treaty of Troyes (1420), the play’s Epilogue implies that the agreement produced not a lasting amity, but rather a temporary peace, a truce, an interlude between one war and another, ‘which oft our stage hath shown’ (Epi.13). This essay investigates the principles of what philosopher Nir Eisikovits has called in his timely A Theory of Truces ‘truce thinking’ in Henry V. I suggest that the play’s complex disquisitions surrounding Henry’s own alleged war crimes prime viewers to accept the principles of ‘truce thinking’ and the concluding settlement as a necessary, civilizing, and welcome respite from war even if this settlement turns out to be a truce rather than a peace.