Henry V and the Southampton Plot of 1415 Book

Don't be alarmed or warned off by the frankly ridiculous cover, T. B. Pugh's Henry V and the Southampton Plot is an extremely valuable and thorough exploration of the attempt to usurp Henry V and place Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, on the throne as Henry was about to leave England on a military expedition in France. Pugh's work is not a narrative of the event but a historical study of it and for that reason, I would recommend that the reader has some knowledge of Henry V's reign, how he came to the throne in the first place and even the plot itself in order to gain the most out of this book.

Pugh examines each of the Southampton Plot's ringleaders in detail, exploring their family background, biography and motives, as well as exploring the issues around the failed coup, such as Henry IV's usurpation of the throne and the rebellions against him. Pugh also provides appendices containing all the most relevant contemporary documents relating to the plot in modernised English.

However, Henry V and the Southampton Plot is dated - it was published in 1988 and therefore predates the nuanced and valuable work done on Henry V by scholars such as Christopher Allmand and Malcolm Vale, as well as some of the more recent discoveries and research that at times underscore or contradict Pugh's arguments and theories. This doesn't make Pugh's work worthless, it just means that the reader has to be conscious of the age of the book and that our understandings of this period of history has changed quite a lot since it was written.

Pugh is a man of opinions, often baldly expressed, and while he is not nearly as manipulative in his writing of these opinions as, say, Ian Mortimer, sometimes these opinions seem to overshadow Pugh's grasp of history. For example, he argues that if Henry V had assigned lands or revenue from the duchy of Lancaster to Richard, Earl of Cambridge, Cambridge would not have rebelled - such an attitude seems at odds when it's well known that Henry V, both as prince and king, struggled to be financially solvent even with the Lancastrian revenues. Pugh himself even notes Henry V's financial troubles later! Of course, Pugh's opinions are not facts and I did disagree on his conclusions at times or felt myself reaching for my copies of Vale and Allmand where they offered a different and far more nuanced view