regular meetings of Parliament was the easiest way to ask for their approval and to deal with other government business. In 1295, Edward convened what has become known as the Model Parliament. It followed the format of de Montfort’s assembly with nobles, clergy, knights, and burgesses. The first meetings divided the assembly into three groups: (1) nobility and knights, (2) clergy, and (3) burgesses. By the 1300s, however, the knights and burgesses found they had similar concerns and formed a single group. From then Teaching Idea on, Parliament was divided into the House of Lords, which included high- Shakespeare’s Henry V is set during ranking clergy as well as nobles, and the House of Commons, made up of knights the Hundred Years‘ War. It contains and burgesses. several famous speeches by King Henry V that can be extracted from The Hundred Years’ War the larger play and read aloud for stu- The Hundred Years’ War was actually a series of conflicts between France and dents. The king’s speech before England that occurred between the 1330s and the 1450s. The English claimed Harfleur in act 3, scene 1—”Once large pieces of French territory and the French throne itself. Later, rivalry over the more unto the breach, dear friends, wool trade in Flanders added to the problems between the two kingdoms. once more!”—is an inspirational Another reason for the war was French support for Scotland against the English, speech delivered before renewing an who were attempting to subjugate Scotland. attack on a French city. A second speech delivered by Henry before Over the years, England at times won additional territory in France and at Harfleur in act 3, scene 3—”How yet other times lost it. Several peace treaties were negotiated and signed, only to be discarded when a new monarch took the throne in either country. The conflict resolves the governor of the finally ended in 1453, when the English lost all their territory in France, except town?”—is essentially a threat. It the port of Calais. details the horrible things the English will do to the French if they do not surrender, and gives a taste of the ugliness of medieval warfare. Finally, there is the famous inspirational speech before the battle of Agincourt, in act 4, scene 3, in which Henry chides those who wish the English had more troops: “What’s he that wishes so?”

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