Henry V is a play that explores the contours of political sovereignty. To argue this, however, is to risk trying to make exceptional what by now has become something of a critical commonplace. Reflecting on royal power in act 4, Henry himself expresses a fundamental limit of sovereignty to Michael Williams, memorably asserting, ‘every subject's duty is the King's, but every subject's soul is his own’ (4.1.181–2). Indeed, that Henry V is the final play in a dramatic cycle about the education of the future king remains a critically compelling way of reading and teaching it. Henry's reformation from ‘sweet wag’ (1.2.52) of the taverns in 1 Henry IV to King Henry at Agincourt in Henry V appears to ennoble absolute sovereignty, making it both benign and seductive to the English nation. Benign sovereignty is best illustrated at the end of act 4 after the Battle of Agincourt, when Henry learns that ‘the number of our English dead’ (4.8.96) included ‘Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, / Sir Richard Keighley, Davy Gam Esquire; / None else of name, and of all other men / But five-and-twenty’ (97–100). Exeter's response to the news, ‘’Tis wonderful’ (107), reinforces the benign nature of Henry's kingship. The play registers absolutism's seductive force famously in act 5, when Henry woos Catherine in both French and English: ‘Now fie upon my false French! By mine honour, in true English, I love thee, Kate’ (5.2.206–9).

The play, however, actually begins its seduction early in act 1, as the new king navigates the paradox of absolute sovereign power. In the prelude to war with France, Henry appeals to Canterbury and Ely to justify the invasion. Henry asks, ‘May I with right and conscience make this claim?’ (1.1.96).