Henry V's St. Crispin's Day Speech: Leadership Analysis

Introduction: Henry V on the Eve of Agincourt

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition (IV.3)

When Shakespeare's Henry V gives his famous St. Crispin's Day speech, his English troops are outnumbered by the French forces and facing seemingly insurmountable odds. Morale is low; the men have been fighting for so long they can no longer remember what they were fighting for in the first place. Even Henry has been experiencing serious doubts about the wisdom of his decision to win back French territories for England on rather dubious grounds.

Henry realizes he has taken an extraordinary risk to solidify his leadership. He had wanted to demonstrate that he was no longer the sort of young man worthy of being given tennis balls as a gift by the Dauphin of France, as was the case at the beginning of the play. Now he simply wants to avoid his troops being slaughtered on the field of battle.

Emotional Intelligence and Diagnosing the Moment

According to Freiberg and Freiberg (2003), one of the key causes of leadership failure is misreading a situation's emotional temperature; diagnosing the emotional temperament of a moment is therefore a vital aspect of meeting leadership challenges. Showing the keen emotional intelligence that is characteristic of his leadership style, none of Henry's private self-examination is evident in his speech on the day of the battle. During a previous scene, Henry may speak to the audience about how "What infinite heart's-ease / Must kings neglect that private men enjoy!" (IV.1). But at a crisis moment, Henry cannot adopt a participative or democratic leadership approach and solicit the opinions of everyone fighting by his side.

Instead, Henry takes a stridently populist tone with a commanding style, declaring that the most aristocratic and the lowest-born soldiers alike will all be brothers if they fight together. Henry collapses the rigid hierarchy that existed in feudal society. He employs a charismatic, transformational leadership style that reminds his men of the mission they resolved to fulfill. His rhetoric is uncomplicated yet well-suited to the moment, and — more critically — it does not create false expectations, which Freiberg and Freiberg identify as another form of leadership misdiagnosis. Henry might privately worry that his goal and even his right to lead are tainted: "O, not to-day, think not upon the fault / My father made in compassing the crown!" he says to himself at one point (IV.1). But he tells his men that their cause is pure, because that is what they need to hear at that moment in time.

Henry also possesses the quality of a decisive military leader in his lack of subtlety — yet his refusal to compel his soldiers to fight deviates to some degree from the traditional military mindset. He does not tell his soldiers that they must fight or be branded as deserters; he even gives them the option to leave. Henry believes that forcing men to fight with bayonets at their backs is not an effective technique, particularly given that they are already outnumbered. Heart, rather than sheer brute force, is required to triumph over the French.

Henry begins his speech by making a virtue of the fact that the English band is small in number, effectively turning an apparent weakness into a source of strength and motivation:

Reframing Weakness as Strength

If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour (IV.3).

Henry creates a sense of common purpose with confidence, strength, and humor — the same qualities that have made companies such as Southwest Airlines so successful in the modern era (Freiberg & Freiberg, 2003). He also makes clear that it is the mission that matters to him, not the money he might gain from the conquest. Unlike some kings, he is not "covetous for gold" but desires honor and glory for himself, his country, and the men alongside whom he fights (IV.4). His confidence in success is further underlined when he assures his troops that this day will be one to remember — a battle they will recount to their children and grandchildren for years to come.