There is no battle of Shrewsbury, per se, instead Henry
fights a young Hotspur in one armed combat. Henry IV is
sick in bed at home. So although Hotspur dies, Henry was
not shot in the face with an arrow and did not undergo one
of the greatest medical operations of Medieval times. His
only younger brother mentioned in the film died in Wales (he
actually outlived Henry, as did all his brothers). In
reality his brothers were very loyal to him and one became
Regent for his son when Henry died. Sir John Falstaff
(Shakespeare's) totally fictional character was elevated by
Hollywood to the Marshal of the English Army. Complete
dross as No Feudal Lord would take orders from a commoner,
even a knighted one.
Harfluer appeared more as a Castle than a Town and I don't
think was named, the attack on Harfluer and the great march
should have been portrayed better and I doubt if many viewer
understood what was happening. Certainly the fact that
his army was slowly decaying and the worn out trek to
Calais was not clearly shown. It was more like a nice
Summer school outing. When Agincourt is shown, history
completely goes out of the window, the deployments are
wrong, there are no stakes for the archers. The French
Knights were all mounted, rather than the majority on foot.
The attack on Henry's camp is not shown or mentioned.
The Dauphin is hacked to death in front of Henry. Not bad
as the Dauphin stayed home with Daddy.
Again... a chance lost to make a very good film, still
watchable but ...
