About the book: 2024 / He dreamed of changing history with victories and conquests, and changed it with his death. Young Prince Henry leads a dissolute life with the merry fellow Falstaff and other friends. But then his father, Henry the Fourth, dies. And the new king, Henry the Fifth, unexpectedly for many, firmly grasps power. He believes: God and England are waiting for him to conquer France, and at the same time - the hand and heart of the French princess Catherine, the daughter of the Mad King... “If you consider it a vice, to desire glory without measure , then, I swear, I am the worst sinner!” Alexandra Marinina offers a fascinating historical investigation into why rulers triumph on the battlefield, but lose to their own demons. The main witness and expert is the brilliant William Shakespeare.