Reply To: The King – NETFIX

[sirtheoParticipant 12xp 1]

In the main, not at all accurate (and the reasons have already been covered).

 

It seems odd that it was sold as an accurate look at the history (as far as I recall) but they seemed to use the Shakespeare play as their primary resource. A bit of a shame as the real history is every bit as fascinating.

 

Just a few points I noticed:

 

*Hotspur wasn’t a young man at the time of his revolt. In fact he was Older than Henry IV.

*The Battle of Shrewsbury did happen, unlike in the film, and Hotspur was probably not killed in hand to hand combat with Prince Hal, but rather by the mass archery or on in the general melee. Henry IV commanded the royalist forces and Henry, Prince of Wales was injured by an arrow during the fighting.

*The real Henry V was incredibly devout, they sort of touched upon this but maintained the dissolute youth thing from the play.

*The Agincourt on screen was dissapointing and they didn’t really give the Longbow much focus, which is surely the most famous aspect of the battle?

 

Overall I preferred Outlaw King as far as Netflix medieval dramas go. But… It was fairly enjoyable for what it was!