This appears in the speeches in
Shakespeare, where the hidden motives that actuate princes and their
advisers in war and policy are better laid open than in speeches
from the throne or woolsack. Henry, because he did not know how to
govern his own kingdom, determined to make war upon his neighbours.
Because his own title to the crown was doubtful, he laid claim to
that of France. Because he did not know how to exercise the enormous
power, which had just dropped into his hands, to any one good
purpose, he immediately undertook (a cheap and obvious resource of
sovereignty) to do all the mischief he could. Even if absolute
monarchs had the wit to find out objects of laudable ambition, they
could only 'plume up their wills' in adhering to the more sacred
formula of the royal prerogative, 'the right divine of kings to
govern wrong', because will is only then triumphant when it is
opposed to the will of others, because the pride of power is only
then shown, not when it consults the rights and interests of others,
but when it insults and tramples on all justice and all humanity.
Henry declares his resolution 'when France is his, to bend it to his
awe, or break it all to pieces'--a resolution worthy of a conqueror,
to destroy all that he cannot enslave; and what adds to the joke, he
lays all the blame of the consequences of his ambition on those who
will not submit tamely to his tyranny.
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