The king-becoming graces,

As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,

Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,

Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude.

William Shakespeare, Macbeth

In his plays Shakespeare explored leadership in its contemporary form, kingship. In those days, as his sovereign Queen Elizabeth I acknowledged, kings were expected to lead from the front in battle.

For Shakespeare the king who exemplified these ‘king-becoming graces’ – or leadership qualities – was Henry VI, victor at the battle of Agincourt and conqueror of most of France. The secret of his success, Shakespeare hinted, was the rapport he established with the youths of London, his future soldiers, while he was not yet their king.

As Prince Hal, but with his real name and identify kept secret, he frequented the taverns in East London used by the young apprentices. As one observer (in Henry IV, Part I, Act 4) described him at work:

The prince but studies his companions

Like a strange tongue, wherein to gain the language.

‘Tis needful that the most immodest word

Be look’d upon and learn’d.

Prince Hal soon acquired what he came to learn. He said:

To conclude, I am not so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour, that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life.

The incognito prince found that he could be accepted on the apprentices’ terms, as if he was one of them. A leader is among the people, not over them.

They take it already upon their salvation, that though I be but Prince of Wales, yet I am the king of courtesy … a lad of mettle, a good boy, by the Lord, so they call me! And when I am King of England, I shall command all the good lads in Eastcheap.

In the play Henry VI, there are some long and eloquent speeches by the king, not least a famous one before the advance to the decisive attack at Agincourt, but that is Shakespeare speaking. History does record two versions of what Henry actually said at that critical moment. The more laconic version is just three words: ‘Fellows, let’s go.’