Hello, my friends. In this episode, we'll be joining Henry V as he embarks on an exciting journey

through medieval France. And by exciting journey, yes, I do mean demolishing cities and slaughtering anyone

who looks at him funny. These days, we try to push a slightly friendlier attitude towards our

Gallic neighbours, as you'll find out if you join my Royal Court over on Patreon.

That's the place where you can chat with me, my producers, and fellow history nerds from around

the world. I want to shout out royal favourite Jake Hughes, who's been sharing some stunning

photos of his own travels through medieval France, not a siege weapon or a dysentery

victim to be seen. I also want to remind you that in November on Patreon, I'll be doing a special

Ask Me Anything, exclusively for the Royal Favorites. So to join the fun, get ad-free listening,

enjoy bonus episodes and much more, swing by patreon.com

forward slash this is history. And do stick around for the end of this episode, as I've dropped

a little teaser of this week's bonus episode, where producer Al and I dissect why tennis balls

are so potent and how Henry's campaign appears in Shakespeare. In the meantime,

on with the conquest. I'm going to let you in on a secret. My life began toiling away in a field,

battling for scraps with fellow peasants. Then I convinced my feudal overlords to teach me how to read

and write. Then I wrote some books and then this podcast.

But to impress my new overlords, there's a lot of work that needs doing. I wish I'd had Shopify

when I first started out back in the Middle Ages. This commerce platform has been a game changer

for millions of guilds, leagues and businesses around the world, like Mattel and Heinz, to

brands just getting started. You can pick from thousands of ready-made templates to start an

online store, get help writing product descriptions, and to launch marketing campaigns within

minutes. It's like having the hansiatic league at the touch of a button. So turn your big

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