The timid and reclusive King of England and proclaimed King of France, Henry VI was an ineffective ruler who inherited a turbulent political climate. Henry VI's reign saw the continuation of the Hundred Years' War, and his ineptitude as a king led to the dynastic conflict which resulted in the Wars of the Roses.

The son of Henry IV, father of Henry VI, and Prince of Wales prior to his coronation as king, Henry V continued the Lancaster dynasty and became known as one of the greatest warrior kings for his success in the Hundred Years' War against France, particularly his victory in the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Henry V's profligate youth was dramatized by Shakespeare in his Henriad plays. Although Henry V was known to be occasionally cruel and unchivalrous, he was generally acknowledged to be a brave, pious, and honorable king.

King of Navarre from 1572 and of France from 1589, Henry IV was known almost as much for his numerous love affairs as for his political effectiveness during a period of extreme hostility and widespread violence between Catholics and Protestants.

Previously known as Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, King Henry IV asserted his claim to the thrown as the heir of the house of Lancaster, usurping the throne of King Richard II. During his reign, Henry IV successfully gathered power, despite repetitive uprisings by English nobles. However, the administrative and financial issues faced by Henry IV's rule eventually led to the demise of the Lancaster dynasty.

Popular English actor who, after the death of David Garrick, took on the mantle of the greatest Shakespearean actor.

French writer, historian, President of the Chamber of Inquiries, and friend of Voltaire. Hénault's most notable work was his Abrégé chronologique de l'histoire de France, a popular history of France's political and military spheres.

Coming of age during the Napoleonic wars, Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans was regarded as a sort of prodigy, though her first published volume, Poems, by Felicia Dorothea Browne (1808), did not meet with critical approval. She eventually became well-known for her patriotic, religious, sentimental, and historical poetry, song lyrics, and translations, eventually attaining popularity with the reading public as well as critical acclaim.

Born in Emesa in Syria, author Heliodorus wrote The Æthiopica or Theagenes and Charicleia in the third or fourth century CE. He became Bishop of Tricca or Trieca in Thessaly.

Greek mythology attributes the cause of the Trojan War to Helen, daughter of Zeus and Leda, who though married to Menelaus, King of Sparta, ran away with Paris, the young, handsome Prince of Troy.

A Trojan prince at the time of the fall of Troy, from Greek mythology and the poetry of Homer.