Sovereign Homosociality in the Henriad

Abstract

In real politics, a king is ontologically a lonely person standing on the highest of the socio-political hierarchy. Yet, by staging monarchical isolation, playwrights bring into relief a sovereign as a character, which enables us to delve into a powerful man’s inwardness. In this way, specifically from the perspectives of homosocial bonding or homosociality, monarchical isolation on stage has a resonance for readers/audiences. Shakespeare explores kingly glory accompanied by sovereign loneliness in his history plays. In particular, his rendering of the trajectory of Henry V’s life reflects the playwright’s understanding of politics in the period. In many respects, Shakespeare shares his political view with Machiavellian understanding of monarchy, which not a few of his political plays demonstrate. Machiavellian understanding of monarchy was an early political science, an initial approach to politics from a realistic standpoint in the period. Yet, political theology was still widely accepted in early modern England, where a state was not separable from religion. In a variety of sacrificing homosocial intimacy for his own sovereignty, Henry V successfully obtains his sovereignty. Then the king solidifies his kingship through his spiritual communion with God at a critical moment when he feels utmost isolation. In such efforts, thus, the king becomes successful, though his success is brief. In this way, Shakespeare represents monarchical cognition of spiritual homosociality as a necessary element for a successful, not ideal though, king, which reflects the extent to which Machiavellian understanding of monarchy overlaps with political theology in the period.