Unfortunately military skill and good leadership are not an inherited attribute.. given Henry VIII disastrous and vainglorious attempts to conquer France..
An invasion which occurred in the 1540s during the Italian Wars, when England was allied to the Holy Roman Empire (the Habsburgs) which was fighting France.
In the 1540s, Henry decided to lay siege to Boulogne after the French gave aid to England's troublesome enemy, Scotland.
Not only that, but Henry - like Henry V and other English kings before him as far back as Edward III - had laid claim to the French throne thanks to his descent from Isabella, wife of Edward II.
Also, like those monarchs, he wanted back the lands which the French had stolen from the English (King John) in the early 13th century and which were now part of France (places like Normandy, Aquitaine and Anjou). It was all this which led to England invading France in 1340 to start the Hundred Years' War, which saw great English victories like Agincourt and Crecy during the English attempt to reclaim those lands which the French had taken.
By rights, to this day most of what is now northern and western France should be part of England and the UK.
which bankrupted the nation,
That happened in the 1510s in the Italian Wars in a conflict in which England was supported by the Pope.
In October 1511, Pope Julius II set up the anti-French Holy League, which brought France into conflict with Spain.
Henry - who still claimed the French crown and wanted back his ancestral lands which were annexed by the French in the 13th Century - brought England into the Holy League. The English and their Spanish allies then attacked Aquitaine to try and recover that land for England. However, this was a failure, and it turned out the Spanish were using the attack to further their own ends.
Nevertheless, the French were pushed out of Italy soon after, and the alliance survived, with both parties keen to win further victories over the French.
Henry then pulled off a diplomatic coup by convincing the Holy Roman Emperor to join the Holy League. Remarkably, Henry had also secured the promised title of "Most Christian King of France", and possibly coronation by the Pope himself in Paris, if only France could be defeated.
Henry VIII's claim to France was supported by the Pope himself.
,led to sinking of the Mary Rose (although apparently it sunk of its own accord)
The sinking of the Mary Rose occurred in the Solent between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight in 1545 during the Italian Wars.
François van der Delft, the Holy Roman Empire's ambassador to England, wrote in a letter the only confirmed eyewitness account of the tragedy, which was related to him by one of the ship's Flemish crewmen.
According to the unnamed Fleming, the ship had fired all of its guns of one side and was turning to present the guns on the other side to the enemy ship, when she was caught in a strong gust of wind, heeled and took in water through the open gunports.
Three years after the sinking, the Hall's Chronicle gave the reason for the sinking as being caused by "to[o] much foly ... for she was laden with much ordinaunce, and the portes left open, which were low, & the great ordinaunce unbreached, so that when the ship should turne, the water entered, and sodainly she sanke."
Actually, the French lost the Italian Wars against the Habsburgs and their allies, including Henry VIII's England.
In 1520, Francis even tried to suck up to Henry. Francis tried to woo Henry at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520 to try and get Henry's support in his struggle against the Habsburgs, but he failed.
As a result, he ended up having to form a Franco-Ottoman alliance with Suleiman the Magnificent, a controversial move for a Christian king at the time.
So sayeth the cowardly king's jesters and fools.... while the people writhed in squalor and filth.
The victory at Agincourt marked a period of rejoicing throughout England and Wales (the now defunct Kingdom of England).
Even folk songs were written about it, including this one written not long after the battle.
Agincourt Carol (in its original Middle English)
Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria!
[England, give thanks to God for victory!]
Owre Kynge went forth to Normandy
With grace and myght of chyvalry
Ther God for hym wrought mervelusly;
Wherefore Englonde may call and cry
Chorus
Deo gratias!
Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria!
He hette sege, forsothe to say,
To Harflu towne with ryal aray;
That toune he wan and made afray
That Fraunce shal rewe tyl domesday.
Chorus
Then went hym forth, owre king comely,
In Agincourt feld he faught manly;
Throw grace of God most marvelsuly,
He had both feld and victory.
Chorus
Ther lordys, erles and barone
Were slayne and taken and that full soon,
Ans summe were broght into Lundone
With joye and blisse and gret renone.
Chorus
Almighty God he keep owre kynge,
His peple, and alle his well-wyllynge,
And give them grace wythoute endyng;
Then may we call and savely syng:
Chorus
