Fluellen

Fluellen is a Welsh Captain, a leader of a contingent of troops in the small army of King Henry V of England while on campaign in France during the Hundred Years' War.

Shakespeare adheres to his seemingly common principle of portraying Welsh characters in his plays as basically comedic, offering the audience an opportunity to mock the manners, language, temperament and outmoded attitudes of their Celtic neighbours; compare with Glendower in Henry IV, Part 1 and Sir Hugh Evans the Welsh Parson in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

This appearance comes after the bombastic "Once more unto the breach..." speech delivered by the King as he drives the comic stragglers Bardolph, Nym, Pistol and the Boy toward the enemy.

The affection for the character is secured by Fluellen's words after the miraculous victory at Agincourt, when the French herald, Montjoy, comes to cede for peace.

[4] He may well also have origins based on historical figures who may have been familiar to at least some of the contemporary theatre audience; comparisons have been made between Fluellen and two real life Welsh soldiers.

Williams, who died in 1595, was a close ally of the Earl of Essex, and had been given a large public funeral in St Paul's cathedral four years before the play was written.