HENRY VI. (OF ENGLAND). 



HENRY VI. (OF ENGLAND). 



brother UM Dak* of Bedford. IM WM ouricd back in litter to the 

 Bate do VinoMinea, in the vicinity of the capital, and then, after an 

 iUne of about a month, he breathed hu last, on the Slit of August, 

 in the thirty-fourth jear of hit age and the tenth of his reign. 



It U unnecessary in the present day to waste a word on either the 

 we or the folly of the enterprise on which Henry thus threw 

 the whole of hia reign. In estimating his character, it is of 

 i ioportanos to remember that the folly and injustice, which are 



ID evident, were as little perceived at that day by his subjects in 



general as by himaslf, and that there oan be no doubt whatever that 

 both he and they thought he was, in the assertion of his fancied rights 

 to the crown of France, punning both a most important and a most 

 legitimate object That motives of personal ambition mingled their 

 influence in his view* and proceedings must no doubt be admitted ; 

 bat that is> perfectly consistent with honesty of purpose and a thorough 

 belief in the lightness. both of the object sought and the means em- 

 ployed to secure it In following the bright though misleading idea 

 that had captivated him, he certainly displayed many endowments of 

 the loftiest and most admirable kind energy, both of body and mind, 

 which no fatigue could quell ; the most heroic gallantry ; patience and 

 endurance, watchfulness and activity, steadiness, determination, policy, 

 and other moral constituents, as they may be called, of genius, as well 

 as mere military skill and resources. Nor does any weighty impu- 

 tation dim the lustre of these virtues. His slaughter of his prisoners 

 at the battle of Agincourt, almost the only stigma that rests upou his 

 memory, was an act of self-preservation justified by what appeared to 

 be the circumstances in which he was placed. No monarch ever 

 occupied a throne who wns more the idol of his subjects than 

 Henry V. ; nor is any trace to be found of popular dissatisfaction 

 with any part of his government from the beginning to the end of 

 his reign. 



HENRY VI., surnamod of Windsor, was born there on the 6th of 

 December 1421, being the only issue of Henry V. by his queen the 

 Princess Catherine of France. He wag consequently not quite nine 

 months old when the death of his father left him king of England. 

 His reign is reckoned from the 1st of September 1422, the day following 

 his father's death. 



In the settlement of the government which took place upon the 

 accession of the infant king, the actual administration of affairs in 

 England was entrusted to the younger of his two uncles, Humphrey, 

 popularly called the Good, duke of Gloucester, as substitute for the 

 elder, John, duke of Bedford, who was appointed president of the 

 council, but who remained in France, taking his late brother's place as 

 regent of that kingdom. Gloucester's title was Protector of the 

 Realm and Church of Englnnd. The care of the person and education 

 of the king was some time after committed to Richard de Beaucbamp, 

 earl of Warwick, and to the king's great-uncle, Bishop (afterwards 

 cardinal) Henry Beaufort 



The history of the earlier and longer portion of this reign is the 

 history of the gradual decay and final subversion of tho English 

 dominion in France. The death of Henry V. was followed in a few 

 weeks (October 22nd) by that of his father-iu-law, the imbecile 

 Charles VI. Immediately on this event the dauphin was acknow- 

 ledged by his adherents as Charles VIL ; and Henry VI. was also 

 proclaimed in Paris, and wherever the English power prevailed, as 

 king of France, The next events of importance that occurred were 

 the two great victories of Crevaut and Verneuil obtained by the 

 English over the French and their Scottish allies, the former on the 

 31st of July 1423, the latter on the 17th of August 1424. In the 

 interim, King James of Scotland, after his detention of nearly twenty 

 years, had been released by the English council, and had returned to 

 his native country after marrying a near connection of the royal 

 family, the Lady Jane Beaufort, daughter of the Duke of Somerset. 

 One of the engagements made by James on his liberation was that he 

 should not permit any more of his subjects to enter into the service 

 of France ; the Scots who were already there were for the most part 

 destroyed a few months afterwards in the slaughter of Verneuil. 



This however was the last great success obtained by the English in 

 France. From this time their dominion began to loosen and shake, 

 and then to crumble faster and faster away, until it fell wholly to ruin. 

 The first thing which materially contributed to unsettle it was the 

 disgust given to the Duke of Burgundy by the marriage of the Duke 

 of (JloucesUr with Jacqueline of Hoinault, and their subsequent 

 invasion and seizure of her hereditary states, then held by her former 

 husband John, duke of Brabant, who was the cousin of the Duke of 

 Burgundy. Although Burgundy, on being left to pursue his quarrel 

 with Jacqueline, whom he soon succeeded in crushing, after she had 

 been abandoned by Gloucester, did not go to the length of openly 

 breaking with the English on account of this matter, his attachment 

 was never afterwards to be much relied upon, and he merely waited 

 for a favourable occasion to change aides. Meanwhile another of tho 

 most powerful of the English allies, the Duke of Brittany, openly 

 declared for Charles VIL Other embarrassments also arose about the 

 same time out of the mutual jealousies and opposition of Gloucester 

 and Bishop Beaufort, which at last blazed up into open and violent 

 hostility. It required all the moderating prudence, and steadiness of 

 tho Duke of Bedford to break as much as |>oaaiblu the shock of these 

 various advene occurrences. For some yean accordingly he had 



enough to do in merely maintaining his actual position. It was not 

 till the close of 1428 that be proceeded to attempt the extension of 

 the English authority beyond the Loire. With this view the siege of 

 Orleans was commenced on the 12th of October in that year by the 

 Earl of Salisbury, and, on his death from a wound received a few 

 weeks after, carried on by the Earl of Suffolk. The extraordinary 

 succession of events that followed the appearance of Joan of Arc on 

 the scene; her arrival in tho besieged city (April 29th, 1429); the 

 raising of tho siege (May 8th) ; the defeat of the English at tho battle 

 of 1'atay (June 18th); the coronation of King Charles at Ulu-ium 

 (July 15th); the attack on Paris (September 12th) ; the capture of 

 Joan at Compiegne (Hay 25th, 1430); her trial and execution at 

 Rouen (May 30th, 1431) all belong to the singular story of the heroic 

 maid. [ARC, JOAN OF.] 



The young king of England, now in his ninth year, had in the 

 mean time been brought to Rouen (May, 1430), and was about a year 

 and a half afterwards solemnly crowned at Paris (17th of December, 

 1431). The death of the Duchess of Bedford, the sister of tho Duke 

 of Burgundy, in November 1432, and the marriage of Bedfonl in 

 Hay of the following year with Jacqnetta of Luxembourg, aided 

 materially in still further detaching Burgundy from the English 

 connection, till, his remaining scruples gradually giving way under hia 

 resentment, in September 1435, he concluded a peace with king 

 Charles. This important transaction was managed at a great congress 

 of representatives from all the sovereign powers of Europe aiaeuibl< d 

 at Arras, with the view of effecting a general peace under the medi- 

 ation of the pope. On tho 14th of September, a few days after the 

 treaty between Charles and Burgundy had been signed, but before it 

 was proclaimed, died the great Duke of Bedford. This event gave the 

 finishing blow to the dominion of the English in France. In April 

 1436 the English garrison in Paris was compelled to capitulate. The 

 struggle lingered on for about fifteen years more ; but although some 

 partial successes, and especially the brilliant exertions of the famous 

 Talbot (afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury), in Normandy and elsewhere, 

 gave a check from time to time to the progressive dissolution of the 

 English power, the prevailing current of events ran decidedly in the 

 contrary direction. In 1444 a truce was agreed upon, to last till 

 the 1st of April 1446; and in this interval a marriage was arranged 

 between king Henry and Margaret, the beautiful daughter of Rend, 

 king of Sicily and Jerusalem, and duke of Anjou, Maine, and Bar. 

 These lofty dignities however were all merely titular; with all his 

 kingdoms and dukedoms, Rend was at this time nearly destitute both 

 of land and revenue. Thus circumstanced, in return for the hand of 

 his daughter, he demanded the restoration of his hereditary states of 

 Maine and Anjou, which were in the possession of the English, and 

 the proposal was at length assented to. Nor was this cession of terri- 

 tory the only thing that tended from the first to excite popular 

 feeling in England against the marriage. Margaret was a near 

 relation of the French king, and had been in great part brought up 

 at the court of Charles. The connection therefore seemed to be one 

 thoroughly French in spirit, and it is no wonder that the Earl of Suffolk, 

 by whom it had been negociated, became from this time the object 

 of much general odium and suspicion, the more especially when it was 

 found that Margaret, who soon evinced both commanding talent and 

 a most imperious temper, distinguished him by every mark of her 

 favour, and made him almost exclusively her confidential adviser and 

 assistant in winding to her purposes her feeble and pliant husband. 

 The marriage was solemnised in the abbey of Tichiield, 22ud of April 

 1445, Suffolk having a few mouths before, on tho conclusion of the 

 negociations, been created a marquis. The truce with France was 

 now prolonged till the 1st of April 1449. Tho first remarkable event 

 that followed was tho destruction of the Duke of Gloucester, who, 

 although he appears not to have openly opposed the marriage, was 

 certainly the most formidable obstacle in the way of the complete. 

 ascendancy of Suffolk and the queen. Having been arrested on a 

 charge of high treason, llth of February 1447, he was on the 28th of 

 the same mouth found dead iu his bed. In the popular feeling, his 

 death was generally attributed to the agency of Suffolk, who now, 

 raised to tho dignity of duke, became, ostensibly as well as really, 

 prime or rather sole minister. 



Soon after hostilities were renewed iu France, and a numerous force 

 having been pouivd by king Charles into Normandy, through tho 

 adjacent country of Maine, no longer a hostile frontier, town after 

 town was speedily reduced, till at last Rouen, the capital, surrendered, 

 4th of November 1449. Karly in tho next jear another heavy reverse 

 was sustained in the defeat of Sir Thomas Kyriel at Fourmigny ; and 

 at hist the fall of Cherbourg, 12th of August 1450, completed the loss 

 of the duchy. Before this catastrophe however tho public indignation 

 in England had swept away the unhappy minister on whose head all 

 this accumulation of disasters and disgraces was laid ; the Duke of 

 Suffolk, after having been committed to the Tower, on the impeach- 

 ment of tho House of Commons, and banUhcd from tho kingdom by 

 the judgment of his peers, was seized as he was sailing across from 

 Dover to Calais, and being carried on board nno of the king's ships, 

 was them detained for a few days, and at last bad his head struck off 

 by an executioner who came alongside in a I oat from the shore, 

 May Und, H.10. The death of Suffolk was immediately followed by 

 a popular insurrection, unparalleled in its extent and violence siuuo 



