HENRY 



3937 



The Great Council of barons, 

 now headed by Simon de Montfort, 

 assembled in arms at Oxford in 

 1258, and compelled the king to 

 accept the Provisions of Oxford, 

 which instituted an elaborate ma- 

 chinery of baronial committees to 

 organize the government of the 

 realm. The barons themselves 

 were so little of one mind that 

 Henry, supported by the arbitra- 

 tion of Louis IX of France, was 

 enabled to repudiate the Pro- 

 visions, and Montfort's party pre- 

 pared to resist. The section of the 

 barons whose chief aim was to 

 secure their own independence 

 supported the king. Montfort de- 

 feated the royalists at the battle of 

 Lewes, May 14, 1264, and virtually 

 assumed the functions of a dictator. 

 But Montfort's dictatorship was 

 resented; the royalists rose in 

 arms and Montfort was killed at 

 the battle of Evesham, Aug. 4, 

 1265. The king was now dominated 

 by the personality of his extremely 

 able son, who was presently to 

 succeed him as Edward I, and to 

 him Henry now resigned the real 

 control of the state. Order was 

 restored and Edward himself began 

 to enforce the very principles for 

 which Montfort had died. Henry 

 died Nov. 1, 1272. 



Henry IV (1367-1413). King of 

 England. Henry of Bolingbroke, 

 known successively as earl of Here- 

 ford, earl of 

 Derby, duke of 

 Lancaster, and 

 Henry IV of 

 England, was 

 born near 

 Spilsby, L i n- 

 colnshire, April 

 3, 1367. He 

 was the son of 

 John of Gaunt, 

 duke of Lan- 

 caster, grand- 

 son of Edward 

 III, and cousin 

 of Richard II. 

 During Richard's reign he was one 

 of the lords appellant who opposed 

 the king's early policy. In 1398 he 

 was sent into exile. On his father's 

 death he returned to England in 

 1399, nominally to claim his es- 

 tates, actually to depose Richard 

 and set himself on the throne , 

 his title being derived from par- 

 liament, which acknowledged him 

 as the lawful heir, disregarding the 

 superior claims of his infant cousin, 

 Edmund Mortimer. 



With him began the rule of the 

 house of Lancaster, in circum- 

 stances which compelled the Lan- 

 castrian kings to yield unprece- 

 dented submission to the will of 

 parliament. Henry's need for the 

 alliance of the Church produced 



the first enactment for the burning 

 of heretics and the suppression 

 of Lollardy. A revolt in Wales, 

 headed by Owen Glendower, was 

 followed by a still more serious 

 revolt of the Percys, which was 

 ended by the battle of Shrewsbury, 

 July 21, 1403. In 1405 there was 

 another insurrection prompted by 

 the exiled Percy of Northumber- 

 land and headed by Mowbray and 

 Archbishop Scrope, and another 

 in 1408. After this, Henry was much 

 troubled by the antagonism of his 

 council, headed by the prince of 

 Wales, afterwards Henry V. He 

 died March 20, 1413. See History 

 of England under Henry IV, J. H. 

 Wylie, 1884-98. 



Henry V (1387-1422). King of 

 England. Henry of Monmouth, 

 9, 1387, succeeded his 

 father, Henry 

 i IV, in 1413. 

 I The legends 

 1 concerning 

 I 'Madcap 

 1 Hal" are 

 i hardly to be 

 I trusted. It is 

 I quite certain 

 that, as prince 

 of Wales, 

 Henry ac- 

 quired very 

 serious trail- 

 ing as a sol- 

 dier in the campaign against the 

 Percys and in Wales, and that 

 he played an active part at the 

 council table during his father's 

 last years. Certainly he exhibited 

 on his accession a character and a 

 high sense of responsibility not 

 generally anticipated. Something 

 of a religious zealot, as king he 

 persecuted heresy sternly, per- 

 suading himself that his secular 

 ambitions were justified because 

 he was an instrument in the hands 

 of the Almighty for the regenera- 

 tion of a corrupt and demoralised 

 France. 



At the beginning of his reign his 

 power of swift decision and rapid 

 action were displayed in the 

 prompt and crushing suppression 

 of a Lollard insurrection at its 

 outset. He then at once turned his 

 mind to the popular project of re- 

 viving the quite untenable claim 

 of the English kings to the French 

 crown, France at the time being 

 distracted by the rival factions of 

 Burgundians and Armagnacs. In 

 1415 an expedition set sail for 

 Normandy, laid siege to Harfleur, 

 and captured it. Leaving a garri- 

 son there, Henry, with a small 

 available force of efficients, not 

 more than 8,000 men, made an 

 ostentatious march through Nor- 

 mandy to Calais. This at last 

 brought down upon him the hosts 



of the French, who had temporarily 

 adjusted their differences, and over 

 them his little army won the 

 victory of Agincourt, Oct. 25, 1415. 

 The next two years he devoted 

 to serious preparations for an 

 organized conquest. In 1417 he 

 again landed in Normandy and set 

 about its systematic reduction, 

 taking city after city and estab- 

 lishing a regular government as he 

 advanced. In Jan., 1419, Rouen fell. 

 The assassination of John of Bur- 

 gundy drove his son Philip into the 

 arms of the English. The Bur- 

 gundian faction held possession of 

 the person of the crazy king 

 Charles VI, and on May 21, 1420, 

 the treaty of Troyes was signed 

 which recognized Henry as heir 

 to Charles and regent during his 

 life, while it gave him the hand of 

 the princess Catherine in marriage. 

 The greater part of France, how- 

 ever, repudiated the treaty. It 

 was still necessary to continue the 

 process of systematic conquest, 

 and before even the whole of the N. 

 had been brought into subjection, 

 Henry died of dysentery at Vin- 

 cennes, Aug. 31, 1422. See Agin- 

 court; consult Henry V, A. J. 

 Church, 1889; Henry V, C. L. 

 Kingsford, 1901 ; The Reign of 

 Henry V, J. H. Wylie, 1914-19. 



Henry VI (1421-71). King of 

 England. Henry of Windsor, born 

 Dec. 6, 1421, son of Henry V, suc- 

 ceeded to the 

 English throne 

 Aug. 31, 1422. 

 During his 

 childhood the 

 government 

 was in the 

 hands of a 

 council, while 

 his uncle, the 

 duke of Bed- 

 ford, acted as 

 regent in 

 France. Before 

 Bedford's 

 death, in 1435, it had become 

 virtually certain that the French 

 conquests of Henry V would not 

 be retained. Joan of Arc (q.v.) had 

 revived the French national spirit, 

 and the tide of English victories 

 was turned. 



The second definitely marked 

 section of the reign extends from 

 1435 to 1453. It witnessed the 

 gradual expulsion of the English 

 not only from northern France, 

 conquered by Henry V, but ev;en 

 from Guienne, which had never 

 been entirely separated from the 

 English crown for 300 years. Only 

 the Calais Pale was left. After 

 Bedford's death the party of the 

 Beauforts and Poles was dominant, 

 the Beauforts being legitimated 

 descendants of John of Gaunt, who 



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