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THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



ever, dates the welding of the English nation into one homo- 

 geneous whole ; the lords ceased to affect French ways and the 

 French language which, historically speaking, was theirs and 

 identified themselves with the country which was their new 

 home. After the battle of Sluys the word "Englishman" ceased 

 to be a term of reproach. 



The battle of Sluys, the first brilliant victory of the English 

 navy, was barren of immediate result so far as Edward's claim 

 to the French crown was concerned. As usual, when a French 

 war broke out, the King of Scotland broke the peace by way of 

 diversion on his side, and Edward had to turn the whole of his 

 strength against his northern enemy, who was, necessarily, to 

 be crushed before a foreign war could be carried on. In 1346, 

 however, Edward, with the English nation at his back, set out 

 on the campaign which ended on the field of Cre9y, and which 

 was followed some years afterwards by the rout of Poictiers 

 (1356), where the French king, John, was captured by the Black 

 Prince, and brought prisoner to London. The exhausting efforts 

 made during the campaign were such as to prevent Edward from 

 follawing up his splendid successes, and he was glad to arrange, 

 by the Treaty of Bretigni, for a long truce. Various reasons 

 conspired to prevent the resumption of hostilities on a grand 

 scale during the rest of Edward's long reign. The English re- 

 mained masters of large portions of French territory, and 

 the claim of the English king to the crown was not abandoned, 

 but kept as a sword in the scabbard, for use at a conve- 

 nient season. The son of the Black Prince, Eichard of Bor- 

 deaux, who succeeded to his grandfather's crown, did not suc- 

 ceed to his energy or his ability, and the English claim was 

 virtually dormant during the whole of his reign, while the 

 French were employing the time in recovering from the effects 

 of Edward's blows, and from the disastrous results of the long 

 regency which continued all the years King John was in cap- 

 tivity. Henry IV. had not leisure from home troubles to pursue 

 the war, though he seems to have been desirous of doing so, 

 not only as King of England, but by way of paying out the 

 French king for his something more than neglect of him at 

 the time he was in exile as Henry of Bolingbroke. When 

 Henry V. succeeded, he had a large stock of energy to expend, 

 a quiet kingdom, and a fairly stocked treasury ; he had plenty 

 of brave spirits about him, and within him was an ambition 

 which would have taken him to Constantinople or to the capital 

 of the Great Mogul. He determined to assert his claim to the 

 crown of France. 



To a king in his frame of mind an occasion of declaring wa 

 could not long be wanting, and there were several causes which 

 allowed of his choosing his own time and opportunity. He set 

 about his work deliberately, sent a special embassy to France 

 to demand his right, and when that embassy returned from its 

 bootless errand, he prepared with diligence and the utmost cir- 

 cumstance to enforce his claim with the sword. In the month 

 of August, 1415, he sailed from Southampton with one of the 

 finest armies ever mustered in England, landed at Harfleur, 

 which he besieged and captured, and then prepared to advance 

 on Paris. An enemy worse than all the French armies put 

 together came into his camp. Dysentery smote down hundreds 

 of his men, including some of the bravest and wisest, and so 

 weakened the remainder that they could scarcely walk. Henry 

 was obliged to abandon the idea of going to Paris, and gave 

 orders for a march to Calais, whence he proposed to embark his 

 enfeebled army for England. At Agincourt, the French army, 

 which had been hanging about him, barred his advance. It 

 consisted of full three times the number of the English, and was 

 commanded by the Dauphin, the French king's eldest son, and 

 by the flower of the French nobility. The French were confident 

 of victory, the English were in a desperate case, and the battle 

 was joined with an amount of fury seldom witnessed even in 

 those days. The French were utterly routed (October 25, 1415), 

 vast numbers of them were slain, and the shattered remains 

 of the English army pursued its march unmolested to Calais. 



In the next campaign, which was not undertaken till two 

 years afterwards, Henry met with but little resistance in the 

 open country of Normandy, though Eouen was stoutly defended. 

 He reduced Eouen and other towns, and marched to Paris, 

 which he mastered, and dictated terms in the capital of his 

 enemy. The French king, Charles VI., was imbecile, and the 

 Treaty of Troyes, to which the Dauphin refused to be a 

 party, provided that Charles should be called King of France 



during his lifetime, but that Henry should really administer the 

 government, and that after Charles's death he and his suc- 

 cessors should be acknowledged as kings of France. Henry 

 strengthened the band by marrying Catherine, daughter of the 

 French king, and during the rest of his life he did actually rule 

 over France and receive the homage of her vassals. 



In the height of his power Henry was struck down with fistula, 

 which the doctors could not cure. He died, still a young man, and 

 left his son, an infant of nine months old, to the guardianship of 

 the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Warwick. This was in 

 1422. For five years Bedford, who managed with singular tact 

 and prudence, succeeded in keeping things pretty straight, in 

 spite of numerous causes of trouble and disturbance, including, 

 of course, the efforts of the Dauphin, who in the meantime had 

 become Charles VII., to regain his father's throne. Charles had 

 a large following, especially in the south-east of France, and he 

 was able to possess himself of a few towns of strength and 

 importance. Orleans was of the number, but it was closely 

 besieged by the English under the best of their generals, and 

 Charles despaired of relieving it, and thought of going to 

 Languedoc, there to make a final stand. 



Then arose Jeanne Dare, a peasant girl, who saw, or belieyed 

 she saw, visions of the saints, especially of St. Catherine, who 

 came to her and told her she must deliver France from the 

 presence of the English. Her " voices," as she called them, 

 bade her don man's attire, and directed her to fetch a certain 

 sword from a neighbouring church dedicated to St. Catherine. 

 She was permitted by the authorities to follow her bent, and was 

 furnished with armour and a horse. At first the regular soldiers 

 laughed at her, but soon they got to regard her as a prophetess, 

 heaven-sent for the deliverance of France. Under her guidance 

 in strictly military operations she was assisted by Dunois, 

 governor of Orleans the men fought with a courage which in- 

 creased in proportion as her fame as a prophetess grew, and 

 struck fear into the ranks of the English. Orleans was relieved 

 by "the Maid" in person, and the garrison, now strong enough 

 to attack its besiegers, sallied forth and drove the English from 

 Several of their positions. Subsequently another sally was 

 made, a bloody battle was fought, the English lost 2,000 men, 

 and Lord Talbot, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury, was made 

 prisoner. The Duke of Suffolk raised the siege, retiring to 

 Paris, and Charles was crowned King of France with great 

 solemnity at Eheims. 



With these signs of returning prosperity many wavering 

 nobles and towns declared for Charles, and the Duke of Bedford 

 had enough to do to hold Paris and the strictly English parts of 

 France. Jeanne, believing her mission to be over, was anxious 

 to return to her former home in Lorraine, but was over-persuaded 

 by Dunoia to remain with the army till the English should 

 be driven out of France. She remained, and in a sortie made 

 by the garrison of Compiegne, was captured and given over 

 to the English authorities. The English, partly from supersti- 

 tion, partly to excuse the disgrace of their defeats, said that 

 " the Maid " had a devil, and that she had done her work 

 through magic. They hoped also by punishing their prisoner 

 not only to take revenge, but to show the French that their 

 prophetess was a woman after all. 



The Duke of Bedford handed her over to the Church, with 

 what effect we have seen already ; and from the moment of her 

 death the English power seemed to be stricken with mortal sick- 

 ness. Place after place was wrested from them, Paris drove 

 them out, the Duke of Burgundy forsook their alliance, and 

 when in 1435 the Duke of Bedford died, their influence in 

 France was at a very low ebb. A war of reprisals was carried 

 on till 1443, and then a truce was agreed upon which either side 

 broke or kept as it suited their convenience. 



Then came the English Wars of the Eoses, during which 

 disastrous period the claims to France were not thought of, and 

 it never happened to any prince after Henry VI. to have 

 power or opportunity to pursue the right which was never 

 formally renounced. Kings of England continued, neverthe- 

 less, to write themselves down kings of France, even after 

 the loss, in Mary's reign, of their last remaining possession, 

 Calais. Indeed, it was not, as stated at the beginning of this 

 paper, until George III. ascended the throne that the title ap- 

 peared to those interested so ridiculous that it was ordered to 

 be expunged from the style and description of his Majesty of 

 Great Britain. 



