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though the rightful heir to the crown, being found guiltless of this conspiracy, was unmolested; and Henry sailed to the mouth of the Seine, where he took the town of Harfleur, and divided a vast treasure among the soldiers. His army, however, being reduced by sickness to little more than 12,000 men, he determined to withdraw to Calais, and on his way was met by the French army, amounting to 100,000 men, near the castle of Agincourt. His defeat seemed inevitable, and the French made so sure of it that they passed the night in revels, and even fixed the ransom of Henry and his barons. The English employed the time in devotional exercises, and Henry went from post to post, cheering and inspiriting his men. Hearing an officer say that he wished for more men from England, he declared that he wished not for one man more. If God gave them the victory, the glory would be the greater; and if not, the loss to England would be the less. The result of the battle was one of the most astonishing victories on record. The onset was made by the English, who, after using their arrows, rushed on the French with swords and battle-axes, and routed them with great slaughter. The Duke of Alençon had sworn to take or slay the king, and in personal combat with him clove his helmet; but was struck down by Henry and slain. The flower of the French nobility fell in this fatal field. It is computed that 8000 gentlemen were slain, while the loss of the English is said to have been not more than eighty.

The following year (A.D. 1416) Henry crossed again to France, and recovered great part of Normandy: but at last agreed to a truce: and his hopes of conquering the kingdom would perhaps have ended here, had not a general horror been excited against the dauphin, for having occasioned the murder of the Duke of Burgundy. The son of that prince devoted himself to the English cause; and Henry marched to Troyes, where a treaty was concluded, by which Henry was declared Regent of France during the life of Charles VI., whose daughter (the Princess Katharine) he was to marry. He was also declared heir to the crown at the. death of Charles.

The young queen was brought to England, and the joy of the nation was at its height when she gave birth to a son at Windsor. Henry was then in France, where he was

not long afterwards joined by his wife and child; and the magnificence of his court at Paris was far beyond what appeared about the person of the reigning king. A fatal disease now attacked him; under which he died, after a brilliant reign of less than ten years, commending his soul to the mercy of God, and the care of his infant son, who was not a year old, to his brothers, the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester.

The queen-dowager afterwards married Owen Tudor, a gentleman of Wales, by whom she had Edmund, earl of Richmond, and Jasper, earl of Pembroke. The descendants of this marriage were destined to sit on the throne of England.

CHAPTER XX.

HENRY VI. (OF WINDSOR.)

Born at Windsor. Buried at Chertsey, but removed to Windsor. Reigned 39 years. From A.D. 1422 to A.D. 1461.

Archbishops of Canterbury.

Henry Chicheley, A.D. 1414-1442.
John Stafford, A.D. 1442-1452.
John Kemp, A.D. 1452-1454.

Thomas Bourchier, A.D. 1454— 1486.

THE English interest in France was managed after Henry's death, by the Duke of Bedford; in whose absence the Duke of Gloucester was regarded as protector of the infant king in England. Gloucester was a favourite with the people, and long remembered as "good Duke Humphrey ;" but was bitterly opposed by Cardinal Beaufort, a son of John of Gaunt by Katharine Swynford, whom John married at a later period, and whose children by that prince, before her marriage to him, were made legitimate by Richard II.

In France, the English were for a short time successful against the dauphin, who became Charles VII. by the death of his father. They had laid siege to Orleans, with a view to complete the conquest of the kingdom, when the face of things was changed by the appearance of one of the most remarkable persons recorded in history. This was Joan of Arc, a maiden of humble birth, who believed herself commissioned by God to expel the English. Charles

gladly gave ear to a claim which favoured his interest; and by the enthusiasm which her presence excited in the French, and the terror which it spread among the English, she succeeded in fulfilling her word that the siege of Orleans should be raised, and that Charles should be crowned at Rheims. From this time the English interest declined. Henry was indeed crowned at Paris, and Joan herself, having been taken prisoner, was cruelly burnt as a sorceress at Rouen; but after the death of the Duke of Bedford, a treaty was made between Charles and the Duke of Burgundy; and notwithstanding the skill and courage of Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, the English were finally driven out of France, about the year 1450.

In the mean time the quarrels between Gloucester and Beaufort were hurtful to the king; who, though of a mild and devout character, was found, as he grew up, to have but feeble powers of mind. The cardinal, in order to strengthen his party, arranged a marriage between Henry and Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Regnier, the titular king of Sicily; and the English saw with indignation, that instead of receiving any dower with his bride, the king was advised to make over to her uncle the provinces of Maine and Anjou. Margaret was a woman of great beauty and a masculine understanding, and acquired a complete sway over Henry. Two years after this marriage Gloucester was arrested, and within a few days was found dead in his bed. Beaufort, who outlived his nephew only six weeks, was suspected of having caused his death; and if this suspicion be just, the deed was as impolitic as wicked; for by Gloucester's removal a way was opened to the ambition of Richard, duke of York, whose claim to the throne (as heir of the Earl of March on his mother's side) was better than Henry's. The popular discontent, which arose from the disasters in France and mis-government at home, was fomented by this prince, and broke out in an insurrection, under a very obscure leader. The real name of this person was Jack Cade, but he boldly gave himself out to be John Mortimer, son of a Sir John Mortimer (uncle of the last Earl of March), who had been sentenced by Parliament, and executed for high treason at the beginning of this reign. In spite of the absurdity of his story, he was able to gather followers, to defeat the royal forces at Sevenoaks,

and enter London in triumph, where he put to death the Lord Say and others of the nobility. His men having quarrelled, he was forced to flee, and was slain by a gentleman named Iden, in Kent, in whose garden he was hid.

The Duke now raised an army for the avowed purpose of reforming the abuses in the government. He was met by the Duke of Somerset at St. Alban's (A.D. 1455), and a battle took place, in which Somerset, Clifford, and other noblemen fell. Finding that his chance of a peaceable succession was lessened by the birth of a Prince of Wales, York at length openly claimed the crown; and a war began between the houses of York and Lancaster, which for a period of thirty years (A.D. 1455-1485) carried enmity and sorrow to every hearth in England, and cut off successive generations of many noble families in the field or on the scaffold. It is called the War of the Roses, because a white rose was the badge of the house of York, and a red rose the cognizance of the house of Lancaster. During these civil wars, the English possessions on the continent (except Calais) were annexed to the French crown; and this loss may be reckoned a real gain, among the many evils of these contests; because, when peace came back, the undivided care of the government was given to the true prosperity of the nation.

The claims of York were supported by the powerful family of the Nevilles, at the head of which was the Earl of Salisbury. His son, the Earl of Warwick, who was the greatest leader of the age, defeated the forces of Henry at Northampton (A.D. 1460); and it was agreed in a parliament afterwards holden in London, that Henry should have the crown for his life, and York should be declared his successor. The queen, however, raised an army in the north, with which she completely routed the Yorkists at Wakefield (A.D. 1460), where the duke himself fell into her hands, and his second son, the Earl of Rutland, a youth'of seventeen, was butchered in cold blood by Lord Clifford, in revenge for his father's death at St. Alban's. It is said that York was crowned by his enemies, in derision, with a wreath of grass. His head was then struck off, and set

upon the gates of York.

He left, however, several sons, of whom Edward, the eldest, succeeded to his claims. Edward was a prince of

great courage and ability, as well as personal beauty, but of a licentious and cruel character. He was able to give the queen's forces a total defeat at Mortimer's Cross, near Hereford (A.D. 1461); and though Margaret, on the other hand, worsted the Earl of Warwick in a second battle at St. Alban's, in the same year, and recovered possession of her husband's person, she was forced to retire when Edward joined his forces to those of Warwick. That prince then marched to London, where he was received by the citizens, and proclaimed king, A.D. 1461. Shortly afterwards, his brothers George and Richard were created Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester.

CHAPTER XXI.

EDWARD IV.

Born at Rouen, in Normandy. Buried at Windsor. Reigned 22 years. From A.D. 1461 to A.D. 1483.

Archbishop of Canterbury.

Thomas Bourchier, A.D. 1454-1486.

THE triumphs of the House of York appeared to be confirmed by a victory gained a few days afterwards at Towton in Yorkshire. Edward had ordered that no quarter should be given, and nearly one-half of the Lancastrians perished. Margaret withdrew to the continent, but, by the assistance af Louis XI., was able to land in the north the following winter. She was defeated at Hexham; and in the course of this campaign, was once seeking concealment in a forest with her son, when she was met by a robber. Her courage and presence of mind saved her from this danger. Boldly approaching the man, she said, "Friend, I commit to thy care the son of good King Henry." The outlaw accepted the trust, and conducted Margaret and the prince to their friends. She again withdrew from England; while Henry, after being concealed for a year in Lancashire, was betrayed and brought to London, where he was treated with great indignity, and consigned to the Tower.

It was not long before Warwick began to be dissatisfied

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