him, and when they came to the 2d verse of the 147th Psalm, he said, "Good Lord, Thou knowest that my mind was to build up the walls of Henry's death Jerusalem!" and spake no more. and character. "Henry was tall and strong, spare of flesh by reason of his sober diet and daily exercise," and so swift of foot that he is said to have once run down a hart in a park. His head was round, with broad brows, small ears, cleft chin, and long neck. His eyes and hair were brown, his colour fresh and ruddy, his teeth very white and even. His look was grave and cold, but his smile made his expression pleasing. His manners were courteous, his speech brief, straightforward, and sharp. His mind was well trained, for though he took much pleasure in hunting, hawking, and feats of arms, he loved his book, and delighted in fair buildings and good art-work. From the day that he was crowned he showed himself a man devout towards God, and just towards men, neither leaning to mercy nor cruelty. He was slow to promise, but steadfast to his word. He worked hard, and was careless of his own comfort or ease, though he paid great heed to the well-being of his soldiers and servants, requiring in return that they should obey him to the letter. After his first great victory abroad, he seems to have believed that he was chosen by God to punish the sins of the French court and nobles, and to reform and raise the land of France, which God had given him as his lawful heritage; and he acted strictly on this view, looking on those who resisted him as evil-doers and enemies of God. Had he lived to have won France as was most likely, he wished to head a great crusade from his three kingdoms to drive out the Turk, crush the Mohammedan Power, and retake the Holy City. Henry was held in awe and love by most Englishmen of his day for his justice, bravery, and success. He came to the throne peaceably, unstained by the treachery and murder that darkened his father's rule, and he died before any ill-hap had touched him. So that, in the next generation, he was looked back to as a saint, and two centuries after was still "of all that time who lived the king of most renown," the chosen hero of our greatest poet. But the fruit of his great deeds were a bitter harvest, and it is truly said of them— 14 'Glory is like a circle on the water Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought. CHAPTER III. Henry VI. of Windsor, 1422-1461 and 1471. 1. As soon as might be, Parliament was called to settle the ruling of the kingdom while the king was yet a child. John, Duke of Bedford, Henry V.'s eldest brother, was named Protector of the Realm and Church, and Chief Counsellor, and when he was out of England, his brother, Humfrey, was to take his place. A privy council of the Dukes of Gloucester and Exeter, with five bishops, five earls, and five barons, were to help and advise the Protector. The Duke of Exeter and his brother the Bishop of Winchester had the care of the baby king. The war was pushed on in France, for when Charles VI. died within a few days of Henry V., the Armagnacs had set up the dauphin, Charles VII., as their king at Poictiers. Bedford, Bedford's suc- a shrewd and hard-working ruler, persuaded cess in France, John VI., Duke of Brittany, to come with him 1422-1424. to Arras and make friends with Philip of Burgundy, who gave each of the dukes one of his sisters in marriage, and promised hearty aid against Charles. In July the English and Burgundians under Salisbury beat the French and Scots at Crévant, through the cowardice of the French leaders. But Charles's generals overcame the Burgundians at la Buissière, and the English at la Gravelle, which mightily encouraged his partisans. Moreover, he sent for troops from Italy, and got 5000 men from Scotland, for which he gave the Earl of Douglas, their captain, his own dukedom of Touraine. To stop more help from Scotland to their foes, the English council thought it best to send King James home again, upon his marrying Joan Beaufort, daughter of the Earl of Somerset, and making peace for some years with England. As soon as James reached Scotland he had the Scottish regent and his two sons slain as traitors, and busied himself eagerly with making good law and good peace for his people, for he had learned much of law, statecraft, and government at the English court. But ere long Bedford got rid of the Scots in France by a victory at Verneuil, Aug. 16, 1424. The Scots and French, eager to attack, fell on disorderly and were beaten, and their leader Douglas, who had mocked Bedford as "Duke John with the leaden sword," was slain, with nearly all his Scots and great part of the French. Gloucester's quarrels with Burgundy and the Cardinal, 1424-1427. 2. And now Salisbury and Bedford would have discomfited the French wholly by Burgundy's help, had it not been for the folly of Gloucester. For first he married Jacqueline, the Duchess of Holland, and went over sea with her to win back her heritage from the Duke of Burgundy, who laid claims to it. He spent much money to little end, and was soon forced to come home again, leaving his wife and her money in Mons; and the townsfolk gave her up to Burgundy, who sent her prisoner to Ghent, whence she escaped to Holland. Gloucester sent Lord Fitzwalter to help her, but he was driven to sea again at Brewers' Haven by the Burgundians, and after that he was glad to let the matter drop. Pope Martin judged the marriage to be void, and so Jacqueline made terms with Burgundy and married again, and Gloucester took to wife Elinor of Cobham, one of Jacqueline's ladies. But Humfrey's action had so angered the Duke of Burgundy that he challenged him to a duel, and was hardly withheld from joining the French, though Bedford gave him two rich earldoms in north France to appease him. And now that Gloucester was back in England, he fell out with his uncle, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, who had been the friend of Henry V., and was the best statesman in the council. Humfrey was handsome and fair-spoken, and the Londoners liked him; so when he forbade the mayor to let the bishop pass through the city to the Tower the gates were shut. "And between 9 and 10 of the clock there came certain men of the bishop's and drew the chains out of the staples at the bridge-end on the Southwark side, both knights and squires, with a great company of archers, and they embattled themselves and guarded windows and peep-holes as though it had been in a land of war. And when the people of the city heard thereof, they made haste to the bridgegates to keep the city and save it against the king's enemies, and all the shops in London were shut within an hour. And then came my lord of Canterbury and the Prince of Portugal (the king's cousin, now visiting England) and parleyed between the duke and the bishop, riding eight times between them that day. And in the end, by good persuasion of the mayor and aldermen, all the people were pacified and sent home again, and none harm done throughout all the city." But the bishop wrote at once to beg Bedford to come home, "for if ye tarry long, we shall put this land in jeopardy with a field [to the hazard of a battle]. Such a brother ye have here: God make him a good man!" Bedford hurried to England, and a parliament was called at Leicester, 25th March 1425, “when it was cried through the town that all men should leave their weapon, that is, their guns and bucklers, bows and arrows, in their inns; and the people took great bats [cudgels] in their hands, and so they went. The next day they were charged that they should leave their bats at their inns, and then they took great staves in their bosoms and sleeves; and so they went to the Parliament of Bats." Gloucester charged his uncle with trying to kill him, and with plotting against Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI. But Beaufort swore that he had never wronged either of the kings, or purposed any evil against his nephew. So, by persuasion of Bedford and the Lords, they shook hands. Bedford and his brother also swore that they would be counselled and ruled in their office of regent and protector by the Lords in parliament or in council, for Gloucester had boasted that he would rule as he liked as soon as his brother had left. 3. In 1427 Beaufort and Bedford left England together for Rouen, where Beaufort was to receive the cardinal's hat Pope Martin had sent him, and where he was also made legate and captain of a crusade which was on foot against the Bohemians. For they followed the teachings of Wyclif and Hus his disciple, and had taken up arms against the bishops and nobles who would have forced them to obey the Church. And at this time it seemed to Beaufort that he could do more good by busying himself with the good of the Church than with the English government. Bedford found matters Bedford's wise rule in France and the dauphin's despair, 1427, 1429. going well for him in France. He soon forced the Duke of Brittany to leave the dauphin and hold to his oath at Troyes, and bit by bit, so good was his rule, that the French chose rather to make terms with him for the sake of being able to till the ground and trade in peace. For he put down the brigands that roamed about disguised as English soldiers, robbing and murdering the people; he struck good money, lightened the taxes, fostered the trades and crafts of the towns, and made many good laws to secure the health and safety of the king's French lieges [subjects]. But Bedford's council in France wished to bring the war to a speedy end by taking Orleans, the strongest city the Armagnacs held, and then crossing the Loire to hunt the dauphin out of the land. Thomas Montague, Earl of Salisbury and Perche, therefore attacked Orleans, stormed the Tournelles, a fort which stood at the end of the bridge before the city, and beset the whole place with batteries and works, for it was too well garrisoned to be stormed. But on the 27th October 1428, as the earl stood at a window of the Tournelles looking over the city, he was struck down and wounded to death by the splinter of a cannon ball that struck the window; and this was held to be a great loss to the English. But the regent sent the Earl of Suffolk to go on with the siege, and he closed all the approaches to Orleans by land or water with thirteen strong forts, so that the city was hard put to it. On February 12, 1429, as Sir John Fastolf was bringing a long train of wagons laden with flour and herrings for the besiegers' food, he was attacked at Rouvray by the Earl of Clermont and Sir John Stewart; but he drew up his wagons in a ring and set his archers to guard the entries, and they drove off the French, who tried to break in, till they withdrew hopeless of success. And Fastolf got all his wagons safely into the English camp. The citizens were now nearly in despair; they could get no supplies, and their stores were running low. They therefore offered to give up their town to Burgundy to hold as long as their own duke was a prisoner in England. But Bedford (much to Burgundy's displeasure) refused to let go a prize which English blood had bought, and waited till the city should be starved into surrender. The dauphin saw no means of relieving it, and had almost made up his mind to leave France altogether for a time, when help came from a quarter whence no man had expected it. 4. "In the year 1429 there was a young girl living in a village called Domp-remy, the daughter of James Darc and Isobel his wife-a mere country maid, that was wont sometimes to keep the cattle, and, when she was not herding them, would be sewing or spinning. She was seventeen or eighteen years old, well limbed and strong. And one day, without taking leave of her father or mother (not that she did not hold them in honour and respect, but because she did not tell them lest they might hinder her intent), this maid went to Vaucouleurs to my lord Robert of Baudricourt, a knight of the France from the dauphin's, and said to him, 'My lord captain, English, 1429. know that, for some time back, at divers times God hath made known to me and commanded me to go to the gentle dauphin, who should be and is the true King of France, that he may give me men-at-arms, whereby I may Joan Darc saves |