upon whose goodwill his power rested, though he was never popular. He had not scrupled to shed blood to gain his own ends, yet he was merciful by nature, and could never altogether shake off the feeling that he had sinned heavily. The continual resistance he met even in his family aged him before his time, and his mistrust of his own son is but a single proof of his uneasy mind.

CHAPTER II.

Henry V. of Monmouth, 1413-1422.

1. On taking up the rule of the nation, Henry, who was crowned on Palm Sunday, April 9, 1413, on a dark, cloudy, wet day, at once showed such zeal and earnestness that those who had looked on him as a selfish, reckless, and quarrelsome young man wondered at his wisdom. On the other hand, those who had hoped that he would dismiss his father's friends and show favour to the Lollards were not well pleased. Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, the new king's uncle, being made chancellor in Arundel's place, the archbishop busied himself with attacking the Wicliffites. He got Convocation to send up to the council the name of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, an old friend and fellowsoldier of Henry's, as one that sheltered heretics and spread evil teaching. The king himself spoke with Sir John, but could not get him to change his views, so the summons was issued for his trial. But Oldcastle paid no heed till he was taken by the king's officers and brought before Arundel. He then defended himself boldly, charging his judges and accusers with sin and crime. But he was sentenced to death, forty days' grace being given him wherein to repent if he would. Within two weeks, however, he broke out of the Tower, and in spite of the curse of the bishops and the high reward set on his head by the king, was kept in safe Oldcastle's plot, hiding. And now he and his Lollard friends January 1414. made a plot to seize Henry at Eltham, and force him to rule as they thought good, but he hurried to London before they could take him. Their next plan was to call a meeting of all their followers for the 12th January 1414, at St. Giles's Fields. But, on the evening before, Henry closed and guarded the gates of London, and rode out

with many knights to stop the gathering. Those already at the tryst were seized or killed, and the other bands taken or driven off as they came up one by one. Oldcastle took

alarm and fled, but his friend, Sir Roger Acton, was tried for treason, found guilty, and put to death with some thirty more. It was said that these men, had they been successful, meant to set right both Church and State, choosing Captains for each shire to rule them under Oldcastle (who was to be Captain of England), doing away with serfdom, harsh land-laws, and heavy taxes, and taking the estates of the Church for the defence of the realm. Many in south England still clung to the hope of such changes, so this year the Parliament was held at Leicester, where it was made law

(a) That constables and justices should not wait for the bishop's orders, but of their own accord send to the Church courts for trial all whom they believed to be Lollards. (b) That the lands of the alien priories, namely, the estates in England belonging to monasteries over sea, should be in the king's charge for ever, lest English wealth should be used against England. (c) That henceforward no law made on the request of the Commons should be entered on the rolls so as to change its meaning and intent. (d) John and Humfrey, the king's brothers, were made Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester, his cousin Richard, Earl of Cambridge, and Thomas Beaufort, his kinsman, confirmed as Earl of Dorset. (e) It was resolved to send and demand the king's rights from France, and, upon refusal, to enforce these rights by arms.

This last step was taken because the king wished to win a principality in France wherein to find help and refuge if he were ever driven from England, and because the nobles were eager for a chance of winning fame and riches, while the merchants looked to the gain that would flow from trade when Normandy and north France were in English hands, and the safety of the sea thereby secured. Most eager of all were the clergy, who hoped that a war would turn men's minds from the ideas spread by the Lollards. France was weak at this time. Charles VI. was still mad, and therefore helpless to curb the feuds of his selfish kinsmen, who were ruining their country; on one side the dauphin, the Duke of Orleans, and the southern lords; on the other, John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, who was favoured by Paris and the great towns. Knowing the danger, the French court offered Henry's ambassadors Aquitaine and the hand of the king's daughter Katherine, with a dower of 400,000 nobles. But this was not enough for him. So calling a fresh

Parliament, November 1414, he got a large grant, and raising all the money he could, made ready for war. Bedford was made Lieutenant of the realm, and the noble houses that had quarrelled with the late king were pacified by the burial of Richard II. at Westminster, and the promise of giving back to the young earls, March, Northumberland, and Huntingdon, their rank and royal favour. An army was raised by contract, and a navy gathered to ship it over Channel. Rules were made for the sharing of the booty, and the ransom of the prisoners that might be taken. Henry went Cambridge's plot, down to Portsmouth to embark, when a plot July 1415. formed against him by the Earl of Cambridge was revealed to him by that earl's brother-in-law, March. As soon as the king had sailed, March, now heir-by-blood to the crown, was to have been carried off to Wales and proclaimed king, if it were found for certain that Richard II. was dead; the Scots were to be called in, and money was to be got from France. Cambridge and his fellows were at once tried, found guilty, and put to death, August 2 and 5.

2. On the 13th August, Henry brought up his fleet of 1500, and, landing, beset Harfleur with an army of 6000 men-at-arms, 24,000 archers, and a number of bombards or siege guns. The English suffered much from sickness caused by bad weather, unwholesome food, drunkenness, and dirt; but the great guns London, Messenger, and King's Daughter breached the walls before any aid came from the French council, and Gaucourt, the governor, yielded in despair, September 22. Henry repaired the walls, and put in an English garrison, under the Earl of Dorset, his uncle, sent the sick and wounded back to England, and before leaving the place, wrote a letter to the dauphin in which he offered to fight him man to man, to settle their quarrel without further bloodshed of their countrymen. But the dauphin made no answer, and, October 8, Henry started for Calais, with 900 lancers and 5000 bowmen. His way was not easy; the country before him was laid bare by the peasants, some days his men got nothing but walnuts to eat, and the weather was rainy. The lower fords were stopped; but by swift marching and good luck they crossed the Bresle, the Somme, and the water of Swords, and reached Maisoncelles October 24. Here the way was barred by the Constable of France, at the head of 80,000 men. The English halted, watched all night under arms without food, within sight of the French camp-field, and within hearing of their boastful merriment. In the morning,

after service, they drew up in a field of fresh-sown corn, face to face with the French host, that stretched across the plain by the hamlet of Azincourt.

Battle of Azin

1415.

The king, in full armour, with a jewelled crown glittering on his helmet, set his troops in order, and when all was ready, he prayed aloud for victory. court, Oct. 25, Then turning to his men he bade them fight boldly, for God was on their side, promised them that England should never pay ransom for him, and warned them that the French had cruelly sworn to maim every archer they took, so that he should never shoot again. When he saw that the constable would not attack, he sent

66

forward two companies through the woods that fringed the plain, with orders to harass the French flank when the battle was joined. He then gave his cousin York the vanguard to lead, and alighted from his horse, meaning to fight on foot in front of his royal banner in the old English fashion. "What time is it now?" he asked. "The bells are ringing prime, my lord?" "Now is good time," said he; "England prayeth for us, let us be of good cheer. Banners, advance!" With a loud shout the English bowmen ran forward twenty paces; then halting, every man planted his fivefoot stake which he carried firmly in the earth a pace from at of his comrade, so as to make a palisade which would stop horsemen, but allow footmen to pass through easily. This done they stepped out a few yards in front, and poured a shower of flight-arrows upon the first lines of French knights: And then these Frenchmen came pricking down, as they would have overridden all our company. But God and our archers made them soon to stumble, for our archers shot never arrow amiss, that did not pierce and bring to ground horse and man. And our stakes made them stop, and overturned them one upon another, so that they lay on heaps two spears high. And our king, with his company and his men-at-arms and archers thwacked on them so thick with arrows, and laid on with strokes. And our king fought like a man, with his own hands." The second French line charged in vain. Our bowmen were stripped to the waist, that they might use their arms more freely, and had one foot bared to get firm foothold in the slippery, rainsodden, fresh-ploughed ground; they could therefore move more nimbly than their heavy-armed foes. So, as the French approached, they stopped shooting, slung their bows at their backs, and fell on with sword and mall, axe and bill, doing great slaughter. But the French followed on so fast, and were so many, that the whole English army was soon engaged. Gloucester fell at his brother's feet wounded by a dagger-thrust, but Henry strode across him and beat off his assailants. The Duke of Alençon and a band of knights, who had sworn to take or slay the English king, made their way to where he stood. Alençon felled York with one blow, and cut the king's crown from his helmet with another, but was borne down and killed by Henry's Welsh squires. The fight had lasted an hour; and now the French knights, leaderless and broken, gave up their swords, so that the English soon made hundreds of prisoners, whom, wishing to save for ransom, they passed under