Part 45

The one great event with which Henry V's name is connected is the conquest of France. It was hailed at the time as a glorious achievement. In honor of it his tomb in Westminster Abbey was surmounted by a statue of the King, having a head of solid silver. Eventually the head was stolen and never recovered; the wooden statue still remains. The theft was typical of Henry's short-lived victories abroad, for all the territory he had gained was soon destined to be hopelessly lost.

Henry VI (House of Lancaster, Red Rose)--1422-1461

292. Accession of Henry; Renewal of the French War.

The heir to all the vast dominions left by Henry V was proclaimed King of England and France when in his cradle, and crowned, while still a child, first in Westminster Abbey and then at Paris.

But the accession to the French possesions was merely an empty form, for as Prince Charles, the son of the late Charles VI of France, refused to abide by the Treaty of Troyes (S290) and give up the throne, war again broke out.

293. Siege of Orleans.

The Duke of Bedford fought vigorously in Henry's behalf. In five years the English had got possession of most of the country north of the Loire. They now determined to make an effort to drive the French Prince south of that river. To accomplish this they must take the strongly fortified town of Orleans, which was situated on its banks. (See map facing p. 84.)

During Henry's minority, John, Duke of Bedford, was Protector of the realm. When absent in France, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, acted for him.

Forts were accordingly built around the place, and cannon planted to batter down its walls (S239). Six month later, so much progress had been made in the siege, that it was plain the city could not hold out much longer. The fortunes of Prince Charles seemed to depend on the fate of Orleans. If it fell, nothing, apparently, could save France from yielding to her conqueror.

294. Joan of Arc, 1429-1431.

At this juncture Joan of Arc, a peasant girl of eighteen, came forward to inspire her despairing countrymen with fresh courage. She believed that Heaven had called her to drive the English from the land. The troops rallied round her. Clad in white armor, mounted on a white war horse, she saved Orleans; then she led the troops from victory to victory, until she saw Prince Charles triumphantly crowned in the Cathedral of Rheims. (See map facing p. 128.)

Her fortunes soon changed. Her own people basely abandoned her. The unworthy King Charles made no attempt to protect the "Maid of Orleans," and she fell into the hands of the infuriated English, who believed she was in league with the devil. In accordance with this belief Joan was tried for witchcraft and heresy at Rouen, and sentenced to the flames. She died (1431) as bravely as she had lived, saying in her last agonies that her celestial voices had not deceived her, and that through them she had saved France.

"God forgive us," exclaimed one of Henry's courtiers who was present, "we are lost! We have burned a saint!" It was the truth; and from the martyred girl's ashes a new spirit seemed to go forth to bless her ungrateful country. The heart of the French people was touched; they rose and drove the English invaders from the soil of France.

Before Henry VI reached his thirtieth year the Hundred Years' War with France, which Edward III had begun (S237), was ended (1453), and England had lost all of her possessions on the Continent, except a bare foothold at Calais, and that was destined to be lost a few generations later (S373).

295. Henry VI's Character and Marriage.

When Henry became of age he proved to be but the shadow of a King. His health and character were alike feeble. At twenty-five he married the beautiful and unfortunate French Princess, Margaret of Anjou, who was by far the better man of the two. When years of disaster came, this dauntless "Queen of tears" headed councils, led armies, and ruled both King and kingdom.

296. Poverty of the Crown and Wealth of the Nobles.

One cause of the weakness of the government was its poverty. The revenues of the Crown had been greatly diminished by gifts and grants to favorites. The King was obliged to pawn his jewels and the silver plate from his table to pay his wedding expenses; and it is said on high authority that the royal couple were sometimes in actual want of a dinner.

Fortescue, on the "Government of England" (Plummer).

On the other hand, the Earl of Warwick and other great lords had made fortunes out of the French wars, and lived in regal splendor. This Earl, it is said, had at his different castles and his city mansion in London upwards of thirty thousand men in his service. Their livery, or uniform, a bright red jacket with the Warwick arms--a bear erect holding a ragged staff--embroidered on it in white, was seen, known, and feared throughout the country.

First, by furnishing troops to the government, the feudal system having now so far decayed that many soldiers had to be hired; secondly, by the plunder of French cities; thirdly, by ransoms obtained from noblemen taken prisoners.

Backed by such forces it was easy for the Earl and other powerful lords to overawe kings, parliaments, and courts. Between the heads of the great houses quarrels were constantly breaking out. The safety of the people was endanged by these feuds, which became more and more violent, and often ended in bloodshed and murer.

297. Disfranchisement of the Common People, 1430.

With the growth of power on the part of the nobles, there was also imposed for the first time a restriction on the right of the people to vote for members of Parliament. Up to this period all freemen might take part in the election of representatives chosen by the counties to sit in the House of Commons.

A law was now passed forbidding any one to vote at these elections unless he was a resident of the county and possessed of landed property yielding an annual income of forty shillings (S200). Subsequently it was further enacted that no county candidate should be eligible unless he was a man of means and social standing.

The income required by the statute was forty shillings, which, says Freeman, we may fairly call forty pounds of our present money. See E.A. Freeman's "Growth of the English Constitution," p. 97.

These two measures were blows against the free self-government of the nation, since their manifest tendency was to make the House of Commons represent the property rather than the people of the country (S319). (See, too, Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xiii, S14.)

298. Cade's Rebellion (1450).