fenfes; and which at laft brought on his death, at Westminster, in the forty-fixth year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign. THE A. D. firmed all thofe prepoffeflions entertained in 1413. his favour. He called together his former abandoned companions; acquainted them with his intended reformation; exhorted them to follow his exam. ple; and thus difmiffed them from his prefence, allowing them a competency to fubfift upon till he faw them wor thy of farther promotion. The faithful minifters of his father, at first, began to tremble for their former juftice in the adminiftration of their duty; but he foon eafed them of their fears, by taking them into his friendship and confidence. Sir William Gafcoigne, who thought' himself the most obnoxious, met with praife instead of reproaches, and was exhorted to perfevere in the fame. rigorous and impartial execution of justice. F About About this time the herefy of Wickliffe, or Lolardifm, as it was called, began to fpread every day more and more, while it received a new luftre from the protection and preaching of Sir John Oldcastle, baron of Cobham, who had been one of the king's domeftics, and ftood high in his favour. The primate, however, indicted this nobleman, and with the affiftance of his fuffragans, condemned him as an heretic to be burnt alive. Cobham however efcaped from the Tower, in which he was confined, the day before his execution, privately went among his party, and, ftimulating their zeal, led them up to London, to take fignal revenge on his enemies. But the king, apprifed of his intentions, ordered that the city gates fhould be fhut: and coming by night with his guards into St. Giles's fields, feized fuch of the confpirators as appeared, and afterwards laid hold of feveral parties that were haftening to the appointed place. Some of these were executed, but the greater number pardoned. Cobham himself. found means of efcaping for that time, but he was taken about four years after; and never did the cruelty of man invent, or crimes draw down, fuch torments as he was made to endure. He was hung up with a chain by the middle; and thus at a flow fire burned, or rather roafted, alive. Henry, to turn the minds of the people from fuch hide. ous fcenes, refolved to take the advantage of the troubles in which France was at that time engaged; and affembling a great fleet and army at Southampton, landed at Harfleur, at the head of an army of fix thousand men at arms, and twenty-four thousand foot, mostly archers. But although the enemy made but a feeble refiftance, yet the climate feemed to fight against the English; a contagious dyfentery carrying off three parts of Henry's army. The English monarch, when it was too late, began to repent of his rafh inroad into a country, where difeafe and a powerful army every where threatened deftruction; he therefore began to think of retiring into Calais. The enemy, however, refolved to intercept his retreat; and after he had paffed the fmall river of Tertrois at Blangi, he was furprised to obferve, from the heights, the whole whole French army drawn up in the plains of Agincourt; and fo pofted, that it was impoffible for him to proceed on his march without coming to an engagement. No fituation could be more unfavourable than that in which he found himself. His army was wafted with disease; the foldiers' fpirits worn down with fatigue, deftitute of provifions, and difcouraged by their retreat. Their whole body amounted but to nine thousand men; and these were to fuftain the fhock of an enemy near ten times their number, headed by expert generals, and plentifully fupplied with provifions. As the enemy were fo much fuperior, he drew up his army on a narrow ground between two woods, which guarded each flank; and he patiently expected, in that pofition, the attack of the ene my. The conftable of France was at the head of one army; and Henry himself, with Edward duke of York, commanded the other. For a time both armies, as if afraid to begin, kept filently gazing at each other, neither willing to break their ranks by making the onfet; which Henry perceiving, with a cheerful countenance, cried out, My friends, fince they will not begin, it is ours to fet them the example; come on, and the Bleffed 'Frinity be our protection." Upon this, the whole army fet forward with a fhout, while the French ftill waited their approach with intrepidity. The English archers, who had long been famous for their great skill, firft let fly a fhower of arrows, three feet long, which did great execution. The French cavalry advancing to repel thefe, two hundred bowmen, who lay till then concealed, rifing on a fudden, let fly among them, and produced fuch a confufion, that the archers threw by their arrows, and rufhing in, fell upon them fword in hand. The French at firit repulfed the affailants, who were enfeebled by dif cafe; but they foon made up the defect by their valour; and refolving to conquer or die, burst in upon the enemy with fuch impetuofity, that the French were foon obliged to give way. They were overthrown in every part of the field; their numbers being crowded into a very narrow space, were incapable of either flying or making any refiftance; fo that they covered the ground with heaps of flain. F 2 After After all appearance of oppofition was over, there was heard an alarm from behind, which proceeded from a number of peafants, who had fallen upon the English baggage, and were putting those who guarded it to the fword. Henry now seeing the enemy on all fides of him, began to entertain apprehenfions from his prifoners, the number of whom exceeded even that of his army. He thought it neceffary, therefore, to iffue general orders for putting them to death: but, on the difcovery of the certainty of his victory, he stopped the flaughter, and was ftill able to fave a great number. This severity tarnished the glory which his victory would otherwise have acquired; but all the heroifm of that age is tinctured with barbarity. In this battle the French loft tenthousand men, and fourteen thousand prisoners; the English only forty men in all. France was at that time in a wretched fituation; the whole kingdom appeared as one vaft theatre A. D. of crimes, murders, injuftice, and devaftation. 1417. The duke of Orleans was affaffinated by the duke of Burgundy, and the duke of Burgundy, in his turn, fell by the treachery of the dauphin. : A ftate of imbecility into which Charles had fallen, made him paffive in every tranfaction and Henry, at laft, by conqueft and negotiation, caufed himself to be elected heir to the crown. The principal articles of this treaty were, that Henry fhould efpoufe the princess Catharine, daughter to the king of France; that king Charles fhould enjoy the title and dignity for life, but that Henry fhould be declared heir to the crown, and fhould be entrusted with the prefent administration of the government; that France and England fhould for ever be united under one king, but should still retain their respective laws and privileges. In confequence of this, while Henry was every where victorious, he fixed his refidence at Paris; A. D. and while Charles had but a fmall court, he was 1421. attended with a very magnificent one. On WhitSunday the two kings and their two queens, with crowns on their heads, dined together in public; Charles receiv ing apparent homage, but Henry commanding with abfolute authority. Henry, at that time, when his glory had nearly reached its fummit, and both crowns were juft devolved upon him, was feized with a fiftula; a diforder, which, from the unfkilfulness of the phyficians of the times, foon became mortal. He expired with the fame intrepi dity with which he had lived, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, and the tenth year of his reign. THE HE duke of Bedford, one of the moff ac A. D. complished princes of the age, and equally 1422. experienced both in the cabinet and the field, was appointed by parliament protector of England, defender of the church, and firft counfellor to the king, during his minority, as he was not yet a year old; and as France was the great object that engroffed all confideration, he attempted to exert the efforts of the nation upon the continent with all his vigour. F 3 A new |