another obstacle to the force of the French cavalry: the wounded men and horses discomposed their ranks: the narrow compass in which they were pent up hindered them from recovering any order: the whole army was a scene of confusion, terror, and dismay. Perceiving his advantage, Henry led an impetuous charge of his men at arms, and ordered the archers to advance and gall the enemy's flanks. These falling on the foe, who, in their present posture, were incapable either of flight or of defence, hewed them in pieces without resistance, and covered the field with the killed, wounded, dismounted, and overthrown. No battle was ever more fatal to France for the number of princes and nobility slain or taken prisoners. Among the latter were the dukes of Orleans and Bourbon. The killed are computed, on the whole, to have amounted to 10,000 men; and Henry was master of 14,000 prisoners. The loss of the English was very small, being only about 1600, including, however, the duke of York and the earl of Suffolk. Henry, not being in a condition to pursue his victory, carried his prisoners to Calais, and thence to England, and conIcluded a truce with the enemy.

§ 7. During this brief interruption of hostilities, France was exposed to all the furies of civil war; and the several parties became every day more exasperated against each other. In consequence of the capture of the duke of Orleans at Agincourt, the count of Armagnac, his father-in-law, became the head of his party (hence called the Armagnacs), and was created constable of France. The duke of Burgundy, who had aspired to this dignity, formed an alliance with the English, promising to do homage to Henry. His power was strengthened by the accession of Isabella, the queen, who had formerly been his enemy, but had now quarrelled with the Armagnacs. The dauphin sided with the latter; and open war broke out between the two factions. Whilst the country was ill prepared to resist a foreign enemy, Henry landed again at Toucques on the Seine, with 25,000 men (August 1, 1417), and met with no considerable opposition from any quarter. He made himself master of Caen; Bayeux and Falaise submitted to him; and having subdued all lower Normandy, and received a reinforcement of 15,000 men from England, he formed the siege of Rouen, which he took after an obstinate defence (January 19, 1419): Henry still continued to negociate, and had almost arranged advantageous terms, when John, duke of Burgundy, secretly made a treaty with the dauphin. The two princes agreed to share the royal authority during king Charles's lifetime, and to unite their arms in order to expel foreign enemies. This alliance seemed at first to cut off from Henry all hopes of further success, but

the treacherous assassination of the duke of Burgundy soon afterwards (1419) by the partisans of the dauphin opened the way to a new and favourable arrangement. Philip, count of Charolois, now duke of Burgundy, thought himself bound by every tie of honour and of duty to revenge the murder of his father, and to prosecute the assassins to the utmost extremity. In December a league was concluded at Arras between him and Henry, by which the duke of Burgundy, without stipulating anything for himself except the prosecution of his father's murderers and the marriage of Henry's brother, the duke of Bedford, with his sister, was willing to sacrifice the kingdom to Henry's ambition. He agreed to every demand made by that monarch. To finish this astonishing treaty, which was to transfer the crown of France to a stranger, Henry went to Troyes, accompanied by his brothers, the dukes of Clarence and Gloucester; and was there met by the duke of Burgundy (1420). The imbecility into which Charles had fallen made him incapable of seeing anything but through the eyes of those who attended him; as they on their part saw everything through the medium of their passions. A treaty, already concerted among the parties, was immediately drawn, signed, and ratified (May 21). By the principal articles Henry was to espouse the princess Katharine, daughter of the king; Charles, during his lifetime, was to enjoy the title and dignity of king of France; and Henry was to be regent, and to succeed to the throne on the death of Charles, to the exclusion of the dauphin. In a few days after, Henry espoused the princess Katharine, but next day led his army again into the field. Sens, Montereau, and Melun yielded to his arms. In December he made his triumphal entry into Paris. He there assembled the estates of France, and procured from them a ratification of the treaty of Troyes. But soon after, the necessity of providing supplies, both of men and money, obliged him to return to England (1421). He appointed his uncle, Thomas Beaufort, duke of Exeter,* as regent during his absence (June 10).

§ 8. After the coronation of Katharine, Henry, raising fresh forces, returned to Paris in May, with 24,000 archers and 4000 horsemen, and was received with great joy. During his absence a body of 7000 Scots, fearing to see France fall into the power of their ancient enemy, had proceeded to the assistance of the dauphin, and had defeated and killed the duke of Clarence at Peaugé. But the presence of Henry soon restored all. The dauphin was chased beyond the Loire, and almost totally abandoned the northern provinces; he was even pursued into the south by the united armns of the English and Burgundians, and threatened with total destruc*For the Beaufort family, see the Genealogical Tables,

tion. To crown Henry's good fortune, his queen was delivered of a son, who was called by his father's name, and whose birth was celebrated by rejoicings no less pompous at Paris than at London. But his glory was suddenly extinguished with his life. He was attacked by pleurisy, and, finding himself unable to rejoin his army, was carried to Vincennes, near Paris, where he expired, exclaiming in the midst of his suffering, "My portion is with the Lord Jesus." He died August 31, 1422, in the 35th year of his age and the 10th of his reign. He left the regency of France to his next surviving brother, John, duke of Bedford; that of England to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester; and the care of his son's person to the earl of Warwick. He was buried in the Confessor's chapel, at Westminster.

This prince possessed many eminent virtues; and if we give indulgence to ambition in a monarch, or rank it, as the vulgar are inclined to do, among his virtues, they were unstained by any considerable blemish. His abilities appeared equally in the cabinet and in the field. The boldness of his enterprises was no less remarkable than his personal valour in conducting them. He had the talent of attaching his friends by affability, and of gaining his enemies by address and clemency. He was an accomplished musician, and fond of the learning in which he had been trained at Queen's College, Oxford, under his uncle, bishop Beaufort. His stature was somewhat above the middle size, his countenance beautiful, his limbs slender, but full of vigour.

Katharine of France, Henry's widow, married soon after his death a Welsh gentleman, Owen Tudor, said to be descended from the ancient princes of that country. She bore him two sons, Edmund and Jasper, of whom the eldest was created earl of Richmond, and was father of Henry VII.; and the second was earl of Pembroke.

HENRY VI.

§ 9. HENRY VI., b. 1421; r. 1422-1461, was born at Windsor, December 6, and was scarcely nine months old when he succeeded his father. The duke of Gloucester claimed the regency under the will of the late king, but his claim was resisted by the Great Council; and when parliament assembled, the lords, setting aside the late king's will, appointed Gloucester protector, with limited authority, and entrusted the substantial powers of government to a committee of lords and commons. The regency of France fell to the duke of Bedford, with the consent of the duke of Burgundy The person and education of the infant prince was committed to Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, his great-uncle, the legitimated son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster.

The interest of the early part of this reign centres in the affairs of France. Charles VI. expired about two months after the death of his son-in-law Henry. His son, Charles VII., a young prince of a popular character, and rightful heir to the throne, asserted his claim against his infant competitor, but, in the face of such overwhelming power as the English then possessed, such pretensions appeared ridiculous. Bedford, a skilful politician, as well as a good general, strengthened himself by forming an alliance with the duke of Brittany, who had received some disgusts from the French court. To avert the hostility of the Scots, many of whom were serving under Charles VII., Bedford persuaded the English council to form an alliance with James, their prisoner, to release him from his long captivity, and connect him with England by marrying him to a daughter of John Beaufort, earl of Somerset, cousin of the young king. The treaty was concluded; a ransom of 40,000l. was stipulated; and the king of Scots was restored to the throne of his ancestors (1424).

§ 10. The great victory gained by the duke of Bedford over the French and Scots at Verneuil opened Maine to the English (August 16, 1427). The affairs of Charles grew more desperate than ever; and in 1428 Bedford determined to penetrate into the south of France, which remained in obedience to Charles VII. With this view he invested Orleans, which commanded the passage of the Loire, the key of the southern provinces. The command of the besieging forces was intrusted to the earl of Salisbury, one of the most distinguished generals of the age. Upon his death by a cannon-ball, the siege was continued by William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, and had lasted several months, when relief appeared from an unexpected quarter.

In the village of Domremi, near Vaucouleurs, on the borders of Lorraine, there lived a peasant girl, seventeen years of age, called Jeanne or Jeannette d'Arc (in English, Joan of Arc), the daughter of a poor cottager. Unable to read or write, she had seen visio's in her youth, and heard angelic voices. Persuaded that she had a mission from Heaven to expel the invaders of her country, she went to Vaucouleurs, procured admission to Baudricourt, the governor, and informed him that she had an order from her Lord to deliver Orleans. Baudricourt paid little regard to her entreaties; but on her frequent returns and repeated importunities, he consented to send her to the French court, which at that time resided at Chinon. Dressed as a soldier, she started on her journey of 250 miles through a country infested by the English. Admitted into the king's presence, it is pretended that she distinguished him at once from all his courtiers, though they were dressed more manificently than him

self. She told him she had been sent by God to assist him, and conduct him to Rheims, to be there crowned and anointed. On his expressing doubts of her mission, she revealed to him a secret known only to himself; and she demanded, as the instrument of her future victories, a particular sword, which was kept in the church of St. Katharine of Fierbois, which she minutely described, though she had never seen it. Her requests were at last complied with; she was armed cap-a-pie, mounted on horseback, and shown in martial habiliments to the people. Her dexterity in managing her steed was regarded as a fresh proof of her mission; and she was received with the loudest acclamations by the spectators. Her first exploit was to conduct a convoy of provisions into Orleans; and the English, daunted by a kind of supernatural terror, did not venture to resist (April 29, 1429). The maid entered Orleans mounted on a white charger, arrayed in her military garb, and, displaying her consecrated banner, was received as a deliverer from Heaven.

She now called upon the garrison to remain no longer on the defensive, but attack the redoubts of the enemy surrounding the city. These enterprises succeeded. In one attack Joan was wounded in the neck with an arrow; she retreated a moment behind the assailants, pulled out the arrow with her own hands, had the wound quickly dressed, and hastened back to head the troops, and to plant her victorious banner on the ramparts of the enemy. By these successes the English were discouraged, and evacuated the forts on the north. As it seemed dangerous to Suffolk, with such intimidated troops, to remain any longer in the presence of so courageous and victorious an enemy, he raised the siege, and retreated with all the precaution imaginable (May 8).

§ 11. The raising of the siege of Orleans was one part of the maid's promise to Charles; the crowning of him at Rheims was the other; and she now vehemently insisted that he should forthwith set out on that enterprise. A few weeks before, such a proposal would have appeared the most extravagant in the world. But Charles, at the head of only 12,000 men, marched to that town without opposition. The ceremony of his coronation was performed with the holy oil, which all France believed a dove had brought to king Clovis from heaven on the first establishment of the French monarchy (July 17). The Maid of Orleans, as she was now called, stood by his side in complete armour, and displayed her sacred banner, which had so often confounded his fiercest enemies. The people shouted with unfeigned joy at viewing such a complication of wonders. Charles, thus crowned and anointed, became more formidable in the eyes of all his subjects. Many