LECTURE XXXV.-FRANCE RECOVERS. Henry VI. The Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester. Cardinal Beaufort. The Maid of Orleans. Coronation of Charles VII. of France. Death of the Maid. 1422. Henry VI. the young His uncles. 1. THE young prince, son of Henry V. and Katherine of France, was only nine months old when his father died. The government would therefore naturally fall into the hands of his uncles, the last king's brothers. There were two of these, the Duke of Bedford and the Duke of Gloucester. The Duke of Bedford was the same as Prince John who fought in the Battle of Shrewsbury, in the days of Henry IV., and of whom we read in Shakespeare's play. He seems to have been his father's favourite, and was now grown to be a very wise and clever man. His brother, Henry V., placed great confidence in him, and when he was dying appointed him to be Regent of France, giving him much good advice as to how he was to proceed. The other brother, Humphrey, was a turbulent, ambitious, and selfish prince, who did a great deal of mischief as long as he lived. Though his brother Henry appointed him to be Regent of England, he had warned him with his dying breath never to set his own selfish interests above those of his country; and the English parliament, perhaps knowing already the sort of man Gloucester was, thought it better that England should be governed by a council. Still he was called Protector, and when his brother, the Duke of Bedford, was away in France, he naturally had a great deal of power and influence. He was liked by the people, and was called, one hardly knows why, the "Good Duke Humphrey." He certainly had one good point about him, which was that he liked books and literature; he collected a very beautiful library, and he used to invite foreign scholars to England, and employ them to translate books for him. 2. Though at this time there were no very clever English writers, like Chaucer or William Langlande, people were growing more and more fond of reading. All books were still in " manuscript," written out by the hand, and about this period it is said that there is a great change in the appearance of these manuscripts. The old ones were very beautifully written; the scribe, or writer, took his time; the pages were often exquisitely ornamented, and every letter perfectly formed. There were not very many books then, nor, indeed, could there be, when they were produced at this rate. But now that so many people wanted to read books, the scribes had to hurry more, and to get a great many more written. They began to write a sort of running hand; not half so beautiful to look at, and not always very easy to read ; but by this means books grew more plentiful. This is again rather like "coming events casting their shadows before." Duke Humphrey afterwards presented his fine library to the University of Oxford. 3. Besides the two dukes, Henry V.'s brothers, there was another very powerful man, his uncle, Cardinal Beaufort, who was Bishop of Winchester. He was enormously Cardinal rich and ambitious. He and the Duke of Gloucester were continually quarrelling and striving for the mastery, and kept England in a constant state of disquiet. The French historians give him a very bad character; one of them calls him plainly "a Satan," though no longer "the old Satan, shameful and outcast, but a Satan who is acknowledged, decent, respectable, and rich; sitting on a bishop's throne." 4. Almost directly after the death of Henry V. the unfortunate King of France died also. The Treaty of Troyes had appointed that when this happened Henry V. was to succeed him as King of France. But as Henry was already dead, the right, such as it was, descended to his little son, who was accordingly called King of France. How things might have turned out had Henry V. lived we cannot tell, but probably, even then, the dauphin would have made some resistance. was, he at once came forward with his partisans, and declared himself King of France, under the name of Charles The French VII. And though the Treaty of Troyes had been war breaks called "the perpetual peace," the war broke out out afresh. again. As it 5. The Scotch were, as usual, allies of the French. Although their king had been a prisoner, and in Henry V.'s power, they had fought on the French side even during his reign, and some of the Scotch nobles had received great titles and honours in France. The Scotch, indeed, were so brave and so accustomed to fighting the English, that it began to be said "they were the only antidotes to the English," and the French were glad to have as many Scotch soldiers as possible in their armies. To put a stop to this, the Duke of Bedford at last decided to set the King of Scotland free, on his paying a ransom and promising to keep peace towards England. So after nineteen years' absence from his country King James Stuart and his beloved English wife went to Scotland, where he did his best to keep his promise, though he could not always hinder his unruly subjects from fighting the English. 6. The Duke of Bedford had no easy task. The most important piece of advice his brother Henry had given him, respecting the affairs of France, was to keep up the friendship with the Duke of Burgundy. He had always endeavoured to do this, and had, indeed, married the sister of the duke; but his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, gave great offence to the Duke of Burgundy by marrying a very rich lady, who was already married to a cousin of his own, and whose heir he hoped to be himself. After this it cost the Duke of Bedford a great deal of trouble to maintain the alliance with Burgundy. 7. On the whole, however, the English still kept the upper hand in France. There was another great battle and victory at Verneuil, which was thought almost as good as Agincourt. The dauphin had very little power in any part of France, except south of the river Loire. The English now longed to press beyond this river; but before they could venture to do that they must get possession of Orleans, a important city which was built upon it. And now commenced one of the most famous sieges in history, and one of the most romantic stories. strong and 1429. The siege of Orleans. 8. The English were not numerous enough to surround this great city entirely; but they built a number of strong forts called "Bastilles" around it, which could overlook and protect the blank places intervening. Some of the most famous warriors of England gathered round the city; the head of all was Lord Salisbury; the bravest perhaps was Talbot. As the siege went on Salisbury was killed; but little by little the English were gaining ground. They were finishing their fortifications, and it seemed that very soon they would enclose the whole city, so that no aid and no food could be brought in. Then it would most likely be Rouen over again; and if Orleans fell the English would become masters of the south of France, as they already were of the north. |