A.D. 1422-1513. In the losing war which soon followed the premature death of Henry V. (on the 31st of August 1422), battles were fought by the English quite as honourable to the national valour as that of Azincourt, and victories, over vastly superior numbers, were gained by the Duke of Bedford, the Earl of Salisbury, Talbot, Fastolf, and others, whose names long remained words of fear and dread in the popular traditions of the French. "Yes! worthy Talbot, thou didst so employ Not want of spirit, that lost us what was ours."* Among these victories may be named Crevant in 1423, Verneuil in 1424, Rouvrai in 1428, and Patay in 1429. As all these battles were conducted on the same military principles, and resembled in all their incidents the battle of Azincourt, any description of them would be monotonous. The bow was still to the English soldier what the musket and bayonet have been in modern times-the prime weapon, the victory-winner! Philip de Comines, writing half a century after the battle of Azincourt, says, "I am of opinion that the chiefest strength of an army in the day of battle consists of the archers; and in this I agree with the English, who, without dispute, are the best archers in the world." Under the infant son of Henry V., the court and government of England fell into disorders nearly equal to those which had recently existed in France. Fierce contests took place for the regency, and when Henry VI. attained his majority it became but too evident that he was incapable of * Daniel, Historie of the Civil Warres. governing the country or managing his own affairs. Gentle, timid, submissive, and superstitious, he would have made a tolerably good monk, but he had not one of the qualities which constitute a good king. Under him the fierce contention broke out between the Houses of York and Lancaster. During the War of the Roses, which may be said to have lasted from the first battle at St. Alban's in 1455, to the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, the English were too busily engaged in mutual destruction at home, to have time or means to bestow upon foreign wars. Never were battles fought with more determination and fury than some of these among the gentle hills and green downs of England. At the combat of Wakefield, the Yorkists, who brought 5,000 men in the field, left 2,000 on the ground. At Mortimer's Cross the combat was equally stern; at Towton, where the armies were numerous, there perished, between Yorkists and Lancastrians, 38,000 men! Modern Europe had not yet seen such fighting. These wars (to quote the old poet who has versified them) carried desolation everywhere, and "Made the very heart of England bleed : The victory over Richard III., on Bosworth Field, gave to Henry VII. undisputed possession of England; his marriage with the Princess Elizabeth, heiress of the House of York, united the parties of the Red and White Roses; and his prudence, caution, and remarkable king-craft and political wisdom, did the rest. When he died, in 1509, he left an undisputed throne, a loyal people, and an amazingly wellfilled treasury, to his son Henry VIII. In all the earlier part of his reign the eighth Henry was eager for military glory, and he found a nobility and people disposed for war, and many thousands at all times ready to follow him into the field, especially if that field were France. Popular songs magnified the exploits of the Henries and Edwards, his royal predecessors, and anticipated his own great victories. Daniel, Historie of the Civil Warres between the Houses of York and Lancaster. "The Rose will into France next spring, But, royal rose as he was, bluff King Hal had very few of the warlike qualities of his ancestors. He liked the show and parade of the field better than the real battle. He was steady to no line of policy, and to no military plan; and hence, our exhibitions on the continent during his reign, though attended with no dishonour or actual defeat, had somewhat of the blended character of a pageant and a farce. In the year 1512, Henry, in his anxiety for war, allowed himself to be drawn into a continental league against France, by Pope Julius II. and his own father-in-law, Ferdinand of Arragon. A fine English army of 10,000 men was conveyed in a Spanish fleet, to the Bidassao, under the command of the Marquis of Dorset. The men, being left by their allies, the Spaniards, to perish of sickness, or to starve, broke out into open mutiny, and insisted upon returning home. In 1513, Henry determined to take the field in person. In the month of May he despatched his vanguard to Calais, which still remained in our possession, giving the command to a Talbot. "And when all things were ready, accompanied with many noblemen, and 600 archers of his guard, all in white haberdines and caps, he departed from his manor royal of Greenwich, the 15th day of June, and so he and the queen, with small journeys, went to Dover Castle, and there rested."* At last, Henry and his followers took leave of their wives, "which it was great dolour to behold," and got them across the Straits of Dover. The van of the English forces went to lay siege to Terouenne. The news that a French army, under the command of the Duke of Longueville, and the far-famed Bayard le chevalier sans peur et sans réproche· was moving to the relief of Terounne, caused King Henry to mount his war-horse. On the 21st of July he marched out of Calais, with a magnificent army, amounting to about 15,000 men, *Hall's Chronicle. without counting two strong corps employed in the siege. He had scarcely got beyond Ardres, when he saw a strong detachment of French cavalry manoeuvring in his front. Expecting a battle, Henry dismounted, and threw himself into the centre of his lansquenets, to fight on foot, like the Henries and Edwards of former days. The brilliant Bayard-the very pride of chivalry-would have charged at once, but he was reminded by his superiors in command, that King Louis had given orders that they should most carefully avoid fighting the English in open battle. So, after reconnoitring the invaders, the French withdrew, having already succeeded in another part of their commission, and thrown provisions and gunpowder into the besieged town. Moving on, Henry joined the besieging forces. He caused a magnificent pavilion bedecked with silks, blue damasks, cloths of gold, flags, and royal standards, to be pitched in front of Terouenne; but the bad weather soon drove him from this fantastical lodging, and he then inhabited a house built of wood. The poor Emperor Maximilian, one of the confederates who had received an advance of 120,000 crowns from the English treasury, to enable him to raise troops, came to Terouenne with nothing but a small escort. Henry put on all his magnificence for this reception; for, nominally, the emperor was the first of Christian princes. He equipped himself and his principal nobles in the most costly dresses of gold and silver tissue; he exhibited all the jewels and goldsmiths' work that his camp furnished; and both men and horses were glittering masses of riches and finery.* The emperor and his companions, on the other hand, were attired in plain black cloth, for the empress was recently dead, and they were impecunious. On a plain between Aire and the camp, the two potentates met, in a tremendous storm of wind and rain, which must have deranged the finery of the English. Maximilian told his royal brother that he, the Emperor of the West, had come to serve under * Old Hall, the contemporary chronicler-a citizen and trader of London, and a great frequenter of Lord Mayors' shows and feastswas the very historian for a vain, gorgeous king like Henry VIII. His soul was in silks, velvets, damasks, gold chains, golden roses, jewellery, and gewgaws. him as a volunteer; and in these compliments, our vain sovereign seems to have overlooked the omission of which Maximilian had been guilty, in not bringing an army with him. Of the discipline of the troops, or military science of their leaders, little could be said; but it was universally allowed that the spirit and the appearance of our own army were splendid. A foreign chronicler declared that the common men looked like captains, and the captains like crowned kings. |