tice, he proceeded to insult the magistrate on his tribunal; but Gascoigne, mindful of the character which he then bore, and the majesty of the sovereign and of the laws which he sustained, ordered the prince to be carried to prison for his rude behavior. The spectators were agreeably disappointed when they saw the heir of the crown submit peaceably to the sentence, make reparation for his error by acknowledging it, and check his impetuous nature in the midst of his extravagant career. The memory of this incident, and of many others of a like nature, rendered the prospect of the future reign nowise disagreeable to the nation, and increased the joy which the death of so unpopular a prince as the late king naturally occasioned. The first steps taken by the young prince confirmed all those prepossessions entertained in his favor. He dismissed his former companions; and retained in office the wise ministers of his father, including the chief justice. The king seemed ambitious to bury all party distinctions in oblivion; and the defects of his title were forgotten amid the personal regard which was universally paid to him.

§ 5. There remained among the people only one party distinction. The Lollards were every day increasing in the kingdom, and were become a formed party, which appeared extremely dan gerous to the Church, and even formidable to the civil authority. The head of this sect was Sir John Oldcastle (Lord Cobham), a nobleman who had distinguished himself by his valor and his mil、 itary talents, and had on many occasions acquired the esteem both of the late and of the present king. Henry, after vainly endeav、 oring to reconcile him to the Catholic faith, gave full reins to ecclesiastical severity against the inflexible heresiarch. Arundel, the primate, indicted Cobham; and, with the assistance of his three suffragans, the Bishops of London, Winchester, and St. David's, condemned him to the flames for his erroneous opinions. Cobham, who was confined in the Tower, made his escape before the day appointed for his execution, and, having raised his followers, made two desperate attempts to seize the king. But they were defeated by Henry's vigilance; many of the Lollards were seized, and some executed (1414). Cobham himself, who made his escape by flight, was not brought to justice till four years after, when he was hanged as a traitor, and his body was burned on the gibbet, in execution of the sentence pronounced against him as a heretic. This criminal design brought discredit on the party, and checked the progress of the sect.

§ 6. The disorders into which France was plunged through the lunacy of its monarch, Charles VI., and the consequent struggle for the regency between his brother the Duke of Orleans, and his

A.D. 1413-1415.

BATTLE OF AGINCOURT.

207

cousin the Duke of Burgundy,* which resulted in open warfare, seemed to present a favorable opportunity for attack; and Henry, impelled by the vigor of youth and the ardor of ambition, determined to carry violent war into that distracted kingdom (1415). A conspiracy, which was happily detected in its infancy, to place the Earl of March upon the throne, detained the king awhile. The Earl of Cambridge, Lord Scrope, and Sir Thomas Grey, the chief conspirators, were arrested, and the king, after trying them in an irregular manner, and procuring their execution, granted the Earl of March a general pardon. Then, trusting to the assistance of the Duke of Burgundy, who had been secretly soliciting the alliance of England, but without establishing any concert with him, he put to sea, and landed near Harfleur, at the head of an army of 6000 men at arms and 24,000 foot, mostly archers. That town was at last obliged to capitulate (Sept. 22); but the fatigues of this siege and the unusual heat of the season had so wasted the English army, that Henry could enter on no farther enterprise, and was obliged to think of returning into England. He had dismissed his transports, and therefore determined on marching by land to Calais, although a French army of 14,000 men at arms, and 40,000 foot, was by this time assembled in Normandy. That he might not discourage his army by the appearance of flight, or expose them to those hazards which naturally attend precipitate marches, he made slow and deliberate journeys till he reached the Somme, and after encountering many difficulties and hardships he was so dextrous or so fortunate as to seize by surprise a passage near St. Quentin which had not been sufficiently guarded; and he safely carried over his army. Henry then bent his march northward to Calais; but he was still exposed to great and imminent danger from the enemy, who had also passed the Somme, and threw themselves full in his way, with a purpose of intercepting his retreat. After he had passed the small river of Ternois, at Blangi, he was surprised to observe from the heights the whole French army drawn up in the plains of Agincourt, and so posted that it was impossible for him to proceed on his march without

* The following genealogical table shows the relationship of these princes:

JOHN II., King of France.
(Taken prisoner by Edward III.)

coming to an engagement. The enemy was four times more numerous, as half the English who had landed at Harfleur had perished; was headed by the dauphin and all the princes of the blood; and was plentifully supplied with provisions of every kind. Henry's situation was exactly similar to that of Edward at Crécy, and that of the Black Prince at Poitiers, and he observed the same prudent conduct which had been followed by these great commanders; he drew up his army on a narrow ground between two woods, which guarded each flank, and he patiently expected in that posture the attack of the enemy (Oct. 25, 1415). The French archers on horseback and their men at arms, crowded in their ranks, advanced upon the English archers, who had fixed palisadoes in their front to break the impression of the enemy, and who safely plied them from behind that defense with a shower of arrows which nothing could resist. The clay soil, moistened by some rain which had lately fallen, proved 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 hindered them from recovering any order; the whole army was a scene of confusion, terror, and dismay; and Henry, perceiving his advantage, ordered the English archers, who were light and unencumbered, to advance upon the enemy and seize the moment of victory. They fell with their battle-axes upon the French, who, in their present posture, were incapable either of flying or of making defense; they hewed them in pieces without resistance; and, being seconded by the men at arms, who also pushed on against the enemy, they covered the field with the killed, wounded, dismounted, and overthrown. No battle was ever more fatal to France by the number of princes and nobility slain or taken prisoners. Among the prisoners 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; but the common statement that only 40 perished is scarcely credible. Henry, not being in a condition to pursue his victory, interrupted not his march a moment after the battle; he carried his prisoners to Calais, thence to England, and concluded a truce with the enemy.

§ 7. But during this interruption of hostilities from England, France was exposed to all the furies of civil war; and the several parties became every day more enraged 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; and his power was strengthened by the accession of Isabella, the queen, who had formerly been

A.D. 1415-1420. TREATY OF TROYES-MARRIAGE OF HENRY. 209

his enemy, but who had now quarreled with the Armagnacs. The dauphin sided with the latter; and open war broke out between the two factions. While the country was so ill-prepared to resist a foreign enemy, Henry landed in Normandy at the head of 25,000 men (August 1, 1417), and met with no considerable opposition from any quarter. He made himself master of Falaise; Evreux and Caen submitted to him; and having subdued all the lower Normandy, and having received a re-enforcement of 15,000 men from England, he formed the siege of Rouen, which he took after an obstinate defense (1418). But Henry still continued to negotiate, and had almost arranged some advantageous terms, when the Duke of Burgundy secretly finished a treaty with the dauphin; and these 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 farther success, but the treacherous assassination of the Duke of Burgundy soon afterward by the partisans of the dauphin opened the way to a new and still more favorable arrangement. Philip, Count of Charolois, now Duke of Burgundy, thought himself bound by every tie of honor and of duty to revenge the murder of his father, and to prosecute the assassins to the utmost extremity. A league was immediately concluded at Arras between him and Henry, by which the Duke of Burgundy, without stipulating any thing for himself except the prosecution of his father's murderers, and the marriage of the Duke of Bedford with his sister, was willing to sacrifice the kingdom to Henry's ambition; and he agreed to every demand made by that monarch. In order 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 any thing but through the eyes of those who attended him; as they on their part saw every thing through the medium of their passions. The treaty, being already concerted among the parties, was immediately drawn, and signed, and ratified. The principal articles were, that Henry should espouse the Princess Catherine, the daughter of the king; that King Charles, during his lifetime, should enjoy the title and dignity of King of France; that Henry should be intrusted with the present administration of the government, and should succeed to the throne on the death of Charles, to the exclusion of the dauphin. In a few days after Henry espoused the Princess Catherine; he carried his father-in-law to Paris, and put himself in possession of that capital; he obtained from the Parliament and the three estates a ratification of the

treaty of Troyes; and he immediately turned his arms, with success, against the adherents of the dauphin. Sens, Montereau, and Melun yielded to his arms; but the necessity of providing supplies, both of men and money, obliged him to go over to England (1421), and he left the Duke of Exeter, his uncle, Governor of Paris during his absence.

§ 8. Henry returned with 24,000 archers and 4000 horsemen, and was received at Paris with great expressions of joy. Meanwhile, a body of 7000 Scots, who were afraid to see France fall into the power of their ancient enemy, had proceeded to the assistance of the dauphin, and had defeated the English under the Duke of Clarence at Baugé. But the presence of Henry soon restored all. The dauphin was chased beyond the Loire, and he almost totally abandoned all the northern provinces; he was even pursued into the south by the united arms of the English and Burgundians, and threatened with total destruction. And to crown all the other prosperities of Henry, 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, and no less sincere, at Paris than at London. But the glory of Henry, when it had nearly reached the summit, was stopped short by the hand of Nature, and all his mighty projects vanished into smoke. He was seized with a fistula, a malady which the surgeons at that time had not skill enough to cure; and he expired on August 31, 1422, in the 35th year of his age and 10th of his reign. He left the regency of France to his elder brother, the Duke of Bedford; that of England to his younger, the Duke of Gloucester; and the care of his son's person to the Earl of Warwick.

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 valor in conducting them. He had the talent of attaching his friends by affability, and of gaining his enemies by address and clemency. The exterior figure of this great prince, as well as his deportment, was engaging. His stature was somewhat above the middle size, his countenance beautiful, his limbs genteel and slender, but full of vigor; and he excelled in all warlike and manly exercises.

Catherine of France, Henry's widow, married soon after his death a Welsh gentleman, Sir 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, father of Henry VII.-the second, Earl of Pembroke.