Henry V., from his Monument, Westminster Abbey.

HENRY V.

HENRY, the eldest son of Henry of Bolingbroke and Mary de Bohun, (one of the co-heiresses of Humphrey, earl of Hereford,) was born at Monmouth, Aug. 9, 1388. He had for his governor the famous Sir Thomas Percy, (afterwards earl of Worcester,) and was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, under the care of his uncle, Henry Beaufort, eventually bishop of Winchester. He early shared in the fortunes of his father, being carried to Ireland, as a hostage, by Richard II. in his eleventh year, but apparently treated with kindness, and honoured with knighthood. On his father's accession to the throne, young Henry was created prince of Wales, was summoned to parliament, and intrusted with military command against Glyndwr. The earl of March and his brother were placed under his guardianship; he was appointed lieutenant of Wales, and also warden of the Cinque Ports, and captain of the castles of Dover and Calais. He was likewise for a while a mem

ber of the council, but was removed from it about the year 1412, having grievously offended his father by demanding the regency during the frequent illnesses of the latter, and being suspected of aspiring to the crown. So much active employment at so early an age renders it very doubtful that he could be guilty of much of the dissipation and violent conduct ordinarily ascribed to his youthful days.

Henry succeeded to the throne, March 21, 1413. Encouraged by the weakness to which the civil wars of the Orleans and Burgundian factions had reduced the country, he at once prepared to attack France, but at first professed to have in view only the recovery of the English provinces. The negotiations for this end. were protracted until the summer of 1415, when he put himself at the head of his army, landed in Normandy, captured Harfleur, and gained the victory of Agincourt, but, exhausted by the effort, was obliged to return to England.

In 1417 he again invaded France, effected the conquest of Normandy, gained the alliance of the Burgundians, and at length, by virtue of the treaty of Troyes, (May, 1420,) received the princess Katherine in marriage, was recognised by the queen-mother (Isabella of Bavaria) as heir to the crown, to the exclusion of her own son, the dauphin, and returned in triumph to England. A few months shewed that his conquest was not complete, and that the disinherited prince possessed the affections of the nation; his brother, the duke of Clarence, was defeated and killed at Beauge, in March, 1 See p. 25.

1421, and the king hastily returning, passed the short remainder of his life in almost constant action. He captured Dreux, but failed before Orleans, and though he passed the winter at Paris as king of France, was obliged in the following year to besiege Meaux, which only surrendered after a most resolute resistance; shortly after this he fell ill, and being carried to the Bois de Vincennes, near Paris, died there, Aug. 31, 1422, in the 35th year of his age, and the 10th of his reign.

Henry married the princess Katherine of France; she bore him one son, HENRY, who succeeded him. Katherine in 1423 married Owen Tudor, one of her attendants, and by him became the mother of Edmund Tudor, created earl of Richmond, the father of Henry VII.; Jasper, earl of Pembroke, and other children. She died in the nunnery of Bermondsey, separated from her husband, Jan. 4, 1437k.

This king bore, like his father, France and England quarterly, but with the fleurs-de-lis of the former only three in number1. The same supporters (a lion and antelope) are ascribed to him, but probably this is an error. For badges he used an antelope gorged with a crown and chained; a swan similarly adorned; and a beacon inflamed; these devices are sometimes seen

Shortly after Katherine's death it was discovered that her sisterin-law, the duchess of Bedford, had also married one of her squires, Richard Woodville, and as she was now the first lady in the kingdom, the nobility loudly complained of these matches as degrading. The more recent offender, Woodville, had a powerful friend in Cardinal Beaufort, and so escaped punishment for his "presumption," but Tudor was confined in Newgate, and afterwards in the Tower.

This was in imitation of an alteration made by Charles VI. of France.

united, as in the cornice of his tomb in Westminster

The brilliant though transitory success of Henry's attack on France, has often caused its injustice to be overlooked, and himself to be regarded as one of the most eminent of the English kings. As a stroke of policy it doubtless answered its purpose, as it deferred to the time of his successor the desolating contest known as the Wars of the Roses; yet it is hard to say to which country it was most disastrous. Henry has, however, better claims on our respect than spring from mere conquest. He treated his royal captives (the king of Scotland and the earl of March) with kindness, restored the Percies, and firmly attached them to the interests of his family; his conduct, generally, was mild and humane m he discouraged vice and luxury by his own orderly and sober life; he attended to the complaints of the humble, and was liberal in his rewards of service; though he persecuted the Lollards, he withstood the extravagant de

;

m He was probably influenced rather by what he considered state necessity than by natural cruelty of disposition, in putting to death the earl of Cambridge and others, and in hanging the Scots taken in arms against him in France; these circumstances, however, will ever remain a deep stain on his character.

mands of the papal court, and restored the goods of hospitals to their proper uses; he built bridges and endowed religious houses; and to him rather than to Henry VII. belongs the credit of founding a royal navy".

A.D. 1413. Henry V. is crowned at Westminster, April 9o.

The parliament meets at Westminster in May.

An act passed forbidding Welshmen to bring actions for damages sustained in "this rebellion of Wales," on pain of treble damages, two years' imprisonment, and fine and ransom at the king's pleasure, [1 Hen. V. c. 6o]. 'Irishmen, and Irish clerks, beggars, called chamber deacons," ordered to depart before the feast of All Souls (Nov. 2), "for quietness and peace in this realm of England," [c. 8].

Sir John Oldcastle 9 is condemned as a heretic, September 25; he escapes from the Tower in the course of the following month.

"He kept constantly a fleet of twelve vessels to guard the coast, which had been greatly neglected in the former reign (see p. 24); they each appear to have had from 80 to 100 mariners, men-atarms and archers. Beside this, he had at command the navy of the Cinque Ports (about 60 ships), with numerous hired vessels, and prizes taken from the Genoese.

• His regnal years are computed from March 21.

P The recital, that the Welsh "daily make quarrels and great pursuit" against the "king's liege people" for injuries sustained by them in the course of the contest, shews that their insurrection had not been so completely crushed as writers usually suppose; neither did this statute reduce them to order, as in the next year we meet with a statement that the "king's liege people" are daily carried off by the Welsh, against whom heavy penalties are denounced, [2 Hen. V. c. 5].

Commonly styled Lord Cobham, from his marriage with the grand-daughter of the last lord.