Henry hurries to Paris.

He there heard bad news. One of the signs of the renewed activity of his enemies had been a treaty with Castile, and the employment of the Castilian fleet. Already, in the preceding year, the Spanish fleet had defeated the English, and then proceeding to Scotland, had returned with a reinforcement of some 4000 men under the Earl of Buchan and Lord Stewart of Darnley. Strengthened with these troops, the Dauphin’s party had attacked the English in the west. Clarence, the King’s brother, who had been left in charge of the kingdom, advanced to meet them. The armies encountered at Beaugé in Anjou, and there, forgetting the national tactics, and neglecting the use of the archers, they suffered a complete defeat, in which the King’s brother was killed. It was the first reverse the English arms had met with, and Henry well understood the moral effect it might have. He hastened at once to France, and leaving alone for the present the disaffection which was showing itself in Picardy, went direct to Paris to re-establish his prestige. Thence he marched to the attack of Meaux, whence an Armagnac garrison was pillaging the country to the very gates of Paris. It was under the command of the Bastard of Vaurus, a savage soldier, who delighted to hang his prisoners by dozens on the branches of a large elm outside his town. The bravery of his defence equalled his barbarity. It was not without the greatest efforts that the town and castle, called the Marché, were reduced.

While re-establishing his affairs he dies. 1422.

Death of Charles VI.

Meanwhile the war had broken out again in Burgundy, and Henry was summoned to the support of his allies at the siege of Cosne. He would not send help, he said, but would come at the head of his whole army. The boast was a vain one. His army, indeed, set out under the command of the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Warwick, but the King’s health, which had been failing for the last two years, quite broke down, and the generals were hastily recalled to be present at the deathbed of their sovereign, who died on the 31st of August 1422. Conscious of his approaching end, he had made dispositions to meet it; he had laid special stress on the continuation of the treaty with Burgundy; had begged Bedford never to make peace under less advantageous terms than the entire cession of Normandy; had intrusted the regency of France to the same brother should the Duke of Burgundy decline it; put England into the hands of Gloucester; and intrusted the education of his infant son to Warwick. He then died amid all those signs of religious enthusiasm which had marked his life, declaring that he had intended to lead a crusade to Jerusalem, and covering all remorse, which his cruel war might well have excited, by the thought that he had acted with the approbation of those most holy men the English bishops. Stern, haughty, an unpitying soldier, he had yet by his exhibition of firm justice and love of order gained the admiration and respect, if not the love, of his new subjects; and Englishmen forgot his reactionary policy, and misjudged the want of wisdom in his foreign undertakings, amid the enthusiasm his successful career excited. Very shortly after his conqueror, the old King Charles VI. also died, and his son Charles became the representative of the French monarchy. He caused himself to be at once crowned at Poitiers; but the English failed to recognise his title, and spoke of him as the Dauphin.

[HENRY VI.]
1422–1461.

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