‘The Duke of Gloucestre that is so nay

That day full worthyly he wroughte,

On every syde he made good way,

The Frenshemen faste to grounde he brought,’[140]

and his somewhat fervid biographer of a later date quaintly assures us that though ‘he lost much blood and his spiritts spent with toils and labour, yett was not his manly courage at all abated, nor his strong stomach at all quelled.’[141] This was the only pitched battle in which Humphrey ever took part, and he acquitted himself valiantly therein. His impetuous temperament had come near to costing him his life, and it is well that we have this definite and indisputable evidence of his courage, for in one episode of his later life he came near to incurring the accusation of cowardice; indeed, were it not for this and other evidences of his personal valour in war, we should be entirely misled as to the true meaning of his failure when in command of his own army in his own quarrel.

The English losses were but few, though even hardened soldiers were appalled at the heaps of French dead lying on the field, including the Constable d’Albret, the Admiral Dampierre, and the Dukes of Alençon, Bar, and Brabant, the last being Burgundy’s brother who had only reached the battle when the day was lost.[142] On the English side the Duke of York and the Earl of Suffolk—son of the man who died before Harfleur—were the only notable victims.[143] Early next morning the army moved off, bearing Gloucester with them, and three days later the King entered Calais. On November 16 he sailed for England, but Gloucester was left behind to recover from his wound, so that he did not take part in Henry’s reception at Dover, or in his triumphal entry into London when the city turned out in force to welcome its conquering King.[144]

CHAPTER II
THE WAR IN FRANCE

With the battle of Agincourt the days of Humphrey’s apprenticeship end, and we find him fairly embarked on his public career. That career assumes a threefold aspect, but at the same time there are certain definite threads of temperament and character which run through all the web of his life. We shall find him first busy in the French wars as the capable and trusted lieutenant of his royal brother; later for a brief space he will be found aping the ambitions of his grandfather, striving for recognition as prince of an European state; finally, the third and most lasting phase of his career will find him amidst the unlovely strife of party politics. Soldier, Pretender, Politician, in all these rôles Humphrey stands forth as a distinct personality. Not that he has the great gifts of concentration and consistency, not that he is one of those happy men who have a gospel to preach and know it; he was of all men lacking in determination, and if his policy does not waver, his carrying out thereof is fitful and uncertain. His interests were those of the moment, his policy was mapped out on no organised plan, but the same spirit inspires his every action. Ambition and instability were manifest throughout his life, and though he had always before him the same clear object—self-aggrandisement—there was no consistency in the methods he used to secure his end. Thus we shall find him at one moment a patriotic Englishman, at another nothing less than the subverter of the nation’s welfare, but before him there was always the same selfish object which was to destroy his power of usefulness, and make him a patriot only when his own interests and those of the nation were identical. In the first stage of his career this influence of his character is not so clearly apparent, but even here we can trace what eventually became so plain. Till the death of Henry v. he was dominated by the overpowering personality of his brother, and it was only when he strove to stand alone that the glaring weakness of his character became evident. It is then with care and diligence that we must examine Gloucester’s military career under the guidance of his brother, if we are to find the connecting-link between his earlier and later actions.