King Henry now began to show symptoms of the fearful brain malady which he had inherited from his grandfather, Charles VI. Henry’s ministry, headed by Suffolk, was despised and hated. At this time the government fell mostly into the hands of the young queen of eighteen, who found herself obliged to rely upon Suffolk, who became daily more distasteful to the English people.
In 1448 hostilities with France were renewed, and Charles VII. reconquered Normandy. This was the same king of France, whose coronation at Rheims was secured to him through the brave efforts of the Maid of Orleans, Joan d’Arc, whose romantic story has been so often related. Declaring that she was called by the angel St. Michael and the virgin saints to deliver her country from the English, she led her troops to Orleans, carrying a marvellous sword in her hand, which she said she had been directed to bring from the shrine of St. Catherine; and she succeeded in delivering that city from the siege. This victory prepared the way for the coronation of Charles VII.; but to his eternal disgrace, when this brave maiden was afterwards captured by her enemies, and tried as a witch, he did not make any effort to save her, though to her he owed his crown; and she was burnt at the stake, in the market-place at Rouen.
The loss of Normandy gave great offence to the English, who blamed Queen Margaret, derisively calling her the “Frenchwoman”; and the partisans of the Duke of York attributed their losses to the misgovernment of the queen, and declared that King Henry was more fit for a cloister than a throne, in that he had seemingly deposed himself by leaving; his kingdom in the hands of a woman.
About this time Queen Margaret invested the Duke of York with the government of Ireland. He left a strong party in England, who soon caused the Duke of Suffolk to be impeached and arrested. In order to save his life, the queen persuaded the king to banish Suffolk for five years; but the ship on which he embarked was captured by his enemies, and he was beheaded after a mock trial.
We cannot mention all the contests in this War of the Roses. An insurrection headed by Jack Cade, who called himself Mortimer, arose in Kent. This rebellion was quickly quelled by Henry VI.; but new disasters followed. The Duke of Somerset returned from France, having been defeated in trying to maintain England’s power there. Every province in France, but Calais, was now lost to the English, and for this misfortune the people blamed the poor young queen.
Suddenly the Duke of York came back from Ireland, impeached Somerset in Parliament, and he was sent to the Tower. At this time the badges of the red and the white rose were adopted by the partisans of York and Lancaster. To add to the troubles in which the poor queen was plunged, King Henry’s malady became so great that it could no longer be concealed, and just at this inauspicious time the young Prince of Wales was born. York assumed all the power of the government, and for more than a year the king remained in total ignorance of all that was passing around him, being in a continued state of helpless idiocy. When the prince was about fifteen months old, his father recovered his reason, and his first recognition of his wife and child is thus quaintly described: “On Monday, at noon, the queen came to him, and brought my lord prince with her. Then the king asked, ‘What the prince’s name was?’ and the queen told him ‘Edward’; and then he held up his hands and thanked God thereof. And he said he never knew him till that time, nor wist what was said to him, nor wist where he had been whilst he had been sick, till now. And he asked who were the godfathers; and the queen told him, and he was well content.”
Margaret took immediate measures to secure King Henry’s restoration to sovereign power. Though he was still very weak, the queen caused him to be conveyed to the House of Lords, where he dissolved the Parliament, and restored Somerset to liberty. The Duke of York, aided by Salisbury and Warwick, now raised an army, and drew near to London. King Henry, who hated bloodshed, sent word to the insurgents to ask why they had armed themselves against him. The Duke of York replied that he would not lay down arms unless the Duke of Somerset was delivered up to justice. This the king refused to do, saying “he would deliver up his crown as soon as he would the Duke of Somerset.” Whereupon the Earl of Warwick commenced the attack. The battle was short but bloody. Somerset was killed, and even King Henry was himself wounded by an arrow in the neck. But he would not stir from the scene until he was left alone under his royal banner, when he proceeded very coolly into a baker’s shop near by, where the Duke of York found him, and bending the knee before him in a sort of mock reverence, bade him rejoice that the traitor Somerset was slain. King Henry replied: “For mercy’s sake, stop the slaughter of my subjects!” York then took the wounded king by the hand, and led him first to the shrine of St. Alban, and then to his own apartments. The next day he conducted King Henry, with seeming respect, to London; but in reality the king was the prisoner of the Duke of York. Henry’s distress of mind brought on again his fits of insanity, and in this state he was forced to pardon York and make him Protector. The Duke of York relinquished the care of the imbecile king to Queen Margaret, on condition that she would retire with the king and infant prince to Hertford Castle.
For two years Margaret remained in retirement; but in February, 1456, King Henry again recovered himself sufficiently to enter Parliament and declare himself well enough to resume his royal authority. Parliament allowed his claim, and York was forced to retire.
Again the government was put in the hands of the friends of the queen. Again the health of the king was impaired, but Margaret took him to Coventry, which she called her haven of safety, on account of the favor shown her by the inhabitants there; and at length, King Henry having somewhat recovered, he went to London, and there invited the Duke of York and all his partisans to a pacification banquet and religious ceremony at St. Paul’s cathedral, in which procession it is said that every one walked with an enemy, from the queen down, as Margaret was accompanied by the Duke of York to the altar, where all swore eternal amity.
This amity lasted a year, when an affray broke out amongst the king’s cooks and scullions, who soundly whipped Warwick’s men; whereupon all parties flew to arms, and the battle of Bloreheath, and other skirmishes, were fought.