The murder of John, Duke of Burgundy, by a partisan of the Dauphin, which took place about this time, induced Duke Philip to come to terms with England in the hope of avenging his father's death;[793] and the French king, finding further resistance hopeless, was content to make peace. By the treaty of Troyes (20 May, 1420), the Dauphin was disinherited in favour of Henry, who was formally recognised as the heir to the French crown, and who agreed to marry Catherine, daughter of Charles VI.[794] The marriage took place on the 3rd June, and on the 14th a solemn procession was made in London and a sermon preached at Paul's Cross in honour of the event.[795]
The king's letter to the City, 12 July, 1420.
The mayor's reply, 2 Aug.
On the 12th July Henry addressed a letter from Mant to the corporation of London informing them of his welfare. He had left Paris for Mant in order to relieve the town of Chartres, which was being threatened by the Dauphin. The Duke of Burgundy had joined him and had proved himself "a trusty, lovvng and faithful brother." The king's expedition proved unnecessary, for the Dauphin had raised the siege before his arrival and had gone into Touraine.[pg 266] To this letter a reply was sent under the mayoralty seal on the 2nd August, congratulating Henry upon his success, and assuring him that there was no city on earth more peaceful or better governed than his City of London.[796]
The queen's coronation.
On the 26th January, 1421, the Duke of Gloucester, the Guardian of England in the king's absence, ordered the Sheriffs of London to announce that the queen's coronation would take place at Westminster on the third Sunday in Lent.[797] The king and queen landed at Dover with a small retinue on the 1st February, and after a few days' rest at Canterbury, entered the city of London amid tokens of welcome and respect from the laity and clergy. They took up their abode at the Tower, whence they were conducted on the day appointed for the coronation to Westminster by the citizens on foot and on horseback.[798]
Henry's last expedition, and death, Aug., 1422.
Henry had not been at home six months before he again left England, never to return.[799] The hopes that he entertained of reforming and governing his possessions in France, and his ambition to have headed, sooner or later, a crusade which should have stayed the progress of the Ottoman and have recovered the sepulchre of Christ, were not destined to be realised. He died at the Bois de Vincennes, near Paris, on the last day of August, 1422, leaving a child[pg 267] nine months old—the unhappy Henry of Windsor who succeeded to the throne as Henry VI. When the body of the late king was brought over from France to be buried at Westminster, the citizens showed it every token of respect in its passage through London. The streets of the city, as well as of the borough of Southwark, were cleaned for the occasion. The mayor, sheriffs, recorder and aldermen, accompanied by the chief burgesses, and clad in white gowns and hoods, went forth to meet the remains of the king they loved so well, as far as St. George's bar in Southwark, and reverently conducted them to St. Paul's Church, where the funeral obsequies were performed. The next day they accompanied the corpse to Westminster, where further ceremonies took place. Representatives of the various wards were told off to line the streets, the solemnity of the occasion being marked by the burning of torches, whilst chaplains stood in the porches of the various churches, clad in their richest copes, with thuribles in their hands, and chanted the venite and incensed the royal remains as they passed. The livery companies provided amongst them 211 torches, and to each torch-bearer the city chamberlain gave a gown and hood of white material or "blanket" (de blanqueto), at the "cost of the commonalty." [800]