Armagniacs. The new duke, with the queen's consent, immediately allied himself with the English against the Dauphin, and in 1420 the Treaty of Troyes was signed. By it Henry became regent of France during the life of the insane king, married Katharine, his daughter, and was declared his heir; it was stipulated that England and France should remain independent.

The peace that came was called the Perpetual Peace (but it was nothing of the kind in reality!) It gave great satisfaction to the French people, although they were so poor and miserable, that at the time of celebration of the Royal marriage, numbers of them were dying with starvation in the streets of Paris.

After his returning to France Henry had another successful campaign; but in 1422, on his way to help his ally in Burgundy, he died, before he was able to reap any of the advantages, he expected from the success of his policy. King Charles of France died in the same year, and thus, by the Treaty of Troyes, the infant Henry VI became King of France and England.

Comprehension questions

1.What kind of king was Henry V?

2.Speak about the battle of Agincourt.

3.Prove that at that time the decisive victory over France was achieved.

37.HENRY VI

It was the wish of the late King, that, while his infant son Henry the Sixth (1421-1471), at that time only nine months old, was under age, the Duke of Gloucester should be appointed Regent. The baby King is said to be crowned on his mother’s lap, with her bracelet as a crown for his baby head. The English Parliament, however, preferred to appoint a Council of Regency, with the Duke of Bedford at its head, to be represented, in his absence only, by the Duke of Gloucester.

Bedford's great object was to retain the friendship of Burgundy, and with this in view he married the Duke's sister; by further strengthening himself by an alliance with the Duke of Brittany he was able to keep his hold on Northern France. In 1423 a victory at Crevant kept open his communications with Burgundy. But Bedford's younger brother, Gloucester, had managed to quarrel both with the Duke of Burgundy and with the bishop of Winchester.

After the French King's death the Dauphin instantly claimed to the French throne, and was actually crowned under the title of Charles the Seventh. War of England with France was immediately renewed, and the Perpetual Peace came to an untimely end.

In the first campaign the English were successful. As Scotland, however, had sent the French five thousand men, and might send more, or attack the north of England, while England was busy with France, it was considered to оffer the Scottish King James, who had been so long imprisoned, his liberty, if he pays forty thousand pounds for the board and lodging during nineteen years, and make him forbid his subjects to serve under the flag of France.

In the second campaign, in 1424, the English gained a victory at Verneuil.

Already master of the north of France, Bedford in 1428 laid siege to Orleans — the first step to conquer the south, still held by the Dauphin. At this most critical moment for France the country found a leader in Joan of Arc, a peasant girl from Domremi. In that remote village there lived a countryman Jaques d'Arc. His daughter Joan was in her twentieth year. She had been a solitary girl from her childhood; she had often tended sheep and cattle, for a whole day not seeing a single human figure. She had often knelt for hours in the gloomy empty village chapel, looking up at the altar and at the dim lamp burning before it, until she fancied that she saw shadowy figures there, and she even heard them speak to her. The people in that part of

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France were very ignorant and superstitious, so they easily believed that Joan saw angels and spirits who talked to her.

It seemed to her that some voices often said: "Joan, thou art appointed by Heaven to go and help the Dauphin!" There is no doubt that Joan believed she saw and heard such things. Now it is very well known that such delusions are a certain disease.

Joan of Arc

Her father, somewhat wiser than his neighbours, said: "I tell thee, Joan, it is thy fancy. Thou hast better take a kind husband to take care of thee, girl, and work to employ thy mind".

But Joan told him that she had taken a vow never to have a husband, and that she must go as Heaven directed her.

It so happened that a party of the enemies appeared in the village, burnt the chapel and drove out the inhabitants. The cruelties she saw made her fancies stronger. Her uncle, a poor village cart-maker, accompanied the girl for a very long and dangerous way, meeting all kinds of robbers and murderers, to come to a certain lord named Baudricourt, who could bring her into the Dauphin's presence.

When the servants told him that there was a poor peasant girl named Joan of Arc, who wished to see him, because she was commanded to help the Dauphin and save France, Baudricourt burst out laughing and bade them send the girl away. But soon he heard that she prayed in the churches of the town, so he called her and questioned her. Baudricourt began to think there must be something in her fancies. He bought her a horse and a sword, and gave her two squires to conduct her. She put on a man's dress and rode away.

In the town of Chinon Joan was admitted to the Dauphin's presence. After some doubt, she was believed, and again rode on and on, until she came to Orleans.

When the people on the walls beheld her on her white horse and in her glittering armour, they cried out: "The Maid is come! The Made is come to save as!" And this made the French so bold, that the English line of forts was soon broken, the troops and the provisions were got into the town, and Orleans was saved. But the war still went on; in 1430 Joan was captured at

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Compiegne and handed over by the Burgundians, who had become England’s allies, to the English. The English promptly accused her of witchcraft and burnt her at the stake at the market place in Rouen to be an example to all common girls and boys who dare to prevent the nobles from selling their motherland and save it instead. There was no protest from Charles.

These are Charles Dickens's words of that event: “From the moment of her capture, neither the French King, nor one single man in all his court raised a finger to save her. It is no defence of them that they may have never really believed in her, or that they might have won her victories by their skill and bravery. The more they pretended to believe in her, the more that had caused her to believe in herself; and she had ever been true to them. But it is no wonder that they, who were false to themselves, false to one another, false to their country, false to Heaven, false to Earth, should be monsters of ingratitude and treachery to a helpless peasant girl.

In the old town of Rouen, where weeds and grass grow high on the cathedral towers, and the venerable Norman streets are still warm in the sunlight, though the monkish fires that once gleamed horribly upon them have long grown cold, there is a statue of Joan of Arc, in the scene of her last agony, the square is called by her name”.

The phenomenon of Joan of Arc, considered mysterious by some historians, is easily explained. The forces of patriotism, of boundless love for Motherland have not infrequently created national heroes and heroines. Joan of Arc won because she symbolized the people’s wrath, and the people’s inexhaustible strength. This is why both the French and the English dark forces leagued to destroy her.

In spite of Joan's great work the English were still the real masters of France; Henry VI was crowned king at Paris in 1431. But English power was largely dependent on the alliance with Burgundy. The alliance received a severe blow, when the Duke of Bedford married Jacquetta of Luxembourg without consulting her overlord, the Duke of Burgundy. There were great changes in the policy. The English king was asked to renounce his claim to the French throne, and Burgundy renounced the English alliance. In 1436 Charles VII captured Paris.

For a long time the war went heavily on. Two of the consequences of wars were Famine — because the people couldn’t peacefully work on their ground — and Pest, which came of want, misery and suffering. Both these horrors broke out in both countries, and lasted for two wretched years.

At that time in England the feudal lords were at each other’s throats. Henry V died in 1422 and while his son was still a nine-months-old child the struggle of the nobles for power grew quite fierce. The French king died too. So far Henry VI (1422-1461) was ruler of two countries in his cradle. The inheritance left to the unfortunate child was ominous, it was imbecility that would become apparent later. The young English king, as he grew up, proved to be a miserable creature. He was a weak and helpless young man.

There were changes for the worse in the English expeditional forces. The English and the Burgundian traitors quarrelled, the latter rejoined their army against their former allies. Artillery was introduced in battle by the French armies.

After Bedford's death in 1435 the struggle between Gloucester and Beaufort was renewed with increased bitterness. Beaufort and his party were working for peace. They arranged a marriage (1444) between Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, a cousin of Charles VII. Gloucester was soon arrested for high treason and died suddenly. In 1449 the French succeeded in winning back most of Normandy.

The results of the war affected England in other ways also; the barons, no longer kept busy in France, could fight between themselves; the taxes became heavy, and a powerful rebellion of "the commons in Kent" under the leadership of Jack Cade took place in 1450. The rebellion was suppressed.

The nobles in power were doing their best to line their pockets starving the army, sending rotten supplies and delaying reinforcements. So in 1453 the last battle was fought and the war

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was finally given up, with Calais the only trophy of a hundred years of bloodshed. The Bordeau capitulation of the English forces proved to be the end of the war. Britain was utterly defeated in the Hundred Years’ War. Within twenty years from execution of the Maid of Orleans, of all the French conquests the town of Calais alone remained in English hands.

After the Hundred Years’ War ended, the feudal lords, used to bloodshed and authority on battle fields, returned to England with their soldiers whose chief interest in life was killing for they had long lost the habit of working and creating, destruction being their profession. It was only natural, therefore, that they readily took part in the fight for power and influence over the royal treasury.

The Dukes of York and Somerset were now the leaders of the opposing parties; when Henry became insane in 1454, the former was made Protector, and the latter was arrested. But the king's first act on his recovery was to dismiss the Protector and to call Somerset. York immediately took up arms, as if to protect the King. At the first battle of St. Albans (1455) Somerset was killed and the king captured. Henry became much worse in his insanity, now he could not be carried about and shown to the people. The Duke of York was made Lord Protector of the kingdom until the King should recover, or the Prince (who was recently born) should come of age. At the same time the Duke of Somerset was committed to Tower. So now the Duke of Somerset was down, and the Duke of York was up. By the end of the year, however, the King recovered his memory and sense; he got the protector disgraced. So now the Duke of York was down, and the Duke of Somerset was up.

These ups and downs gradually separated the whole nation into two hostile groups, one supporting the House of York with a white rose in their coat-of-arms, the other supporting the House of Lancaster with a red rose in theirs. The Lancaster dynasty was chiefly supported by the nobility of the backward North and Wales while the York forces found support among some of the feudal lords of the economically developed SouthEast. The York dynasty was also supported by the new nobility and the wealthy citizens who were interested in establishing strong and durable power.

Comprehension questions

1.Bedford’s victories in France.

2.Joan of Arc.

3.What quarrel became an important reason for the fact that England lost its territories in France? What were the territories in France that England had in 1453?

38.EDWARD IV

A few days after Margaret fled with her son Henry Edward, Earl of March, united with the Earl of Warwick, came to London.

In several days the citizens were assembled in St. John's field, and they were asked if they would have Henry of Lancaster for their king. To this they all roared: "No, no, no!" and "King Edward! King Edward!", and threw up their caps, and clapped their hands, and cheered tremendously.

So, Edward of York was proclaimed King. He made a great speech to the applauding people at Westminster, and sat down on the throne, on the golden covering, on which his father had laid his hand but was killed with the bloody axe which cut the thread of so many lives in England.

King Edward the Fourth (1442-1463) was not quite twenty-one years of age when he took the unquiet seat upon the throne of England (in March, 1461). The Lancaster party, the Red Roses, were then assembling in great numbers near York, and it was necessary to give them battle instantly. The White and the Red Roses met, on a wild March day when the snow was

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