HENRY VI.—1422 to 1461.
How Henry the Sixth became King while he was an infant; how the Duke
of Bedford governed in France; how Joan of Arc persuaded the Dauphin
and the French soldiers to take courage; how they nearly drove the
English out of France; how Joan was taken prisoner and put to death.
Henry of Windsor, the poor little Prince of Wales, was not a year
old when his father died. He was made King of England directly, and
became King of France soon after.
The parliament that his wise father left gave good guardians and
protectors to the little king, and to England and to France.
The war in France began again, for the mad king having died, his
son, who was almost as good for France as our Henry of Monmouth had
been for England, began to try to get back all his father’s kingdom.
However, the Duke of Bedford, uncle to the little King of England,
managed so well for the English, that it really seemed as if France
was always to be subject to the King of England.
It was fortunate, for the good of both countries, that it was not to
be so.
When the people of France were so tired of war that they were not
able to fight longer, and the king himself had lost all hope of
getting back his kingdom, one of the strangest things happened that I
ever read about.
A young woman called Joan of Arc, who was servant at a country inn
at Domremy in France, had heard a great many people talk about the
sad state of all the country, and the great unhappiness of the young
French Prince Charles. She thought about this so much, that at last
she fancied that God had sent her to help the Prince to get back his
kingdom, and to drive the English out of France.
So she dressed herself like a young man, and got a sword and spear,
and went to Chinon, a castle where the prince was, and there she told
him, and the few French nobles who were with him, that, if they would
only follow her when they were next attacked, she would teach them
how to conquer the English.
I should tell you, that the eldest son of the King of France was
called the Dauphin, as the eldest son of the King of England is
called Prince of Wales.
Well, at first the dauphin and his friends thought that Joan was mad;
but she began to talk to them so wisely, that they listened to her.
She cheered the dauphin, who seemed quite without hope of saving his
kingdom; she said that he ought to call himself king directly, and go
to Rheims, where all the kings of France used to be crowned, and have
the crown put upon his head; that the people might know he was king.
She told the nobles that the English, if they conquered France, would
take away their estates and make them beggars; that it was shameful
to let the poor young dauphin be driven from the kingdom of his
forefathers; and that they deserved to lose the name of nobles if
they were afraid to fight for their own country and king.
Then she went among the common soldiers and the poor people. She
said, God would have pity on them, if they would fight bravely
against the English, who were strangers, and who only came to France
to take all that was good from them, and spoil their towns, and
trample down their corn, and kill their king, and make beggars of
them all.
So by the time the French and English met again in battle, the French
had recovered their spirits. And when the king, and the nobles, and
the people saw that young woman go in front of the army, and into
every dangerous place, and fight better than any of the bravest
soldiers, they would have been ashamed not to follow her; so that her
bravery and her good advice did really begin to save her country.
The French drove the English army away from Orleans, and Joan of Arc
has been called the Maid of Orleans ever since.
The Maid of Orleans next persuaded the dauphin to go and have the
crown set on his head, and so make himself king; and as soon as that
was done, a great many people came to him, and he very soon had a
large army, with which he drove the English out of the greater part
of France.
It was a grand sight when Charles the Dauphin went to Rheims, and was
crowned, while all the nobles stood by, and the Maid of Orleans close
to him, holding the white flag of France in her hand.
I am sorry to tell you the end of the brave Maid of Orleans. She was
taken prisoner by the English, and kept in prison for some time. At
last, they were so cruel as to burn her alive, because they could not
forgive her for saving her country and her king. But they pretended
she was a witch.
Soon after this cruel murder the Duke of Bedford died, and by degrees
the English lost everything in France but a very little corner of the
country, out of all that Henry the Fifth had conquered.
I shall end this chapter here, because we have nothing more to say
about France for a long while; but we shall have to read of some sad
civil wars in England, which began at this time.