Henry IV proved a prudent prince, and comparatively a good ruler. The
settlement of the crown upon him by parliament was a good precedent,
though perhaps only dictated under the influence of his successful
arms. He was much troubled by insurrections, particularly a formidable
one by Percy, Earl of Northumberland――and one still more difficult to
put down in Wales, where Owen Glendower, a descendant of the British
princes, kept his ground for several years.
On the death of Henry IV in 1413, he was succeeded by his son, who was
proclaimed under the title of HENRY V. The young king attained high
popularity, on account of his impartial administration of justice, and
his zeal to protect the poor from the oppressions of their superiors.
His reign is less agreeably marked by the persecutions of the
Lollards, a body of religious reformers, many of whom were condemned
to the flames. Being determined to use every endeavor to gain the
crown of France, which he considered his by right of birth, he landed
in Normandy with 30,000 men (August 1415), and gave battle to a much
superior force of the French at Agincourt. He gained a complete
victory, which was sullied by his afterwards ordering a massacre of
his prisoners, under the apprehension that an attempt was to be made
to rescue them. The war was carried on for some years longer, and
Henry would have probably succeeded in making good his claim to the
French crown, if he had not died prematurely of a dysentery (August
31, 1422), in the thirty-fourth year of his age, leaving the throne to
an infant nine months old, who was proclaimed as HENRY VI, King of
France and England.
Under Henry VI, whose power was for some time in the hands of his
uncle the Duke of Bedford, the English maintained their footing in
France for several years, and at the battle of Verneuil, in 1424,
rivaled the glory of Cressy and Poitiers. At that conflict, a body of
Scotch, 7000 strong, who had proved of material service to the French,
were nearly cut off. In 1428, when France seemed completely sunk
beneath the English rule, the interests of the native prince were
suddenly revived by a simple maiden, named Joan of Arc, who pretended
to have been commissioned by Heaven to save her country; and entering
into the French army, was the cause of several signal reverses to the
English. By her enthusiastic exertions, and the trust everywhere
reposed in her supernatural character, Charles VII was crowned at
Rheims in 1430. Being soon after taken prisoner, the heroic maiden
was, by the English, condemned for witchcraft, and burnt.
Nevertheless, about the year 1453, the French monarch had retrieved
the whole of his dominions from the English, with the exception of
Calais.
Henry VI was remarkable for the extreme weakness of his character. His
cousin, Richard, Duke of York, descended from an elder son of Edward
III, and therefore possessed of a superior title to the throne,
conceived that Henry’s imbecility afforded a good opportunity for
asserting what he thought his birthright. Thus commenced the famous
_Wars of the Roses_, as they were called, from the badges of the
families of York and Lancaster――the former of which was a white, while
the latter was a red rose. In 1454, the duke gained a decisive victory
over the forces of Henry, which were led by his spirited consort,
Margaret of Anjou. In some succeeding engagements the friends of Henry
were victorious; and at length, in the battle of Wakefield (December
24, 1460), the forces of the Duke of York were signally defeated, and
himself, with one of his sons, taken and put to death. His pretensions
were then taken up by his eldest son Edward, who, with the assistance
of the Earl of Warwick, gained such advantages next year, that he
assumed the crown. Before this was accomplished, many thousands had
fallen on both sides. Henry, who cared little for the pomp of
sovereignty, was confined in the Tower.
Scotland, in the meantime (1424), had redeemed her king from his
captivity in England; and that prince, styled JAMES I, had proved a
great legislator and reformer, not to speak of his personal
accomplishments in music and literature, which surpassed those of
every cotemporary monarch. James did much to reduce the Highlands to
an obedience under the Scottish government, and also to break up the
enormous power of the nobles. By these proceedings, however, he
excited a deep hatred in the bosoms of some of his subjects; and in
1437 he fell a victim to assassination at Perth. He was succeeded by
his infant son, JAMES II, the greater part of whose reign was spent in
a harassing contention with the powerful house of Douglas, and who was
finally killed, in the flower of his age, by the bursting of a cannon
before Roxburgh Castle. His successor, JAMES III, was also a minor,
and, on reaching man’s estate, proved to be a weak, though not
ill-meaning prince. He fell a victim, in 1488, to a conspiracy formed
by his subjects, and which was led by his eldest son. The morality of
princes in this age seems to have been much upon a par with that
ascribed to the Turkish sovereigns of a later period. They never
scrupled to destroy life, either within the circle of their own
family, or out of it, when it suited their interests or their ambition
to do so.