KING HENRY VI.
[Sidenote: King Henry's accession.]
King Henry the Sixth, who subsequently became the husband of Margaret
of Anjou, was only about nine months old, as has already been said,
when he succeeded to the throne by the death of his father. He was
proclaimed by the heralds to the sound of trumpets and drums, in all
parts of London, while he was yet an infant in his nurse's arms.
[Sidenote: His uncles.]
Of course the question was now who should have the rule in England
while Henry remained a child. And this question chiefly affected the
little king's uncles, of whom there were three--all rude, turbulent,
and powerful nobles, such as were briefly described in the last
chapter. Each of them had a powerful band of retainers and partisans
attached to his service, and the whole kingdom dreaded greatly the
quarrels which every one knew were now likely to break out.
The oldest of these uncles was Thomas. He was Duke of Exeter.
The second was John. He was Duke of Bedford.
The third was Humphrey. He was Duke of Gloucester. Thomas and Humphrey
seem to have been in England at the time of their brother the old
king's death. John, or Bedford, as he was commonly called, was in
France, where he had been pursuing a very renowned and successful
career, in extending and maintaining the English conquests in that
country.
[Sidenote: Division of power.]
The leading nobles and officers of the government were assembled in
council soon after the old king's death, and in order to prevent the
breaking out of the quarrels which were otherwise to have been
anticipated between these uncles, they determined to divide the power
as nearly as possible in an equal manner among them. So they appointed
Thomas, the Duke of Exeter, who seems to have been less ambitious and
warlike in his character than the rest, to the charge and custody of
the young king's person. Humphrey, the Duke of Gloucester, was made
Protector of England, and John, the Duke of Bedford, the Regent of
France. Thus they were all seemingly satisfied.
[Sidenote: Quarrels.]
[Sidenote: Beaufort and Gloucester.]
But the peace which resulted from this arrangement did not continue
very long. Pretty soon a certain Henry Beaufort, a bishop, was
appointed to be associated with Henry's uncle Thomas in the personal
charge of the king. This Henry Beaufort was Henry's great-uncle, being
one of the sons of John of Gaunt. He was a younger son of his father,
and so was brought up to the Church, and had been appointed Bishop of
Winchester, and afterward made a cardinal. Thus he occupied a very
exalted position, and possessed a degree of wealth, and power, and
general consequence little inferior to those of the grandest nobles in
the land. He was a man, too, of great capacity, very skillful in
manoeuvring and intriguing, and he immediately began to form ambitious
schemes for himself which he designed to carry into effect through the
power which the custody of the young king gave him. He was, of course,
very jealous of the influence and power of the Duke of Gloucester, and
the Duke of Gloucester became very jealous of him. It was not long
before occasions arose which brought the two men, and their bands of
followers, into direct and open collision.
[Sidenote: Progress of the quarrel.]
I can not here go into a full account of the particulars of the
quarrel. One of the first difficulties was about the Tower of London,
which Beaufort had under his command, and where there was a prisoner
whom Gloucester wished to set at liberty. Then there was a great riot
and disturbance on London Bridge, which threw the whole city of
London into a state of alarm. Beaufort alleged that Gloucester had
formed a plan to seize the person of the king and take him away from
Beaufort's custody; and that he had designs, moreover, on Beaufort's
life. To defend himself, and to prevent Gloucester from coming to the
palace where he was residing, he seized and fortified the passages
leading to the bridge. He built barricades, and took down the chains
of the portcullis, and assembled a large armed force to guard the
point. The people of London were in great alarm. They set watches day
and night to protect their property from the anticipated violence of
the soldiers and partisans of the combatants, and thus all was
commotion and fear. Of course there were no courts of justice powerful
enough to control such a contest as this, and finally the people sent
off a delegation to the Duke of Bedford in France, imploring him to
come to England immediately and see if he could not settle the
quarrel.
[Sidenote: Bedford summoned home from France.]
The Duke of Bedford came. A Parliament was convened, and the questions
at issue between the two great disputants were brought to a solemn
trial. The Duke of Gloucester made out a series of heavy charges
against the cardinal, and the cardinal made a formal reply which
contained not only his defense, but also counter charges against the
duke. These papers were drawn up with great technicality and ceremony
by the lawyers employed on each side to manage the case, and were
submitted to the Duke of Bedford and to the Parliament. A series of
debates ensued, in which the friends of the two parties respectively
brought criminations and recriminations against each other without
end. The result was, as is usual in such cases, that both sides
appeared to have been to blame, and in order to settle the dispute a
sort of compromise was effected, with which both parties professed to
be satisfied, and a reconciliation, or what outwardly appeared to be
such, was made. A new division of powers and prerogatives between
Gloucester, as Protector of England, and Beaufort, as custodian of the
king, was arranged, and peace being thus restored, Bedford went back
again to France.
[Sidenote: Death of Bedford.]
Things went on tolerably well after this for many years; that is,
there were no more open outbreaks, though the old jealousy and hatred
between Gloucester and the cardinal still continued. The influence of
the Duke of Bedford held both parties in check as long as the duke
lived. At length, however, when the young king was about fourteen
years old, the Duke of Bedford died. He was in France at the time of
his death. He was buried with great pomp and ceremony in the city of
Rouen, which had been in some sense the head-quarters of his dominion
in that country, and a splendid monument was erected over his tomb.
[Sidenote: Anecdote.]
A curious anecdote is related of the King of France in relation to
this tomb. Some time after the tomb was built Rouen fell into the
hands of the French, and some persons proposed to break down the
monument which had been built in memory of their old enemy; but the
King of France would not listen to the proposal.
[Sidenote: Generosity of the French king.]
"What honor shall it be to us," said he, "or to you, to break down the
monument, or to pull out of the ground the dead bones of him whom, in
his life, neither my father nor your progenitors, with all their
power, influence, and friends, were ever able to make flee one foot
backward, but who, by his strength, wit, and policy, kept them all at
bay. Wherefore I say, let God have his soul; and for his body, let it
rest in peace where they have laid it."
[Sidenote: Coronation of the young king in France.]
When King Henry was old enough to be crowned, in addition to the
English part of the ceremony, he went to France to receive the crown
of that country too. The ceremony, as is usual with the French kings,
was performed at the town of St. Denis, near Paris, where is an
ancient royal chapel, in which all the great religious ceremonies
connected with the French monarchy have been performed. A very curious
account is given by the ancient chroniclers of the pageants and
ceremonies which were enacted on this occasion. The king proceeded
into France and journeyed to St. Denis at the head of a grand
cavalcade of knights, nobles, and men-at-arms, amounting to many
thousand men, all of whom were adorned with dresses and trappings of
the most gorgeous description. At St. Denis the authorities came out
to meet the king, dressed in robes of vermilion, and bearing splendid
banners. The king was presented, as he passed through the gates, "with
three crimson hearts, in one of which were two doves; in another,
several small birds, which were let fly over his head; while the third
was filled with violets and flowers, which were thrown over the lords
that attended and followed him."
At the same place, too, a company of the principal civic dignitaries
of the town appeared, bearing a gorgeous canopy of blue silk, adorned
and embroidered in the most beautiful manner with royal emblems. This
canopy they held over the king as he advanced into the town.
[Sidenote: Curious pageants.]
At one place farther on, where there was a little bridge to be
crossed, there was a pageant of three savages fighting about a woman
in a mimic forest. The savages continued fighting until the king had
passed by. Next came a fountain flowing with wine, with mermaids
swimming about in it. The wine in this fountain was free to all who
chose to come and drink it.
Then, farther still, the royal party came to a place where an
artificial forest had been made, by some means or other, in a large,
open square. There was a chase going on in this forest at the time
when the king went by. The chase consisted of a living stag hunted by
real dogs. The stag came and took refuge at the feet of the king's
horse, and his majesty saved the poor animal's life.
[Sidenote: The coronation.]
Thus the king was conducted to his palace. Several days were spent in
preliminary pageants and ceremonies like the above, and then the
coronation took place in the church, the king and his party being
stationed on a large platform raised for the purpose in the most
conspicuous part of the edifice.
[Sidenote: 1441.]
[Sidenote: The banquet.]
After the coronation there was a grand banquet, at which the king,
with his lords and great officers of state, sat at a marble table in a
magnificent ancient hall. Henry Beaufort, the Bishop of Winchester,
was the principal personage in all these ceremonies next to the king.
Gloucester was very jealous of him, in respect to the conspicuous part
which he took in these proceedings.
[Illustration: Henry VI. in his Youth.]
Henry was quite young at the time of his coronations. He was a very
pretty boy, and his countenance wore a mild and gentle expression.
[Illustration: The Penance.]
[Sidenote: The old quarrel broke out again.]
[Sidenote: The duchess's penance.]
The quarrel between the Duke of Gloucester and the bishop was kept, in
some degree, subdued during this period, partly by the influence of
the Duke of Bedford while he lived, and partly by Gloucester's mind
being taken up to a considerable extent with other things, especially
with his campaigns in France; for he was engaged during the period of
the king's minority in many important military expeditions in that
country. At length, however, he came back to England, and there, when
the king was about twenty years of age, the quarrel between him and
the bishop's party broke out anew. The king himself was, however, now
old enough to take some part in such a difficulty, and so both sides
appealed to him. Gloucester made out a series of twenty-four articles
of complaint against the bishop. The bishop, on the other hand,
accused the duke of treason, and he specially charged that his wife
had attempted to destroy the life of the king by witchcraft. The
duchess was condemned on this charge, and it is said that, by way of
penance, she was sentenced to walk barefoot through the most public
street in London with a lighted taper in her hand. Some other persons,
who were accused of being accomplices in this crime, were put to
death.
[Sidenote: Witchcraft.]
The witchcraft which it was said these persons practiced was that of
making a waxen image of the king, and then, after connecting it with
him in some mysterious and magical way by certain charms and
incantations, melting it away by degrees before a slow fire, by which
means the king himself, as was supposed, would be caused to pine and
wither away, and at last to die. It was universally believed in those
days that this could be done.
[Sidenote: Position of the king.]
Of course, such proceedings as these only embittered the quarrel more
and more, and Gloucester became more resolute and determined than ever
in prosecuting his intrigues for depriving the bishop of influence,
and for getting the power into his own hands. The king, though he
favored the cardinal, was so quiet and gentle in his disposition, and
so little disposed to take an active part in such a quarrel, that the
bishop could not induce him to act as decidedly as he wished. So he
finally conceived the idea of finding some very intelligent and
capable princess as a wife for the king, hoping to increase the power
which he exercised in the realm through his influence over her.
[Sidenote: Scheme formed by Beaufort.]
The lady that he selected for this purpose was Margaret of Anjou.