The Houses of Lancaster and York by James Gairdner

Author:James Gairdner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jovian Press

HENRY VI

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I – The King’s Minority and the French War

The death of Henry V was an event which the English could not help feeling as a calamity of no ordinary kind. No other of their kings had ever been so lamented. In his brief reign of nine years and a half he had done more than Edward III and the Black Prince had succeeded in effecting. He had virtually added another kingdom to his inheritance a kingdom larger, richer, and with a finer climate than his own. He had compelled the King of France to disinherit his own son and to adopt him as his heir, with the concurrence of the estates of the realm. Yet he was called away before he could secure these advantages on a satisfactory basis, and he was obliged to leave to others the task of vindicating for his son against the dauphin the rights that had been conceded to him by the treaty of Troyes.

It was a task that occupied the attention and fully engaged the energies of all England for a long time after. Nothing is more remarkable in the history of the next twenty years than the almost total absence of domestic events of any interest. The whole mind of the nation was absorbed with the war in France, and even the arrangements for the government at home were at first of subordinate importance. The crown of England was no longer a question in dispute. Though the son of Henry was an infant of only nine months old, the claims of the Earl of March were not for a moment thought of. Every Englishman desired that infant peacefully to succeed his father. The title to the crown of France was the only thing in question, and to maintain that every nerve was strained on France all eyes were riveted.

One domestic question, however, had to be settled at the outset. According to the constitution of England all acts of government emanate from the king but when the king, either from being under age or from some other disqualification, is unable to act himself, his authority devolves upon the great council of the lords, who, if he were capable of acting, would be his natural advisers. This authority the lords on the present occasion were solicited to yield up to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, who claimed the regency under the will of the late King his brother. But the council withstood his claim and when Parliament assembled the House of Lords determined that the late King’s will on this point was invalid, not being warranted by precedent or constitutional usage. The Duke of Gloucester was empowered to act, but only with the consent of the council, as the young King’s representative in summoning and dissolving Parliament. He was admitted to be the King’s chief councilor in the absence of his brother Bedford and an act was passed committing to him in Bedford’s absence the care of defending the kingdom, with the title of Protector.

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