Close of the Hundred Years War : Loss of France

Henry had had a definite purpose in his war with France. He had not only proposed to continue the policy of his predecessors, and to strengthen his throne by winning military glory, but he wished also to make Normandy a second England; to purify the government there, to improve the condition of the people, and to encourage manufactures. In so doing he had a double object: to control the English Channel, and to obtain a voice in European affairs.

But this plan entirely failed. The immediate effect of Henry's successes was to arouse a spirit of patriotism in France that was to end in the complete defeat of the English. France, since the days of the great kings, Philip II and Philip IV, had passed through a long period of feudal reaction, when the monarchy was in a life and death grapple with the great territorial lords. But now, at the end of the struggle, she was ready to enter upon a new period of her career. From the Hundred Years' War she was to emerge a powerful kingdom, destined in half a century to win for herself lasting victory and a leading position among European states.

When, by a curious coincidence, Charles of France died in the same year with Henry of England, the young Henry VI, according to the terms of the treaty of Troyes, became king of France, with the duke of Bedford acting as regent. His title was acknowledged in northern France, and for the first six years Bedford succeeded in maintaining and continuing the conquests. Maine was reduced and the Loire region occupied. In 1428 the English laid siege to Orleans. The fortunes of the Dauphin, Charles VII, who had refused to acknowledge Henry's claim, never seemed at a lower ebb than in 1428, when there took place one of the most extraordinary occurrences in history. Joan of Arc, a village maid of Domremy, in Champagne, presented herself before Charles at Chinon, and declared that she had been divinely sent to rescue France. Accepted by the king as a last hope, she succeeded in raising the siege of Orleans and in turning the tide of English success. At Jargeau, the earl of Suffolk was captured, and Lord Talbot was defeated at Patty. On May 17,1429, Charles VII was crowned at Rheims.

The appearance of the Maid of Orleans roused in an extraordinary way the patriotism of the French. Little by little the English were driven back, until scarcely more than Normandy, Picardy, and Maine were left in their hands. Before Compiegne, the Maid, unhorsed in a sudden onset, was captured by Philip of Burgundy, who, as the signer of the treaty of Troyes, supported the cause of Henry VI. Philip sold her for ten thousand crowns to the English. After imprisonment and an unworthy trial, she was burned as a witch at Rouen (1431). The shame of this deed belongs to the duke of Bedford and to the heartless Charles VII, who raised not a finger to save the heroine who had made him king of France.

For twenty years the English king struggled to retain his hold upon his remaining French possessions. The death of Bedford in 1435, and the defection of Philip of Burgundy the same year, rendered his cause hopeless. In 1436 Paris fell into the hands of the French; in 1449, at the battle of Formigny, the English forces suffered a crushing defeat; Normandy was lost forever, and by 1450 all that Henry V had gained by his brilliant career of conquest was gone without hope of recovery. In 1451 Guienne surrendered, and in 1453 Bordeaux, the last stronghold in the south, was starved out. Calais and the Channel Islands alone remained to remind England of the former greatness of her kings as feudal lords in France. But the losses of England meant the independence of France. With the close of the Hundred Years' War begins the national unity and European importance of that kingdom.

Factional Struggles in England

Just as France had been afflicted for half a century by the selfish ambitions of the Burgundians and Armagnacs during the insanity of Charles VI, so England was to pass through a similar experience during the minority and weak rule of Henry VI.

In the years after the death of Henry V the political history of England is barren of significance. All eyes were directed toward the war in France. At home a struggle to control the king was taking place between Henry V's brother, the duke of Gloucester, whom parliament had made protector, and his uncle, Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, and afterward cardinal. The former fell into disgrace, owing to the charges of witchcraft brought against his second wife, Eleanor Cobham; and in 1442 Henry VI took the reins of government into his own hands. He had his favorite, William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who negotiated his marriage with Margaret of Anjou in 1445. After the death of Gloucester in 1447, and of Beaufort in the same year, Suffolk became master of the situation. His chief rival was Richard, Duke of York, nephew of that earl of March whom Henry IV had kept from the throne in 1485, and grandson of Edmund, fourth son of Edward III. Suffolk was charged with the failure of the war in France, and was impeached for treason by the House of Commons.' Pardoned by the king, he attempted to escape from England. But he was intercepted and beheaded off Dover by the sailors of William Canynges of Bristol, one of the Merchant Adventurers, who, as a class, resented the escape of a man who had done much to injure their trade and commerce. His place in the king's favor was taken by the Lancastrian. Edmund, Duke of Somerset, nephew of Cardinal Beaufort and grandson of John of Gaunt.