The Increasing Power of Parliament

Although the Lancastrian kings, with the cooperation of the church, were able to persecute the heretics, they could not prevent parliament from steadily increasing its claims and functions. The conspiracies at home, the national movement in Wales, the revolt of the Percys, and the trouble with England and Scotland made Henry IV's reign a burdensome and expensive one. Dependent, as he was, upon parliament for his title, he became increasingly dependent on it because of his constant need of money. Parliament named the king's council, audited the king's accounts, and not only controlled taxation as they had done for a century, but made good their demand that redress of grievances should precede a grant of supplies. They asked that their parliamentary privileges be fully recognized by the king; that they should not be held responsible for what they said in parliament; that they and their servants be, free from arrest during the session of the court; and that their petitions be speedily answered by the king. A great constitutional advantage was obtained in 1407, when Henry IV agreed that money bills should originate in the House of Commons, and another, in 1414, when Henry V promised not to alter a petition or bill without referring the alteration back to the petitioners. During this period the first attempts were made to define the voting privilege. Complaints had been made as early as 1406 of abuses by the sheriff in the matter of electing knights of the shire, and attempts had been made at that time to regulate the method of election. In 1413 knights were required to be "resident within the shire where they shall be chosen," and in 1429 the right to vote was limited to those freeholders who possessed a "free tenement of the value of forty shillings a year at least." All sorts of people seem to have got into the habit of attending the court and taking part in the election. To prevent this the law of 1429 was passed. It is not likely that this law altered seriously the character of parliament, though it must have reduced the number of freeholders voting in the shire court. The agricultural population, making up about nine-tenths of the people of the kingdom, never had had a share in the election of the knights of the shire.

Continuation of the Hundred Years War : Henrys Victories

England and France had been at war almost incessantly since 1337. The treaty of Bretigny, and the truces agreed to after 1360, had not brought about a permanent peace. That which Edward III, the Black Prince, and John of Gaunt had done, Henry V was to continue, and his military deeds were to rival Crecy and Poitiers. In 1414 he revived the English claims to the lost provinces in the south of France, and in 1415 demanded the crown of France itself. Both demands were, of course, rejected, and in 1415, Henry, with six thousand archers and two thousand men-at-arms, landed on the coast of Normandy. He captured Harfleur, and then, though his force was depleted by pestilence, resolved to march to Calais, through the enemy's country. At Agincourt he was confronted by the French army, four times as large as his own, led by the constable of France, John d'Albret. Through incredible blunders on the part of the French, Henry was able to win a famous victory, which increased immeasurably the prestige of the English archer and decreased the value of the heavily armed feudal knight. Henry returned to England in triumph, and was received by the people with demonstrations of joy. The battle of Agincourt (October 25, 1414) repaid England for the losses she had suffered since Bretigny, and increased the war fever at home.

In August, 1417, Henry invaded France for the second time, and during the year and a half that followed became the master of all Normandy. Such unprecedented victory was possible only because of the suicidal wars between the parties in France, with the duke of Burgundy on one side, and on the other the Dauphin (later, Charles VII), the head of the Armagnac faction. After long negotiation, a treaty was concluded at Troyes, May 14, 1420, between Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and the English king, according to which Henry was recognized as the heir of France, and the daughter of the king of France was given to him in marriage.

But the Dauphin, refusing thus to be deprived of his inheritance, defeated the English, under the duke of Clarence, the king's brother, in the battle of Bauge, March 22, 1421. For a third time Henry returned to France, where he succumbed to a greater conqueror than the Dauphin. On August 31, 1422, Henry died at Vincennes, leaving to his brother, the duke of Bedford, the government of France, and to another brother, the duke of Gloucester, the government of England, during the minority of his youngest son.