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Henry VI. - Information

War of The Roses

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HENRY VI. 1422-1461

Born 1421. - Married Margaret of Anjou, daughter of René, duke of Anjou, by whom he had one son. Began to reign, 1422. - Reigned 30 years - Deposed 1461.

DOMINIONS Henry succeeded to the throne and claims of his father, and within less than two months to the throne of France by the death of Charles VI. The countries actually in possession of the English were the Duchy of Normandy, Calais, Ponthieu, Picardy, the Isle of France, Champagne, most of Anjou and Touraine north of the Loire, part of the Orleannais, Gascony, Guienne, including Perigord, Limousin, Angouleme, and part of Santoigne. In Guienne, however, the allegiance of the feudal nobility fluctuated considerably, and the Count d 'Armagnac, the head of the party opposed to Burgundy, whose estates lay in that province, was strongly against the English. The Duke of Burgundy, who acknowledged Henry VI. as king, was not only generally influential in Northern France, but ruled over Flanders and Artois, the Duchy of Burgundy, including the Nivernois, and over the county of Burgundy, Franche Comte which was outside the limits of France. The Duke of Britanny acknowledged Henry in 1423. Town castles, or small tracts of land were held for one aide or the other within the limits generally assigned to its rival. The national distinction between the English and the French side was not so decided as might appear to us likely. The Count d' Armagnac, who had principally upheld the party of Orleans and the Dauphin against the Burgundians, had flooded the North of France with Gascon soldiers, speaking a language different from that of Paris. The armies of the Dauphin were full of Scots, speaking Northumbrian-English, and of Italians. The armies of Henry V., and much more those of the Duke of Bedford and his captains, were full of Norman's and Picards, though these ultimately went over to the French side. The significance of the appearance of Joan of Arc is, that a peasant girl in the duchy of Bar, on the extreme frontier of France, should have any national French feeling at all, and that she had it shows that the French had at last begun to rise to a consciousness that it was a national struggle in which they were engaged, and not a contest between English, Burgundian, Gascon, and French rulers, of whom the first were not the worst masters for the townsfolk and peasantry. When once the struggle became national its termination was assured.

In 1429 the English were driven from the Orleannais, Rheims, Troyes, Chalons-sur-Marne and part of the Isle of France .
In 1430 they lost nearly all Champagne
In 1431 the French made conquests in Normandy, Though they failed to retain them all continuously.
In 1435 the Burgundians abandoned the English alliance.
In 1436 the French retook Paris.
In 1448 Anjou and Maine were banded over, according to the marriage treaty of the king, to the French, though Anjou was not for the most part in English hands before the transfer.
In 1449 most of Normandy was lost, and in 1450 the whole except the islands, by the capture of Cherbourg.
In 1451 Bordeaux and Bayonne were reduced, and though Bordeaux declared for the English again in 1452, it was finally taken by the French in 1453, Calais and the Norman Islands alone remaining of the French possessions.
The wars in which the kings of England had been engaged - first, to protect their continental dominions; secondly, to regain them or to conquer France - had been one great stimulus to the growth of a constitutional government, causing a need of money, and leading to public interest in questions concerning the raising and spending of money, and of administration generally. Above all, the wars encouraged a national pride and sense of unity, which resented and combined against abuses at home as readily as against a foreign enemy. Ultimately, from their exhausting effects and disastrous termination, and from the ferocity and rapacity which they engendered, the wars became fatal to the constitutional rule of England, which disappeared in the Wars of the Roses; which began in Henry's reign
Roxburgh Castle, which had been held by the English since Edward III.'s reign, was recovered and demolished by the Scots in 1460.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS.
The duke of Gloucester Lord Protector in England: the duke of Bedford regent of France. The siege of Orleans commenced, 1428, and saved by Joan of Arc, 1430, who soon after was captured, and burned for heresy and witchcraft, at Rouen. England ravaged by plague and famine, 1436. The English driven into Calais, 1444. The duke of Gloucester murdered. National discontent, and insurrection of Jack Cade, 1447 - 50. The Wars of the Roses commenced, 1451; the Yorkists wearing the white, and the Lancastrians the red, rose, as the badge of party. The Yorkists finally triumphed at the battle of Towton, 1461.

Henry VI., King of England, born at Windsor in 1421, was crowned at Westminster in 1429, at Paris in 1430. As he was an infant not nine months old at the death of his father Henry V., his, uncle John, duke of Bedford, was appointed regent of France; and his uncle Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, made protector of the realm of England. A few weeks after Henrys succession Charles VI. of France died, when, in accordance with the Treaty of Troyes, Henry was proclaimed king of France. The war which followed at first proved favourable to the English, but in the end, by the heroism of Joan of Arc, the death of the Duke of Bedford, and the defection of the Duke of Burgundy, resulted in the loss to the English of all their possessions in France except Calais.

In April, 1445, Henry married Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Rene of Provence. Two years later Humphrey of Gloucester died, when the Earl of Suffolk acquired the chief power in the kingdom, but his government was very unpopular.

The insurrection of Cade followed, and the Duke of York returning from Ireland, a great party was formed in his favour, and he was declared by parliament protector of the kingdom, the imbecile Henry being by this time unable even to personate majesty. The appointment was annulled in the following year, the king having recovered his faculties. York retired to the north, and being joined by his adherents, marched upon London. He encountered and defeated the king's army at St. Albans (1455), the first battle of the thirty years wars of the Roses. The king again becoming deranged, York was once more made protector. Four years of peace followed, but the struggle was soon renewed. The King's forces were beaten at Blore Heath and Northampton, and though they gained the Battle of Wakefield, at which York was killed, they were again defeated by his son Edward at Towton and Hexham. Henry was restored for a few months in 1471 by Warwick, ' the king maker,' but the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury proved the hopelessness of his cause and he died, some say was murdered, a few days after the last battle, in May, 1471.

He was a gentle, pious, well-intentioned, hopelessly incompetent king, whose best reputation is that of founder of Eton College and King's College, Cambridge.

OFFICIALS
Archbishops. - Henry Chichele, d. 1443; John Stafford, Cardinal, translated from Bath and Wells, 1443 - 1452; John Kempe, Cardinal, translated from York, 1452 - 1454; Thomas Bourchier, Cardinal, translated from Ely, 1454 - 1461.
Chancellors - Simon Gaunstede, Keeper of the Seal, 1422 - 1424; Henry Beaufort Bishop of Winchester, 1424 - 1426; John Kempe, Bishop of London, 1426 - 1454; Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, of the party of the Duke of York, 1454 -1455; Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop, 1455 - 1456; William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, 1456 - 1460; Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop, Keeper, 1460; George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, brother to the Earl of Warwick, 1460 - 1461.
On Henry's accession the Duke of Bedford was made Regent of France the Duke of Gloucester, Protector of England. On the death of Bedford, in 1435, the Duke of York was made Lieutenant and Governor - General of France, 1436 - 1437. Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, succeeded hum, 1437 - 39 . York succeeded again from 1440 - 1447, when the Duke of Somerset succeeded.
York was "Protector and Defender of the Realm and Church of England," 1454, and in 1455 - 1456. He was Lieutenant of Ireland. 1447 - 1453, and 1457 - 1459.
Richard Earl of Warwick, was Captain of Calais 1455 - 1459, when he was attainted, but he never surrendered Calais . He was Captain again in 1461, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Great Chamberlain of England .
Sir John Fortescue was Chief Justice of the King's Bench, 1442 - 1462 He wrote De Laudibus Legum, which is an exposition of the Constitutional Theory of the English Government under the Lancastrians.

ACTS AND DOCUMENTS

In 1429, by 8 Henry VI. c.7, it was enacted, that owing to the disorder consequent upon the presence of men of small substance at the election of knights of the shire, the franchise should henceforth be confined to residents owning lands or houses of forty shillings a year and upwards. By 10 Henry VI.c.2, it was explained that this meant Freeholders of forty shillings a year value and upwards. This distinctly altered the theoretical basis of the representation, for the suitors at the County Court, the reeve and four men from each township, had not been freeholders but in practice it is doubtful if the character of the representatives was changed; the House of Commons was evidently becoming a mere complement to the parties and feuds of the nobility, but the same families furnish knights of the shires before and after the act, of which too much has been made as an oligarchic statute. See Stubbs, Constitutional History, ch. xx., The Acts are printed in the Statutes.

In 1435 a general congress of European ambassadors was held at Arras to try and mediate in the matter of the French war. It resulted in the defection of Burgundy from the English side, with the certain loss of France. War followed between England and Burgundy, interrupted by frequent truce and presently suspended altogether, owing to the natural ties of common interest between England and Flanders.

The Treaty of Arras is printed in Dumont, vol. ii., In 1444 a marriage treaty was concluded between the king and Margaret of Anjou, daughter of the titular king of Naples, Sicily, and Jerusalem, by which Maine and Anjou were surrendered to him and a truce made with France. Printed in Rymer's Foedera, xi. 59.

In 1460 the Duke of York claimed the crown in Parliament, but the lords drew up objections that they were bound by oath to the House of Lancaster, that the succession was settled by acts of Parliament in that House, that they were the heirs male of Edward III., that York did not bear the arms of Lionel Duke of Clarence, the ancestor through whom he claimed, that Henry IV. had been the true heir to Henry III . A compromise was agreed upon, that Henry should keep the crown for his lifetime, and that York should succeed him. Rolls of Parliament v. 375-381.