HENRY VI., the only child of Henry V. and Catherine of France, was b. at Windsor, Dec. 0, 1421. As he was not quite nine months old when his father died, his uncle John, duke of Bedford, was appointed to govern France, and another uncle, Hum phrey, duke of Gloucester, to be "protector of the realm and church of England," with a council appointed by parliament to aid and control him, the parliament declining to appoint him regent, though the late king had desired it. The incapable Charles VI. of France having died, his son the dauphin assumed the title of Charles VII., and went on fighting with the English. His army, commanded by the Scotch earl of Buchan, who had been appointed constable of France for his victory over the duke of Clarence in the previous reign, and consisting of 14;000, half Scotch and half French, was almost annihilated by the English under Bedford, at Verneuil, Aug. 27, 1424. The Scotch auxiliaries ought not to have been there, as peace had been made with the Scots a year before, and their young king, James I., had been set at liberty, after a useful captivity of twenty years, and had returned to his kingdom with lady Jane Beaufort, a daughter of the duke of Somerset, and relation of the royal family, as his queen.
The victory of Verneuil was the last great success obtained by the English in France, and their power, which only force could support or justify, gradually crumbled down. In 1428 they laid siege to Orleans, but the siege was raised next year by the French, inspired by Joan of Arc (q.v.); and although she was burned as a witch by the English in 1431, their power continued to decline. Normandy was completely lost by the fall of Cherbourg in 1450; and ultimately, in 1453, they were expelled from all France (Calais excepted), greatly to the true advantage of both that country and England.
Disputes between Gloucester, the regent, and his uncle, the powerful bishop of Winchester, as well as war with France, prevailed during the minority of the king. As he grew up, he manifested no tendency to either vicious or intellectual activity. He inherited, in fact, the imbecility of his grandfather, Charles VI. of France. In 1445 the weak king found a wife in the strong-minded Margaret of Anjou; and in 1447 the Winchester party, supported by her, succeeded in having Gloucester thrown into prison for high treason, where he was soon found dead in his bed, without external mark of violence, hut most likely murdered, as Edward II. had been, by thrusting a red-hot iron
through his bowels. Winchester did not long survive his nephew and rival; and in 1450 the duke of Suffolk, the queen's favorite minister, being impeached by the Com mons, was condemned to be banished from the kingdom, but was shortly after taken, and executed on board one of the king's ships. The want of strength in the king, as well as in his title to the crown, was an invitation to every form of faction to display itself. Jack Cade. an adventurer, who pretended to be a Mortimer, obtained a temporary possession of London; but the citizens overcame him and his pillaging fol.
lowers, and he was taken and beheaded in a garden by the sheriff of Kent. The true representative of the Mortimers was Richard, duke of York, and he was one of the unquiet spirits of the reign. As a descendant of Lionel, duke of Clarence, the third son of Edward III., his title to the crown was superior to that of the king, who was descended from the duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of that monarch, and he laid claim to the crown with more or less openness, according to circumstances. His influ ence and address was so great that in 1454, on the occasion of the king's weak mind being entirely eclipsed, he was appointed protector by parliament. On the king's recovery, he was indisposed to give up his power, and levied an army to maintain it. On May 22, 1455, the battle of St. Albans was fought, and the Yorkists were victors; 5,000 of the supporters of the house of Lancaster being killed, the duke of Somerset, the queen's favorite minister for the time, being among them; and the king himself being taken prisoner. This was the first battle of twelve that was fought between the houses of York and Lancaster, in the wars commonly called the wars of the roses, from the emblem of York being, a white rose, and of Lancaster a red rose. (For a brief account of the struggle, see EDWARD IV.) Henry, after a checkered career, died May 22, 1471. In his cradle, he was proclaimed king of both France and England; but be lost both, having in intellect scarcely advanced from his cradle all his days, though throughout amiable and pious.