Skilful as brave, how Henry's ready eye Lost not a thicket, nor a hillock's aid, From his hersed bowman, how the arrows flew, Thick as the snow flakes, and with lightning force, SOUTHEY. A. D. 1. WHILE the Armagnacs and Burgundians were exhausting themselves and their country by their 1415. bloody contests, the English were preparing to renew the glories of Edward, and make a second effort for the subjugation of France. The reign of Richard II. had been too weak, and that of the usurper Henry IV. too turbulent, for any attempts at so great an enterprise; but on the accession of Henry V. the whole English nation so passionately clamoured for an invasion of France, that Henry would probably have endangered his throne had he hesitated to comply. With no better excuse than the almost forgotten pretensions of Edward III. he published a declaration of war, and passing over into Normandy, laid siege to Harfleur. 2. 3 The garrison made an obstinate defence for several months, but at length their provisions were exhausted; their supplications for assistance were disregarded by the government, and they were forced to surrender at discretion. 3. From Harfleur, Henry advanced through Normandy towards Calais, meeting with little or no resistance, but the heat of the weather and the quantities of rich fruits eaten by the soldiers, produced a pestilence in his camp, by which numbers of his soldiers were destroyed, and the rest greatly weakened. Oct. 24, 1415. 4. In this calamitous situation, Henry was overtaken by the constable d'Albret, with an army eight times more numerous than his own, on the plains of Azincourt. It was late in the evening when the two armies came in sight of each other, and the engagement was consequently deferred to the following day. On the side of the French, there was confidence in strength and numbers, "they jested," says an old historian, "at those scarecrows of English who could scarcely sit on their famished horses." 5. Notwithstanding the disparity of forces, two anecdotes will serve to convince us that the English and their gallant sovereign were not totally destitute of hope. Henry sent a Welsh captain named David Gam, to bring him some account of the number of the French, and David returned with the following report, "May it please your majesty, there are enough to be killed, enough to be taken, and enough to run away." When Henry heard his brother wish for more men, he said, "I would not desire another: if we are to fall, I wish not that the loss of our country should be increased; if we are to win, the fewer that share our glory the better." 6. The morning of St. Crispin's day saw both armies prepared for the battle. The fight, though the odds were so unequal, was not long maintained by the French, they were defeated, as at Crecy and Poictiers, by the heavy fire of the archers. which drove their cavalry back on the infantry, and mingled both in remediless confusion. 7. The Duke of Orleans was one of the prisoners taken by the English. But the victorious army was unable to maintain its conquests; sickness and the climate were enemies not to be resisted, and Henry having with difficulty brought his shattered bands to Calais, returned home. 8. It would have been naturally supposed, that the presence of a public enemy would have checked the private dissensions of France; but on the contrary, they seem rather to have become worse in consequence. The two eldest sons of the king having died within a very short space, Charles, a sworn enemy to the house of Burgundy, succeeded to the title of Dauphin, and united himself in strict alliance with d'Armagnac, who on the death of d'Albret, had been appointed constable of France. The queen was the only person whose authority could counterbalance the weight of this party, and the constable resolved to remove her from his path. As she lived in the practice of open and avowed licentiousness, it was not difficult to find a pretence for putting her under arrest; one of her paramours was seized, convicted, and drowned, and she was sent as a prisoner to Tours. Thenceforward she was animated with the most implacable hatred against the constable, and against the dauphin her own son, whom, though only sixteen years old, she detested for having assented to her degradation. 9. The imprisonment of the queen, the unhappy A. D. death of two dauphins, the deprivation of a great num1417. ber of officers, the pillage of the open country by the unpaid soldiery, and the depredations of the Armagnacs, who even took the plate out of the churches, afforded the duke of Burgundy pretexts sufficiently specious for renewing the war, under pretence of liberating the king, and tranquillizing the nation. At the request of the queen he came to Tours and rescued her from captivity; thence he proceeded to Troyes, where the queen proclaimed herself regent, summoned an assembly of the states, and had a great seal made, on which her own figure was engraved. 10. In so favourable a conjuncture the English monarch was not remiss, he invaded Normandy a second time, and soon made himself master of the greater part of that province. And yet the constable was contented to see France dismembered by the English, rather than hazard its being governed by his enemy. 11. The citizens of Paris were become weary of a domestic war which exhausted all their resources; they had not forgotten their former attachment to the house of Burgundy, and the Armagnacs had on many occasions violated the privileges of the city; for these reasons when l'Isle Adam, a partisan of the duke, appeared in the streets shouting, "Peace and Burgundy," he was immediately joined by such a numerous body of the citizens, that it was impossible for his enemies to make any resistance. 12. But the cry of peace was treacherous and delusive, a cruel slaughter of the Armagnac party commenced; nor was it confined to them, every man that had a personal enemy was designated an Armagnac, and the name at once procured him to be murdered. The dauphin was saved with difficulty by a faithful friend; but the count d'Armagnac, and the ministers of the crown, remained prisoners with an infuriate mob, who knew not the name of mercy.* They were all cruelly put to death, and with bitter mockery, the erect, or St. George's cross, was cut on their bodies, for that was the symbol of the Armagnacs, as the oblique, or St. Andrew's, was of the Burgundians. A. D. 1419. 13. The flight of the dauphin was the signal for civil war in every part of France; while the English taking advantage of these dissensions, steadily pursued their career of victory, and subdued town after town without meeting any effective resistance. At length the duke of Burgundy made proposals to the dauphin for an accommodation, it was agreed that they should meet on the bridge of Montereau, and a barrier was erected on it to protect both from the hostility of their mutual followers. Some friends of the murdered duke of Orleans took this opportunity to revenge his death; leaping over the barrier in the midst of the conference, they fell on the duke of Burgundy and slew him. It is uncertain whether the dauphin had any share in this treacherous transaction, but its consequences nearly proved fatal to him and to his followers. 14. Philip, son of the murdered duke, assembled a numerous army, the queen joined bim with her forces, and a peace was concluded with England, by which *These excesses, we are told by the old historians, were followed by the most brilliant processions ever seen. The murderers sought to palliate their crimes by associating them with religious ceremonies. The scarcity occasioned by the pillage and conflagrations in the environs of Paris, was followed by a contagious disease, which made such dreadful ravages, that, in the space of five weeks, fifty thousand of the citizens died. |