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bestir themselves in compliance with the royal proclamations, calling upon them first to report what force each could bring into the field, and then to join his standard at Southampton next Midsummer. The force collected amounted to above sixteen thousand men, fully equipped, of whom one fourth were cavalry, and the rest archers. Nearly one half of this body were raised and paid by the King himself; the rest were brought by the barons, some of whom came at the head of four hundred, and one, the Duke of Clarence, brought no fewer than a thousand men. Several thousands more of artificers, squires, and other attendants accompanied the regular troops; and the whole force is said by several old writers to have exceeded twenty-five thousand. To convey this army across the Channel, a fleet of fifteen hundred sail was assembled at Portsmouth; and that its operations might meet with no obstruction, Henry, before he embarked, directed a squadron under Huntingdon to scour the narrow seas. This service was well performed. The admiral met nine of the Genoese vessels in the pay of France, and after a long and severe engagement sunk three and took three, with their commander, the bastard of Bourbon, and the moneychest of the fleet. As nothing now remained to delay the expedition, it set sail for the French coast, and the troops were landed at Beville, near Harfleur, without any opposition.' During the time which the preparation for this 'T. Elm., 92. T. Liv., 31. Hol., iii. 89. Stowe, 353. Note XLII.

Aug. 1,

1417.

enterprise occupied, a most important change had taken place in the position of French affairs; and that success, which at the beginning of the year must have been considered altogether hopeless, seemed now brought within the bounds of no very remote possibility that the design which had been planned and prepared as a predatory incursion might now lead to the possession of the country, and the occupation, though precarious and temporary, of its throne. The Queen of Charles VI. had ever been one of the Burgundian's most determined and powerful adversaries, insomuch that he had, during the last year, directed a conspiracy, as we have seen, against her life. In the spring of 1417 she appears to have had some difference with Armagnac, who set the weak King against her, and excited his jealousy respecting her private conduct, never at any time above reproach. One day, in the month of May, Charles,

May, 1417.

on his way back to Paris, from visiting her

at the Castle of Vincennes, met a cavalier, one Louis Bourdon, going thither, who gave some offence by the careless manner of his salutation; whereupon the King ordered the Provost of Paris to seize him. He was accordingly first cast into prison, then put to the torture, and finally drowned in the Seine. A few days after the Dauphin joined Armagnac in seizing the Queen's person, and sending her to Tours, where she was kept under close watch, and, in fact, as a prisoner, though not confined to her apartment. Her jewels and her large treasures were likewise taken

possession of, and applied to the public service. The immediate consequence of these proceedings was a reconcilement between her and the Burgundian, and a quarrel with his adversaries. Nor does she appear to have been ever after possessed with any other feeling on public affairs than an insatiable thirst of revenge, which she was resolved to slake by the ruin of the Constable, of her son the Dauphin, and of his kingdom. '

A few weeks before her seizure the Burgundian had published in most of the great April 24, towns between Paris and his dominions a 1417. manifesto against the Armagnacs, whom he charged with holding the King's person in constraint, and ruining the country, beside imputing to them the murder by poison of the Dauphins Charles and John. The suspicion naturally arises that the issuing of this proclamation may have been suggested by intelligence having reached him of the differences which had sprung up between the Queen and the Constable. That he soon after was in communication with her is certain; and at the beginning of August he began his operations. By emissaries whom he despatched to several important towns, he received their allegiance; and he immediately after moved a powerful army of at least thirty thousand men, by which he was enabled to take possession of other strong places,

1 Monstrelet, ch. clxviii.—clxxix. Juv. des Urs., 336. P. de Fen., 465.

2 Monstrelet makes them amount to 60,000 horsemen ; a manifest exaggeration.

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and to reach Montrouge, within sight of the capital. But meeting with no encouragement from the inhabitants, he turned aside, and, after taking several more towns, restored the Queen to liberty, made another unsuccessful attempt upon Paris, and then withdrew with her to Troyes, keeping possession of the places which he had seized. She, on on her part, issued a proclamation declaring herself Regent of the kingdom, suspending the Parliament of Paris, appointing two others, one to meet at Amiens and one at Troyes, and filling up the highest offices in the realm with her own creatures.

It is manifest that, while the Court of Charles was thus distracted by faction, and had to contend with so formidable an enemy as the Burgundian in the heart of the country, no effectual resistance could be offered to Henry's invasion. Upon receiving intelligence of his preparations, Armagnac had sent such troops as he could detach from Paris to garrison some of the Norman towns ; but little exertion could be expected in the present dreadful state of the kingdom, when no man knew whom he should obey or whom he could trust. Accordingly, after Henry had taken the childish step of challenging the Dauphin to decide their differences by single combat, and so spare the effusion of blood,'—a proposition which, as he must have fully expected, was not even deemed worthy of any answer, -he proceeded to attack the fortified town of Tong, which surrendered

1 T. Elm., 99.

without making any defence,' and immediately after Anvilliers and Villiers followed its example. Caen, however, the chief town of the province, having good works and a strong garrison, stood a siege of three weeks, when it was taken by storm, and the citadel soon after capitulated. No mercy was shown to the inhabitants in this assault. The butchery was continued for some hours, none but women, children, and unmarried priests being spared; and the slaughter only ceased in order that prisoners might be made, whose ransom formed so important a branch of the warlike finance in those days. Nor was the leaving women untouched an act of such mercy as at first sight it may seem; for fifteen hundred were driven from the place, and English settlers brought over in their stead.

The example made of Caen had a great effect upon the people of the neighbouring towns, which sent their keys; and many that had no walls or garrison were deserted, insomuch that at Lisieux only two persons were found, too infirm to be removed, and five-and-twenty thousand families are said to have fled before the invaders, taking refuge in Brittany. The fate of Caen was not the only cause of this panic. Before that city fell, the recollection of the horrid cruelties and indiscriminate pillage which had marked the progress of the English army during the former invasion taught the people what they had now to expect; and it was not until Henry wisely

Juv. des Ursins, 335.

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