For a long time the king had been trying to get a wife for his wild son, no doubt with the hope that marriage would improve his bad behavior. Several ladies had been proposed, but in each case something happened to prevent an engagement. At last both father and son seemed determined on obtaining the fair Katherine for the lofty station of Princess of Wales. The Duke of York was sent on a private mission to demand her hand in marriage for Prince Henry, and while he was absent the king died. A short but fierce civil war had to be fought before Henry V. could take possession of the throne, because somebody raised a report that Richard II., who would have succeeded, was still alive. In order to restore peace, Henry was obliged to have Richard's corpse paraded through the streets. It was carried in a chair of state adorned with regal ornaments, Henry walking by its side, and all the court following. After a solemn ceremony it was safely laid away in Westminster Abbey, and tranquillity returned. Then the new king made another application for the hand of Princess Katherine, at the same time demanding the enormous dowry of two millions of crowns and all the southern provinces of France. Charles VI. tried to compromise,--and offered 450,000 {270}crowns. This the English lover refused with disdain. In fact, he wanted an excuse for invading France, so resolved to fight for Katherine the Fair, and to win her, as well as the gold and the provinces he had demanded, at the point of the sword. In order to raise money for this expedition he had to sell or pawn all the valuables he owned, but his ambition was aroused and he never doubted that "the game was worth the candle." From Southampton Henry V. sent a letter to the King of France warning him of his intended invasion, and adding that if the southern provinces and the hand of Katherine were not bestowed on him at once he would take them by force. The king replied: "If that was his mind he would do his best to receive him; but as to the marriage he thought it would be a strange way of wooing Katherine, covered with the blood of her countrymen." This answer might have had a favorable effect on the young king had not the Dauphin Louis excited his anger by sending him a cask of tennis balls, saying, "that they were fitter playthings for him, according to his former course of life, than the provinces he demanded." "These balls," replied Henry, making an angry pun, "shall be struck back with such a racket as shall force open the Paris gates."