The Comic History of EnglandÀ Beckett, Gilbert Abbott
History
The Comic History of England
À Beckett, Gilbert Abbott
Great Britain -- History -- Humor
Having warmed his subjects' hearts, he struck while the iron was hot,
and took an aim at their pockets. Parliament was in a capital humour,
and came out splendidly with pecuniary votes for a new expedition. He
left the queen at Windsor Castle, where she shortly after gave birth to
a son; and having landed a large but very miscellaneous army at Calais,
Henry marched to Paris, to reinforce the Duke of Exeter, who had been
left there as governor. The English were successful at all points, and
Queen Catherine having joined her husband, they held their court at the
Louvre, where they sat in their coronation robes, with their crowns on
their heads, as naturally as if they had formed a part of "the Royal
Family at Home" in Madame Tussaud's far-famed collection of wax-work.
In the midst of his victorious career in France, Henry had started off
to the relief of a town invested by the dauphin--an investment that was
profitable to nobody. The English king had reached Corbeil, when he
was taking suddenly ill, and throwing himself on a litter, he declared
himself to be literally tired out with his exertions. Having been taken
home to the neighbourhood of Vincennes, and put to bed, he summoned
his brother, the Duke of Bedford, and some other nobles, to whom he
recommended amity; but, above all, he advised them to continue the
alliance with Burgundy, whose habit of sticking to his friends has given
the name of Burgundy to the well-known pitch plaster. Having appointed
his brothers Gloucester and Bedford regents, the one for England and the
other for France, during the minority of his son, he seemed perfectly
resigned; but his attendants literally roared like a parcel of children,
so that he was compelled to tell them that crying would do no good to
anybody. He died on the 31st of August, 1422, aged thirty-four, having
reigned ten years with some credit to himself, and in full, as far as
conquest may be desirable, with advantage to his country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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