Young Folks' History of EnglandYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
History
Young Folks' History of England
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Great Britain -- History -- Juvenile literature
Henry was so modest that he would not allow the helmet he had worn at
Agincourt, all knocked about with terrible blows, to be carried before
him when he rode into London, and he went straight to church, to give
thanks to God for his victory. He soon went back to France, and went
on conquering it till the queen came to an agreement with him that he
should marry his daughter Catherine, and that, though poor, crazy
Charles VI. should reign to the end of his life, when he died Henry
and Catherine should be king and queen of France. So Henry and
Catherine were married, and he took her home to England with great
joy and pomp, leaving his brother Thomas, Duke of Clarence to take
care of his army in France. For, of course, though the queen had made
this treaty for her mad husband, most brave, honest Frenchmen could
not but feel it a wicked and unfair thing to give the kingdom away
from her son, the Dauphin Charles. He was not a good man, and had
consented to the murder of his cousin, the Duke of Burgundy, and this
had turned some against him; but still he was badly treated, and the
bravest Frenchmen could not bear to see their country given up to the
English. So, though he took no trouble to fight for himself, they
fought for him, and got some Scots to help them; and by and by news
came to Henry that his army had been beaten, and his brother killed.
He came back again in haste to France, and his presence made everything
go well again; but all the winter he was besieging the town of Meaux,
where there was a very cruel robber, who made all the roads to Paris
unsafe, and by the time he had taken it his health was much injured.
His queen came to him, and they kept a very grand court at Paris, at
Whitsuntide; but soon after, when Henry set out to join his army, he
found himself so ill and weak that he was obliged to turn back to the
Castle of Vincennes, where he grew much worse. He called for all his
friends, and begged them to be faithful to his little baby son, whom
he had never even seen; and he spoke especially to his brother John,
Duke of Bedford, to whom he left the charge of all he had gained. He
had tried to be a good man, and though his attack on France was really
wrong, and caused great misery, he had meant to do right. So he was
not afraid to face death, and he died when only thirty-four years old,
while he was listening to the 51st Psalm. Everybody grieved for him--
even the French--and nobody had ever been so good and dutiful to poor
old King Charles, who sat in a corner lamenting for his good son Henry,
and wasting away till he died, only three weeks later, so that he was
buried the same day, at St. Denys Abbey, near Paris, as Henry was
buried at Westminster Abbey, near London.
CHAPTER XXI.
HENRY VI., OF WINDSOR. A.D. 1423--1461.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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