[Illustration:  JOAN OF ARC INDUCES THE KING TO BELIEVE THE TRUTH OF HER MISSION.]

Inspired by her perfect faith and godlike heroism, the French fought like tigers, and, in 1429, the besiegers went home.  She induced the king to be crowned in due form at Rheims, and asked for an honorable discharge; but she was detained, and the English, who afterwards captured her, burned her to death at Rouen, in 1431, on the charge of sorcery.  Those who did this afterwards regretted it and felt mortified.  Her death did the invaders no good; but above her ashes, and moistened by her tears,—­if such a feat were possible,—­liberty arose once more, and, in 1437, Charles was permitted to enter Paris and enjoy the town for the first time in twenty years.  In 1444 a truce of six years was established.

Henry was a disappointment, and, as Bedford was dead, the Duke of Gloucester, the king’s uncle, and Cardinal Beaufort, his guardian, had, up to his majority, been the powers behind the throne.

Henry married Margaret of Anjou, a very beautiful and able lady, who possessed the qualities so lacking in the king.  They were married in 1445, and, if living, this would be the four hundred and fifty-first anniversary of their wedding.  It is, anyway. (1896.)

The provinces of Maine and Anjou were given by the king in return for Margaret.  Henry continued to show more and more signs of fatty degeneration of the cerebrator, and Gloucester, who had opposed the marriage, was found dead in his prison bed, whither he had been sent at Margaret’s request.  The Duke of York, the queen’s favorite, succeeded him, and Somerset, another favorite, succeeded York.  In 1451 it was found that the English had lost all their French possessions except Calais.

Things went from bad to worse, and, in 1450, Jack Cade headed an outbreak; but he was slain, and the king showing renewed signs of intellectual fag, Richard, Duke of York, was talked of as the people’s choice on account of his descent from Edward III.  He was for a few days Protector, but the queen was too strongly opposed to him, and he resigned.

[Illustration:  RICHARD AND HIS ADHERENTS RAISING AN ARMY FOR THE REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES.]

He then raised an army, and in a battle at St. Albans, in 1455, defeated the royalists, capturing the king.  This was the opening of the War of the Roses,—­so called because as badges the Lancastrians wore a red rose and the Yorkists a white rose.  This war lasted over thirty years, and killed off the nobility like sheep.  They were, it is said, virtually annihilated, and thus a better class of nobility was substituted.

The king was restored; but in 1460 there occurred the battle of Northampton, in which he was defeated and again taken prisoner by the Earl of Warwick.

[Illustration:  BY REQUEST OF MARGARET, HIS HEAD WAS REMOVED FROM HIS BODY TO THE GATES OF YORK.]

Margaret was a woman of great spirit, and when the Duke of York was given the throne she went to Scotland, and in the battle of Wakefield her army defeated and captured the duke.  At her request he was beheaded, and his head, ornamented with a paper crown, placed on the gates of York, as shown in the rather life-like—­or death-like—­etching on the preceding page.