Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois — Complete [Court memoir series] eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 244 pages of information about Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois — Complete [Court memoir series].

Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois — Complete [Court memoir series] eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 244 pages of information about Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois — Complete [Court memoir series].
he could get across that stream.  Consequently, when, on his way, he reached Azincourt, he found the whole chivalry of France arrayed against him in his path.  The great battle of Azincourt followed, with frightful ruin and carnage of the French.  With a huge crowd of prisoners the young King passed on to Calais, and thence to England.  The Armagnacs’ party lay buried in the hasty graves of Azincourt; never had there been such slaughter of nobles.  Still, for three years they made head against their foes; till in 1418 the Duke of Burgundy’s friends opened Paris’s gates to his soldiers, and for the time the Armagnacs seemed to be completely defeated; only the Dauphin Charles made feeble war from Poitiers.  Henry V. with a fresh army had already made another descent on the Normandy coast; the Dukes of Anjou, Brittany, and Burgundy made several and independent treaties with him; and it seemed as though France had completely fallen in pieces.  Henry took Rouen, and although the common peril had somewhat silenced the strife of faction, no steps were taken to meet him or check his course; on the contrary, matters were made even more hopeless by the murder of John, Duke of Burgundy, in 1419, even as he was kneeling and offering reconciliation at the young Dauphin’s feet.  The young Duke, Philip, now drew at once towards Henry, whom his father had apparently wished with sincerity to check; Paris, too, was weary of the Armagnac struggle, and desired to welcome Henry of England; the Queen of France also went over to the Anglo-Burgundian side.  The end of it was that on May 21,1420, was signed the famous Treaty of Troyes, which secured the Crown of France to Henry, by the exclusion of the Dauphin Charles, whenever poor mad Charles VI., should cease to live.  Meanwhile, Henry was made Regent of France, promising to maintain all rights and privileges of the Parliament and nobles, and to crush the Dauphin with his Armagnac friends, in token whereof he was at once wedded to Catharine of France, and set forth to quell the opposition of the provinces.  By Christmas all France north of the Loire was in English hands.  All the lands to the south of the river remained firmly fixed in their allegiance to the Dauphin and the Armagnacs, and these began to feel themselves to be the true French party, as opposed to the foreign rule of the English.  For barely two years that rule was carried on by Henry V. with inflexible justice, and Northern France saw with amazement the presence of a real king, and an orderly government.  In 1422 King Henry died; a few weeks later Charles VI. died also, and the face of affairs began to change, although, at the first, Charles VII. the “Well-served,” the lazy, listless prince, seemed to have little heart for the perils and efforts of his position.  He was proclaimed King at Mehun, in Berri, for the true France for the time lay on that side of the Loire, and the Regent Bedford, who took the reins at Paris, was a vigorous and powerful prince, who was not likely to give way
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Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois — Complete [Court memoir series] from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.