her to abdicate in his favour. If
so, he had not long to wait for the crown. In =1413= Henry IV. died,
and Henry V. sat upon his throne.

13. =Henry V. and the Lollards. 1413--1414.=--Henry V. was steadied by
the duties which now devolved upon him. He indeed dismissed from the
chancellorship Archbishop Arundel, who had supported his father
against himself, and gave it to his half-uncle, Henry Beaufort, Bishop
of Winchester, one of the legitimated sons of John of Gaunt and
Catherine Swynford (see p. 282), but he allowed no plans of vengeance
to take possession of his mind. His first thought was to show that he
had confidence in his own title to the crown. He liberated the Earl of
March, and transferred the body of Richard II. to a splendid tomb at
Westminster, as if he had nothing to fear from any competitor. If
there was one thing on which, as far as England was concerned, his
heart was set, it was on strengthening the religion of his ancestors.
He founded three friaries and he set himself to crush the Lollards.
Sir John Oldcastle, who bore the title of Lord Cobham in right of his
wife, was looked up to by the Lollards as their chief supporter.
Oldcastle was brought before Archbishop Arundel. Both judge and
accused played their several parts with dignity. Arundel without angry
reviling asserted the necessity of accepting the teaching of the
Church. Oldcastle with modest firmness maintained the falsity of many
of its doctrines. In the end he was excommunicated, but before any
further action could be taken he escaped, and was nowhere to be found.
His followers were so exasperated as to form a plot against the king's
life. Early in =1414= Henry fell upon a crowd of them in St. Giles's
Fields. Most escaped, but of those who were taken the greater part
were hanged or burnt. The result was a statute giving fresh powers to
the king for the punishment of the Lollards. Every book written by
them was to be confiscated. Three years later (=1417=) Oldcastle was
seized and burnt. He was the last of the Lollards to play an
historical part. The Lollards continued to exist in secret, especially
in the towns, but there was never again any one amongst them who
combined religious fervour with cultivated intelligence.

[Illustration: Henry V.: from an original painting belonging to the
Society of Antiquaries.]

14. =Henry's Claim to the Throne of France. 1414.=--Henry V. was
resolved to uphold the old foreign policy of the days of Edwar