gismund promised much, but had little power to fulfil his promises,
whilst the Duke shifted backwards and forwards, looking out for his
own advantage and giving no real help to either side. In =1417= the
quarrels in France reached a head. The Count of Armagnac, getting into
his possession the Dauphin Charles, a boy of fourteen, established a
reign of terror in Paris, and the Duke of Burgundy, summoned by the
frightened citizens to their help, levied war against the Armagnacs
and marched to Paris.

19. =Henry's Conquest of Normandy. 1417--1419.=--Henry seized the
opportunity and landed in Normandy. Caen was taken by storm, and in a
few weeks all Normandy except Rouen had submitted to Henry. There had
been a terrible butchery when Caen was stormed, but when once
submission was secured Henry took care that justice and order should
be enforced, and that his soldiers should abstain from plunder and
outrage. In Paris affairs were growing worse. The citizens rose
against the Armagnacs and imprisoned all of them on whom they could
lay hands. Then the mob burst into the prisons and massacred the
prisoners, the Count of Armagnac himself being one of the number.
Henry's army in the meanwhile closed round Rouen. The magistrates, to
prolong the defence, thrust out the poorer inhabitants. Henry, who
knew not pity when there was a practical object to be gained, thrust
them back. During five months the poor wretches wandered about half
starved, dying off day by day. On Christmas Day, in honour of Christ's
nativity, Henry sent some food to the few who were left. Famine did
its work within as well as without the walls, and on January 19,
=1419=, Rouen, the old ducal capital of the Norman kings, surrendered
to Henry.

[Illustration: Effigy of William Phelip, Lord Bardolf (died 1441),
with the Garter and Lancastrian collar of SS.: from his tomb at
Dennington, Suffolk. The type of armour here shown prevailed from
about 1415 to 1435.]

[Illustration: Marriage of Henry V. and Catherine of France: from the
'Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick,' drawn by John Rous about
1485.]

20. =The Murder of the Duke of Burgundy and the Treaty of Troyes.
1419--1420.=--In the summer of =1419= English troops swept the country
even up to the walls of Paris. Henry, however, gained more by the
follies and crimes of his enemies than by his own skill. Terrified at
the prospect of losing all, Burgundians and Armagnacs seemed for a
moment to forget the