d's Success in France. 1423--1424.=--The English nation was
bent upon maintaining its supremacy in France. Bedford was a good
warrior and an able statesman. In =1423= he prudently married the
sister of Philip of Burgundy, hoping thereby to secure permanently the
all-important fidelity of the Duke. His next step was to place
difficulties in the way of the Scottish auxiliaries who poured into
France to the help of Charles. Through his influence the captive James
I. (see p. 295) was liberated and sent home to Scotland, on the
understanding that he would prevent his subjects from aiding the
enemies of England. Bedford needed all the support he could find, as
the French had lately been gaining ground. In =1424=, however, Bedford
defeated them at Verneuil. In England it was believed that Verneuil
was a second Agincourt, and that the French resistance would soon be
at an end.

3. =Gloucester's Invasion of Hainault. 1424.=--Bedford's progress in
France was checked by the folly of his brother Gloucester, who was as
unwise and capricious as he was greedy of power. Gloucester had lately
married Jacqueline, the heiress of Holland and Hainault, though her
husband, the Duke of Brabant, was still living, on the plea that her
first marriage was null on the ground of nearness of kin. In =1424=
Gloucester overran Hainault, which was under the government of the
Duke of Brabant, thereby giving offence to the Duke of Burgundy, who
was a cousin and ally of the Duke of Brabant, and who had no wish to
see the English holding a territory so near to his own county of
Flanders. The Duke of Brabant recovered Hainault and captured
Jacqueline, who had already been abandoned by Gloucester. A coolness
arose between the Duke of Burgundy and the English which was never
completely removed.

[Illustration: Henry VI.: from an original picture in the National
Portrait Gallery.]

4. =Gloucester and Beaufort. 1425--1428.=--In England as well as on
the Continent Gloucester's self-willed restlessness roused enemies,
the most powerful of them being his uncle, the Chancellor, Henry
Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester (see pp. 301, 335), a wealthy and
ambitious prelate not without those statesmanlike qualities which were
sadly lacking to Gloucester. If Beaufort ruled the Council, Gloucester
had the art of making himself popular with the multitude, whose
sympathies were not likely to be given to a bishop of the type of
Beaufort, who practised no austerities and who