ire: built by
Ralph, Lord Cromwell, about 1440.]

16. =Deaths of Gloucester and Beaufort. 1447.=--The truce was renewed
from time to time, and Suffolk's authority seemed firmly established.
In =1447= Gloucester was charged with high treason in a Parliament
held at Bury St. Edmunds, but before he had time to answer he was
found dead in his bed. His death may, with strong probability, be
ascribed to natural causes, but it was widely believed that he had
been murdered and that Suffolk was the murderer. A few weeks later
Gloucester's old rival, Cardinal Beaufort, the last real statesman who
supported the throne of Henry VI., followed him to the grave, and
Suffolk was left alone to bear the responsibility of government and
the disgrace of failure.

[Illustration: The Divinity School, Oxford: built between 1445 and
1454.]

17. =The Loss of the French Provinces. 1448--1449.=--Suffolk had
undertaken more than he was able to fulfil. Somerset had died in
=1444=, and Suffolk being jealous of all authority but his own, he
sent York to govern Ireland. He could not secure the fulfilment of the
conditions which he had made with the king of France. The English
commanders refused to evacuate Maine, and in =1448= a French army
entered the province and drove out the English. Edmund, the new Duke
of Somerset, was sent to take the command in Normandy, which had
formerly been held by his brother. In =1449= an Aragonese captain in
the English service, who had no pay for his troops, having seized
Fougeres, a place on the frontier of Brittany, for the sake of the
booty to be gained, Charles made the attack an excuse for the renewal
of the war. So destitute was the condition in which the English forces
were left that neither Somerset nor the warlike Talbot (see p. 313),
who had recently been created Earl of Shrewsbury, was able to resist
him. Rouen fell in =1450=, and in =1450= the whole of Normandy was
lost. In =1451= the French attacked Bordeaux and Bayonne, two
port-towns which, in consequence of their close commercial intercourse
with England, had no wish to transfer their allegiance to Charles.
England, however, sent them no succour, and before the end of the year
they were forced to capitulate. The relics of Guienne and Gascony thus
passed into the hands of the French, and of all the possessions which
the kings of England had once held on the Continent Calais alone
remained.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE LATER YEARS OF HENRY VI. =1450--