lieved by a certain time;
and as no one in England thought Seriously of these distant concerns,
no relief appeared; the place surrendered; and Bayonne being taken soon
after, this whole province, which had remained united to England since
the accession of Henry II., was, after a period of three centuries,
finally swallowed up in the French monarchy.

Though no peace or truce was concluded between France and England, the
war was in a manner at an end. The English, torn in pieces by the
civil dissensions which ensued, made but one feeble effort more for the
recovery of Guienne, and Charles, occupied at home in regulating the
government, and fencing against the intrigues of his factious son, Lewis
the dauphin, scarcely ever attempted to invade them in their island,
or to retaliate upon them, by availing himself of their intestine
confusions.

HENRY VI.

{1450.} A WEAK prince, seated on the throne of England, had never
failed, how gentle soever and innocent, to be infested with faction,
discontent, rebellion, and evil commotions; and as the incapacity of
Henry appeared every day in a fuller light, these dangerous consequences
began, from past experience, to be universally and justly apprehended
Men also of unquiet spirits, no longer employed in foreign wars, whence
they were now excluded by the situation of the neighboring states, were
the more likely to excite intestine, disorders, and by their emulation,
rivalship, and animosities, to tear the bowels of their native country.
But though these causes alone were sufficient to breed confusion,
there concurred another circumstance of the most dangerous, nature: a
pretender to the crown appeared: the tie itself of the weak prince who
enjoyed the name of sovereignty, was disputed; and the English were now
to pay the severe though late penalty of their turbulence under Richard
II., and of their levity in violating, without any necessity or just
reason, the lineal succession of their monarchs.

All the males of the house of Mortimer were extinct; but Anne,
the sister of the last earl of Marche, having espoused the earl of
Cambridge, beheaded in the reign of Henry V. had transmitted her latent,
but not yet forgotten claim to be; on Richard, duke of York. This
prince, thus descended by his mother from Philippa, only daughter of the
duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III., stood plainly in the order
of succession before the king, who derived his descent from the duke