prisoner, and
only won his release by an oath to refrain from further "routs" or
assemblies.

[Sidenote: Loss of Guienne]

Two such decisive failures seemed for the time to have utterly broken
Richard's power. Weakened as the crown had been by losses abroad, it was
clearly strong enough as yet to hold its own against the chief of the
baronage. A general amnesty indeed sheltered York's adherents and enabled
the Duke himself to retire safely to Ludlow, but for more than a year his
rival Somerset wielded without opposition the power Richard had striven to
wrest from him. A favourable turn in the progress of the war gave fresh
vigour to the Government. The French forces were abruptly called from
their march against Calais to the recovery of the south. The towns of
Guienne had opened their gates to Charles on his pledge to respect their
franchises, but the need of the French treasury was too great to respect
the royal word, and heavy taxation turned the hopes of Gascony to its old
masters. On the landing of an English force under Talbot, Earl of
Shrewsbury, a general revolt restored to the English their possessions on
the Garonne. Somerset used this break of better fortune to obtain heavy
subsidies from Parliament in 1453; but ere the twenty thousand men whose
levy was voted could cross the Channel a terrible blow had again ruined
the English cause. In a march to relieve Castillon on the Dordogne
Shrewsbury suddenly found himself face to face with the whole French army.
His men were mown down by its guns, and the Earl himself left dead on the
field. His fall was the signal for a general submission. Town after town
again threw open its gates to Charles, and Bordeaux capitulated in
October.

[Sidenote: Madness of the King]

The final loss of Gascony fell upon England at a moment when two events at
home changed the whole face of affairs. After eight years of childlessness
the king became in October the father of a son. With the birth of this boy
the rivalry of York and the Beauforts for the right of succession ceased
to be the mainspring of English politics; and the crown seemed again to
rise out of the turmoil of warring factions. But with the birth of the son
came the madness of the father. Henry the Sixth sank into a state of
idiotcy which made his rule impossible, and his ministers were forced to
call a great Council of peers to devise means for the government of the
realm. York took his seat at this council, and t