e close of 1411 he declared his will to stand in as great
freedom, prerogative, and franchise as any of his predecessors had done,
and annulled on that ground the appointment of the Continual Council.

[Sidenote: Death of Henry the Fourth]

The king's blow had been dealt at the instigation of his queen, and it
seems to have been prompted as much by a resolve to change the outer
policy which the Prince had adopted as to free himself from the Council.
The dismissal of the English troops by John of Burgundy after his victory
at St. Cloud had irritated the English Court; and the Duke of Orleans took
advantage of this turn of feeling to offer Catharine, the French king's
daughter, in marriage to the Prince, and to promise the restoration of all
that England claimed in Guienne and Poitou. In spite of the efforts of the
Prince and the Duke of Burgundy a treaty of alliance with Orleans was
signed on these terms in May, 1412, and a force under the king's second
son, the Duke of Clarence, disembarked at La Hogue. But the very profusion
of the Orleanist offers threw doubt on their sincerity. The Duke was only
using the English aid to put a pressure on his antagonist, and its landing
in August at once brought John of Burgundy to a seeming submission. While
Clarence penetrated by Normandy and Maine into the Orleanais and a second
English force sailed for Calais, both the French parties joined in
pledging their services to King Charles "against his adversary of
England." Before this union Clarence was forced in November to accept
promise of payment for his men from the Duke of Orleans and to fall back
on Bordeaux. The failure no doubt gave fresh strength to Prince Henry. In
the opening of 1412 he had been discharged from the Council and Clarence
set in his place at its head; he had been defeated in his attempts to
renew the Burgundian alliance, and had striven in vain to hinder Clarence
from sailing. The break grew into an open quarrel. Letters were sent into
various counties refuting the charges of the Prince's detractors, and in
September Henry himself appeared before his father with a crowd of his
friends and supporters demanding the punishment of those who accused him.
The charges made against him were that he sought to bring about the king's
removal from the throne; and "the great recourse of people unto him, of
which his court was at all times more abundant than his father's," gave
colour to the accusation. Henry the Fourth ow