me to hold conference rekindled the fires of civil strife. The whole
Burgundian party with the new Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, at its
head flung itself in a wild thirst for revenge into Henry's hands. The mad
king, Charles the Sixth, with his queen and daughters was in Philip's
power; and in his resolve to exclude the Dauphin from the throne the Duke
stooped to buy English aid by giving Catharine, the eldest of the French
princesses, in marriage to Henry, by conferring on him the Regency during
the life of Charles, and recognizing his succession to the crown at that
sovereign's death. A treaty which embodied these terms was solemnly
ratified by Charles himself in a conference at Troyes in May 1420; and
Henry, who in his new capacity of Regent undertook to conquer in the name
of his father-in-law the territory held by the Dauphin, reduced the towns
of the Upper Seine, and at Christmas entered Paris in triumph side by side
with the king. The States-General of the realm were solemnly convened to
the capital; and strange as the provisions of the Treaty of Troyes must
have seemed they were confirmed without a murmur. Henry was formally
recognized as the future sovereign of France. A defeat of his brother
Clarence at Bauge in Anjou in the spring of 1421 called him back to the
war. His reappearance in the field was marked by the capture of Dreux, and
a repulse before Orleans was redeemed in the summer of 1422 by his success
in the long and obstinate siege of Meaux. At no time had the fortunes of
Henry reached a higher pitch than at the moment when he felt the touch of
death. In the month which followed the surrender of Meaux he fell ill at
Corbeil; the rapidity of his disease baffled the skill of the physicians;
and at the close of August, with a strangely characteristic regret that he
had not lived to achieve the conquest of Jerusalem, the great conqueror
passed away.

CHAPTER VI
THE WARS OF THE ROSES
1422-1461

[Sidenote: Plans of Henry V]

At the moment when death so suddenly stayed his course the greatness of
Henry the Fifth had reached its highest point. In England his victories
had hushed the last murmurs of disaffection. The death of the Earl of
Cambridge, the childhood of his son, removed all danger from the claims of
the house of York. The ruin of Lord Cobham, the formal condemnation of
Wyclif's doctrines in the Council of Constance, broke the political and
the religious strength of Lollardry. He