Shakespeare's Kings (61 page)

To
Henry,
the
truth
was
now
unmistakable:
ever
since
his
landing at
Touques
he
had
known
that
God
was
on
his
side,
and
the
murder of
John
the
Fearless
had
proved
it
beyond
all
doubt.
With
Burgundy now
firmly
bound
to
him,
there
could
no
longer
be
any
obstacle
to
the long-awaited
alliance
with
France
itself;
and
on
21
May
1420,
at
Troyes —
despite
a
strong
Dauphinist
presence
in
the
whole
region
of
Champagne
-
the
treaty
was
signed
at
last.
It
was
agreed
that
Henry
should immediately
be
appointed
Regent
of
France,
and
that
on
the
death
of Charles
VI
the
French
throne
should
pass
to
himself
and
his
heirs
in perpetuity,
the
Dauphin
being
disinherited
and
hunted
down.
The
two crowns,
however,
would
remain
separate:
England
and
France
would retain
their
own
laws
and
customs,
neither
being
subject
to
the
other. King
Charles,
as
usual,
was
absent
from
the
negotiations;
the
Queen and
the
Duke
took
the
oaths
in
his
name.
The
treaty
was
proclaimed in
Paris
on
30
May;
and
on
Trinity
Sunday,
2
June,
in
the
parish
church of
St
Joan
in
Troyes
-
which
still
stands
today
-
Henry
and
Katherine were
declared
man
and
wife.

But
the
fighting
was
not
yet
over.
The
return
journey
to
Paris
was held
up
for
a
week
at
Sens
until
the
Dauphinist
garrison
surrendered; the
town
of
Montereau
was
stormed,
and
the
body
of
John
the
Fearless removed
from
its
temporary
grave
to
be
reburied
in
all
solemnity
in the
Charterhouse
at
Dijon;
²
and
at
Melun
the
royal
party
was
delayed

no
less
than
four
and
a
half
months,
the
garrison
eventually
capitulating on
18
November.
It
included
a
small
detachment
of
Scots
mercenaries, whom
Henry
hanged
-
technically
for
having
refused
to
obey
orders to
surrender
given
them
by
King
James
I
of
Scotland
,
who
was
his prisoner
and
whom
he
had
brought
over
expressly
for
that
purpose.
¹
The
remainder
of
the
garrison
were
all
taken
prisoner
and
held
to ransom,
600
of
them
being
sent
by
river
to
Paris,
where
many
died, being
unable
to
raise
the
ransom
money.
That
tendency
towards
cruelty
-
even
brutality
-
which
we
see
all
too
often
throughout
Henry's
career had
not,
it
seemed,
been
improved
by
success
and
marriage.

On
1
December
the
two
Kings
rode
into
Paris,
Henry
being
the
first
-
and
indeed
the
last
-
English
monarch
to
be
welcomed
in
the
French capital
as
a
conqueror.
With
his
wife
and
brothers,
he
occupied
the most
sumptuous
apartments
in
the
Louvre:
accommodation
which
the French
were
not
slow
to
compare
with
the
relative
squalor
which Charles
VI
and
Isabella
were
obliged
to
endure
in
the
Hotel
de
Saint-Pol. He
remained
there
over
Christmas;
then,
on
the
27th,
he
and
Katherine set
off
together
for
England.
They
delayed
three
weeks
in
Rouen
-Henry
was
never
less
than
deeply
conscientious
in
the
administration of
his
new
duchy
-
before
continuing
their
journey,
finally
arriving
on 1
February
1421
at
Dover,
where
the
barons
of
the
Cinque
Ports
waded once
again
into
the
waves
to
carry
them
safely
ashore.
Three
weeks later
the
pair
were
officially
welcomed
by
the
City
of
London,
and
on the
23rd
the
young
Queen
was
crowned
at
Westminster.

It
says
much
for
the
stability
of
Henry's
government
that
he
had
dared to
remain
abroad
for
three
and
a
half
years;
his
father,
once
King,
could never
have
contemplated
such
an
extended
absence.
His
country
needed him,
and
he
would
probably
have
done
better
to
remain
at
home
for the
rest
of
his
short
life.
But
his
work
in
France
was
not
quite
over.
In March
1421
his
younger
brother
Thomas,
Duke
of
Clarence
—
whom he
had
appointed
Captain
of
Normandy
and
Lieutenant
of
France
-marched
south
with
about
4,000
men
against
the
Dauphinists,
meeting

1.
James had been captured by the English - probabl
y in 1406, at the age of twelve
-
but had always been well treated and had received an excellent education. He was eventually to return to his kingdom in 1424, when on 21 May he was crowned at Scone
.

them
at
Beauge,
some
twenty-five
miles
east
of
Angers.
Clarence
may or
may
not
have
known
that
his
enemy
included
a
substantial
contingent of
Scots,
recently
arrived
at
the
invitation
of
the
French
to
help
their old
allies;
in
any
event,
in
his
eagerness
for
a
victory
to
set
beside Agincourt,
he
attacked
at
once,
giving
his
archers
no
time
to
catch
up with
him.
Not
surprisingly,
such
rashness
ended
in
disaster.
He
himself was
killed
—
it
was
said,
by
the
Scottish
Earl
of
Buchan;
¹
the
Earls
of Somerset
and
Huntingdon
were
captured.
The
effect
of
the
Battle
on French
morale
was
immense:
the
English,
it
seemed,
were
not
invincible after
all.