History of the English People, Volume III | Page 8

Church in personally assisting at the
burning of a layman, Thomas Badby, for a denial of transubstantiation.
The prayers of the sufferer were taken for a recantation, and the Prince
ordered the fire to be plucked away. But when the offer of life and a
pension failed to break the spirit of the Lollard Henry pitilessly bade
him be hurled back to his doom. The Prince was now the virtual ruler
of the realm. His father's earlier popularity had disappeared amidst the

troubles and heavy taxation of his reign. He was already a victim to the
attack of epilepsy which brought him to the grave; and in the opening
of 1410 the Parliament called for the appointment of a Continual
Council. The Council was appointed, and the Prince placed at its head.
His energy was soon seen in a more active interposition in the affairs of
France. So bitter had the hatred grown between the Burgundian and
Armagnac parties that both in turn appealed again to England for help.
The Burgundian alliance found favour with the Council. In August,
1411, the Duke of Burgundy offered his daughter in marriage to the
Prince as the price of English aid, and four thousand men with Lord
Cobham among their leaders were sent to join his forces at Paris. Their
help enabled Duke John to bring his opponents to battle at St. Cloud,
and to win a decisive victory in November. But already the king was
showing himself impatient of the Council's control; and the Parliament
significantly prayed that "as there had been a great murmur among your
people that you have had in your heart a heavy load against some of
your lieges come to this present Parliament," they might be formally
declared to be "faithful lieges and servants." The prayer was granted,
but in spite of the support which the Houses gave to the Prince, Henry
the Fourth was resolute to assert his power. At the 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 owned his belief in these charges, but promised to
call a Parliament for his son's vindication; and the Parliament met in the
February of 1413. But a new attack of epilepsy had weakened the
king's strength; and though galleys were gathered for a Crusade