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wasted with disease, fatigue, and the casualties of war, was not in a condition to resume offensive operations : but the argument, which chiefly weighed with the king, will probably surprise the reader. It was maintained that his last expedition had sufficiently demonstrated his right to the crown of France: that God, by granting him the victory at Azincourt, had given the divine sanction to his claim and that the same providence would hereafter furnish him with the opportunity of again seeking and ultimately recovering his inheritance. The fallacy of such reasoning could escape no one who recollected the events which followed the victories of Creci and Poitiers: but Henry was satisfied with a decision which allowed him to depart from France, and to receive in person the congratulations of his subjects. He sailed to Dover: the crowd plunged into the waves to meet him and the conqueror was carried in their arms from his vessel to the beach '. The road to London exhibited one triumphal procession. The lords, commons, and clergy, the mayor, aldermen, and citizens, conducted him into the capital: tapestry, representing the deeds of his ancestors, lined the walls of the houses: pageants were erected in the streets sweet wines ran in the conduits : bands of children tastefully arrayed sang his praise: and the whole population seemed intoxicated with joy. The parliament partook of the general enthusiasm. It ordered the

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Tit. Liv. 22. The French captives of distinction were in the king's ship. They had never been at sea and as it blew a storm, Henry was much diverted to hear them assert, that they would rather fight the battle of Azincourt over again, than encounter such another passage. Ibid.

the empe

mund.

tenth and fifteenth voted the last year to be levied immediately; added another tenth and fifteenth to be levied within twelve months; granted the king tonnage and poundage for the safeguard of the sea; and settled on him for life the subsidy on wool, woolfells, and leather. '

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Arrival of In the spring Henry's vanity was flattered by a visit ror Sigis- from several distinguished personages. Among those who sought to extinguish the schism, occasioned by the two pretenders to the papacy, no one had laboured more earnestly than Sigismund king of the Romans, and emperor elect and as the co-operation of the kings of England and France was deemed necessary for the success of his endeavours, he cheerfully undertook to visit, and, if it were possible, to reconcile the two monarchs. In France he was received with honour, held several conferences with Charles and his ministers, and with their approbation proceeded on his journey. Henry endeavoured, by the most magnificent preparations, to convince his guests of his opulence and resources. By royal proclamation all the knights and esquires in the kingdom were summoned to the capital to attend on their sovereign: a fleet of three hundred sail assembled at Calais for the conveyance of Sigismund and his retinue, amounting to a thousand horsemen and officers were appointed to escort him from Dover to London, and to defray his expenses on the road. But before his arrival a story was told, which created some perplexity in the king's mind. It had chanced that curiosity led the emperor to witness the proceedings in the parliament of Paris: through courtesy he was invited to occupy the throne : and as, 'Rot. Parl. iv. 63, 64. Rym. ix. 339, 340.

1416.

Apr. 7.

2

during the pleadings, one of the parties was in danger of being nonsuited, because he was only an esquire, Sigismund drew his sword, and dubbed him a knight. It was probably a harmless action, proceeding from the mere impulse of the moment : but by the spectators it was reproved, and in England was represented as an undue assumption of power in virtue of the imperial dignity'. Henry determined to preserve the rights and independence of his crown and as soon as the emperor's ship cast anchor in the harbour, the Duke of Glocester and several noblemen rode into the water with their swords drawn, and inquired whether the imperial stranger meant to claim or exercise any authority or jurisdiction in England. He replied in the negative, and was immediately received with all the honours due to the first sovereign in Europe.

2

Sigismund had been accompanied or followed to Naval vicEngland by ambassadors from France: and his media- tory. tion between the two crowns was seconded by the presence and exhortations of William of Bavaria, duke of Holland, and count of Hainault. Before them Henry explained his right to the kingdom of France: and alluding to his late victory, claimed the praise of moderation, when he offered to resign that right, on condition that the treaty of Bretigny should be faithfully executed in all its provisions. It is hardly credible that the French ministers could have advised their sovereign to accept of a proposal, which must have deprived him of one half of his dominions: though the emperor, when he afterwards entered into an alliance with Henry, accused Charles of having given to

it a full but treacherous assent'. Nothing in reality was more foreign from the present policy of the French court than humiliating concession. To the dauphin, who was lately dead, had succeeded in the administration of affairs, the count of Armagnac, a nobleman of distinguished talents, and approved intrepidity. Anxious to signalize his entry into office with the recovery of Harfleur, he bbstinately rejected every proposal for a truce, drew lines round the town, and with a fleet of French ships, and Genoese carracks, blockaded the harbour. The earl of Dorset, who commanded in Harfleur, earnestly solicited a supply of troops and provisions and Henry himself would have sailed to the relief of his first conquest, had he not been restrained by the remonstrances of Sigismund, who deemed it an entreprise of less consequence than to require the presence of the sovereign. The Duke of Bedford accepted the command: and after a rough and dilatory passage reached the mouth of the Seine. Aug. 14. At sunset the captains of the fleet were summoned on board the Admiral's vessel the lights, which he

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displayed during the night, kept the ships together : Aug. 15. and in the morning they bore down on the enemy. It was found that the loftiest of the English vessels did not reach to the upper decks of the Genoese by more than a spear's length: but the deficiency was supplied by the native courage of the combatants, who climbed up the sides, boarded the enemy, and made themselves masters of the carracks. Most of the French ships had previously struck a few escaped up the river; and Harfleur was relieved.

2

2 Liv. 24-26. Elm. 77–83. Otterb. 278. Monstrel. i. 239.

at Calais.

France still continued to present the same lamentable Conference scene of confusion. The two parties ardently sought the extinction of each other: and as long as the Armagnacs maintained their ascendency in the councils of Charles, the duke of Burgundy was urged by the motive of self-preservation to seek a counterpoise in the friendship of Henry. During the last campaign he had forbidden his vassals to serve in the French army according to the summons from their sovereign: and had allowed his county of Flanders to be declared neutral, for the advantage of the commercial intercouse between the natives and England: but he had cautiously abstained from entering into engagements with Henry, or lending assistance to the invading army. In the present year a continual correspondence was maintained between the two courts. The ostensible object was the regulation of trade: the real cause, the desire of each prince to derive advantage from the personal quarrel of the other. In the beginning of September the king of England, the emperor, who had concluded an alliance with his host, and had been enrolled a knight of the garter, and the count of Hainault, repaired to Calais : where they were met according to appointment by the Burgundian'. This congress surprised and alarmed the French ministers: nor could their envoys, who attended under pretence of soliciting a truce, discover the secret designs of the four powers. Men would not believe that they had assembled, as it was given out, for the sole purpose of deliberating on the state of the church, and the means of extinguishing the schism: and it was whispered that the duke, through enmity to the Armagnacs, had claimed the protection of Henry; had formally acknowledged Rym. ix. 377-382.

Sep. 4.

Oct. 3.