HOUSE OF LANCASTER

1399-1413 HENRY IV

1413-1422 HENRY V

1422-1461 HENRY VI

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FACTS:

1415- BATTLE OF AGINCOURT

1455- CIVIL WAR BEGINS (WAR OF THE ROSES)

Henry IV's Accession:

Richard II left no children. The nearest heir to the kingdom by right

of birth was the boy Edmund Mortimer, a descendant of Richard's uncle

Lionel, Duke of Clarence. Henry ignored Mortimer's claim, and

standing before Richard's empty throne in Westminster Hall,

boldly demanded the crown for himself.

The nation had suffered so much from the misgovernment of those who

had ruled during the minority of Richard, and later by Richard

himself, that they wanted no more boy kings. Parliament, therefore,

set aside the direct line of descent and accepted Henry. But the air

was full of tumultuous passion. The Lords were divided in their

allegiance, some stood by the former King, others by the new one. No

loess than forty noblemen challenged each other to fight, and civil

war seemed imminent.

Toward the close of his life the King seems to have thought of

reviving the Crusades for the conquest of Jerusalem (S182), where,

according to tradition, an old prediction declared that he should

die. But his Jerusalem was nearer than that of Palestine. While

praying at the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey

(S66), he was seized with mortal illness. His attendants carried him

into a room near by.

When he recovered consciousness, and inquired where he was, he was

told that the apartment was called the Jerusalem Chamber. "Praise be

to God," he exclaimed, "then here I die!" There he breathed his last,

saying to his son, young Prince Henry:

"God knows, my son,

By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways,

I met this crown; and I myself know well

How troublesome it sat upon my head;

To thee it shall descend with better quiet,

Better opinion, better confirmation;

For all the soil of the achievement goes

With me into the earth."

Henry V--1413-1422:

Henry's youth had been wild and dissolute, but the weight of the crown

sobered him. He cast off poor old "Jack Falstaff" and his

other roistering companions, and began his new duties in earnest.

Sir John Oldcastle, or Lord Cobham, was at this time the most

influential man among the Lollards. He was brought to

trial and convicted of heresy. The penalty was death; but the King

granted him a respite, in the hope that he might recant, and Oldcastle

managed to escape from prison (1414).

Immediately after, a conspiracy was detected among the Lollards for

seizing the government, destroying the chief monasteries in and about

London, and raising Oldcastle to power. Henry attacked the rebels

unawares, killed many, and took a large number of prisoners, who were

executed on a double charge of heresy and treason. Several years

afterwards Oldcastle was burned as a heretic.

The one great event with which Henry V's name is connected is the

conquest of France. It was hailed at the time as a glorious

achievement. In honor of it his tomb in Westminster Abbey was

surmounted by a statue of the King, having a head of solid silver.

Eventually the head was stolen and never recovered; the wooden statue

still remains. The theft was typical of Henry's short-lived victories

abroad, for all the territory he had gained was soon destined to be

hopelessly lost.

Henry VI (House of Lancaster, Red Rose)--1422-1461:

The heir to all the vast dominions left by Henry V was proclaimed King

of England and France when in his cradle, and crowned, while still a

child, first in Westminster Abbey and then at Paris.

But the accession to the French possesions was merely an empty form,

for as Prince Charles, the son of the late Charles VI of France,

refused to abide by the Treaty of Troyes and give up the

throne, war again broke out.

The history of the peiod is one of loss to England. The brilliant

French conquests of Henry V slipped from the nerveless

hands of his son, leaving France practically independent. The

people's power to vote had been restricted. The House of

Commons had ceased to be democratic even in a moderate degree. Its

members were all property holders elected by property holders.

Cade's rebellion was the sign of political discontent and the

forerunner of civil war.

The contests of the parties of the Red and White Roses drenched

England's fair fields with the best blood of her own sons. The reign

ends with King Henry in prison, Queen Margaret and Prince Edward

fugitives, and the Yorkist, Edward IV, placed on the throne by the

help of the powerful Earl of Warwick.