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 him to usurp the throne said he did not reward them enough; they rose against him, and a sort of civil war began in 1403 and smouldered on for three or four years. Henry was not a bad fellow personally; he was devoted to the Church, and the Church supported him; so did the House of Commons, which got much power in his reign. But to keep order, the first task of a King, was too hard a task for him. He died in 1413. His son Henry V, equally devoted to the Church, was a much stronger and cleverer man; there was no civil war in his short reign. But this was mainly because he put all his energies into renewing the war with France.

This really was wicked; whatever right Edward II might have had to the French crown, Henry V could have none, for he was not the best living heir of Edward II. The Earl of March was the best living heir of Edward III, for he was descended from Edward's second son, King Henry V only from his third; but March had been quietly shoved aside when Henry IV seized the English crown. However, France was in a worse condition than England; her king, Charles VI, was mad, and her great nobles were tearing each other and their beautiful country to pieces. Henry V saw his opportunity and used it without mercy or remorse. He probably thought that such a war would at least draw away all the baronial rowdies and their followers from England, and it did. Henry set about the business of making war in the most practical manner. We owe him one great blessing; he was the first king since the Conquest who began to build a Royal fleet, as distinguished from the fleet of the Cinque Ports (which he also kept going); he was the first to use guns