Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/570

556 that day overseer of the feast, and stood before Queen Catherine bare-headed. Sir Richard Neville was her cup-bearer; Sir James Stuart, server; the Lord Clifford pantler, in the Earl of Warwick's stead; the Lord Grey of Ruthin was her napere; and the Lord Audley her almoner."

In such proud royalty did the hero of Azincourt crown his queen—a subject king sitting at table at once as captive and guest; and the circumstance seems to have made its due impression on the daughter of the house of Valois, for it is stated that the only instance of active benevolence ever recorded of Catherine was now exhibited in favour of the King of Scots. He had been at this court a captive from his boyhood. Catherine engaged Henry to promise him his liberation on condition that he should bear arms under him in the succeeding campaign in France. She did more—she took in hand the love-suit of the young poet-king, and Stowe assures us that James of Scotland was affianced to the beautiful Joanna Beaufort before the festival of Catherine's coronation ended.

After the coronation, the royal pair made a progress northward as far as the shrine of St. John of Beverley. They celebrated the spring festival at Leicester, and advanced, visiting the shrine of every saint on their-way. The object of Henry was to prepare his subjects for the extraordinary demands he was about to make upon them for the completion of his French conquests. Yet, in one respect, his conduct was not calculated to render him popular. He was so assiduous in his devotions to the saints, and so severe in his suppression of the writings of the Lollards against the clergy, that he obtained from the reformers the name of the "Prince of the Priests." In another respect, however, his conduct was more palatable. He harangued the corporation of every town on his way, and, introducing to the delighted officials his fair young queen as a proof of the standing he had gained in France, he exerted all his eloquence to make them sensible of the money and the troops which ho should require to accomplish this great object. He did not hesitate to carry his wife to the castle of Pontefract, so notorious as the scene of his father's murder of Richard II., and where he himself now kept confined his brother-in-law, the poet-Duke of Orleans, captured at the battle of Azincourt.

But here Henry's gay progress was cut short by the disastrous news of the defeat of his troops in France at the battle of Beaujé. Henry had left his brother, the Duke of Clarence, in command of his forces in Normandy, and Clarence, intending to strike a blow at the power of the dauphin in Anjou, marched into that country, and fell in, not only with the Armagnacs, but with a body of 6,000 or 7,000 auxiliary Scots, near the town of Beaujé. These Scots had been engaged by the Armagnac party to serve against the English as a fitting counterpart. They were commanded by the Earl of Buchan, second son of the Duke of Albany, the Regent of Scotland. He had under him the Earl of Wigton, Lord Stuart of Darnley, Sir John Swinton, and other brave officers.

The Duke of Clarence, deceived by the false report of some prisoners, hastened to surprise what he considered this inconsiderable body of troops. In his rash haste, and in opposition to the earnest advice of his officers, Le loft behind him his archers, and thus gave another convincing proof that in that force, and not in his men-at-arms, lay the secret of the English victories. He was assured that the Scots were keeping very indifferent watch and discipline, and made sure of securing an easy conquest. Having forced the passage of a bridge, Clarence was dashing on at the head of his cavalry, distinguished by a magnificent suit of armour, and a coronet of gold set with jewels, when he was met by the Scottish knights in full charge. Sir John Swinton spurred his horse right upon the duke, and bore him from his saddle with his lance, and the Earl of Buchan, as he fell, dashed out his brains with his battle-axe. The archers, however, came up in time to prevent the Scots carrying off the body, and they speedily cleared the field of them with their clothyard shafts. In this encounter the English lost about 1,200 men, and had 300 taken prisoners; the Scots and French lost together about 1,000 men.

The moral effect of this battle was immense. Though the victory actually remained with the English, yet the impression which the Scots made before the arrival of the archers, and their having killed the royal duke, the brother of the victorious Henry, and the Governor of Normandy, and having taken prisoner the Earls of Somerset, Dorset, and Huntingdon, seemed to point out the only soldiers in the world callable of contending with the English. Pope Martin V., when this news reached him, exclaimed, "Ha! the Scots are the only antidote to the English!"

The joy of the dauphin's party at this first small gleam of success for many years over the dreaded islanders, was ecstatic. He created the Earl of Buchan Constable of France, the highest office of the kingdom, and Count of Aubigny.

The fame of this exploit on the field of Beaujé, and of the rewards showered in consequence on their countrymen, roused the martial Scots, and they poured over in great numbers into France. The spell of England's invincibility seemed for a moment broken, and enemies began to start up in various quarters. Jacques do Harcourt issued from his castle of Crotoy, in Picardy, and harassed the English both at sea and on shore. Poitou de Saintraille and Vignolles, called La Hire, also infested Picardy. The fickle Parisians, who so lately shouted and carolled on the entrance of Henry into their city, now openly expressed their discontent, and proceeded to such lengths, that the English commander there, the Duke of Exeter, was compelled to drive them from the streets with his inimitable archers. The dauphin, taking courage from all those circumstances, began to advance from the south towards the capital.

Henry, greatly chagrined at these events—calculated, if not checked, to add infinitely to the difficulties in the path of his ambition—lost no time in preparing to reach the scene of action. He ordered troops to assemble with all celerity at Dover. He called together Parliament and Convocation, both of which met his views with the greatest alacrity. Parliament ratified at once the treaty of Troyes, and authorised his council to raise loans on its own security. The clergy granted him a tenth. To take a signal vengeance on the Scots, whose valour and the rashness of Clarence had thus broken in on his triumphs and enjoyments at home, he called on the young King of Scots to fulfil his engagement to serve in