Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/66

Henry VI Henry gave them audience. The French lords were much impressed by his friendliness and honest desire for peace; but a short prolongation of the truce was all that resulted. A proposal that Henry should visit France and hold an interview with Charles VII was mooted, and was much discussed during the next few years, but came to nothing (for a full account of their embassy, which illustrates Henry's capacity for politics, see, Wars of the English in France, i. 89–148).

Early in 1447 parliament was summoned to provide funds for the proposed ‘personal convention’ of Henry and Charles. It met on 10 Feb. at Bury St. Edmunds, a place personally acceptable to Henry, and politically safer than London because of Suffolk's influence. Henry was escorted by a great number of armed men on his journey through Royston, Cambridge, and Newmarket, to protect him from Duke Humphrey (Three Fifteenth-century Chronicles, p. 149). He ordered his uncle's arrest as soon as the duke arrived on 18 Feb. On 28 Feb. Gloucester was dead, probably by a natural death, for Suffolk, though freely accused of the murder, was never formally charged with it, and Henry may be safely acquitted of complicity in such a deed. The parliament was dismissed without a grant being even asked for, and in March Henry left Bury for Canterbury. On 11 April the death of Cardinal Beaufort removed the other chief statesman of Henry's minority. His executors offered Henry 2,000l. from the bishop's great wealth, which he declined with affectionate expressions of regard for his uncle's memory (, ‘De Virtutibus et Miraculis Hen. VI,’ in, ed. Hearne, p. 294).

The following years were perhaps the happiest of Henry's life. He was happy in his domestic life, and his educational foundations at Eton and Cambridge were completed. The old factions seemed ended. The peace negotiations went on, and in March 1448 Maine was surrendered in return for a two years' prolongation of the truce. But the French were less earnest than Henry and Suffolk, and there seemed little prospect of the definitive treaty for which Edmund Beaufort (Duke of Somerset in March 1448) and Bishop Moleyns were now negotiating. In June Henry made Suffolk a duke. On him the whole welfare of the state now rested. During these years Henry was constantly on progress. In the summer of 1446 he made a tour of various monasteries, visiting among other places the Austin friary at Lynn (, De Illustr. Hen. p. 133; cf. Cont. Croyland Chron. p. 525). In the summer of 1448 he went north as far as Durham, where his appearance was followed by a breach of the truce with Scotland, which turned out badly for the English (Chron. Giles, p. 35).

Suffolk's ascendency over Henry was neither unchallenged nor of long duration. Even in the council his position grew doubtful. He had aroused the jealousy of the Beauforts, and quarrelled with Cardinal Kemp [q. v.], whose nephew, Thomas Kemp, he sought to deprive of the bishopric of London, conferred by papal provision at Henry's special request (21 Aug. 1448). The weak king was forced to declare to the pope that the letters of request for Kemp were forged, and to beg for the translation of Bishop Lumley of Carlisle to the vacant see. Henry received a well-merited rebuke from Eugenius IV (, Correspondence, i. 155–9).

Early in 1449 Francis l'Arragonois broke the truce with France by the wanton capture of Fougères. The French, who were eagerly waiting for the pretext, at once renewed the war. Normandy was rapidly conquered; Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset [q. v.], showed extreme remissness, which was naturally set down to treachery. A parliament was summoned in February to Westminster, which made liberal grants. But plague drove king and estates to hold their summer session at Winchester. In October Henry visited the Welsh marches (Paston Letters, iii. 474. The year is Mr. Gairdner's conjecture). He was back in London before 6 Nov. 1449, on which date a new parliament assembled. It was prorogued over Christmas, which Henry and Margaret celebrated at Windsor (, p. 766). At Epiphany-tide the sailors at Portsmouth murdered Bishop Moleyns, keeper of the privy seal. On 16 Jan. 1450 Henry returned to Westminster, where parliament reassembled on 22 Jan. The outcry against Suffolk was now at its height. The commons at once drew up elaborate articles of impeachment, and the lords sent the duke to the Tower. The secret support of king and courtiers was of no avail, and an ingenious method was devised of satisfying clamour without condemning the favourite. On 17 March Suffolk was brought before the king and all the lords then in town. The duke submitted himself to the king, and Henry, through the chancellor, declared the charges ‘neither declared nor charged,’ and, ‘not reporting him to the advice of his lords, nor by way of judgment, ordered him into five years' exile.’ On his way to the continent Suffolk was murdered.

Archbishop Kemp, the faithful follower of Beaufort, was now Henry's chief support. In April parliament reassembled at Leicester because London was unhealthy, and