Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/57

 the 17th won his victory at Verneuil. On 26 Sept. Suffolk was made governor of the district round Chartres, and during October captured Senonches, Nogent-le-Rotrou, and Rochefort (, ii. 20 n. 4). In November he was at Paris for the festivities held by Philip of Burgundy (, p. 225). From Paris he was sent by Bedford to endeavour to arrange the quarrel between Humphrey of Gloucester and the Duke of Brabant. On his way he was nearly killed by an accident near Amiens (, ii. 400; as to his alleged complicity in a plot of Gloucester against Burgundy see, ii. 658–60). In 1425 Suffolk was employed as lieutenant-general of Caen, the Cotentin, and Lower Normandy, and as constable of the army of the Earl of Salisbury. In May he was detached to direct the siege of Mont St. Michel by land and sea (Chron. Mont St. Michel, i. 201, 213, 244;, Histoire du Cotentin et ses Iles, ii. 551–3). In the early part of 1426 Suffolk, who was about this time created Earl of Dreux, made a raid into Brittany as far as Rennes. Shortly afterwards his lieutenant, Sir Thomas Rempston [q. v.], defeated Arthur de Richemont at St. James de Beuvron on 6 March. Suffolk came up a few days later, and, after some negotiations, concluded a truce with Brittany to last till the end of June. Almost immediately afterwards he resigned his command in Normandy to the Earl of Warwick (, iv. 284–6). Suffolk took an active part in the warfare of the following year. On 26 May he laid siege to Vendôme, and on 1 July joined Warwick before Montargis, the siege of which place was raised by the French after it had lasted two months.

In the summer of 1428 Suffolk served under Salisbury in the campaign which led up to the siege of Orleans. After Salisbury's death he was appointed to the chief command on 13 Nov. (ib. iv. 360;, i. 384). Under his direction the siege prospered so well that in February 1429 Orleans and the French cause seemed doomed. The appearance of Jeanne d'Arc changed the aspect of affairs. In May the siege was raised, and Suffolk fell back to Jargeau. In that town he was besieged by Jeanne and the Duke of Alençon, and was forced to surrender on 12 June. One story represents Suffolk as refusing to yield himself prisoner till he had dubbed his would-be captor knight. According to another, he would yield only to Jeanne as the bravest woman on earth (Procès de Jeanne d'Arc, vol. iv.;, ii. 220, iv. 148; , ii. 83). Suffolk's brother, Sir John de la Pole, was taken prisoner with him; a third brother, Alexander, was slain. Suffolk was the prisoner of the Comte de Dunois; he obtained his freedom after a short time, though he had to sell his lordship of Briquebec to raise the money for his ransom, amounting to 20,000l., and give his brother Thomas as a hostage (Chron. Mont St. Michel, i. 156 n.; Rolls of Parliament, v. 176;, p. 317). On 15 March 1430 Suffolk was reappointed to the command at Caen and in the Cotentin (Chron. Mont St. Michel, i. 292). In July he besieged and captured the castle of Aumâle (, iv. 370); and afterwards took part in the siege of Compiègne (Procès de Jeanne d'Arc, v. 73). With this Suffolk's active participation in the war probably came to an end; for, though he remained captain of Avranches and was captain of the islet of Tombelaine from 1432 to 1437 and of Regnéville in 1438, he exercised his authority by means of lieutenants (Chron. Mont St. Michel, i. 307, ii. 28, 44, 111;, ii. 291, 293). It is, however, commonly stated that Suffolk took part in the war in 1431, and attended Henry's coronation at Paris on 17 Dec. But he was certainly in England in November of that year, and probably some months earlier (, p. 51;, Register of the Garter, i. 108, where it is said that Suffolk could not attend on 22 April 1431 through illness). Suffolk himself said that he ‘continually abode in the war seventeen year without coming home or seeing of this land’ (Rolls of Parliament, v. 176). But in this statement, if correctly reported, he was clearly in error.

The remaining years of Suffolk's life were occupied with political affairs at home. He was present in the royal council on 10 and on 28 Nov. 1431, and on 30 Nov. was formally admitted a member of the council and took the oath (, Proc. and Ordinances, iv. 101, 104, 108). His marriage about this time to the widowed Countess of Salisbury inclined him to connection with the Beauforts. His long experience of the war in France had possibly convinced him of the wisdom of peace. If he had formed such a conviction, it was no doubt strengthened by his association with the captive Duke of Orleans, who was assigned to his custody on 21 July 1432 (ib. iv. 124). Next year Suffolk was made steward of the royal household, and was working actively for peace when Hue de Lannoy came to England as ambassador from Philip of Burgundy. Lannoy and his colleagues met Orleans at Suffolk's house in London (, ii. 218–40), and Suffolk seems to have worked with Orleans in forwarding the negotia-