Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/422

 at Dover, and it seems to have been fitted out with special reference to the continued menaces of the Spaniards against the coast in the neighbourhood of the Isle of Wight, but there is no record that it came into conflict with the enemy.

A little later in the year, the Dauphin and his party having defeated and killed the Duke of Clarence at Beaugé, Henry felt it necessary to go again to France to re-establish his prestige. Ships for the voyage were furnished by the Cinque Ports; and the king embarked at Dover at dawn on June 10th; reached Calais by two in the afternoon; and, after driving back his enemies, entered Paris in triumph.

Just before his departure from England, hostilities with Genoa had been terminated by a treaty which provided that the Genoese were not to furnish any enemies of England with ships or crossbow-men, but that if vessels of Genoa or England were forcibly compelled to serve against the other party, such compulsory service should not be held to constitute a breach of the engagement.

In the spring of 1422, Queen Katherine went to France to join her husband, landing at Harfleur on May 21st. Three months later, while he was following up his successes over the Dauphin and the Scots who were co-operating with him, the king was attacked by fever, which terminated fatally at Vincennes on August 31st.

Henry V. was succeeded by his only son, Henry VI., of Windsor, who was then less than nine months old. Not long afterwards, the imbecile Charles VI. also died; and, under the Treaty of Troyes, the infant English prince became sovereign of both kingdoms. John, Duke of Bedford, in accordance with the late king's will, took the regency of France, and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, that of England, with the title of Lord Protector. To Thomas, Duke of Exeter and Admiral of England, was confided the custody of the king's person.

In the earlier part of the reign, France, rather than the sea, was the chief scene of the military activity of England, and no naval events of any importance took place. Indeed, the rôle of the navy was mainly restricted to the transport of reinforcements to the English armies abroad. Ten thousand men were thus sent to the