Page:The religious life of King Henry VI.djvu/20

2 attend upon his son, but this disposition was set aside and the child remained for a time under his mother's care. As a baby he was brought from Windsor, and on 18th November 1423 was presented to the Parliament at Westminster. In the following January, Joan, the wife of Thomas Astley, was appointed his nurse by a writ issued in the King's name, and Dame Alice Butler was selected to attend his person with due licence "to chastise us reasonably from time to time." In 1425 the Council gave orders that the heirs of all baronies, etc., in the wardship of the Crown were to be brought up at the Court about the King's person, each one being provided with a master at the charge of the State. In this way the royal palace became "an academy for the young nobility."

In 1424 a letter was written in the name of the little King to Pope Martin V to petition for the canonization of St. Osmund of Salisbury, and this had the support of Archbishop Chichely of Canterbury.

Before Henry VI was four years old he was forced to take a personal part in public State functions. Thus in April 1425 he appeared at St. Paul's "led upon his feet, between the