Henry V’s expedition to Normandy in 1415 took place in circumstances unusually propitious to English success. The insanity of Charles VI of France led to a struggle for power among the French princes which had degenerated into civil war between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions. Henry’s main diplomatic aim was to exploit those divisions in order to attain his own military objectives, and the success of the Agincourt campaign and the conquest of Normandy between 1417 and 1419 was certainly facilitated by the inability of the French to present a united front against him. The neutrality of John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, towards the English invasions was a particularly important factor.
The battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415 was nonetheless an astonishing triumph for Henry V and marked a decisive turning-point in the Hundred Years War: without it the conquest of Normandy and the Treaty of Troyes would have been inconceivable. Not only was it a shattering military blow, resulting in the death or capture of most of the Armagnac leadership; its psychological effect on the political nation in England was incalculable. A tide of exultation swept the country, epitomised by Henry’s reception in London in November 1415, and by the contemporary Agincourt Carol, a paean of nationalistic fervour. After half a century of military failure and political instability, England could celebrate a victory to compare with Crecy and Poitiers. In the euphoric aftermath of the victory the issue of Lancastrian legitimacy was buried for a generation. The Commons loosened the purse-strings of national taxation: on top of the double subsidy granted in 1414, the Commons uncomplainingly voted six and one third subsidies between 1415 and 1419. In addition the parliament of November 1415 granted Henry the wool subsidy for life.
Most significantly, Agincourt, and the capture of Harfleur which preceded it, opened the way to further conquests in France. A naval victory in 1416 consolidated the Harfleur beachhead, and in August 1417 Henry set about the systematic conquest of Normandy. The ruling Armagnac faction in France was unable to offer effective resistance to the invasion, being more preoccupied by the duke of Burgundy’s encirclement of Paris. After eighteen months of virtually continuous warfare, including numerous sieges and two winter campaigns, Henry had subjugated Normandy. Rouen, the capital of the duchy, fell, after a protracted siege, in January 1419.
Throughout the months of campaigning Henry continued diplomatic negotiations with both the Armagnacs (now nominally led by the Dauphin Charles) and the Burgundians. In spite of his successes he was well aware that the large-scale military operations conducted between 1417 and 1419 could not be sustained indefinitely. He sought a treaty with one of the warring factions which would perpetuate France’s internal divisions and consolidate his territorial position. The extent of his gains, however, and the scale of his demands — which in 1419 constituted the duchies of Normandy and Aquitaine in full sovereignty and the marriage of Charles VI’s daughter Catherine — made such a treaty unobtainable. They presented such a threat to the integrity of the kingdom that neither the Armagnacs nor the Burgundians could accept them for fear of losing all political credibility and support. Indeed, after the failure of negotiations between Henry, John the Fearless and Queen Isabeau at Meulan in June 1419, there was even the prospect that the two factions might sink their differences in order to repel the invader.
The situation was dramatically transformed by the murder of John the Fearless by the dauphin’s men at Montereau in September 1419. The diplomatic stalemate was broken, and within a few weeks Henry concluded a firm alliance with Philip, the new duke of Burgundy. His diplomatic demands now increased accordingly, amounting to nothing less than the throne of France itself.
The Treaty of Troyes of May 1420 saw the acceptance of all Henry’s demands by Burgundy, Queen Isabeau and the invalid Charles VI. Henry was declared ‘Heir of France’ and embraced by Charles as his son and successor; a status reinforced by his marriage to Princess Catherine. The Dauphin Charles was declared disinherited and banished from France. In December 1420 Henry V entered Paris in triumph to witness the ratification of the treaty by the French estates general.
Troyes has been a source of great controversy among historians. On the one hand it represents the high point of English success in the Hundred Years War. The establishment of a dual monarchy was an achievement which had eluded even Edward III. On the other hand, far from achieving a final peace as Henry claimed, it involved an open-ended commitment by the Lancastrians to a continuing war of conquest and attrition against dauphinist France which was far beyond their resources, even allowing for the Burgundian alliance. On this analysis the seeds of Lancastrian decline were sown by Henry V’s over-reaching opportunism at Troyes.
Certainly the task which Henry V had set himself proved beyond his physical resources. The years of relentless campaigning, summer and winter, had taken their toll, and barely two years after Troyes, in August 1422, Henry died of dysentery at the age of thirty-six. He left as heir his nine-month-old son Henry VI, who on the death of his grandfather Charles VI in October 1422 also inherited the throne of France.
The task facing the minority council after 1422 was simple but awesome: to secure and consolidate Henry V’s achievements until the infant king came of age. The abandonment or renegotiation of Troyes was inconceivable while Henry VI remained a minor, and the council thus enjoyed very little flexibility of policy. At first this was by no means a disadvantage. The momentum of victory was maintained, and the upholding of the dual monarchy provided a single over-riding objective which lent cohesion and unity of purpose to the Lancastrian establishment. With the setbacks of the later 1420s and 1430s, however, Troyes became an increasing burden, devouring the meagre resources of the English crown.
Henry V’s elder surviving brother, John, duke of Bedford, assumed responsibility for Lancastrian France, and became regent of France on Charles VI’s death. To the younger, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, Henry V had committed the guardianship of his infant son. Gloucester attempted to claim powers of regency in England by virtue of this position, but this was firmly resisted by the leading magnates, and government was vested in a council named in parliament, nominally headed by Gloucester as protector. The council was staffed by many of the most able and long-standing Lancastrian servants, for example Henry V’s Beaufort uncles, Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick and Sir John Tiptoft.
The council’s over-riding preoccupation was the prosecution of the war in France and the maintenance of the Burgundian alliance. Bedford, his rule based on Paris, had several experienced captains under his command who had served with Henry V — notably Salisbury, Suffolk and Talbot. Initially, they enjoyed considerable success: victory at the battle of Verneuil in 1424 secured the borders of Normandy and took the war into Maine and Anjou. From the outset, however, the war effort was hampered by lack of funds from England. The country was drained after several years of unprecedented taxation under Henry V, and following the Treaty of Troyes the Commons expected Lancastrian France to pay for itself. In consequence, no parliamentary subsidies were granted between 1422 and 1429, and royal finances inevitably slid back into deficit.
In the mid-1420s the cohesion of the minority government was threatened by the duke of Gloucester’s pursuit of his wife’s inheritance in the Low Countries, which diverted resources from France and unsettled relations with Burgundy. Excluded from an active role in France, and denied what he considered to be his rightful position in England, Gloucester gave further vent to his disappointments in bitter quarrels with Bishop Beaufort, whose wealth and political connections made him a powerful figure on the minority council. Bedford was twice obliged to return to England to resolve disputes between Gloucester and Beaufort.
The conquest of France was brought to an abrupt halt at the siege of Orleans in May 1429. For so long demoralised by English successes, Charles VII’s supporters, inspired by the arrival of the visionary Joan of Arc, forced the English to raise the siege and abandon their bridgeheads on the Loire, inflicting successive defeats at Jargeau and Patay. Two of the commanders at Orleans, Suffolk and Talbot, were captured. French troops swept northwards to the east of Paris, and in July 1429 Charles VII was crowned king of France at Rheims.
The spring and summer of 1429 marked a turning-point in the war. The defeats at Orleans and Patay put an end to any realistic prospect that the Lancastrians could conquer France and inflict a final defeat on Charles VII. Now Bedford’s energies were devoted to a military holding operation. Control over Paris and its environs was formally handed over to the duke of Burgundy, leaving Bedford free to concentrate on the defence of Normandy.
The propaganda coup achieved by Charles VII’s coronation required an immediate riposte. In November 1429 Henry VI was crowned at Westminster, and the following year, assisted by a double subsidy from parliament, he led an expedition to France. In December 1431, after much delay because of the precarious military situation, the ten-year-old Henry VI was crowned king of France at Notre Dame.
The early 1430s saw a modest revival in English fortunes in France, but the government’s options continued to be restricted by lack of finance. In 1433 the financial statement of the Treasurer Ralph, Lord Cromwell showed accumulated debts of over £160,000, against annual income, without parliamentary subsidies, of less than £60,000. Disputes arose between Bedford and Gloucester over the best target for available funds: Gloucester advocated the reinforcement of Calais, Bedford the defence of Normandy.
Military and financial reality forced the minority government into negotiation with Charles VII, and the period between 1430 and 1435 saw intense diplomatic activity between England, France and Burgundy. Under cover of negotiations for a general peace the duke of Burgundy, disenchanted with the English alliance, edged towards a rapprochement with Charles VII. The English negotiating position was inevitably inflexible, since during his minority Henry VI could not be committed to a final peace which would overturn the Treaty of Troyes. The peace conference at Arras in 1435 broke down over French insistence, as a prerequisite of any settlement, upon the abandonment of English claims to the throne of France. A few days later a Franco-Burgundian alliance was signed, and the duke of Burgundy renounced his allegiance to Henry VI.
Arras signified the collapse of the dual monarchy constructed by Henry V at Troyes. It was followed within a year by the loss of Paris and the contraction of Lancastrian power to Henry V’s original conquest, the duchy of Normandy. These events, compounded by the death of the Regent Bedford less than a month after Arras, probably hastened the end of the minority. Just as, in 1429—31, the government responded to military crisis by Henry VI’s coronations, so now it sought to reaffirm royal authority. On 13 November 1437, a month short of his sixteenth birthday, Henry VI formally assumed his powers as king.