Shakespeare's Kings (47 page)

But
the
Parliament's
tight-fistedness
was
not
confined
to
domestic matters;
it
also
refused
categorically
to
vote
any
money
for
the
defence of
Bordeaux.
The
capture
of
the
greatest
city
of
Guyenne
had
long been
an
obsession
of
the
Duke
of
Orleans,
and
the
army
of
King
Charles VI
was
now
steadily
advancing
upon
it.
On
30
June
1406,
with
the enemy
already
in
the
suburbs,
the
city's
Archbishop
wrote
urge
ntly
to Henry.
He
had
cried
for
help,
he
declared,
until
his
throat
was
hoarse, but
to
no
avail:
his
flock
had
by
now
almost
given
up
hope.
Meanwhile the
mayor,
Sir
Thomas
Swynbourne,
was
hurriedly
preparing
his
fellow citizens
to
face
a
siege.
Fortunately
for
them,
however,
the
French
— or
at
least
the
Duke
of
Orleans,
who
had
hastened
south
to
accept
the surrender
-
had
other
ideas.
Fearing
that
an
English
relief
fleet
might yet
appear,
he
decided
instead
to
occupy
both
banks
of
the
Gironde, thus
cutting
off
Bordeaux
from
the
sea.
This
operation
split
the
French army
into
two
and
gave
the
inhabitants
just
the
opportunity
they
needed. Pouring
out
of
the
city
on
23
December,
they
attacked
the
army
on the
eastern
bank
at
Bourg
and
routed
it.
Shortly
afterwards
the
entire invasion
force
withdrew.
It
seemed
at
first
only
a
temporary
reprieve; but
when
summer
came
and
the
French
did
not
return,
the
people
of Bordeaux
began
to
breathe
normally
again,
and
when
at
the
end
of November
1407
there
came
the
news
of
the
Duke's
assassination
in
a Paris
street
they
knew
that
the
danger
was
past.

The
following
year
brought
Henry
equally
welcome
news
from Wales,
where
the
Prince
was
applying
himself
more
vigorously
than ever
to
the
task
in
hand.
The
autumn
of
1408
brought
the
fall,
after
a prolonged
siege,
of
Aberystwyth;
and
in
January
1409
Harlech
followed -
with
results
disastrous
for
Glendower.
His
son-in-law
and
most important
ally,
Edmund
Mortimer,
died
during
the
siege;
Owen's
wife, two
daughters
and
three
Mortimer
granddaughters
were
taken
prisoner and
sent
to
London;
he
himself
was
left
without
a
stronghold
or
a headquarters.
It
was
a
blow
from
which
he
would
never
recover:
in 1410
he
launched
one
more
major
attack,
in
which
his
three
principal captains
-
Rhys
ap
Griffith,
Rhys
ap
Tudor
and
Philip
Scudamore
were
all
captured.
He
himself
escaped,
but
his
rebellion
was
effectively at
an
end.

The
messengers
who
brought
the
news
of
the
fall
of
Harlech
to
the King
found
him
desperately
ill.
In
1408
he
had
summoned
one
of
the most
famous
doctors
of
Europe,
David
di
Nigarellis
of
Lucca,
who
was to
remain
with
him
until
shortly
before
his
death;
and
it
was
probably Nigarellis
who
nursed
him
through
his
worst
crisis
to
date
during
the following
winter.
In
December
he
was
so
ill
that
the
Prince
of
Wales and
his
brother
Thomas
were
both
summoned
to
his
bedside;
but
he rallied
sli
ghtly
after
Christmas
and
was
taken
down
the
river
to
Greenwich
for
a
change
of
air.
This
treatment
seems
to
have
been
successful, for
the
improvement
continued;
and
although
at
Greenwich
he
took the
opportunity
of
making
his
will
—
the
first
royal
will,
incidentally, to
be
written
in
English
-
he
was
strong
enough
to
return
to
Eltham in
time
for
Easter.
There,
as
a
thank-offering
for
his
recovery,
he
ordered a
chantry
chapel
on
the
battlefield
of
Shrewsbury,
with
provision
for eight
chaplains
to
pray
for
the
souls
of
the
fallen.

For
the
Prince
of
Wales,
the
last
five
years
of
the
King's
life
were
a difficult
time.
Had
his
father
been
continuously
incapacitated
he
himself would
have
been
Regent
of
England,
a
post
which,
with
his
now considerable
experience
of
command
in
Wales,
would
have
suited
him admirably.
But
Henry's
mysterious
disease
was
spasmodic
in
its
effect, with
prolonged
bouts
of
unconsciousness
alternating
with
periods when
he
was
able
at
least
partially
to
resume
control
of
affairs.
At
these latter
times
he
was
impatient
and
dictatorial,
determined
to
surrender nothing
of
his
sovereignty,
resenting
any
attempt
by
his
son
to
involve himself
and
seldom
even
asking
his
advice.
The
Prince
thus
found himself
in
an
almost
impossible
position,
which
was
further
aggravated by
the
fact
that
on
foreign
policy
in
particular
he
and
his
father
viole
ntly
disagreed.