Shakespeare's Kings (70 page)

English
King.
When
Henry
heard
the
news,
he
wept;
for
Humphrey of
Gloucester
and
his
militants,
on
the
other
hand,
there
was
a
great wave
of
support
as
the
people
of
London
expressed
their
anger
at
the Burgundian
betrayal
by
firing
and
looting
the
houses
of
all
the
Flemish merchants
in
the
city.

Bedford,
too,
would
have
shed
tears
to
see
much
of
his
life's
work brought
to
nothing;
but
a
week
before
the
Franco-Burgundian
peace, on
14
September
1435,
he
had
died
aged
forty-six
at
Rouen
—
where, a
day
or
two
later,
he
had
been
buried
in
the
cathedral.
He
had
served his
father,
his
elder
brother
and
his
nephew
with
unswerving
loyalty, never
once
-
in
marked
distinction
to
his
brother
Humphrey
-
putting his
own
interests
before
his
duty:
if
his
life
ultimately
ended
in
failure, it
was
no
fault
of
his.
His
wisdom
and
selflessness
were
sorely
to
be missed
in
the
years
that
followed.

At
the
time
of
Bedford's
death,
King
Henry
VI
was
three
months
short of
his
fourteenth
birthday
and
-
as
was
by
now
painfully
clear
to
all
who knew
him
—
totally
unfitted
for
the
crown.
Though
never
particularly intelligent,
in
his
youth
at
least
he
was
by
no
means
simple-minded,
as has
occasionally
been
claimed;
on
the
contrary
he
was
well
educated and
exceptionally
well
read,
and
from
an
early
age
took
a
precocious interest
in
political
affairs.
His
piety
was
unusual,
even
by
the
standards of
his
time.
He
attended
divine
worship
often
two
or
three
times
a
day, said
grace
'like
a
monk'
before
each
meal,
and
on
the
great
feasts
of
the Church
invariably
wore
a
hair
shirt
beneath
his
robes
of
state.
At
all other
times
he
dressed
simply,
paying
no
heed
to
style
or
fashion.
His chief
fault
was
that
he
was
impressionable
and
almost
pathetically easily
led,
putty
in
the
hands
of
men
like
Cardinal
Beaufort
or
Duke Humphrey;
more
dangerous
still,
he
soon
showed
himself
to
be
alarmingly
lacking
in
political
judgement,
using
such
power
as
he
enjoyed with
a
recklessness
and
irresponsibility
that
caused
serious
concern. After
the
departure
-
without
replacement
-
of
his
guardian,
the
Earl of
Warwick,
to
France
in
1437,
he
began
to
play
a
steadily
more important
part
in
the
administration,
with
almost
invariably
disastrous results.
His
mindless
generosity
made
ever
greater
demands
on
the exchequer,
as
did
his
continual
remission
of
fines
and
penalties;
few petitioners
were
sent
empty
away,
however
unscrupulous
their
characters
or
unfounded
their
claims.
At
the
same
time
the
steep
decline
in wool
exports,
combined
with
the
dishonesty
of
most
of
the
tax
collectors, had
resulted
in
a
dramatic
decline
in
the
revenue,
while
the
exceptionally rainy
weather
which
marked
the
three
years
between
1437
and
1440 led
to
the
worst
famine
for
well
over
a
century.

And
still
the
war
dragged
on.
In
April
1436
Bedford
had
been
succeeded by
Richard,
Duke
of
York,
now
twenty-four,
¹
who
was
accompanied by
his
brother-in-law
Richard
Nevill,
Earl
of
Salisbury
since
the
death
of his
father-in-law,
killed
before
Orleans.
Barely
fourteen
months
later York
had
been
replaced
by
Warwick,
but
had
been
reappointed
after the
latter's
death
in
1439.
Meanwhile
Charles
VII
had
made
his
triumphal entry
into
Paris
in
November
1437,
and
a
somewhat
half-hearted
peace conference
near
Calais
in
1439
had
come
to
nothing.
The
following year
saw
the
release
of
Charles
of
Orleans,
who
had
been
taken
prisoner at
Agincourt
and
held
in
comfortable
captivity
for
the
past
quarter
of
a century.
His
ransom
of
80,000
ecus,
with
a
further
160,000
within
six months,
was
largely
paid
by
Philip
of
Burgundy,
who
gave
him
his fourteen-year-old
niece,
Mary
of
Cleves,
in
marriage.
²

That
same
year,
1440,
saw
a
sharp
decline
in
the
fortunes
of
Duke Humphrey
of
Gloucester.
He
had
viole
ntly
opposed
giving
freedom
to the
captive
Charles
of
Orleans,
despite
the
latter's
oath
on
the
sacrament never
to
bear
arms
against
England;
and
Charles's
subsequent
release had
been
a
bitter
blow,
not
only
to
Humphrey's
personal
self-esteem but
to
his
national
prestige.
He
had
also
ill-advisedly
brought
quite unfounded
charges
of
treachery
and
dishonesty
against
Cardinal
Beaufort and
the
Archbishop
of
York,
John
Kemp,
who
had
rece
ntly
joined
his friend
Beaufort
in
the
College
of
Cardinals.
By
now,
in
consequence, the
Duke
was
generally
discredited;
and
a
further
blow
to
his
fortunes came
in
1441
when
his
second
wife
Eleanor
Cobham
—
'a
handsome,