from his childhood, and the overwork telling upon a frame
in which the germs of hereditary insanity already existed,
broke down both mind and body at the most critical period
of his reign. Henry was perhaps the most unfortunate king
who ever reigned ; he outlived power and wealth and friends ;
he saw all who had loved him perish for his sake, and, to
crown all, the son, the last and dearest of the great house from
which he sprang, the centre of all his hopes, the depositary of
the great Lancastrian traditions of English polity, set aside
and slain. And he was without doubt most innocent of all
the evils that befel England because of him. Pious, pure,
generous, patient, simple¹, true and just, humble, merciful,
fastidiously conscientious, modest and temperate, he might
have seemed made to rule a quiet people in quiet times. His
days were divided between the transaction of business and
the reading of history and scripture². His devotion was
exemplary and unquestionably sincere ; he 'left a mark on
the hearts of Englishmen that was not soon effaced : setting
aside the fancied or fabled revelations, a part perhaps of his
malady, and the false miracles that were reported at his tomb,
it was no mere political feeling that led the rough yeomen
of Yorkshire and Durham to worship before his statue, that
dictated hymns and prayers in his honour, and that retained

¹ ‘ Vir simplex sine omni plica dolositatis aut falsitatis, ut omnibus
constat;’ Blakman, p. 288. 'Veridica semper exercuerat eloquia ; ’ p.
288. 'Fuerat et rectus et Justus . . . nulli vero injuriam facere voluit
scienter ; ’ ib. p. 288. Ifis early attempts at the exercise of power were
checked; in 1454 the council advised him not to listen to suggestions
about important matters, or about the changing of his governors ; Ord.
iv. 287 ; Rot. Parl. v. 438. In 1438 they tell him that he gives too
many pardons, and has thrown away 1000 marks by giving away the
constableship of Chirk; Ordin. v. 89. The executions which followed
Cade’s rebellion may be alleged against his merciful disposition ; but
although cruelty would be by no means wonderful in the case of a
panic-stricken, nervous invalid, Henry’s horror of slaughter and muti-
lation is so well attested that those acts must be charged on Somerset
and his other advisers, rather than on the king. See Blakman, pp. 301,
302.

² ‘ Aut in orationibus, aut in SCripturarum vel Cronicarum Iectionibus
assidue erat Occupatus;’ Blakman, p. 289. ‘Dies illos aut in regni
negotiis cum consilio suo tractandis . . . aut in Scripturarum Iectionibus,
vel in scriptis aut cronicis Iegendis non minus diligenter expendit;’ ib.
p. 299.

in the Primer down to the Reformation the prayers of the
king who had perished for the sins of his fathers and of the
nation. It is needless to say that for the throne of England
in the midst of the death-struggle of nations, parties, and
liberties, Henry had not one single qualification. He was
the last medieval king who attempted to rule England as
a constitutional kingdom or commonwealth.

342. His coming of age did not much affect his actual The cardinal
position. He had long been recognised as the depositary of be the king's
ⁱ                              .                    ^o                        ɪ *^, chief adviser

executive powers which were to be exercised by the council ; ι₄₄₂.

he continued under the influence of the cardinal, from whom
he had learned the policy of peace, though he had not learned
the art of government. That which was a policy in Beaufort
■was in Henry a true love and earnest desire. He must have
longed for peace as a blessing which he and living England
had never known. Gloucester, powerless for good, stood aloof
from government, sometimes throwing in a cynical remark in
council, but chiefly employed in cultivating popularity and
that reputation as a lover of literature which has stood him in
so good stead with posterity. The parallel lines of war and Rivalry be-

.   .                P ,                                               ,. tween York

negotiation run on for three years more, the war kept alive and the
by the emulation of the duke of York and the Beauforts, a
rivalry which, whilst it prevented anything like concerted
action, saved the reputation of English valour abroad. The Beaufort
duke’s term of office lasted until 1445; in 1442 a great expe- money for
dition under Somersetwas contemplated¹; the want of money expedition
delayed it until the summer of 1443 ; funds were at last pro- ,_{n 1}^₄°^cβ
vided by the cardinal, who pledged his jewels and plate and
furnished £20,000; insisting, however, that Securityshouldbe
given in a special form submitted to the council, which called
forth from Gloucester the sneering remark that as his uncle
would lend on no other terms it was little use reading the
special form². Before the expedition started distinct assurances

¹ Sept. 8, 1443, the duke of Somerset went to France ; 37co men were
slain or taken during the expedition; Gregory, p. 185. The preparations
for the expedition formed a considerable part of the deliberations in council
for nearly a year before ; Ordinances, v. 218-409.

² Ordinances,v. 279, 280.

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