CHAP. XLIX.
KING HENRY SETS OUT FROM ROUEN TO CALAIS WITH HIS QUEEN, AND THENCE TO ENGLAND, WHERE HE IS RECEIVED WITH GREAT JOY BY ALL RANKS OF PEOPLE.
KING HENRY SETS OUT FROM ROUEN TO CALAIS WITH HIS QUEEN, AND THENCE TO ENGLAND, WHERE HE IS RECEIVED WITH GREAT JOY BY ALL RANKS OF PEOPLE.
Whenking Henry had satisfactorily arranged his affairs at Rouen, and appointed his brother the duke of Clarence, who was very prudent and renowned in arms, governor-general of all Normandy, he departed thence, accompanied by his queen, his brother the duke of Bedford, and six thousand men at arms. Having passed through Poix, he arrived at Amiens on the vigil of St Vincent's day, and was lodged in the hôtel of master Robert le Jeune, who had lately been nominated bailiff of Amiens in the room of the lord de Humbercourt.
He was very honourably received there, and many presents were made by the municipality to him and to his queen. He continued his journey through Dourlens, St Pol and Terouenne, to Calais, where he staid some days; and then crossed the channel to England, where he was received as if he had been an angel from God. He lost no time after his arrival in having his consort crowned queen of England in the city of London, the metropolis of that kingdom.
The coronation was performed with such splendid magnificence that the like had never been seen at any coronation since the time of that noble knight, Arthur, king of the English and Bretons. After this ceremony, king Henry made a progress to the principal towns of his realm, and explained to them with much eloquence what grand deeds he had performed through his prowess in France, and what yet remained to be done for the complete conquest of that kingdom,—namely, the subjugation of his adversary the dauphin of Vienne, only son to king Charles, and brother to his queen, who styled himselfheir to the crown and regent of France, and who kept possession of the greater part of the country.
To complete this conquest, he said, two things were necessary, money and men; and these requests were so liberally granted that of the first he very soon collected larger sums than had ever before been seen, and they could scarcely be counted. Of the second, he enrolled all the most able youths in the country and the most expert in drawing the bow, and placing them under the command of his princes, knights and esquires, composed an army of full thirty thousand combatants, to enable him to prosecute a vigorous war against his enemy the dauphin.
Before he quitted England, that he might make all things secure, he renewed the truces with the Scots and Welsh, and consented to the deliverance of the king of Scotland, who had been long prisoner in England, on condition that he would marry his cousin-german, sister to the earl of Somerset, and niece to the cardinal of Winchester, who had been the principal negotiator in these treaties.