Henry's Inheritance

My name is James Ross, I'm a lecturer at the University

of Winchester.

And I'm here today to talk about the reign of Henry VI.

The first lecture, we'll look at Henry's birth

and his upbringing and the legacy

he inherited from his father, Henry V.

Henry was born in December 1421.

He was the only child of his father,

King Henry V of England, and his mother, Catherine,

daughter of the King of France.

His father died just nine months after his birth,

and he, therefore, as a baby, became King of England,

and also heir to the throne of France

in the eyes of Englishmen, and indeed many Frenchmen.

Few kings have been as respected as Henry V during his lifetime.

He was a great warrior, he'd won great battles,

and he was, therefore, an intimidating role

model for Henry to look up to.

But the practical, political, military,

and economic situation that Henry VI inherited as a baby

was actually rather more problematic.

Firstly, Henry V left England in a state of war.

He had put forward a claim to the French throne,

he'd invaded France in 1415, and he'd been very successful.

He had a legitimate claim to the throne of France.

75 years earlier, Edward III had put forward this claim

first with some justification.

He was the grandson of the King of France, Philip of Valois.

His opponent was only a cousin of that same King.

And Henry V had used this claim.

England's possessions on the eve of Henry V's invasion

comprised Gascony, which is a large area of Southwestern

France, and the small but strategically important town

of Calais on the North coast, opposite Dover.

Henry V, of course, had won a huge victory at Agincourt

in 1415.

And when he reinvaded France in 1417,

the French refused to meet him in battle.

So he was able to conquer Normandy, an important and rich

area on the North coast of France between 1417 and 1420.

He also agreed, in 1420 and 1421,

a treaty called the Treaty of Tour,

whereby he became heir to the throne of France

after the current incumbent Charles VI of France had died.

As it happens, Henry V predeceased Charles VI.

But Henry VI, therefore, inherited this claim

to the throne of France.

However, effectively Henry V had committed England

to a long term war to realize this claim to the throne.

Although Henry the V had been quite successful

and had made an important alliance

with the Duke of Burgundy, who ruled Burgundy

in the Southeast of France, but also

what are now Holland and Belgium, so a powerful ally--

and between them, they controlled quite a lot

of Northern France, including Paris.

Much of Central and Southern France was still hostile.

The new King, Charles VII of France,

was obviously resistant to these English claims.

And it was always going to take a major effort

to try and realize Henry's claim to be King of all France.

So a long term war.

The English continued to be quite

successful for a few years after Henry V's death.

Henry V's brother, John, Duke of Bedford,

won important victories at Cravant in 1423,

at Verneuil in 1424.

And the English continued to advance

until checked by a defeat in 1429, when the French were

inspired by Joan of Arc.

Nonetheless, Henry VI was crowned

aged nine in France in 1430 in an effort

to continue that English momentum.

But it didn't really work, and the tide of war

had really shifted very much in to the French favor.

The English were really on the defensive.

And there was a sense of war weariness,

that perhaps the war couldn't be won.

And the English were tired of a lot of military effort.

There were also economic problems that Henry inherited,

Henry VI inherited.

There was a major European recession in the 1430s

and the 1440s, trade slumps.

There's not enough coin to go around.

People can't lend money to the crown,

and the crown needed to borrow money

because its tax revenues from customs,

all the taxes on imports and exports into the country,

were falling rapidly, and they were

the biggest single contributor to the English treasury.

So the crown's running very short of money

by the mid 1430s.

There were also perhaps less pressing but also

political problems for Henry VI to deal with in England

when he became an adult. His title to the throne

was not really one of them.

Although his grandfather, Henry IV had usurped

the throne in 1399, and arguably was not perhaps

the most rightful person to sit on the throne,

perhaps didn't have the strongest claim,

although it was a strong claim, the medieval belief

that victory in battle was God's judgment,

that god directly helped the rightful side

to win the battle.

Henry V's great victory at Agincourt

was seen by almost everybody as God's judgment

that he was the legitimate King of England.

Therefore, despite the fact that Henry is only nine months old

when his father dies, there's no suggestion

that anyone else should take the throne.

Henry is the rightful King in almost everybody's eyes.

So his title to the throne is not a problem,

but there are political groupings

and factional groupings in England

that he had to deal with as he came of age.

And they were really centered around two figures.

One was Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester,

Henry V's youngest brother, and Cardinal Beaufort,

who was Henry VI's great uncle, who

was enormously wealthy partly through being

bishop of Winchester, one of the richest bishoprics in Europe.

So he had a lot of power because he had a lot of money.

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, lot of power

because he was of royal blood.

And the two were also split on how

to deal with the French war.

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, wanted

to prosecute the war until the French were beaten.

Any idea of giving up land or make a peace treaty

seemed to him and some others to be a betrayal of Henry V's

great legacy of victory.

Cardinal Beaufort and other advisors,

such as William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk,

saw peace with France as the most realistic way of hanging

on to what they already had.

So there are two parties, a peace party and a war party,

if you like.

And there is political tension between the two.

For a lot of Henry's early life, this probably didn't really

impinge a great deal on him.

He's brought up in a traditional way, like most kings,

most aristocrats are.

He's taught reading and writing.

He's given military exercises.

And he's taught some of the chivalric ideals

of good manners and courtesy that

were very standard at the time.

Henry's intelligent.

We know he can read in--

he can read Latin.

We know he speaks English and French.

There's evidence later of quite a lot of book learning.

So he's brought up in a traditional way.

He's crowned King of England, 1429.

He's crowned King of France in 1430.

But this doesn't mean he's really actively involved

in ruling.

That comes in 1435 when his eldest uncle,

John, Duke of Bedford, dies.

And Henry really is to some extent

forced to step up and begin to rule

as an adult, which you can begin to see from 1436,

when he's 15-16.

So to conclude, Henry V's legacy is

quite impressive in terms of English reputation,

of territory that he's conquered.

But there were a lot of practical problems

that Henry VI inherits.

And it's a big ask for Henry to deal

with all of these problems-- the war with France,

economic slump, and political tension in England.