Henry was only nine months old when he succeeded to the English throne in August 1422. He also became the titular King of France in accordance with the Treaty of Troyes when his grandfather Charles VI died in October 1422. Henry V’s brother John, Duke of Bedford, was appointed regent in September 1423 but his French mother Catherine of Valois was not allowed to take part in the young king’s upbringing. John took over the running of the war in France while his brother Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester, ruled the kingdom in his absence. Humphrey claimed the regency when John died but the rest of the Council protested, particularly when he lost control of the kingdom’s justice and finances resulting in unrest across the kingdom.
Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March and Ulster, was appointed the king’s lieutenant in Ireland in 1423. He sent a deputy to carry out his duties, but was ‘sent out of the way to Ireland’ after arguing with the king’s protector, Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester, only to die soon afterwards. Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, inherited Mortimer’s title and his claim to the throne. His inheritance also made the 12-year-old one of the wealthiest men in England.
York was sent to Ireland to deal with the feud between the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford, and James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde. The hostility dominated Irish politics for years and it weakened the crown’s authority in Ireland, until Butler married Talbot’s daughter Elizabeth.
York eventually allied with the Norman barons who were opposing Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, the leader of Henry VI’s council. He returned to England after the council surrendered Maine and Anjou as part of the marriage deal between Henry and Margaret of Anjou. York was again appointed Lieutenant of Ireland, to keep him out of the way, but he soon returned because the crown owed him a huge amount of money.
Ralph Neville was ward to Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York. Richard was betrothed to Neville’s 9-year-old daughter Cecily when he turned 13 in 1424. Richard inherited the valuable Earldom of March from his uncle Edmund de Mortimer the following year. Neville inherited the Earldom of Westmorland the same year but he struggled to get his inheritance from his grandfather’s widow Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
Joan died in 1440 but Neville conceded the rest of the disputed lands to his great-uncle Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, in 1443. Ralph eventually ‘succumbed to a mental disorder’ and was eventually placed under the guardianship of his brother Thomas. Maybe it was because he had been so busy finding husbands and wives for his twenty children.
Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, was suspected of having an affair with Henry V’s widow Catherine of Valois in 1427. The match worried many because any children from the match would be illegitimate half-siblings of the king, which created problems for the succession to the throne. So Parliament had to rush through a new law regulating the remarriage of widowed queens. Beaufort later married Eleanor, daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, in secret but their unlicensed marriage was later pardoned.
Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, was married to Eleanor Neville, and his sister Elizabeth was married to Ralph Neville, 2nd Earl of Westmorland. Henry resigned as Warden of the East March in 1434 but he was made warden of both marches when Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, resigned as Warden of the West March a year later because the crown owed him money. The appointment merely increased tension between the two families.
Richard Neville would be reappointed Warden of the West March in 1443 but he started recruiting tenants on Percy’s estates, increasing tensions between the families. Henry Percy also argued with the Archbishop of York but the king supported the Church when the dispute escalated into violence.
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, had continued the fight in France while his younger brother Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, acted as Lord Protector of England. Lancaster defeated the French at the battle of Verneuil but Joan of Arc rallied the French until she was captured by the Burgundians at the siege of Compiègne in May 1430. They handed her over to the English and she was burned at the stake.
There was a stand-off as John protected Normandy and Humphrey held Calais. But Philip, Duke of Burgundy, switched to Charles VII when John died during the Congress of Arras in 1435. It sparked a resurgence in French confidence and Charles used the opportunity to strengthen his army. Philip, Duke of Burgundy, attacked Calais in 1436 but Humphrey and the garrison escaped. John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, then helped Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, lift the siege.
Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, was appointed lieutenant general and Governor of France and Normandy in 1439. But he refused to send reinforcements to John Talbot, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury, because the crown wanted him to pay for them out of his own pocket. Instead he sent a separate army under the new Duke of Somerset and Earl of Kendal, John Beaufort. Talbot reorganised and trained the English army when he was appointed Constable of France.
Owen Tudor married Henry V’s widow Catherine in secret but the marriage was not recognised by the authorities, making their two children, Edmund and Jasper, illegitimate. Catherine died in childbirth in 1437 and Owen Tudor was imprisoned while their children were sent to Barking Abbey in Essex. They were raised by the abbess Katherine de la Pole, the sister of the king’s favourite, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk.
Katherine brought the youngsters to the king’s attention when he turned 21 in 1442 and he allowed them to be educated in court; he also released their father from prison. Ten years later they were declared legitimate and recognised as the king’s brothers. Edmund was created Earl of Richmond and Jasper was created Earl of Pembroke and they were both given large estates.
Thomas Courtenay, 5th Earl of Devon, attacked William Bonville’s estates in 1439, even though he was married to his aunt Elizabeth. Two years later Courtenay was appointed Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall, only to see the post cancelled a few days later after the Royal Steward for Cornwall, Bonville, complained. The pair were ordered to appear before the king after Courtenay’s men attacked Bonville’s friend Sir Philip Chetwynd. But they both ignored his warning and were sent to serve in France.
Henry VI favoured Courtenay because he was married to Margaret, the mother of his favourite, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. But William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, favoured Bonville when he took control of the court party in 1447. It meant that Courtenay would support Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, during the Cade Rebellion in Sussex and Kent in 1450.
The siege of Harfleur stopped the French invading England in August 1440. Richard, 3rd Duke of York, was reappointed Lieutenant of France with full powers but he was furious to hear that John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, had advised King Henry to sue for peace. Beaufort would resign before York arrived in Normandy in 1441 but the king would have been wise to accept his advice.
The fall of Pontoise, near Paris, to the Duke of Orléans in September 1441 weakened the English situation while Gascony (now in south-west France) was in danger of being taken. York was ordered to fortify Rouen in 1443 when the French threatened Bordeaux and Aquitaine. Beaufort’s promise to reinforce him never materialised, allowing the French to capture Guyenne (now in south-west France).
York was further infuriated to hear that John Beaufort had been elevated to Duke of Somerset and given command of the army in the north of France. Beaufort also declared himself the Lieutenant of Aquitaine and Captain General of Guyenne after the wife of Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester, was charged with treason. It left York only governing Normandy and his position was undermined even further when Beaufort’s negotiations failed. The king added insult to injury when he gave money to Beaufort to pay his troops but still gave York nothing, leaving him deep in debt.
Beaufort continued to cause problems in the summer of 1443. First he marched on Cherbourg before heading south to Gascony, accidently breaching a peace treaty when he entered the Breton town of Guerche. His next crime was to set all his prisoners free without permission in return for money from the Duke of Brittany.
Following an aimless march through Maine, Beaufort returned to England and died, possibly taking his own life. His death left William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, in charge of Henry VI’s government. But Richard of York would not forget John Beaufort’s contemptuous behaviour and would always hold a grudge against the Beaufort family.
Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester, had claimed Henry’s regency following the death of his elder brother John, Duke of Bedford, in 1435. But his enemies accused his wife Eleanor of heresy and practising witchcraft against the king in 1441. She was imprisoned and a humiliated Humphrey retired from public life. But it did not end there because Humphrey was arrested for treason in 1447. He died three days later and while some believed he had been poisoned, the shock of imprisonment had caused a stroke.
Henry Grey, 2nd Earl of Tankerville, captured a rebellious Gruffudd Vychan in Powys in 1447. He was then beheaded in Powys Castle despite a promise of safe conduct, maybe as revenge for the death of Christopher Talbot, son of the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. His execution ended the revolt in central Wales and order was restored in Powys.
William de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk, had been forced to surrender to Jean, Count de Dunois, when Joan of Arc relieved Orléans in 1429. Jackanapes, as Pole was known, was ransomed after spending three years as a prisoner of Charles VII. He would negotiate the marriage of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou in 1444 but he had to include a secret clause in the deal which handed Maine and Anjou to France.
Pole soon became the principal power behind Henry VI’s throne and was appointed Chamberlain, Admiral of England and Duke of Suffolk in 1448. However, Pole had never paid the ransom he owed to the Count de Dunois, and he was suspected of handing over council papers so the French could plan an invasion of England.
Two years later Pole was blamed for losing Maine and Anjou and was imprisoned in the Tower. The king intervened and made sure he was exiled rather than have him tried and executed. However, Pole was not safe because his ship was intercepted. He was subjected to a mock trial and beheaded on Dover’s beach. Either one of his enemies had arranged his death or the king had had him silenced to stop him revealing how Maine and Anjou had been given away.
The Percys and the Nevilles were often locked in a private feud along the Scottish Marches. But Richard Neville made sure his children were married to wealthy partners. His son, also Richard, was married to Anne, daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, and he inherited the earldom when he turned 21 in 1449, making him a wealthy and powerful noble. His daughter Eleanor married Thomas Stanley, ‘a man of considerable acumen’ who would become one of ‘the most successful power-brokers of his age’.
Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, disrespected Neville when he marched his forces through the West March, en route to attack Scotland in 1448, without asking permission. Percy’s army burnt Dunbar and Dumfries but the Scots retaliated against Alnwick and Warkworth castles. Percy was defeated and his eldest son was captured at the battle of Sark on 23 October. Neville lost many troops driving the Scots back. The feud resulted in Neville and Percy being excluded from the peace negotiations with Scotland, increasing the resentment between the families.
William Neville, 1st Earl of Kent, guarded Roxburgh Castle on the Scottish Borders for King Henry until he was sent to France on a diplomatic mission in 1449. He was captured at Pont de l’Arche and ransomed four years later, only to learn the crown had not paid him for the upkeep of the castle. It left him deep in debt and hating the king.
John Talbot was captured at Rouen in 1449 and had to promise never to wear armour against the French king again. He kept his promise but did fight against other French forces. Talbot’s replacement, John Beaufort, was defeated at the battle of Formigny in 1450, resulting in the loss of Normandy.
The French were victorious and both Talbot and his son were killed at the battle of Castillon on 17 July 1453, resulting in the French capture of Gascony and Aquitaine. The battle marked the end of the Hundred Years War (which had lasted 116 years). The loss of all of England’s continental territories except Calais would leave John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, open to criticism from Richard, Duke of York, and the animosity between them would spill over at the start of the Wars of the Roses.
Resistance to the king’s policies was increasing, with Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, leading the opposition. Henry VI’s poor judgement and nepotism had caused resentment and the established noble families wanted him to take back the land and money he had given to his favourites.
The troubles resulted in violence, starting with the lynching of Adam Moleyns, Lord Privy Seal and Bishop of Chichester, in January 1450. Then the king’s chief councillor, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was murdered in May. Next Jack Cade led a rebellion in Kent and Sussex in June 1450 and his peasant army seized control of London and killed the Lord High Treasurer, John Fiennes.
On 7 September the Duke of York landed at Beaumaris in North Wales and marched south, meeting the king in London on 27 September. He demanded reform, a better government and the prosecution of the traitors who had lost the Continental territories. The violence in London continued and the king’s advisor Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, had to be put in the Tower for his own safety. Eventually Henry VI promised to curb his spending and make reforms to restore public order, so York retired to his estates in Ludlow. Somerset was released and appointed Captain of Calais, to keep him away from court. But York wanted more; he wanted to destroy Somerset.
The kingdom was suffering and York was coaxed back from Ireland to help run it in 1452. But he also wanted to be recognised as Henry VI’s heir apparent because he had had no children with Queen Margaret of Anjou after seven years of marriage. York gathered a small army and marched on London to make his demands, only to find the king had locked the gates. So a compromise was made: York was allowed into the city under guard and was then held under house arrest until he had sworn an oath of allegiance to Henry. Only then was he allowed to speak to the king.
Two factions had developed on the Privy Council by 1453. Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and his brother-in-law Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, opposed Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, and Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham. Meanwhile, Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, supported the king while his long-standing enemies, the two Richard Nevilles, supported York. But Beaufort and Stafford remained in control of Henry VI and they encouraged him to overtax York’s tenants and sack York as the Lieutenant of Ireland.
News of Margaret’s pregnancy lifted everyone’s spirits but the king had a mental breakdown after hearing about the loss of Boulogne in August 1453. The strong-willed Margaret opposed York until he was appointed Protector of the Realm the following spring and he immediately threw Beaufort in prison. While Stafford was loyal to Henry VI and Beaufort, he was reluctant to oppose York because his son was married to Beaufort’s daughter and he feared for his own life.
Henry VI recovered at the end of 1454 and York had to surrender his appointments while Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, resigned as Chancellor. Stafford negotiated Beaufort’s release from prison and he immediately advised the king to reverse most of York’s decisions. A furious York was determined to depose of the meddling Beaufort for good.
In 1453 Thomas, son of Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, married Maud Stanhope, heiress of Lord Cromwell; he was given Wressle Castle as part of the marriage contract. Thomas Percy thought the castle should be his so he intercepted the wedding party at Heworth near York on 24 August, but Thomas and Maud escaped. Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter, supported the Percys over another territorial dispute with Cromwell and the feud was in danger of turning into a minor civil war.
The king ordered the families to make their peace but Henry Percy and his sons Henry, Egremont and Richard, fought Richard Neville. John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu, also joined the feud because he had been forced to hand over his title and lands to the Percys. The feuding barons were summoned to court in May 1454 but they all refused to attend. The Nevilles would capture Thomas Percy and his brother Richard at the battle at Stamford Bridge the following October in a prelude to the coming civil war.