in to put them down. The Armagnacs were admitted into Paris, and took a
terrible vengeance on the Butchers and on all adherents of Burgundy, in
the name of the Dauphin Louis, the king's eldest son, a weak, dissipated
youth, who was entirely led by the Count of Armagnac.


9. Invasion of Henry V.--All this time the war with England had
smouldered on, only broken by brief truces; and when France was in this
wretched state Henry V. renewed the claim of Edward III., and in 1415
landed before Harfleur. After delaying till he had taken the city, the
dauphin called together the whole nobility of the kingdom, and advanced
against Henry, who, like Edward III., had been obliged to leave Normandy
and march towards Calais in search of supplies. The armies met at
Agincourt, where, though the French greatly outnumbered the English, the
skill of Henry and the folly and confusion of the dauphin's army led to
a total defeat, and the captivity of half the chief men in France of the
Armagnac party--among them the young Duke of Orleans. It was Henry V.'s
policy to treat France, not as a conquest, but as an inheritance; and he
therefore refused to let these captives be ransomed till he should have
reduced the country to obedience, while he treated all the places that
submitted to him with great kindness. The Duke of Burgundy held aloof
from the contest, and the Armagnacs, who ruled in Paris, were too weak
or too careless to send aid to Rouen, which was taken by Henry after a
long siege. The Dauphin Louis died in 1417; his next brother, John, who
was more inclined to Burgundy, did not survive him a year; and the third
brother, Charles, a mere boy, was in the hands of the Armagnacs. In 1418
their reckless misuse of power provoked the citizens of Paris into
letting in the Burgundians, when an unspeakably horrible massacre took
place. Bernard of Armagnac himself was killed; his naked corpse, scored
with his red cross, was dragged about the streets; and men, women, and