The Historians' History of the World (Volume 17-18); A Comprehensive Narrative of the Rise and Development of Nations from the Earliest Times (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1907. Excerpt: ... 1421-1423 i.n ] arrived at York when news came which speedily called back Henry to France. He had left his brother, the duke of Clarence, as his lieutenant in Normandy. Anjou, which recognised the authority of the dauphin, was invaded by the duke; and at Baug6, on the 22d of March, he was surprised in his work of wasting the country by a great force of Angevins, aided by several thousand Scottish auxiliaries under the earl of Buchan, the second son of the regent of Scotland. The duke was slain, and the greater number of his vanguard were killed or taken prisoners. The English archers, however, came up, and drove the French and Scots from the field. Soon, however, Scot was to be opposed to Scot in the great contest for dominion. Murdoch, the regent of Scotland, had lent assistance to the dauphin at a time of peace with England, and many of the Scottish nobles disapproved of the measure. The king of Scotland, James I, had been sixteen years a captive in Windsor castle; and here, like that other illustrious prisoner the duke of Orleans, he found in the cultivation of literature a solace for the absence of liberty. In the garden of the keep of Windsor he first saw Jane Beaufort, walking amongst the hawthorn hedges and the juniper branches, and henceforth the cousin of King Henry was, in his mind, "the fairest and the freshest younge flower." So the captive has recorded of his love in his charming poem of The King's Quair. Jane Beaufort's widowed mother had married the duke of Clarence, and this circumstance might have been some inducement to the captive king to accept the offer of Henry to accompany him to France, to redeem the great disaster of Bauge Archibald, earl of Douglas, and other Scottish knights, joined Henry and their young king, and set sail from Dover, with four thousand m...