the Armagnacs murdered the duke of Burgundy in 1419,
the new duke, Philip the Good, allied with Henry. Care-
ful diplomacy and continued military pressure forced
Charles VI to agree to the Treaty of Troyes, 21 May
- Under its terms Charles disinherited his son (the
future Charles VII) in favor of Henry V, who became
regent of France and married Charles’s daugh ter, Cath-
erine of Valois.
France south of the Loire remained defiant and
unconquered. With the vital support of his Burgundian
allies Henry pursued his conquests against the disinher-
ited dauphin and his Armagnac allies. During the course
of the campaign Henry contracted dysentery; he died
at Bois de Vincennes on 31 August 1422, not yet 35
years of age. Charles VI outlived him by two months.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Troyes the crowns of
England and France passed to Henry V’s infant son,
Henry VI, who grew up to be an incompetent and hope-
less weakling.
Henry V’s dream of a French conquest was lost by
1453, and he has been condemned by historians for
squandering England’s resources in an unattainable
quest for foreign glory. Yet to contemporaries he was
an heroic fi gure. A cunning propagandist and diplomat,
a skillful and ruthless general, and—as historians are
discovering—a just and careful admin istrator, he can
be faulted for dying inopportunely.
See also Henry IV; Philip the Good; Richard II
Further Reading
Allmand, C.T. Henry V. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1992.
Harriss, G.L., ed. Henry V: The Practice of Kingship. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1985.
Kingsford, Charles L., ed. The First English Life of King Henry
the Fifth. Oxford: Clarendon, 1911.
Labarge, Margaret Wade. Henry V: The Cautious Con queror.
London: Seeker & Warburg, 1975.
McFarlane, K.B. Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights. Oxford:
Clarendon, 1972 [for the view of Henry as the “great est man
that ever ruled England”].
Taylor, Frank, and John S. Roskell, eds. and trans. Gesta Henrici
Quinti: The Deeds of Henry the Fifth. Oxford: Clarendon,
1975.
Wylie, James H., and W.T. Waugh. The Reign of Henry the Fifth.
3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1914–29.
James L. Gillespie
HENRY VI (1165–1197)
At the tender age of three, Henry VI Staufen was already
an elected and crowned king. His father, Emperor Fred-
erick I Barbarossa, not only had him participate in the
imperial government, but even tried to get him elected
co-emperor. Scholars, such as Godfrey of Viterbo, pro-
vided the young king’s education, according to several
songs that appear in medieval collections of Minnesang
(courtly love poetry). His father granted Henry the belt
of knighthood at the famous tournament at Mainz dur-
ing Pentecost 1184. By that autumn, Henry had become
betrothed to Constance, eleven years his senior and the
aunt of King William II of Sicily. During Barbarossa’s
disputes with Pope Urban III, Henry successfully con-
ducted military campaigns against the papal states; but
Urban’s successor, Clement III, promised to crown him
emperor. Henry took over the regency while Barbarossa
went off upon the third Crusade in the spring of 1189.
When Barbarossa died in July 1190, Henry should
have quietly succeeded to his father’s inheritance. But
several obstacles soon arose. For example, the Welf
Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, had returned from exile
in England and defi ed the royal armies by reclaiming
his old power in the north. The sudden death of King
William II of Sicily in November had, in Henry’s view,
left his wife Constance as the heir to that rich kingdom.
When the Sicilians, with papal cooperation, elected
William’s illegitimate cousin, Count Tancred of Lecce,
as king, Henry resolved to attack that kingdom after be-
ing crowned emperor in Rome. Finally, after coming to
a truce with the Welfs and turning to Italy, Henry found
that Pope Celestine III had replaced Clement.
Meanwhile, the city leaders of Rome had been pres-
suring the pope to destroy Tusculum, a city which had
been loyal to and garrisoned by the Staufen, but which
the Romans considered a rival. The aged pope-elect
demanded that the king abandon Tusculum before any
imperial coronation. With Tusculum torn down stone by
stone, the Romans gladly cheered the papal consecra-
tion of Celestine on Easter Sunday, April 14, and the
imperial coronation of Henry on Easter Monday. The
new emperor then turned to the conquest of Southern
Italy and Sicily. But, after a few successes, he failed at
a siege of Naples, largely because of the summer heat
and the effects of diseases like dysentery, cholera, and
malaria on his troops. Although Henry survived a bout
with sickness, many others died, and the army retreated
northward. Meanwhile, the Empress Constance briefl y
became a prisoner of Tancred, king of Sicily.
Back in Germany, Henry faced new problems, es-
pecially as he tried to solve a quarrel over the see of
Liège by naming his own candidate. Another candidate,
Albert of Louvain, brother of the Duke of Brabant,
had the backing of Pope Celestine, however, and was
consecrated bishop. Five days later, German knights
murdered him, and many blamed Henry for instigat-
ing the deed. Encouraged by the Welfs and the papacy,
widespread opposition to Henry began to organize itself
into open rebellion.
At this juncture, Henry was rescued by the capture
of the English king, Richard the Lionhearted, who was
returning from a Crusade in December 1192. HenryHENRY V