after Jeanne’s death, but the English steadily lost ground. Bedford died, and Burgundy went over to the side of Charles VII. Year after year saw new conquests by the French until, in 1453, the war came to an end, and of all Henry V’s possessions in France nothing remained to the English but Calais.
9. Weak Rule of Henry VI.—Henry was a feeble king; kind, merciful, and generous; but so weak in intellect that he was wholly unfitted to rule. In the early years of his reign England was distracted by the quarrels of his uncles, of whom Gloucester was the most mischievous and troublesome. Parliament, too, had not so much power as in the days of the Plantagenets, and the right to vote for members was now taken away from many people. Unseemly quarrels often broke out in Parliament; so much so that the members of one Parliament brought cudgels up their sleeves. Later on, when Henry began to rule for himself, he was much influenced by his wife, Margaret of Anjou, a strong-minded woman, who loved power and brought her foreign friends with her. The people cared little who ruled so long as their money was not wasted. This, however, Henry’s friends did, and the heavy taxes caused a rebellion.
10. Jack Cade’s Rebellion, 1450.—The men of Kent, always among the first to resist, led by Jack Cade, and aided by the men of Surrey and Sussex, came down in large numbers to London, and demanded that their grievances should be righted. We hear nothing of serfdom, or of wages, in their complaints, and this shows what a change for the better had taken place since the days of Wat Tyler. Cade’s followers asked for free elections, for a change in the king’s advisers, and that the king’s foreign favourites should be sent out of England. The rising was soon at an end, and Jack Cade was killed shortly afterwards.
11. Wars of the Roses.—People began now to look to Richard, Duke of York, to right the affairs of the country. Richard was descended on his mother’s side from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III., and on his father’s side from Edward, Duke of York, fourth son of the same king. He thus had as good a claim to the crown as Henry VI. When Henry, in 1454, became insane, Richard was made Protector. Henry, however, partially recovered, and then he drove the Duke away from his
