, but
while the Duke of Bedford had actually administered the government as
regent, in behalf of his infant nephew, it was a mere shadow of his
office that passed to his successor. Bedford's death, in 1435, was
almost coincident with the compact at Arras when the English Henry's
realms across the Channel shrank to Normandy and the outlying
fortresses of Picardy and Maine. Later events on English soil were to
prove how little fitted was the son of Henry V. for sovereignty of any
kind.

Out of the negotiations at Arras, Philip of Burgundy rose triumphant
with a seal set upon his personal importance.[19] His recognition of
Charles VII. as lawful sovereign of France, and his reconciliation did
not pass without signal gain to himself.

The king declared his own hands unstained by the blood of John of
Burgundy, agreed to punish all those designated by Philip as actually
responsible for that treacherous murder, and pledged himself to erect
a cross on the bridge at Montereau, the scene of the crime. Further,
he relinquished various revenues in Burgundy, hitherto retained by the
crown from the moment when the junior branch of the Valois had been
invested with the duchy (1364); and he ceded the counties of Boulogne,
Artois, and all the seigniories belonging to the French sovereign on
both banks of the Somme. To this last cession, however, was appended
the condition that the towns included in this clause could be redeemed
at the king's pleasure, for the sum of four hundred thousand gold
crowns. Further, Charles exempted Philip from acts of homage to
himself, promised to demand no _aides_ from the duke's subjects
in case of war, and to assist his cousin if he were attacked from
England. Lastly, he renounced an alliance lately contracted with the
emperor to Philip's disadvantage.[20]

One clause in the treaty crowned the royal submissiveness towards the
powerful vassal. It provided that in case of Charles's failure to
observe all the stipulated conditions, his own subjects would be
justified in taking arms against him at the duke's orders. A similar
clause occurs in certain treaties between an earlier French king and
his Flemish vassals, but always to the advantage of the suzerain, not
to that of the lesser lords.

The duke was left in a position infinitely superior to that of the
king, whose realm was terribly exhausted by the long contest with
England, a contest wherein one nation alone had felt the invader's
foot. French pr