tington was for the third time Lord Mayor of London in
this reign, A.D. 1419. Thomas Chaucer, son of the great poet, was
speaker of the House of Commons, which granted the supplies to the king
for his invasion of France.

(C) _Bedford,_] John, Duke of Bedford, was the third son of King Henry
IV., and his brother, Henry V., left to him the Regency of France. He
died in the year 1435. This duke was accounted one of the best generals
of the royal race of Plantaganet.

King Lewis XI. being counselled by certain envious persons to deface his
tomb, used these, indeed, princely words:-- _"What honor shall it be to
us, or you, to break this monument, and to pull out of the ground the
bones of him, whom, in his life time, neither my father nor your
progenitors, with all their puissance, were once able to make fly a foot
backward? Who by his strength, policy, and wit, kept them all out of the
principal dominions of France, and out of this noble Dutchy of Normandy?
Wherefore I say first, God save his soul, and let his body now lie in
rest, which, when he was alive, would have disquieted the proudest of us
all; and for his tomb, I assure you, it is not so worthy or convenient
as his honor and acts have deserved." --Vide Sandford's History of the
Kings of England._

(D) _Gloster,_] Humphrey, Duke of Gloster, was the fourth son of King
Henry IV., and on the death of his brother, Henry V., became Regent of
England. It is generally supposed he was strangled. His death took place
in the year 1446.

(E) _Exeter,_] Shakespeare is a little too early in giving Thomas
Beaufort the title of Duke of Exeter; for when Harfleur was taken, and
he was appointed governor of the town, he was only Earl of Dorset. He
was not made Duke of Exeter till the year after the battle of Agincourt,
November 14, 1416. Exeter was half brother to King Henry IV., being one
of the sons of John of Gaunt, by Catherine Swynford.

(F) _Archbishop of Canterbury,_] The Archbishop's speech in this scene,
explaining King Henry's title to the crown of France, is closely copied
from Holinshed's chronicle, page 545.

"About the middle of the year 1414, Henry V., influenced by the
persuasions of Chichely, Archbishop of Canterbury, by the dying
injunction of his royal father, not to allow the kingdom to remain long
at peace, or more probably by those feelings of ambition, which were no
less natural to his age and character, than consonant with the manners
of the time in wh