ir H. Nicolas.]

The fact on which this reasoning rests is undoubtedly true, and yet
considerations connected with that claim require to be entertained,
and weighed without haste and without prejudice; and the truth itself
warns us not to dismiss the point so summarily. Henry (it must never
be forgotten) had been bred up in the belief that Richard II. had in
the most full and unreserved manner, by his act of resignation,
yielded all his rights into the hands of the people of England, and
that those rights had been as fully and unreservedly conferred by the
nation on Henry's father. Whatever rights, moreover, the Earl of March
possessed as lineal heir to the crown, he had, as far as his own
personal interest was concerned, over and over again, not merely by a
passive acquiescence, but by repeated voluntary acts, virtually
resigned, and made over to Henry as actual King; and, lastly, it is
clear that Henry's claim was always by himself and by the nation
rested on the ground of his being King of England, and, ipso facto, as
such, heir of all his predecessors Kings of England.

On these grounds, and with such an opening offered to his ardent mind
by the distracted state of the realm of France, Henry resolved to
prefer his claim; negociating first for its amicable concession, and,
if unsuccessful in negociation, then pursuing it in the field of
battle. This appears to have been his determination from the (p. 078)
first; but from the first he seems also to have contemplated the
probability of failure by treaty; for, from the first intimation of
his designs, he and his subjects were steadily engaged in making every
preparation[68] for a vigorous invasion of France.

In this part of our treatise a brief outline is required of the
proceedings between the resolution first taken by Henry, and his
appearance in arms on French land; nor can we satisfactorily pass on
without taking a succinct view of the internal state of that kingdom
at the time of Henry's original claim and subsequent invasion.

[Footnote 68: The only measures mentioned in the
"Foedera," before April 1415, indicative of
Henry's expectation that the negociations with
France would not terminate pacifically, are, that
on September 26, 1414, the exportation of gunpowder
was prohibited; whilst, on the 22nd, Nicholas
Merbury, the