cs, another opponent
arose against the Duke, of whom he seems to have been previously under
no apprehension,--the Dauphin himself, his son-in-law, then only
sixteen years of age. This prince, persuaded that during his father's
illness the government could of right belong to no one but himself,
resolved to secure his own. He gained over the governor of the
Bastille, and seized that fortress. The Parisians flew to arms at the
secret instigation of the Duke of Burgundy. A surgeon, named John of
Troyes, at the head of ten or twelve thousand men, forced the gates of
the Dauphin's palace; and, carrying off the chief friends of that
prince, lodged them in prison.

[Footnote 70: See vol. i. p. 268.]

These events took place at the opening of the year 1413, whilst Henry
IV. was labouring under the malady of which he died. Henry V.
succeeded to the throne, March 20th of that year. At the end of April,
the malcontents of Paris, all of the Burgundian faction, committed
various excesses, and compelled both the King and the Dauphin to wear
the white cap, the badge of their party. The Dauphin[71] betook
himself at last to the Armagnacs, of whom many lived in Paris,
grievously oppressed by the government of the Duke of Burgundy; and he
planned his scheme so well, and so secretly, that at the (p. 084)
beginning of September he found thirty thousand men in Paris ready to
support him. By his sudden and vigorous efforts he struck terror into
the opposite faction, who abandoned the Bastille and other places in
their possession, and thought of nothing but their own personal
safety. The Duke of Burgundy himself withdrew to Flanders. The
Dauphin, however, gained no permanent advantage from this success; for
the King, in one of his favourable intervals, immediately seized the
reins of government, and called his nephew the young Duke of Orleans
to his counsels. This youth induced the King to issue very violent
decrees against the Duke of Burgundy, and to execute a great number of
his partisans.

[Footnote 71: The Dauphin, eldest son of Charles
VI, was born 22nd January 1396, and died before his
father, without issue, on the 18th December 1415,
in his twentieth year.]

Such was the state of affairs in France when Henry of Monmouth first
resolved to prosecute his claims in that kingdom. The Duke of Burgundy
lost no time in endeavouring to