battle of
Agincourt, and returned with him in safety to England. "Meanwhile,
after the interchange of many solemn embassies between England and
France, with a view to permanent peace, when the King found that very
many negociations and most exact treaties had been carried on in (p. 099)
vain, by reason that the council of France, _clinging to their own
will, which they adopted as their law_, could be induced to peace by
no just mean of equity, without immense injury to the crown of
England, and perpetual disinheritance of some of the noblest portions
of his right in that realm, though for the sake of peace he was ready
to make great concessions, seeing no other remedy or means by which he
could come to his right, had recourse to the sentence of the supreme
judicature, and without blame sought to recover by the sword what the
blameworthy and unjust violence of the French had struggled so long to
usurp and keep.... He determined to regain the duchy of Normandy,
which had for a long time been _kept, against God and all justice, by
the violence of the French_."

There is, however, one declaration contained in the very volume from
which these alleged letters of Henry are extracted, which makes the
charge brought by the commentator on those letters still more
surprising.[77] It is in that very volume positively asserted, with
regard to the first rumour through France of Henry's intended
invasion, that "his subjects _had strongly_ remonstrated with (p. 100)
him for his love of peace and rest, and his dislike of active
measures, and had _now_ INSISTED upon his undertaking the
expedition."[78]

[Footnote 77: The Author does not mean to imply, as
the result of his inquiries, that Henry was
altogether influenced in his determination to claim
the crown of France by the instigations of his
people. If, as we believe, he was urged by them to
adopt that measure, we believe also that he
listened with much readiness to their appeal.]

[Footnote 78: The words of the writer of that
history are too clear and forcible to justify us in
merely quoting their substance. The very title of
his chapter directs our attention to the point.
"Henry, King of England, constrained by his
subjects to re