age learning by promoting to benefices such as had laboured long
and diligently in the Universities. This proposition was rejected in
Oxford at that time; but it received the cordial promotion and
assistance of the University in July 1421. On the latter occasion,
however, the measure, opposed as it was most vigorously by the monks,
would probably again have miscarried, had not Henry himself, "who
favoured arts and loved learned men," interposed his own authority in
its favour.

CHAPTER XXV. (p. 221)

HENRY'S PROGRESS IN HIS SECOND CAMPAIGN. -- SIEGE OF ROUEN. --
CARDINAL DES URSINS. -- SUPPLIES FROM LONDON. -- CORRESPONDENCE
BETWEEN HENRY AND THE CITIZENS. -- NEGOCIATION WITH THE DAUPHIN AND
WITH THE FRENCH KING. -- HENRY'S IRISH AUXILIARIES. -- REFLECTIONS ON
IRELAND. -- ITS MISERABLE CONDITION. -- WISE AND STRONG MEASURES
ADOPTED BY HENRY FOR ITS TRANQUILLITY. -- DIVISIONS AND STRUGGLES, NOT
BETWEEN ROMANISTS AND PROTESTANTS, BUT BETWEEN ENGLISH AND IRISH. --
HENRY AND THE SEE OF ROME. -- THRALDOM OF CHRISTENDOM. -- THE DUKE OF
BRITTANY DECLARES FOR HENRY. -- SPANIARDS JOIN THE DAUPHIN. --
EXHAUSTED STATE OF ENGLAND.

1418-1419.

Henry[170] meanwhile was making rapid progress in subduing Normandy;
and to induce the inhabitants to return to their homes, which they had
abandoned, he issued a proclamation promising protection and favour to
all who would acknowledge his sovereignty. He also pledged himself to
relieve his subjects from all injustice and oppression.

[Footnote 170: On the 12th of February 1418, an
order is issued to press horses, carts, and other
means of conveyance, to carry the jewels,
ornaments, and other furniture of the King's chapel
to Southampton.]

Whilst he was lying before the town of Louviers, the Cardinal (p. 222)
des Ursins arrived in his camp with letters from the Pope, urging
Henry to make peace; the Cardinal of St. Mark having been sent to the
French King for the same purpose.

These offers of mediation were unavailing; and Henry, encouraged by
the distracted state of France, resolved to push his conquests to the
utmost; and, after some severe skirmishing at Pont de Larche,[171] he
proceeded to lay siege to Rouen. Did the plan of these Memoirs admit
of a fuller inquiry into the affairs of France, we might here (p. 223)