The old historian would make us believe that
Henry refused to travel on Sunday, even at two years old.
The guardianship of the baby King had been intrusted to the Earl of
Warwick, and in the pictorial history of this Earl he is represented as
holding the King, a lovely baby of fourteen months old, in his arms,
while he is showing him to the lords around him in Parliament. The Earl,
however, only held his sovereign lord on public and state occasions,
leaving the young King in his private walks and hours of retirement to
the care of a certain Dame Alice Boteler, his governess, and his nurse
Joan Astley. "We request," says his infant Majesty, in a quaintly worded
document proceeding from his council, but as usual written in his name,
and in regal form, "Dame Alice from time to time reasonably to chastise
us as the case may require, without being held accountable or molested
for the same at another time. The well-beloved Dame Alice, being a very
wise and expert person, is to teach us courtesy and nurture, and many
things convenient for our royal person to know."
It was whilst Dame Alice was still in power as the King's chastiser that
we again find the royal child noticed as holding the opening of
Parliament in 1425. Katherine entered the city in a chair of state, with
her child sitting on her knee as before. But Henry was now four years
old, and no longer needed to be held on Warwick's arm or placed upon his
mother's lap. As soon then as he reached the west door of St. Paul's
Cathedral, the Protector lifted the child King from his mother's chair,
and set him on his feet, whilst the Duke of Exeter, on the other side,
conducted him between them to the high altar up the stairs which led to
the choir. At the altar the royal boy knelt for a time upon a low bench
prepared for him, and was seen to look gravely and sadly on all around
him. He was then led into the church-yard, placed upon a fair courser,
to the people's great delight, and so conveyed through Cheapside to his
residence at Kennington. There he staid with his mother until the 30th
of April, when he returned through the city to Westminster in a grand
state procession. The little King was again held on his great white
horse, and when he arrived at his palace, the Queen seated herself upon
the throne of the White Hall where the House of Lords was held, with her
child placed upon her knee. This procession drew the people in crowds to
see and bless their infant sovereign
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