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On This Day...

: 1420
On This Day in 1420, The Treaty of Troyes was signed by King Henry V of England and Charles VI of France who promised the French throne to Henry upon the Death of King Charles VI.

Henry V was a great military leader and even as a teenager he fought in the battle of Shrewsbury on the 21^st of July 1403 alongside his father Henry IV. He also fought against the rebellion uprising in Wales that started on the 16^th of September 1400 which was led by Owen Glendower, the last native Welshman to rule the throne. The success of the campaign against Glendower stabilised the English rule of Wales.

Henry ascended to the English throne on the 21^st of March 1413 (aged 27) in the middle of the “Hundred Years War” (1337-1453) against France. Within two years as king, Henry V led his men to success in the battle of Agincourt against a vastly larger French army. Despite his supplies being low and his men having marched for two and a half weeks Henry fought in hand-to-hand combat leading his army to victory on the 25^th of October 1415. Between 1417 and 1419 King Henry V continued his military campaign with the “Conquest of Normandy” and the siege of Rouen (31^st of July 1418 – 19^th January 1419). When Rouen surrendered the French monarch, King Charles VI, signed the Treaty of Troyes which gave Henry the hand of his daughter, Catherine of Valois, in marriage and promised the throne to Henry V and his descendants upon his death. On the 2^nd of June 1420, Henry married Catherine of Valois and on the 6^th of December 1421, she gave birth to their son Henry.

On the 10^th of June 1421 Henry V left for France and what would be his final campaign where he relieved his forces that were besieged in Dreux. He relieved his forces and they went on to capture Meux in Paris on the 2^nd of May 1422. It was while in France shortly after the victory that Henry V died mysteriously aged 35 on the 31^st of August 1422. Henry V never met his son who became Henry VI of England upon his death. Just one month later Henry VI's maternal grandfather, King Charles VI of France, died making Henry King of both Kingdoms aged 11 months. England was governed by regents until 1437 when Henry was 16 and was believed to be of age to rule. In France, King Charles VI's son, who had dis-inherited the French throne through the Treaty of Troyes, had proclaimed himself King Charles VII of France and ruled the land south of the Loire River. The Hundred Years War continued with Henry’s Regent, John Lancaster, ruling the North of France. After Joan of Arc’s first victory in breaking the siege on the 29^th of April 1429 the French army had a series of victories against the English forces. King Henry VI didn’t have the same fighting temperament as his father and he was a placid, pious King who was prone to periods of mental illness like his maternal grandfather King Charles VI. By 1453 the French had won the Hundred Years War and soon after the War of the Roses (1455 – 1488) broke out with two great noble families of England fighting for the crown.

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