ABSTRACT
The unwise endeavour to subdue the whole land of France by force, which started with the Treaty of Troyes, was destined to continue for many a year. After King Henry’s death (August 31, 1422) the guiding hand was removed, yet the policy of slow advance by innumerable sieges continued, and so long as the majority of the Burgundians of Northern France adhered to the English cause, it could continue. The regent John of Bedford set himself to extirpate the remaining Dauphinois garrisons in Northern France, and then to extend the same system down the line of the Loire. The steady progress continued till 1428, when the celebrated siege of Orleans began. It was bound to get slower, as the ground occupied grew broader, since the military resources of England were small, and were more and more exhausted in covering with garrisons the conquered territories. For every town or fortress left ungarrisoned, and trusted to its own inhabitants, was liable to fall back by revolt into the hands of the enemy, save in the purely Burgundian parts of Northern France. And the friendship of the Burgundians for the English cause grew progressively cooler as the murder of Montereau was more and more forgotten, and the friction between English and Burgundian interests began to develop, owing to the selfish policy of Humphrey of Gloucester in the main, but partly also to the growing ambitions of Philip the Good.
