ABSTRACT
Monarchy was the only realistic option left to the Lancastrian regime in England. At the heart of the Lancastrian project stood the Dual Monarchy. By the 1440s some compromise over the question and extent of the Dual Monarchy was the only realistic option left to the Lancastrian regime in England. The English aristocracy was a military caste whose reputation and claim to political power rested in part on their conduct in war. The beginning of Henry's formal majority rule was marked by the arrival in Normandy of a new lieutenant-general, the king's former tutor, the earl of Warwick. In practice the policy was a shambles. If Henry VI's subjects hoped that the beginning of his majority rule would signal a firm and decisive policy on the war in France they were to be disappointed. Henry VI and his ministers had been judged and found guilty by the commons of England.
