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61<br />
battle’, which resulted in Henry VI, Margaret<br />
of Anjou and Prince Edward fleeing<br />
to Scotland and the political<br />
nation accepting Edward as<br />
the rightful new king. However,<br />
in contrast, Henry VI,<br />
who did not achieve any domestic<br />
military success, was<br />
an especially weak king.<br />
Cade’s rebellion in 1450 further<br />
popularised the view of<br />
Henry as incompetent, for<br />
he did not even face the rebels<br />
and instead met many<br />
of their demands, while<br />
Henry’s passivity and weakness<br />
at the Battle of St Albans<br />
in<br />
1455, where he taken as a<br />
submissive prisoner by<br />
York, proved how an inability<br />
to achieve any personal<br />
military success was detrimental<br />
to a king’s jurisdiction<br />
in late medieval England.<br />
Foreign military success was<br />
also certainly key in securing the king’s<br />
authority through uniting the country,<br />
proving strong leadership and achieving<br />
material gains. Undoubtedly the most renowned<br />
foreign military victor was Henry<br />
V, who achieved extensive successes<br />
against the French in the Hundred Years<br />
War, particularly the Battle of Agincourt<br />
in 1415 and the conquest of Normandy<br />
from 1417-20.<br />
In a time<br />
when good<br />
kingship and<br />
military ability<br />
were inextricably<br />
linked,<br />
Henry V’s<br />
foreign military successes certainly restored<br />
the authority of his Lancastrian<br />
monarchy: it won the vast support of his<br />
subjects, convinced them that their taxes<br />
and prayers were bringing prestige and<br />
prosperity to England and therefore ensured<br />
domestic stability. Foreign military<br />
success also<br />
delivered the<br />
king additional<br />
patronage for<br />
him to both<br />
dispense in return<br />
for continued<br />
support<br />
from the nobility<br />
and bolster<br />
crown finances.<br />
In contrast,<br />
Henry VI’s<br />
complete lack<br />
of foreign military<br />
success<br />
certainly contributed<br />
to his<br />
weak authority.<br />
Gradually,<br />
Henry V’s victories<br />
in France<br />
were undone<br />
as Henry VI ignored<br />
the issue<br />
of France throughout his reign. <strong>The</strong> Battle<br />
of Castillon in 1453, which resulted in the<br />
loss of all lands in France except Calais,<br />
undoubtedly weakened the crown in<br />
many ways. Immediately, Henry VI lost a<br />
significant swathe of popular support, a<br />
fact which manifested itself in breakdown<br />
of law and order throughout the 1450s,<br />
particularly among returning veterans in<br />
the south-eastern epicentre<br />
that was<br />
Henry VI was viewed as a weak king, emphasised by<br />
his defeat at St Albans<br />
“Henry V’s foreign military successes<br />
certainly restored the authority of his<br />
Lancastrian monarchy”<br />
Kent. Prominent nobles<br />
also ceased to<br />
support Henry’s<br />
reign, such as York<br />
and Norfolk, which<br />
also severely reduced<br />
the crown’s<br />
authority by factionalising the nobility.<br />
<strong>The</strong> losses in France also created a serious<br />
financial problem: Henry was already indebted<br />
by a massive £372,000 by November<br />
1449, but now that France was lost and
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