1436, and advanced at once towards the beleaguered town, which

had then been invested for M,out six weeks. The approach of relief mmouraged the garrison to make a responsive effort. The Duke of Btn'guudy had prep;red a nmnber of hulks hden with stones, with which it was his intentiou to block the mouth of the harbour, and so prevent approach to it from seaward; lint before the vessels could be placed in position for scuttling they were attacked aud burnt by seamen from the town. This disaster, and the rapid approach of Gloucester. obliged the enemy to abandon the investment and to retire2

Yet, ill spite of this local success, the English in France rather lost than gained ground during the next two or three years. John Talbot, who, in 144'),, was created Earl of Shrewsbury, was the last rein;fining effective champion of the English cause ou the continent; and in 1439, with tile co-operation of a fleet under the Duke of B.merset, he reduced Harfieur after a four months' blockade. Ill 144'),, again he landed with a small expeditionary force in Normandy, and gained some advantages. But his ability and bravery were ahnost neutmlised by the incapacity, or worse, of the Duke of ?;:omerset. who, sent in 1443, with allout five thousand men, to assist in the blockde of 1)ieppe, which appeared to be near tile point of surrender, if vigorously invested, postponed his arriwl uutil the English had been obliged to raise the siege.

The wealmess of Englaud ld, in 1444, to the conclusion of a disadvantageous truce; and in the following year Hem.'v VI. married a French princess, Margaret of Anjou, daughter of llen, Couut of Guise, and niece of the King of France. The alliance was a very injurious one to Enghmd, the queen becoming a violent politicM partisan, and identilSqng herself with the cause of the unpopular and corrupt l)ukes of Somerset and Snfi'olk, to the prejudice of the Yorkists. l-tot intri,mes seem to have encouraged an Irish rising, which tile 1)uke of York, with a small force, suppressed in 144.1. They also necessitated the dispatch to lqormandy in 1450 of reinforcements under Sir ThruhaS I<_yriel. And they brought about the far more serious domestic tr,mllcs known as the Vats of tile Roses, during which the power of Enghmd was almost paralysed. Indeed, even before these wars formally broke out, the jealousy of

I'olyd. Vergil, xxiii. ;I!L Killed at Castill,m in 1-152,: "the English Achilles."

Edmund Bc;mfurt, a grands, al of .h,lm ,,f Ihmnt; killed at. St. Albans in 1455.