alliance which brought to the House of York the powerful support of her father's numerous family connections. By this lady, youngest child of Ralph Earl of Westmoreland, the Duke of York had, besides four sons who died young, four other sons and four daughters.

The surviving sons were, (1) Edward, born in 1442, afterwards king; (2) Edmund, Earl of Rutland, born 1443; (3) George, the ill-fated Clarence, born 1449; and (4) Richard, youngest of all the eight sons, born 1452, afterwards king.

EARL OF Warwick. The Richard Beauchamp of the two preceding plays is appropriately continued in this First Part of King Henry VI., whom he carried in his arms at fourteen months old, on being presented to his Peers in Parliament. In the "Rous Roll," the Earl of Warwick is depicted holding his young charge on his arm. He succeeded the Duke of Bedford as lieutenantgeneral in France and Normandy, and died at Rouen, April 30, 1439; he was buried at Warwick, where his tomb, in the Church of St. Mary, is considered to be the most magnificent and beautiful of its kind in England.

The Earl of Warwick married first Elizabeth, only daughter and heir of Thomas fifth Lord Berkeley, Viscount Lisle, and by her had three daughters, the eldest being Margaret Beauchamp, who was the second wife of the illustrious Talbot in this play. His second wife was Isabel le Despencer, daughter of Thomas Earl of Gloucester, by whom he had one son, his successor, Henry Beauchamp, created Duke of Warwick, and a K. G.; and one daughter, Anne Beauchamp, who became the wife of Richard Nevill, who is the great “Earl of Warwick " in the next two Parts. Fuller says of Richard

Beauchamp, "His deeds of charity, according to the devotion of those days, were little inferior to the achievements of his valour."

1

EARL OF SALISBURY.. In this play the valiant Thomas Montacute closes his long and glorious career at Orleans in 1428. He has been styled "a person more of an old Roman courage than one of his age." Camden states that he was the first English gentleman that was slain by a cannon-ball. The earl was a patron of Lydgate, the poet and historian, who dedicated his works to Salisbury; and the copy in the British Museum has in the frontispiece portraits of the earl and the poet. Thomas Montacute married Eleanor Holland, daughter of Thomas, second Earl of Kent, and their only daughter, Alice Montacute, married Richard Nevill, who is the “Earl of Salisbury" in the Second Part.

EARL OF SUFFOLK.. This noble was William de la Pole, fourth earl, brother and successor of Michael de la Pole, third earl, who fell gloriously at Agincourt, and to whose large possessions the fourth earl eventually became heir. At the death of Henry V. he was left in France, and held a high command at the famous battle of Verneuil (second only in importance to Agincourt) under the regent Bedford, and with Salisbury for a colleague, at whose death Suffolk succeeded to the chief command at Orleans. At the siege of Jergeau, May 18, 1429, he was taken prisoner by a French esquire, to whom Suffolk yielded his sword, having first knighted him with it; his captor was Guillaume Renaud. The earl was present in Paris at the coronation of Henry VI., and was sent into Sicily to negotiate that king's marriage

with Margaret of Anjou; this First Part concludes with Suffolk's departure on his embassy. He is continued in the Second Part with increase of rank, the consequence of his successful mission. He was made a K. G. in the reign of Henry V.

LORD TALBOT, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury. — This is the renowned captain, Sir John Talbot, who became sixth Lord Talbot at the death of his brother Gilbert in 1419. His career was a series of successes against the French until he was defeated by their great heroine, Joan of Arc, at Patay, in 1429, when he was taken prisoner. This affair is mentioned in i. 1. 105-147, although that scene opens with the funeral of Henry V., which was in 1422. Talbot was detained captive four years, and was exchanged for a famous French leader, who is named in the play (i. 4. 28) "the brave Lord Ponton de Santrailles," the very same knight who had taken Lord Talbot prisoner at Patay. Talbot's creation as Earl of Shrewsbury was in 1442, although placed much earlier in the play, where in iii. 4. 26, 27, the king says to him,

"We here create you Earl of Shrewsbury;
And in our coronation take your place;

but that ceremony occurred in Paris in 1431.

This great soldier's name was used by the French women to quiet their unruly children, as Southey says, in Joan of Arc,

"Talbot, at whose dread name the froward child

Clings mute and trembling to his nurse's breast."

This effect upon children is alluded to in the play by the Countess of Auvergne, when she fancies that Talbot is in her power; and she taunts him with the meanness of his stature (ii. 3. 16, 17), —

"Is this the Talbot, so much fear'd abroad

That with his name the mothers still their babes?"

After taking Bourdeaux he was killed, when more than eighty years of age, with his son, "valiant John," at Castillon, July 7, 1453, long after Joan of Arc had suffered her cruel fate, although in the play her death is placed after that of the Talbots. Most writers place the death of the great captain as July 20, but the 7th is the date which was recorded on his monument at Whitechurch.

The famous sword of Talbot, alluded to by Fuller in his Worthies as having "good steel within and bad Latin without," is no longer in existence. Camden states that "it was found not long since in the river of Dordon, and sould by a peasant to an armorer of Bordeaux." A portrait of Talbot was long preserved in a castle built by him in France, in which he is represented with his drawn sword, on the blade of which is engraved,

SVM TALBOTI Miiii° XLiii

PRO VINCERE INIMICO MEO.

This date is ten years before the great captain's death. The picture was engraved as early as the year 1584, in The True Portraits and Lives of Illustrious Men, written by André Thevet.

JOHN TALBOT.

This young soldier, whom his father proudly calls "valiant John" (iv. 7. 2), was created in

1443 Baron, and in 1452 Viscount L'Isle, his mother, Margaret, being eldest daughter and co-heir of Richard Beauchamp, the "Earl of Warwick' in this play, by Elizabeth, only child of Thomas fifth Lord Berkeley, Viscount L'Isle. The admirable scene (iv. 5. 1–55 and 6. 28-57) wherein the elder Talbot in vain implores his son to quit the field is from Hall. As the death of young Talbot occurred twenty-two years after the execution of Joan of Arc, it was impossible that they could meet in single combat, as hinted at by her in the play (iv. 7. 37), "Once I encounter'd him, and thus I said,” etc.

This noble

EDMUND Mortimer, Earl of March. man was the rightful heir to the crown at the deposition of Richard II., but being only about seven years old his friends consulted his safety by not urging his claim against the popular Bolingbroke. The scene in this play wherein he is introduced (ii. 5) is founded on the idea that he is the Mortimer in the First Part of King Henry IV.; but so far from the Earl of March of this play having been kept in sequestration, as he says (ii. 5. 23, 24), –

"Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign,
Before whose glory I was great in arms,

he was in reality the friend and companion of that king in his French wars, serving at Harfleur and at Agincourt; was second in command to the Duke of Clarence when he thundered at the gates of Paris; was with Henry V. at the fierce siege of Melun; carried the sceptre at his Queen Katharine's coronation; and was one of the chief, and without doubt one of the truest, mourners who followed his royal friend's protracted funeral procession through France to England.