The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-01-03
GREAT LOVE
STORIES
of HISTORY
By Albert Poyson Terhune
Henry V and Catherine
of France
Copy right. BY the Author.}

meet-and to fall in love with-a half
starved, addressed girl about five hun
dred years ago. Because the boy hap
pened to be q prince and the girl a
princess that same love affair led to a
series of terrible wars and to the con-
quering and final losing of a great ma
ton. The boy was Mad Prince Hal"
son Of King Henry ". of England
daughter of insane King Charles of
France. Unlike most royal mar
'riages, theirs was genuin love
match. Nor did the course of true
love" run smooth.
Mad Prince Halls" wild pranks had
led the English to tremble for their
Kingdoms welfare in the event of his
coming to the throne. Yet when, in
1913, he succeeded his father as king,
he sobered down as by magic and
proved himself a wise, able ruler. AL
most his first act after becoming King
Henry V. was to ask the hand of
Princess Catherine in marriage. He
had seen but little of the princess; yet
he had learned to love her, and he
sent for her at once to share his
crown. But by his counsellors' advice
The Cost Of One he also asked
49,, a.. that he receive
las her dowery)
the provinces in France that had in
bygone years been captured by Eng
land and that were now French terri
tory once more. The French govern
ment angrily refused to grant these
ot al
resolved to win the princess and the
provinces as well. So. declaring he
had hereditary right to the French
throne, he declared war on France,
and in 1415 invaded that country.
He could not have chosen a better
time for his attack. The king Of
France was insane (playing cards are
said to have been invented to amuse
this crazy monarchy. and the kingdom
was rent by two warning factions
Princess Catherine had been sadly
neglected and had had a wretched girl
hood. Her father being insane, the
care of the girl aid been left to her
mother, an idle, wicked woman, who
did not give Catherine enough food
nor clothing. Ragged, hungry, ILL
treated, the poor child was an object
of pity until her father, in a lucid in
terval. removed her from her mothers
charge and sent her to a convent to be
educated
1t was largely on account of this 49,
year-old girl that France. in 1415, was
invaded by an English army Henry
swept all before him. The French op-
posed him at Agincourt and are said
to have outnumbered his army by ten
to one. Yet he won great victory,
crushing the national pride Of France
"A second invasion ended even more
trlumphantly. The French, utterly
overwhelmed, begged for peace The
terms Henry granted were unheard of
in their exorbitance. First and fore
most he demanded the hand of Cath
crime. Then he compelled his beaten
foes to agree that he should succeed
crazy King Charles at the latters
death as ruler of France. In the
meantime he was to govern the realm
as regent.
He married Catherine and took her
back to England with him in triumph.
Her fatherland's fall was the price of
her hand. And her husband had
brought about that fall She and
Henry were married, and early in
1927 she was crowned queen of Eng
land. The next December the couples
A o,..,,. only son (known
s.cond aon,,.. to history as
Henry VIZ was
born. Few children have started life
with such prospects. For he was heir
to the combined thrones of France
and England. A few months later
Henry V. and Catherine went again to
France. There, when only 35 years
old, Henry died. Catherine brought
her little son back to England. There,
on crazy King Charles death, the boy
was crowned, while still in his cradle,
king of England and of France. But
he lacked his fathers genius and in
herited some Of his grandfather's, old
King Charles. insanity. AS a result,
he was destined to lose both KINGDOMS
and to die in prison.
Catherine, though she had apparent
ly returned her husbands adoring
love, was quickly consoled for his
death. She secretly married a Welsh
man, Owen Tudor. The anger of the
court over this marriage caused her
to pine away and die at the age of SO.
She and Owen Tudor had two sons.
The elder of these (the earl of Rich
mond) became later the father of
Henry VII, who founded the Tudor
line of kings in England.