page_title: Henry VI of England
section_title: Assumption of government and French policies
hierarchical_section_title: Henry VI of England / Assumption of government and French policies
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Sacre de l'enfant Henri comme roi de France à Notre-Dame de Paris le 16 décembre 1431. English: King Henry VI of England is crowned as King of France. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Français 83, fol. 205.) Deutsch: König Heinrich VI. von England wird zum König von Frankreich gekrönt. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Français 83, fol. 205.)
context_page_description: Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, he succeeded to the English throne at the age of nine months upon his father's death, and succeeded to the French throne on the death of his maternal grandfather, Charles VI, shortly afterwards.
  Henry inherited the long-running Hundred Years' War, in which his uncle Charles VII contested his claim to the French throne. He is the only English monarch to also have been crowned King of France. His early reign, when several people were ruling for him, saw the pinnacle of English power in France, but subsequent military, diplomatic, and economic problems had seriously endangered the English cause by the time Henry was declared fit to rule in 1437. He found his realm in a difficult position, faced with setbacks in France and divisions among the nobility at home. Unlike his father, Henry is described as timid, shy, passive, well-intentioned, and averse to warfare and violence; he was also at times mentally unstable. His ineffective reign saw the gradual loss of the English lands in France.
context_section_description: Henry, who was by nature shy, pious, and averse to deceit and bloodshed, immediately allowed his court to be dominated by a few noble favourites who clashed on the matter of the French war when he assumed the reins of government in 1437. After the death of King Henry V, England had lost momentum in the Hundred Years' War, whereas the House of Valois had gained ground beginning with Joan of Arc's military victories in the year 1429. The young King came to favour a policy of peace in France and thus favoured the faction around Cardinal Beaufort and William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who thought likewise; the Duke of Gloucester and Richard, Duke of York, who argued for a continuation of the war, were ignored.
caption: A mid-15th-century depiction from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France showing Henry being crowned King of France at Notre-Dame de Paris on 16 December 1431
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