Late Middle Ages · Europe · Politics

1422

Infant Henry VI Becomes King

1422

Nine months old, the heir of both Henry V and Charles VI inherited the English and French thrones in dual right. Regents governed; the king grew up surrounded by theologians rather than swordsmen. Inherited dual monarchy was the war's paradoxical outcome, and it doomed itself within a generation. The infant was paraded through London in his mother's arms, a symbol of continuity masking the weakness of the Lancastrian state.