THE GENTLEST KING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 June 1941, Page 6

THE GENTLEST KING

NEVER HARMED A SOUL. In a long gown which hangs in rich folds, and in a cloak edged with ermine, a high hat on her head, the veil floating far behind, comes a woman with a child in her arms —the ninemonths’ old son of Henry the Fifth. Stand to receive Henry the Sixth, destined to be King of England (in name.) for half a century. It would have been well for him if on the day h<t became King he had been drowned. When he was four he walked one April day between the Lord Protector and the Duke of Exeter. He was lifted up and carried to the altar of St. Paul's. Afterwards, having been a good boy. he was allowed to ride in Cheapside. In 1429 London flocked, to see a child of eight crowned. The ceremony was performed on a very high platform at Westminster, and the child looked exceedingly wise and grave. He was the gentlest king of all. He never did anyone any harm. He was a mild idiot, and nothing more. "Tie knew nothing, or very little, of the fighting about him, of the sides people took for or against. He knew he had to fly for his life, hiding here and there.in the north of England till basely betrayed, and hurried south to five years of utter misery. He did not want to be king. He was glad for anyone else to wear the crown—if they were fool enough. Never was there a poor puppet like him. He was restored to his throne, sitting there with a golden crown on his head, but never a word to say, a vacant stare on his round face. One night after the battle of Barnet he was murdered. Those who laid hands on him were the best friends he ever had . . . they gave him peace at last.