Henry V died, leaving an infant heir

On 31 August 1422, Henry V of England died at the Bois de Vincennes near Paris, most likely of dysentery contracted on campaign. He was just 35. The conqueror of Agincourt had spent years bending France to his will, and under the Treaty of Troyes he was set to inherit the French crown itself. Instead, illness cut him down before the prize was won.

His heir was an infant. Henry VI, barely nine months old, became king of England the day after his father’s death — the youngest monarch ever to take the English throne. When his grandfather Charles VI of France died weeks later, the baby was proclaimed king of both realms.

A child wearing two crowns could not hold what a soldier-king had seized.

With no adult ruler, England fell to a regency council split between the dukes of Bedford and Gloucester. The momentum of Henry V’s conquests stalled, and within decades the Hundred Years’ War turned decisively against the English.