Thus stands my state, 'twixt Cade and York distress'd; Like to a ship that, having scap'd a tempest, Is straightway calm'd, and boarded with a pirate. KING HENRY VI PART II The truce of 1444 - which, with prolongations, continued effectively for five years - proved to be exactly what France needed. Whereas a quarter of a century before she had been largely incapacitated by a mentally unstable monarch while England was inspired to victory after victory by the greatest military leader ever to have occupied her throne, now the situations of the two countries had been neatly reversed: young Henry VI of England had proved a pious simpleton - if he were not yet clinically insane, he soon would be - while Charles VII of France, awoken to a sense of his responsibilities first by Joan of Arc, then by a number of brilliant and energetic captains and finally by his beautiful mistress Agnes Sorel, had revealed qualities of character which in his youth had remained unsuspected. He first used the breathing space to restore law and order throughout his domains; he then set about reorganizing his army, equipping it with modern artillery considerably more sophisticated than anything possessed by the English.
