England
Setting the Scene
Few had forgotten that the House of Lancaster was essentially a house of usurpers. The undisputed royal family was the Plantagenets, the house of Edward Longshanks and Richard the Lion-hearted. The last of them had been Richard II, deposed by common consent as well as by violence. The rule of Henry V had been both popular and successful, but it had been brief. Henry IV's rule had been troubled, and Henry VI's rule was turning out to be disastrous.
The advent of Joan of Arc gave France some small but important victories while Henry was still a little boy. When he grew up, though, he continued to be ruled by others (he did not assume the crown until he was twenty-two). Then came the fits of madness, beginning in the 1440s. England steadily lost more and more in France, and went more and more into economic depression.
By 1450 the war with France was going very badly indeed. After over a century of war with France, England was left with only the port town of Calais. In trying to save what they had lost, the advisors to Henry taxed the country mercilessly and managed to disrupt trade into the bargain.
England was beset by enemies everywhere. France would do all it could to see the English out of Calais as well. Burgundy, which included Flanders, vital to the English wool trade, had been turned from friend to foe. The Scots were as ready as ever to invade the north, while the Welsh and the Irish were likewise eager to rebel.