ISABELLA OF ANGOULÊME,

QUEEN OF KING JOHN.

No one would have imagined that Isabella of Angoulême was destined to become the future queen of England, when king John ascended the throne; for she was then not only the engaged wife of another, but, according to the custom of the times, had been actually consigned to her betrothed, for the purpose of education.

Isabella was the only child and heiress of Aymer or Americus, count of Angoulême, surnamed Taillefer. By maternal descent she shared the blood of the Capetian sovereigns, her mother, Alice de Courtenay, being the daughter of Peter de Courtenay, fifth son of Louis VI. king of France.

Isabella was actually abiding at one of the castles of her betrothed, when her parents sent for her to be present at a day of high ceremonial, on which they paid their homage to king John for the province of Angoumois. Indeed, it may be considered certain that the young lady herself, as their sole heir, was required to pay her personal homage to her lord paramount, as duke of Aquitaine.

It was at the high festival of king John's recognition in Angoulême, as sovereign of Aquitaine, that the English king first saw the beautiful fiancée of Lusignan. He was thirty-two; she had just entered her fifteenth year; notwithstanding which disparity, he became madly enamored of her. The parents of Isabella, when they perceived their sovereign thus captivated with her budding charms, dishonorably en

couraged his passion, and by deceitful excuses to the count of Eu, prevented the return of Isabella to the castle of Valence; a proceeding the more infamous, since subsequent events plainly showed that the heart of the maiden secretly preferred her betrothed.

The lady Isabella, as much dazzled as her parents by the splendor of the triple crowns of England, Normandy, and Aquitaine, would not acknowledge that she had consented to any marriage contract with count Hugh. As Isabella preferred being a queen to giving her hand to the man she really loved, no one could right the wrongs of the ill-treated Lusignan.

King John and Isabella were married at Bordeaux, some time in the month of August, 1200. Their hands were united by the archbishop of Bordeaux, who had previously held a synod, assisted by the bishop of Poitou, and solemnly declared that no impediment existed to the marriage.

This event threw count Hugh of Lusignan into despair; he did not, however, quietly submit to the destruction of his hopes, but challenged to mortal combat the royal interloper between him and his betrothed. John received the cartel with remarkable coolness, saying, that if count Hugh wished for combat, he would appoint a champion to fight with him; but the count declared that John's champions were hired bravoes and vile mercenaries, unfit for the encounter of a wronged lover and true knight. Thus, unable to obtain satisfaction, the valiant Marcher waited his hour of revenge; while king John sailed with his bride in triumph to England, where he was anxious that she should be recog nized as his wife, not only by the peers, but by the people.

Her coronation was appointed for the eighth of October, and there ex ists a charter in the Tower, expressing "that Isabella of Augoulême was crowned queen by the common consent of the barons, clergy, and people of England." She was crowned on that day by the archbishop of Canterbury.

The whole of the intervening months, between October and Easter, were spent by the king and queen, in a continual round of feasting and voluptuousness. At the Easter festival of 1201, they were the guests of archbishop Hubert, at Canterbury, where they were once more crowned, or rather they wore their crowns, according to the ancient