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WY

ASTOR OX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

and there did her unfortunate sire, Charles VI., spend the long, agonizing intervals of his aberrations from reason, during which the infancy of his little daughter was exposed to hardships such as seldom fall to the lot of the poorest cottager.

Queen Isabeau joined with the king's brother, the duke of Orleans, in pilfering the revenues of the royal household; and to such a degree did this wicked woman carry her rapacity, as to leave her little children without the means of supporting life. These tender infants were shut up in the royal hôtel de St. Pol, wholly neglected by their vile mother, the princess Michelle being then only five years old, and the princess Katherine little more than three. The poor children, say their contemporary chroniclers, were in a piteous state, nearly starved, and loathsome with dirt, having no change of clothes, nor even of linen. The whole sustenance they had was from the charity of the inferior attendants who had not deserted the place, all the servants of the royal family being left by the profligate and reckless Isabeau without food or wages. The state of Katherine's hapless father, who occupied a part of the palace of St. Pol, was still more deplorable;' but he was unconscious of his misery, till one day he suddenly regained his senses, and observed the disarray and neglect around him. The king questioned the governess of Katherine regarding the deplorable state to which he saw the little princess and his other children, even the dauphin, were reduced. The lady was forced to own that the royal children had not a sufficient supply of clothes, or even of ordinary sustenance. "I myself am not better treated, you may perceive," replied the afflicted sovereign; then giving her a gold cup, out of which he had just been drinking, he bade her sell it, and buy necessaries for his unfortunate little ones."

The instant Charles VI. recovered from his attack of delirium, he appears to have resumed his royal functions without any intermediate time of convalescence. The consequence was, that directly the news was brought to the queen

1 The expression of Mezerai (quarto edit.) in his abridgment from Chronique de St. Denis is," Qu'on laissait sa personne mesme pourrir dans l'ordure, sans avoir soin de le deshabiller."

2 Abbé de Choisy.

that her husband spoke and looked composedly, a sense of her guilt caused her to decamp with Louis of Orleans to Milan, having ordered duke Louis of Bavaria, her brother and the partisan of her iniquities, to follow, with the royal children. Louis of Bavaria not only obeyed this order, and carried off the dauphin Louis, his two young brothers, and the princess Michelle and Katherine, but with them he abducted their young companions, the children of the duke of Burgundy. The Burgundian forces having arrived at the hôtel de St. Pol, and missing the princely children, the duke of Burgundy sent a troop of his men-at-arms in pursuit of them; for the heir of Burgundy, who was even then betrothed to Katherine's sister, Michelle, was carried off with his little spouse. The pursuers overtook the whole party at Juvissy, and, after possessing themselves of the children of Burgundy and the princess Michelle, they respectfully asked the dauphin Louis, then about ten years old, "Whither he would please to go?" The royal boy replied, "I will return to my father." He was joyfully obeyed, and conducted back to Paris, with his sister Katherine and the rest of the royal children of France.'

After the duke of Burgundy had caused the assassination of Orleans in the streets of Paris, the conduct of queen Isabeau became so infamous that she was imprisoned at Tours; and her daughter Katherine (the only one of the princesses who was not betrothed or consecrated) was taken from her. There is reason to believe that Katherine was educated in the convent of Poissy, where her sister Marie took the veil. Whilst the education of Katherine the Fair is proceeding, a few pages must be devoted to the personal history of that popular hero, her future husband.

Henry V. is supposed to have been born in 1387. Monmouth-castle, the place of his birth, belonged to his mother's inheritance: it is one of the most beautiful spots in our island. As Henry was a sickly child, he was, according to tradition, taken to Courtfield to be nursed, a village about five or six miles from Monmouth. His cradle is still pre

1 Gibbon's History of France, collated with Mezerai.

served, and is shown as a curiosity at Bristol.' The name of his nurse was Joan Waring, on whom, after he came to the throne, he settled an annuity of twenty pounds, for her good services performed for him. He was given a learned education, the first foundation of which was, in all probability, laid by his mother, who was, as Froissart expressly declares, skilled in Latin and in cloister divinity. This princess died in the year 1394, early in life, leaving an infant family, consisting of four sons and two daughters. The maternal grandmother of young Henry, the countess of Hereford, bestowed some care on his education. This is proved by the fact, that he left in his will, to the bishop of Durham, a missal and a portophorium, given to him by his dear grandmother.

Heury was extremely fond of music, and this taste was cultivated at a very early age; in proof whereof, the householdbook of his grandsire, John of Gaunt, may be cited. New strings were purchased for the harp of the young hero before he was ten years old. About the same time there is a charge for the scabbard of his little sword, and for an ounce of black silk to make his sword-knot; and, moreover, four shillings were expended in seven books of grammar for his use, bound up in one volume. There is likewise an item for payment of a courier to announce to Henry of Bolingbroke the alarming illness of lord Henry, his son.

Richard II., during the exile of Bolingbroke, took possession of his heir. The education of young Henry was finished in the palace of his royal kinsman, who made him his companion in his last expedition to Ireland. Here the princely boy was made a knight-banneret, by the sword of the king, after distinguishing himself in one of the dangerous but desultory combats with the insurgents. While Richard went to fulfil his ill-fortune in England, he sent young Henry to the castle of Trim, in Ireland, with his cousin-german, Humphrey

It was formerly at Troy-house, a seat of the duke of Beaufort.
2 Walsingham. Speed.

Henry V.'s mother was buried within King's college, Leicester. He paid for a likeness of her to be placed over her tomb.-Pell Rolls.

This lady was alive long after Henry had ascended the throne, and had won the victory of Agincourt.

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