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caster, of York, of Gloucester, of Ireland,' the lady of Namur, the lady Poynings, and many others, who all received queen Isabella with great joy. When the ladies were ready, the king of England and his lords departed with the young princess; and, riding at a good pace, arrived at Calais.

On the Tuesday, which was All-Saints'-day, the king of England was married by the archbishop of Canterbury in the church of St. Nicholas, of Calais, to the lady Isabella of France. Great was the feasting on the occasion; "and the heralds and minstrels were so liberally paid, that they were satisfied." Richard renounced at this marriage (to the indignation of the duke of Gloucester) all claims to the crown of France in right of Isabella or her descendants. The dukes of Orleans and Bourbon came to Calais to visit the king and queen of England two days after the marriage; and on the morrow they went back to St. Omer, where the king and queen of France waited for them. That same Friday morning king Richard and queen Isabella, having heard an early mass and drunk some wine, embarked on board the vessels that had been prepared for them. With a favourable wind, in less than three hours they arrived at Dover.

The queen dined at Rochester.

the castle, and slept the next night at Passing through Dartford, she arrived at the palace at Eltham, where the nobles and their ladies took leave of the king and queen, and went to their homes.

The young queen's entry into London is thus noted by our chroniclers :-"The young queen Isabella, commonly called 'the Little,' (for she was not eight years old,) was conveyed from Kennington, near to Lambeth-palace, through Southwark, to the Tower of London, Nov. 13th, when such a multitude of persons went out to see her, that on London-bridge nine persons were crushed to death, of whom the prior of Tiptree was one, and a matron of Cornhill another." The queen slept one night at the Tower, and the next day was conducted in high pomp to Westminster, where king Richard

1 The widow of Robert de Vere, mentioned in a former memoir of queen Anne. The lady de Coucy who accompanied the little queen to England was the sister of his lady. 3 Stowe.

2 Froissart.

was waiting in his palace to receive her. This day the Londoners made very rich presents to the queen, which were most graciously accepted.

The portion of Isabella was considerable, consisting of 800,000 francs in gold, to be paid in yearly instalments. She brought with her a wardrobe of great richness. Among her garments was a robe and mantle, unequalled in England, made of red velvet embossed with birds of goldsmiths' work, perched upon branches of pearls and emeralds. The robe was trimmed down the sides with miniver, and had a cape and hood of the same fur: the mantle was lined with ermine. Another robe was of murrey-mezereon velvet, embroidered with pearl roses. She had coronets, rings, necklaces, and clasps, amounting to 500,000 crowns. Her chamber-hangings were red and white satin, embroidered with figures of vintages and shepherdesses. These jewels were afterwards a matter of political controversy between England and France.

Several authors declare that young Isabella was crowned at Westminster with great magnificence, and there actually exists, in the Fœdera, a summons for her coronation on Epiphany-Sunday, 1397.1 Windsor was the chief residence of the royal child, who was called queen-consort of England. Here her education proceeded, under the superintendence of the second daughter of Engelraud de Coucy; and here the king, whose feminine beauty of features and complexion somewhat qualified the disparity of years between a man of thirty and a girl of ten, behaved to his young wife with such winning attention, that she retained a tender remembrance of him long after he was hurried to prison and the grave. The visits of Richard caused some cessation from the routine of education; while his gay temper, his musical accomplishments, his splendour of dress, and softness of manners to females, made him exceedingly beloved by the young heart of Isabella.

The king had expended prodigious sums on the royal progress to France, and on the marriage and pompous entry of

The London Chronicle, p. 80, expressly says the young queen was crowned January 8th. No particulars are cited of this coronation by any author.

the little queen. These debts had now to be liquidated; and a struggle soon commenced between the king and the popular party concerning the supplies, which ended in the destruction of the duke of Gloucester, and his more honest colleague, the earl of Arundel. A short but fierce despotism was established by Richard, which ultimately led to his deposition. From the earliest period of her sojourn in England, there was more probability that Isabella would share a prison than a throne. Froissart thus details one of the duke of Gloucester's plots, the object of which was the life-long incarceration of the harmless little queen: "He invited the earl of March' to come and visit him at Pleshy. There he unbosomed to him all the secrets of his heart, telling him that certain influential persons had elected him as king of England, resolving that king Richard and his queen were to be deposed and forthwith confined in prison, where they were to be maintained with ample provision during their lives; and he besought his nephew to give due consideration to this project, which was supported by the earl of Arundel, the earl of Warwick, and many of the prelates and barons of England.' The earl of March was thunderstruck at hearing this proposal from his uncle; but, young as he was, he concealed his emotion." The duke of Gloucester, observing the manner of his nephew, entreated that he would keep his discourse very secret. This Mortimer promised to do, and faithfully kept his word; but honourably resolving to flee from such strong temptation to his integrity and loyalty, he craved leave of king Richard to visit his Irish domains."

"The count de St. Pol had been sent into England by the king of France, in order to see his daughter, and learn how she was going on. The king consulted him, and his uncles Lancaster and York, on the danger that threatened him and his young consort. 'My good uncles,' said he, for the love of God, advise me how to act. I am daily informed that

1 It will be remembered this prince was the heir-presumptive to the throne, the grandson of Lionel of Clarence. A deep obscurity rests on the characters and conduct of the princes of the blood of the line of Mortimer in general history. * He was made lord deputy (veroy) of Ireland.

your brother, the duke of Gloucester, is determined to seize and confine me for life in one of my castles, and that the Londoners mean to join him in this iniquity. Their plan is, withal, to separate my queen from me, who is but a child, and shut her up in some other place of confinement.

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Now, my dear uncles, such cruel acts as these must be prevented.' The dukes of Lancaster and York saw that their nephew was in great anguish of heart, and they knew that what he said. was strictly true, but they replied to this effect: Have a little patience, my lord king. We know well that our brother Gloucester has the most passionate and wrong-headed temper of any man in England. He talks frequently of things he cannot execute, and neither he nor his abettors can break the peace which has been signed, nor succeed in imprisoning you in any castle. Depend on it, we will never suffer it, nor that you should be separated from the queen.'

"By these words the two dukes calmed king Richard's mind; but to avoid being called on by either party, they left the king's household with their families, and retired to their own castles, the duke of Lancaster taking with him his duchess, who had for some time been the companion of the young queen of England. This desertion was followed by sir Thomas Percy's retirement from court, and surrender of his office of steward of the king's household, avowedly out of apprehension lest he should incur the fate of sir Simon Burley. The king's remaining servants very frequently represented to him the danger of remaining in their offices, in words such as these: 'Be assured, dear sir, that as long as the duke of Gloucester lives, there will never be any quiet for your court, nor for England. Besides, he publicly threatens to confine you and your queen. As for the queen, she need not care: she is young, and the beloved child of the king of France; the duke of Gloucester dare not hurt her, but many evils will he bring on you and on England.' These representations sank deeply in the mind of king Richard, and soon after led to his uncle's violent death."

Whatever were the ill intentions of the duke of Gloucester against the king and his unoffending little queen, the trea

cherous manner in which king Richard lured his uncle to destruction must revolt all minds, for every tie of hospitality and social intercourse was violated by him. This, his first step in guilt, was followed by the illegal execution of the earl of Arundel. Richard's conscience was not accustomed to cruelty; and after the death of Arundel his sleep was broken, and his peace was gone. He used to awake in horror, exclaiming

"that his bed was covered with the blood of the earl."

The young queen assisted publicly at the celebration of St. George's-day, 1398. She had, in this scene, to play a conspicuous part, and seems to have acquitted herself to the satisfaction of the beholders. The hollow peace of the court was soon broken by the quarrel between Henry of Bolingbroke, heir to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, and the earl-marshal, who had been created duke of Norfolk. They mutually accused each other of treasonable conversation against the king. the true spirit of the age, they appealed to wager of battle, and actually presented themselves in the lists at Coventry, when the king parted them by throwing down his warder, and finished the scene by sentencing Mowbray duke of Norfolk to banishment for life, and Henry to exile for seven years.

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While Richard's affairs remained in this feverish and unsettled state, the English court was thrown into consternation by the death of the heir-presumptive of the kingdom, Roger Mortimer, who was at that time lord deputy of Ireland. There was a strong attachment between Richard and his chivalric heir: the king passionately bewailed him, and resolved to make an expedition to Ireland, to quell the rebellion that ensued on the death of his viceroy. Just before the departure of king Richard for his Irish campaign, he proclaimed throughout his realm that a grand tournament would be held at Windsor by forty knights and forty squires, all clad in green, bearing the young queen's device of a white falcon, They maintained the beauty of the virgin queen of England against all comers. Isabella herself, attended by the noblest ladies and damsels of the land, was present, and dispensed the prizes.

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