hand at any sacrifice. The sacrifice was, after all, much less than has been represented; and Henry VI., in his ardent desire to give peace to his exhausted realm, proved himself a more enlightened ruler than his renowned sire, who had deluged the continent with blood, and rendered the crown bankrupt, in the vain attempt to unite England and France. The national pride of the English prompted them to desire a continuance of the contest, but it was a contest no less ruinous now to England than to France; and cardinal Beaufort, with the other members of Henry's cabinet, being destitute of the means of maintaining the war, were only too happy to enter into amicable negotiations with France, to be cemented by a matrimonial alliance between king Henry and Margaret of Anjou, who, through her grandmother, Margaret of Bavaria, was nearly related both to Charles VII. and to Henry.

In January 1344 the commissioners of England, France, and Burgundy were appointed to meet at Tours, to negotiate a truce with France, preparatory to a peace, the basis and cement of which were to be the marriage of the young king of England with the beautiful niece of the queen of France. Many historians are of opinion that the matrimonial treaty, with all its startling articles, had been privately settled between the courts of England, France, and Lorraine before the publication of the commission for negotiating the truce.' Suffolk, who was appointed the ambassador-extraordinary on this occasion, was so much alarmed at the responsibility he was likely to incur, that he actually presented a petition to the king, praying to be excused from the office that had been put upon him, nor could he be prevailed upon to accept it till he was secured from personal peril by an order from the king, under the great seal, enjoining him to undertake, without fear or scruple, the commission which had been given him. Thus assured, Suffolk was, in an evil hour for himself and all parties concerned, persuaded to stand in the gap, by becoming the procurator of the most unpopular peace and fatal marriage 1 Guthrie. Barante. Speed.

2 Rymer's Fœdera. It is remarkable that Suffolk, Molyns, and Wenlock, the commissioners in this treaty, all came to violent ends.

that were ever negotiated by a prime-minister of England. As a preliminary, a truce for two years was signed, May 28th, 1444.

Neither money nor lands were demanded for the dowry of the bride, whose charms and high endowments were allowed by the gallant ambassadors of England " to outweigh all the riches in the world." When the proposal was made in form to the father of the young Margaret, he replied, in the spirit of a knight-errant, "That it would be inconsistent with his honour to bestow his daughter in marriage on the usurper of his hereditary dominions, Anjou and Maine;" and he demanded the restoration of those provinces as an indispensable condition in the marriage-articles. This demand was backed by the king of France, and, after a little hesitation, ceded by king Henry and his council. The handsome and accomplished count de Nevers, who was a prince of the house of Burgundy, a soldier and a poet, was at the same time a candidate for the hand of the royal Provençal beauty, to whom he was passionately attached; and it is probable that the competition of this formidable rival, who was on the spot, withal, to push his suit in person, might have had some effect in influencing king Henry to a decision more lover-like than politic.

As soon as the conditions of the marriage were settled, Suffolk returned to bring the subject before parliament, where he had to encounter a stormy opposition from the duke of Gloucester and his party, who were equally hostile to a peace with France, and a marriage with a daughter of the house of Anjou. Suffolk, however, only acted as the agent of cardinal Beaufort, who possessed an ascendancy, not only in the council, but with the parliament; and, above all, the inclinations of the royal bachelor being entirely on his side, his triumph over Gloucester was complete. Suffolk was dignified with the title of marquess, and invested with full powers to espouse the lady Margaret of Anjou, as the proxy of his sovereign.* There is, in Rymer's Fœdera, a letter from the king, addressed to Suffolk as the grand seneschal of his household, dated

Speed. Rapin. Guthrie. Barante.

2

Rapin.

3 Villeneuve. 4 Rymer's Foedera. Guthrie. Parliamentary Rolls.

October 28th, 1444, in which he says,-"As you have lately, by the divine favour and grace, in our name and for us, engaged verbally the excellent, magnificent, and very bright Margaretta, the serene daughter of the king of Sicily, and sworn that we shall contract matrimony with her, we consent and will that she be conducted to us over seas, from her country and friends, at our expense." Suffolk, accompanied by his lady, and a splendid train of the nobility, had sailed from England on this fatal mission some time before, and proceeded to Nanci. The king, queen, and the dauphiness of France, the dukes of Bretagne and Alençon, and, in short, all the most distinguished personages of the courts of France and Lorraine, were there assembled, to do honour to the espousals of the youthful Margaret.'

Historians vary as to the time and place of this ceremonial; but, according to the best authorities, it was solemnized, in November 1444, by Louis d'Harancourt, bishop of Toul, at Nanci, in St. Martin's church, where, in the presence of her illustrious parents, the royal family of France, and a concourse of nobles and ladies, the marquess of Suffolk espoused the lady Margaret in the name and as the proxy of his sovereign, Henry VI. of England. Drayton, in his poetical chronicle, after quaintly enumerating the rank and number of the distinguished guests at queen Margaret's espousals, thus elegantly alludes to the charms of the royal bride:

"Whilst that only she,

Like to the rosy morning towards its rise,

Cheers all the church, as it doth cheer the skies."

King René indulged his passion for pageantry and courtly games at these nuptials to his heart's content. A tournament was proclaimed in honour of the young queen of England, at which throngs of princely knights and gallant warriors wore garlands of daisies in the lists, out of compliment to the royal bride of fifteen,3 who had chosen this flower for her emblem. 1 Stowe. Monstrelet. Barante. Villeneuve.

2 Ibid.

The following passage is in the original words of Richard Wassaburg, a contemporary of Margaret, who was personally known to him, and his testimony as to her age is of great importance: "Madame Margaret d'Anjou, fille du roi René, estante en age quinze ans, (car nous trouvons qu'elle fut née en l'an mil quatre cent vingt neuf,) fiancée au Henri roi d'Angleterre.”

:

Among those who particularly distinguished themselves on this occasion were Charles of Anjou, the gallant uncle of the bride, and Pierre de Brezé, lord of Varenne and seneschal of Normandy, one of the commissioners who negotiated the marriage-treaty of the beautiful Margaret, in whose service, during the melancholy period of the wars of the roses, he afterwards performed such romantic exploits.' Charles VII. appeared in the lists more than once in honour of his fair kinswoman he bore on his shield the serpent of the fairy Melusina. He tilted with the father of the royal bride, by whom, however, he was vanquished. The most distinguished renown was won by Margaret's forsaken spouse, the count St. Pol, who received the prize from the hands of her aunt, the queen of France, and her mother, the queen of Sicily.* It is to be observed that Suffolk took no part in the jousts or games. Such exercises were, in fact, little suited to his grave years, which greatly outnumbered those of the father of the youthful bride, notwithstanding all that poets and romancing historians of later times have feigned on the subject of the imaginary passion of Margaret for the hoary proxy of her lord.

The bridal festivities lasted eight days, and the spot where the tournament was held is still called, in memory of that circumstance, the Place de Carrière.' All the noble ladies in Lorraine came from their gothic castles to be present at these fêtes, where the beauty and chivalry of France, England, and Burgundy were assembled. The long-delayed marriage of Margaret's elder sister with her cousin, Ferry of Vaudemonte, was completed at the same time, under the following romantic circumstances:-"Ferry, who was passionately 2 Wassaburg. Barante.

'Barante. Monstrelet.

3 Agnes Sorelle, the all-powerful mistress of Charles VII., who had twelve years previously been maid of honour to queen Margaret's mother, made a conspicuous appearance at this tournament. She was called "the lady of Beauty," and on this occasion assumed the dress of an Amazon, wearing a suit of fanciful armour blazing with jewels, in which she came on the ground, mounted on a superb charger splendidly caparisoned. Such were the morals at the court of the last of the Provençal sovereigns, that the presence of “la belle Agnes,” far from being regarded as an insult to the virgin bride, in whose honour the tour. nament was held, or to her aunt the queen of France and the dauphiness, was considered to add the greatest éclat to the fêtes.-Barante.

enamoured of his beautiful fiancée Yolante, to whom he had been betrothed upwards of nine years, rendered desperate by the delays of her father, (who never intended to allow her to fulfil her forced engagement with the son of his adversary,) formed and executed a plan with a band of adventurous young chevaliers, for carrying her off at the nuptial tournament of her young sister Margaret. King René was very angry at first, but was induced, by the mediation of the king and queen of France, and the rest of the royal company, to forgive the gallant trespass of the long-defrauded bridegroom; and a general reconciliation took place, in which all past rancours were forgotten, and the pageants and games were renewed with fresh spirit."

At the conclusion of the eight days' fête, Margaret was solemnly delivered to the marquess and marchioness of Suffolk, and took a mournful farewell of her weeping kindred and friends. "Never," say the chroniclers of her native land, was a young princess more deeply loved in the bosom of her own family." Charles VII. of France, who regarded her with paternal interest, accompanied her two leagues from Nanci, clasped her at parting many times in his arms, and said, with his eyes full of tears,-"I seem to have done nothing for you, my niece, in placing you on one of the greatest thrones in Europe, for it is scarcely worthy of possessing you." Sobs stifled his voice,-Margaret could only reply with a torrent of tears: they parted, and saw each other no more. Charles returned to Nanci, with his eyes swollen with weeping. A harder parting took place with her father, who went with her as far as Barr; there he commended her to God, but neither the father nor the daughter could add a farewell to each other, but turned away with full hearts, without uttering a single word. These regrets, in which persons who were, by the etiquettes and restraints of royalty, taught to conceal every emotion of the heart so passionately indulged on this occasion, are evidences of the amiable and endcaring qualities of the youthful Margaret, or her loss would not have been

1 Villeneuve.

VOL. II.

Wassaburg.

2 Barante. Monstrelet. Wassaburg. Villeneuve.

N