Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

city. On their arrival, Margaret was complimented with a variety of pageants, in which patriarchs, evangelists, and saints obligingly united with the pagan heroes of classic lore in offering their congratulations to her on having borne an heir to England, and they all finished by tendering their friendly aid against all adversaries.'

There are curious original portraits of Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou, wrought in tapestry, still preserved in St. Mary's-hall at Coventry, probably the work of a contemporary artist in that species of manufacture, which, we need scarcely remind our readers, is not very favourable for the delineation of female beauty, but highly valuable as affording a faithful copy of the costume and general characteristics of the personages represented. Margaret appears engaged in prayer; her figure is whole-length; her hands rest on an open missal, which is before her on a table covered with blue cloth; her head-dress is a hood richly bordered with pear-pearls, which hang round her face; on the summit of the hood is a crown of fleurs-de-lis, which bends to the shape of the hood at the back of the head; behind the hood hangs a veil, figured and fringed with drops shaped like pears. On the temples, and in front of the hood, are three oval-shaped gems of great size; she wears a rich collar necklace, composed of round pearls and pendant pear-pearls. Her dress is cut square on the bust; the sleeves are straight at the shoulders, but gradually widen into great fulness, and are turned up with ermine: this style is called the rebras sleeve.2

The maternal tenderness of Margaret, and the courageous manner in which she had upheld the rights of her royal husband and devoted herself to the care of his health, her brilliant talents, her eloquence and majestic beauty, produced a powerful effect on the minds of all whose hearts the rancour

1 Sharp's Antiquities of Coventry.

The Coventry tapestry likewise presents a figure of Henry VI. kneeling; cardinal Beaufort kneels behind the king, and there are seventeen of the English obility standing in attendance on the royal pair. The figures are the size of Le. This noble historical relic is thirty feet in length, and ten feet in height. William Staunton, esq., of Longbridge-house, near Warwick, has had the figures of Margaret and Henry engraved, and has kindly favoured us with a copy of the print, and with his own description of the present state of the tapestry.

of party had not steeled against her influence. The favourable impression made by Margaret in that district was never forgotten; and Coventry, where she held her court, was ever after so devoted to her service, that it went by the name of queen Margaret's safe harbour. York, Salisbury, and Warwick were summoned to attend the council at Coventry; but these lords, mistrusting the queen and Somerset, retired to three remote stations,-York to his demesnes on the marches, where he had the state and power of a sovereign; Salisbury to his castle of Middleham, in Yorkshire; and Warwick to his government of Calais, of which he, unfortunately for the cause of Lancaster, retained possession.'

The French and Scotch availed themselves of the internal troubles of the realm to attack England this year. The Yorkists took advantage of the aggressions of her countrymen to work upon the strong national prejudices, which were more powerfully felt at that era, perhaps, than at any other period, to excite the ill-will of the people against the queen;" as if Margaret could have preferred the interests of her aunt's husband to her own, the father of the child whom she loved with such proud and passionate fondness. So alarming, indeed, did the conduct of France appear to Margaret at this crisis, that she was the first to suggest the expediency of a reconciliation between the court and the adverse party of York and Warwick, that the whole strength of the realm might be employed against foreign invaders. York and Warwick, by whom Margaret was equally hated and mistrusted, paid little attention to her pacific overtures; but when king Henry, in the simplicity and sincerity of his heart, wrote with his own hand a pathetic representation of the evils resulting from this protracted strife, and protested, upon the word of a Christian and a king, that no vengeance should be inflicte on any individual for past offences against the crown, they felt it was impossible to doubt the honour and honesty of his intentions.3

A general congress or pacification between the belligerent lords was then resolved upon. To the lord mayor of London,

1 Hall. Speed.

2 Rapin.

8 Hall. Stowe. Holinshed.

sir Godfrey Boleyn, was assigned the arduous office of guardian of the public tranquillity on this extraordinary occasion; and for this purpose ten thousand of the citizens were armed, and patrolled the streets day and night as a national guard, to prevent the plunder and bloodshed that were only too likely to arise from quarrels between the followers of the hostile peers. On the 15th of January, 1458, the earl of Salisbury, with five hundred men, arrived, and took up his quarters at his own mansion at Cold-Harbour. The duke of York, with four hundred, lodged at Baynard's-Castle. The earl of Warwick arrived from Calais in February, with a pompous retinue of six hundred men in scarlet coats. The dukes of Somerset and Exeter, with eight hundred followers, lodged without Temple-bar, in and about Holborn, and other places in the suburbs. The earl of Northumberland, and his kinsman lord Egremont, maintained the feudal state of the Percys' by bringing fifteen hundred followers, being more numerously attended than any of the other adherents of the Red rose. How such a congress ever came to any thing in the shape of an amicable treaty, must ever remain among the most marvellous of historic records. Two whole months were spent in fierce debates and angry recriminations, before the mediations of the archbishop of Canterbury and the other prelates produced the desired effect. The king was easily satisfied, requiring nothing more than a renewal of homage, in which the names of queen Margaret and her son, Edward prince of Wales, were to be included; but the lords demanded pecuniary compensation of each other for the damage they had sustained, not only in the plundering of their respective castles and estates, but for the loss of kinsmen.3

The king and queen, who had not considered it prudent to trust their persons before among the armed negotiators of the peace, made a public entry into London, and took up their abode, March 27, in the bishop's palace, which was a

1 Stowe. Hall. Rapin.

2 Stowe. Hall. Holinshed.

War

* The duke of York actually consented to pay the widow of his great enemy, Elaund duke of Somerset, 5000l., to console her for the loss of her husband, ain at St. Alban's; this sum to be divided among her younger children. wick and Salisbury paid two thousand marks to the younger sons of lord Clifford. VOL. II.

central position. The feast of the Annunciation was appointed as a day of public thanksgiving for this pacification, when Henry and Margaret, wearing their crowns and royal robes and attended by all the peers and prelates, walked in solemn procession to St. Paul's cathedral. In token of the sincerity of their reconciliation, the leading members of the lately adverse factions walked hand in hand together, being paired according to the degree of deadly animosity that had previ ously divided them. The duke of Somerset, coupled with the earl of Salisbury, his ancient foe, headed the procession, followed by the duke of Exeter and the earl of Warwick, in unwonted fellowship. Then, behind the king, who walked alone, came the duke of York, leading queen Margaret by the hand, apparently on the most loving terms with each other. The delight of the citizens of London at this anspicious pageant manifested itself, not only in acclamations, bonfires, and other signs and tokens of popular rejoicings, but called forth some of the halting lyrical effusions of their bards in commemoration.' No sooner was "this dissimulated love-day," as Fabyan calls it, over, than York withdrew to the marches, Salisbury to Yorkshire, and Warwick to his government of Calais. He was at that time lord admiral by patent, and thus the whole naval force of England was at the duke of York's command.

The animosity between the queen and Warwick was not of a political nature alone, but was marked with all the bitter and vindictive feelings of private hatred. It was possible for Margaret to assume an appearance of regard for York, bu she never could mask her antipathy to Warwick, from whose lips had first proceeded scandalous imputations on her honour -an injury no woman can be expected to forgive, much less queen. Warwick complained of the rigour with which the

1 Here is a specimen :

"Our sovereign lord God keep alway,

And the queen and archbishop of Canterbury,

And other that have laboured to make this love-day,—

O God preserve them! we pray heartily,

And London for them full diligently:

Rejoice, England, in concord and unitie!"-Cottonian MSS.,

Rapin. Public Acts.

Vespasian, B xvi. p. 111, 5

queen caused an inquiry to be pushed against him, for a recent act of piracy he had committed by plundering the Lubeck fleet on the high seas: he accused her of insincerity in the recent act of reconciliation, and of having little regard for the glory of the English arms. These expressions, being repeated in the city, caused a seditious tumult against the queen, in which her attorney-general was killed: and the governors of Furnival's, Clifford's, and Barnard's inns, with Taylor (the alderman of the ward in which the fray took place), were committed to prison. This was followed by a personal attack on Warwick by the royal servants, as he was returning from the council at Westminster-palace.' Warwick construed this riot into a premeditated plot devised by the queen for his destruction. Margaret retaliated the charge, by accusing him of causing a tumult at the palace; and, according to Fabyan, she actually procured an order in council for him to be arrested and committed to the Tower. This fracas, whether originating in design or accident, occurred in a fatal hour for the queen, by affording a plausible excuse to the great triumvirs of the adverse party, York, Salisbury, and Warwick, for drawing the sword once more against the house of Lancaster, which was never again sheathed till it had drunk the life-blood of those nearest and dearest to Margaret,-her husband and her son.

King Henry, leaving his queen to struggle with the storm she had raised, retired to pass that Easter at the abbey of St. Alban's. At his departure, having nought else to bestow, he ordered his best robe to be given to the prior. His treasurer heard the command with consternation, well knowing the poverty of the royal wardrobe was such, that Henry had no other garment suitable for state occasions, nor the means of

1 According to Fabyan, the dispute commenced while Warwick was in the council-chamber, and originated in an assault made by one of the king's servants on a person belonging to his retinue. Stowe and Polydore Vergil assert that Warwick's man was the aggressor, who severely wounded the king's servant; whereupon the black guard, (as the scullions, cooks, and kitchen band were called,) armed with clubs, spits, and cleavers, rushed forth to revenge their comrade. In the midst of this fray the council broke up, and Warwick, coming forth to take barge, was immediately assailed by the culinary champions of the palace; and so fierce an attack was made upon his person, that it was with denity he fought his way to the barge with his retinue, many of whom were severely maimed and wounded.

« ZurückWeiter »