and form that ensueth. First, I bequeath to Almighty God my sinful soul, the which had never been worthy to be made man but through his mercy and his grace; which life I have mispended, whereof I put me wholly at his grace and mercy with all mine heart. And, at what time it liketh him of his mercy to take me, my body to be buried in the church of Canterbury, after the discretion of my cousin the archbishop. And I also thank my lords and true people for the true service they have done to me, and I ask their forgiveness if I have misintreated them in anywise; and as far as they have offended me in anywise, I pray God to forgive them it, and I do. And I will that my queen be endowed of the duchy of Lancaster." "The words," He appointed Henry V. his sole executor. says Hardyng, "which the king said at his death were of high complaint, but nought of repentance or restoration of the right heirs of the crown." Henry expired on St. Cuthbert's-day, March 19th, 1413. He was buried by the side of Edward the Black Prince, with great pomp and state, on Trinity-Sunday, Henry V. and all his nobility being present. In the first years of her widowhood, queen Joanna received every mark of attention and respect from the new king, Henry V., who was anxious to avail himself of her influence with her son, the duke of Bretagne, in order to secure the alliance of that prince in his projected wars with France. Henry, in his letters and treaties, always styles the duke of Bretagne his dearest brother, and the duke reciprocrates the title when addressing him.' The temporizing politics of the duke prove that his own interests were studied by him, in preference to his royal mother's regard for her English connexions. Joanna was entrusted by her royal step-son with a share in the government, when he undertook his expedition against France. Speed, Stowe, Hall, Goodwin, and White Kennet, affirm that she was made queen-regent at the same time that John duke of Bedford was appointed protector and lord-lieutenant of England. Trussel uses these words:"Henry appointed his mother-in-law, Joan de Navar, a woman of great prudence and judgment in national affairs, to be regent in his absence, with the advice of the privy council." But, notwithstanding these important authorities, there is no documentary evidence in proof of the fact. She was, however, treated with higher consideration than was ever 1 Rymer's Fœdera. 2 Vol. i. 312. shown to a queen-dowager of this country who was not also queen-mother, and appears to have enjoyed the favour and confidence of the king in no slight degree. The same day that Henry quitted his metropolis, June 18th, after having been in solemn procession to St. Paul's with the lord mayor and corporation of the city of London, to offer his prayers and oblations for the success of his expedition, he returned to Westminster for the purpose of taking a personal leave of queen Joanna.' This circumstance is commemorated in a curious poem of the time :— "To Powlys then he held his way 3 With all his lordys, sooth to say; The mayor was ready, and met him there From thence to the queen the self-same day, This farewell visit to queen Joanna was the last thing Henry V. did previously to leaving his capital. Their perfect amity at that time may be inferred from Henry's gracious licence to the royal widow, whom he styles "his dearest mother, Joanna queen of England," to reside with her retinue in any of his royal castles of Windsor, Wallingford, Berkhamstead, and Hertford, as of old, during his absence in foreign parts. This order is dated Winchester, June 30th, 1414. There are also various gifts and concessions granted by Henry V. to queen Joanna on the rolls of the third, fourth, and fifth years of his reign. The foreign connexions of Joanna, and her pertinacity in retaining her Breton and Navarrese attendants about her person, excited once more an expression of jealous displeasure from the English parliament; and an address was presented to the king, complaining of her disregard to the act for purging the 1 Sir Harris Nicolas's Agincourt, p. 24. Preserved among the Harleian MSS.; 565, fol. 130. 3 4 Ibid. royal household of aliens, Bretons and other foreigners, passed in the seventh year of the late king Henry IV.: "For, notwithstanding that act, many Bretons had come into the kingdom again, some of whom were then dwelling in the queen's house, and others very near it, to hear, discover, and learn the secrets of the realm, and to carry money and jewels out of the kingdom; and as the Bretons were the greatest enemies, it was requested that the king would constrain all such to depart before the feast of St. John the Baptist." That Joanna had failed in her endeavours to persuade her son the duke of Bretagne to espouse king Henry's side in the great contest between England and France, and that he persisted in maintaining a strict neutrality, was probably the cause of this attack, which appears to have emanated from the jealous hostility of her step-son Bedford, her coadjutor in the regency. Unfortunately, too, for her, her second son, Arthur earl of Richmond, although an English subject, having performed homage to king Henry for his earldom, openly violated his allegiance by engaging under king Charles's banner, and attacking the outposts of Henry's camp, near Agincourt, at the head of two thousand French cavalry. This fiery assault, his first essay in arms, was made at midnight on the eve of St. Crispin's-day, in the midst of a tempest of wind and rain. Arthur was repulsed by the troops of his royal stepbrother: he was desperately wounded and made prisoner in the battle the following day. The chronicler from whom White Kennet has collated the reigns of the three Lancastrian sovereigns, records the capture of Arthur in these words:-"The son of the late duke of Bretagne, by the queen-regent of England, was taken prisoner." The same author again mentions Joanna of Navarre by this title, when he says "King Henry despatched a messenger over to England, to the queen-regent, with news of his victory, which filled the nation with universal joy. Te Deum was sung in all the churches, and a mighty procession, consisting of the queen, prelates, and nobility, with 1 Parl. Rolls, vol. iv. p. 79. 2 White Kennet's Complete History of England, pp. 318, 319. the mayor and corporation of the city of London, walked from St. Paul's to Westminster on the following day, to return public thanks to Almighty God." The Chronicle of London' also states "that queen Johane, with her lords, attended by the mayor, aldermen, and several of the livery companies of London, walked in solemn procession from St. Paul's to Westminster-abbey, to offer thanksgivings for the victory;" and having made a rich offering at the shrine of St. Edward, they all returned in triumph to the city, amidst the acclamations of the people. Whoever might exult in the national triumph of Agincourt, Joanna had little cause for joy. The husband of her eldest daughter,' the valiant duke of Alençon, who clove king Henry's jewelled coronal with his battle-axe in the mêlée, was there slain. Her brother, Charles of Navarre, the constable of France, died of his wounds the following day; and Arthur, her gallant son, was a captive. No trifling tax must the widowed queen have paid for greatness, when, instead of putting on her mourning weeds, and indulging in the natural grief of a fond mother's heart for these family calamities, she was called upon to assume the glittering trappings of state, and to take the leading part in a public pageant of rejoicing. Till this latter duty was performed as befitted the queen of England, she forbore to weep and make lamentation for the dead, or to bewail the captivity of him who was led a prisoner in the train of the royal victor. The trials of Joanna only commenced with the battle of Agincourt, for she had to endure much maternal anxiety as to the future position of her eldest son, the reigning duke of Bretagne, with whose temporizing conduct Henry V. was greatly exasperated; and she had to perform the hard task of welcoming, with deceitful smiles and congratulations, the haughty victor who had wrought her house such woe, and who was the arbiter of her son Arthur's fate. Arthur of Bretagne, as earl of Richmond, was Henry's subject, and by bearing arms against him at Agincourt had violated his liegeman's oath, and stood in a very different position with his Edited by sir Harris Nicolas. Harrison's Survey of London. royal step-brother from the other prisoners. Well it was for him, considering the vindictive temper of Henry V., that the queen had in former times laid that prince under obligations, by assisting him in time of need with pecuniary aid. The first interview between Joanna and her captive son is, perhaps, one of the most touching passages in history. They had not seen each other since 1404, when Arthur as a boy visited the court of England, to receive the investiture of the earldom of Richmond from his royal step-father, Henry IV., twelve years before. Joanna, anxious to ascertain whether he retained any remembrance of her person, which, perhaps, she felt was faded by years of anxious tendance on a husband sick alike in body and mind, yet fondly hoping that maternal instinct would lead him to her arms, placed one of her ladies in the chair of state, and retired among her attendants, two of whom stood before her, while she watched what would follow. Arthur, as might be expected, took the queen's representative for his mother; she supported the character for some time, and desired him to pay his compliments to her ladies. When, in turn, he came to Joanna, her heart betrayed her, and she exclaimed, "Unhappy son, do you not know me?" The call of nature was felt; both mother and son burst into tears. They then embraced with great tenderness, and she gave him a thousand nobles, which the princely youth distributed among his fellow-prisoners and his guards, together with some apparel. But after this interview, Henry V. prevented all communication between queen Joanna and her son.' Arthur was doomed to waste the flower of his youth in a rigorous confinement, first in the Tower of London, and afterwards in Fotheringay-castle, Henry V. being too much exasperated against him to listen to Joanna's intercessions, either for his release or ransom. Henry, however, continued to treat his royal step-mother with great respect. At the feast of St. George, 1416, queen Joanna, who was a lady of the Garter, with his aunts, the queens of Spain and Portugal, his sisters, the queen of Denmark and duchess of Holland, received 1 Histoire d'Artur, troizième Duc de Bretagne. From sir Harris Nicolas's Agincourt, p. 158, vol. ii. |