of Navarre, being the daughter of her cousin-german, Charles VI. Katherine was also sister to the young duchess of Bretagne, Joanna's daughter-in-law; yet she received neither sympathy nor attention from her, but had the mortification of knowing that her dower, or at least the larger part of it, was appropriated to maintain Katherine's state as queen of England. Henry V. presented the abbess of Sion. with a thousand marks from the revenues of the imprisoned queen.' We find, in the Acts of the Privy Council, that Henry returned a favourable answer to the petition of William Pomeroy, one of Joanna's esquires, who humbly supplicates for a continuance of a pension of twenty marks a-year, which had formerly been granted by the queen Johanne in reward of his long and faithful services to her. Henry with his own hand has written, "We wol that he have the twenty marcs."

3

In the fourth year of her captivity, an important prisoner of state was consigned to the same fortress in which the queendowager was incarcerated. This was sir John Mortimer, the uncle of the earl of March. His frequent attempts to escape from the Tower caused him to be removed to the gloomy fortress of Pevensey. The widow of Henry IV. being confined within the same dark walls with this fettered lion of the rival house of Mortimer, is a curious and romantic circumstance. Yet, when Mortimer arrived at Pevensey, the period of Joanna's incarceration there was drawing to a close. Her royal persecutor, the puissant conqueror of France, feeling the awful moment was at hand when he must lay his sceptre in the dust, and render up an account of the manner in which he had exercised his regal power, was seized with late remorse for the wrong and robbery of which he had been guilty towards his father's widow; and knowing that repentance without restitution is of little avail in a case of conscience, he addressed the following injunction to the bishops and lords of his council, dated July 13, 1422:

"Right worshipful Fathers in God, our right trusty and well-beloved: Howbeit we have taken into our hand till a certain time, and for such causes as ye

1 1 Tyler's Life of Henry V.

Acts of Privy Council, by sir H. Nicolas, vol. ii. p. 302.

Ibid.

know, the dowers of our mother, queen Johanne, except a certain pension thereof yearly, which we assigned for the expense reasonable of her, and of a certain menie' that should be about her: we, doubting lest it should be a charge unto our conscience for to occupy forth longer the said dower in this wise, the which charge we be advised no longer to bear on our conscience, will and charge you, as ye will appear before God for us in this case, and stand discharged in your own conscience also, that ye make deliverance unto our said mother, the queen, wholly of her said dower, and suffer her to receive it as she did heretofore; and that she make her officers whom she list, so they be our liegemen and good men; and that therefore we have given in charge and commandment at this time to make her full restitution of her dower above said. Furthermore, we will and charge you that her beds and all other things moveable that we had of her, ye deliver her again. And ordain her that she have, of such cloth and of such colour as she will devise herself, v. or VI. gowns, such as she useth to wear. And because we suppose she will soon remove from the palace where she now is, that ye ordain her horses for cleven chares; and let her remove them into whatsoever place within our realm that her list, and when her list, &c.

"Written the thirteenth day of July, the year of our reign tenth."3

In common justice, Henry ought to have made this amende perfect, by adding a declaration of his royal step-mother's innocence from the foul charge which had been the ostensible pretext for the persecution to which she had been subjected. His letter contains in effect, however, if not in words, a complete exoneration of queen Joanna; and it appears unaccountable that any apologist should be found to justify the conqueror of Agincourt for acts which were so sore a burden to his departing spirit, and which he himself confesses, in this memorable letter, "that he had been advised no longer to bear on his conscience," lest he should rue it hereafter. The above document proves that the spoliation of the queendowager had extended even to the sequestration of her beds and rich array. She had certainly been compelled to divest herself of her queenly attire, and to assume the coarse garb of penance. Whether the peace-offering of five or six new gowns, with the royal permission for the injured lady to consult her own taste in the colour, material, and fashion of the same, was considered by Joanna as a sufficient compensation for the wrong, and robbery, and weary imprisonment she had undergone, is doubtful. But be this as it might, and even if the gowns which the warlike majesty of England so solemnly

1 Household servants; from which word comes the term 'menial.'

2 Cars or chariots.

3 Parliamentary Rolls, 1st of Henry VI., where there is also an inventory of queen Johanne's sequestrated property.

enjoins his chancellor and the other lords spiritual and temporal of his council to endow her with were promptly rendered, it is certain she could not have enjoyed the satisfaction of appearing in them, courtly etiquette compelling her, within seven weeks after the date of Henry's letter of restitution, to assume the mockery of mourning weeds for his decease. This event occurred August 31, 1422. Joanna had been released from her captivity some weeks previously, and resumed her former state at her own palace of Leeds-castle the same summer, as the following entries appear in her household-book,' dated July 14th, first year of Henry VI. It is to be observed, that first the duke of Gloucester, and then cardinal Beaufort, visited her just before the formal official notice of Henry's penitence, and assuredly brought her private intelligence of the change in her favour; for, on June the 12th, is an item "that the duke dined with her at Leeds, and went away after dinner; expenses for the feast, 41. 2s.:" and, on the 2nd of the next month, "cardinal Beaufort dined with her at a cost of 41. 14s. 2d." The newly enfranchised queen gave alms and oblations "at the cross of the chapel within Leeds-castle, which came to 68. 8d.;" but she laid in a stock of Gascon (claret), Rochelle, and Rhenish wines, at the cost of 561. 08. 4d. Her alms seem influenced by her usual avarice, for if she could find money to buy so much wine, she might have commemorated her signal deliverance from captivity and obloquy by a larger outlay than a mark. All her recorded donations appear despicably mean; indeed, this precious historical document singularly confirms our estimate of her character, that grasping avarice was the chief source of her misfortunes. Her clerk, Thomas Lilbourne, proceeds to note the expenses of her mourning dress for the death of her persecutor, as well for her own person as the maids of her chamber. There are some odd notices of the price of making court-dresses, which may be amusing to the ladies of the present day. There are

This information is gathered from one of the valuable documents in the collection of sir Thomas Phillipps, of Middle Hill, Worcestershire. This gentleman, with a liberality only equalled by his munificence in purchasing MSS. containing the true muniments of history, has permitted us not only access to his stores, but afforded his own advice and assistance in the transcription of references.

599291

charges for seven yards of black cloth, for a gown for the queen at the feast of Easter, at 78. 8d. per yard, and for making a gown for her, 1s. 6d.; for one cape of black, for black silk loops, and for 400 clasps, (possibly hooks and eyes); for 7 yards of black cloth, at 78. per yard, for the queen's person; for making a cape for the queen, for black satin, and for grey squirrel fur, 238. 4d.; for fur for a collar and mantle for the queen, 20s.; for 1 oz. of black thread, 1s. 6d.; 3 dozen shoes, at 6d. per pair. Likewise to Agnes Stowe, of the family of lady Margaret Trumpyngton, for her good services to the queen, as a gift, 6s. 8d. To two serjeants-atlaw, to plead for the queen's gold, 6s. 8d. To Nicholas, minstrel, a gift of the queen, 6s. 8d., None of Joanna's gifts exceed this sum, which is the amount of a mark. Some of the articles are curious,-as, one pot of green ginger, 98. 6d.; for rose-water, 7s. 6d.; to master Laurence, for cinnamon, 78. 10d. The queen gives 6d. per pair for her maids' shoes, and 7d. for those of her own wearing.

Notwithstanding the earnest desire of Henry V. for the restoration of Joanna's dower, the matter was attended with great difficulty, on account of the manner in which he had disposed of this property. He had, in fact, sold, mortgaged, and granted it away to a variety of persons, besides endowing his own queen (now also a queen-dowager) with the town and appurtenances of Hertford, and many other manors which had been settled on queen Joanna by his father, king Henry IV. The smoothing of such a ravelled skein caused much delay and trouble to all parties; and we find, in the second of Henry VI., that a petition was presented from the noble lady Joanna, queen of England, requiring all the grants of her lands made by the late king Henry V. to be quashed by parliament, that she might receive her revenues. The answer to the petition was, "that the same should be granted in all points, provided that those persons who had laid out money upon the queen's lands should have the option of taking the same under her, at the same term or rent at which they then held the same from the crown."

1 Rolls Parl. iv. p. 247.

Joanna of Navarre survived her restoration to liberty, wealth, and royal station many years,-" living," says Weever, "in all princely prosperity." Her grandson, Giles of Bretagne,' was reared and educated with the youthful king Henry VI., and was much beloved by him; a circumstance which leads. to the conclusion, that queen Joanna was likewise in favour at the English court. Her favourite residence was the sylvar retreat of Havering-Bower. She also kept her state sometimes at Langley, where her retirement was enlivened occasionally by shows, as the rude theatrical entertainments of the fifteenth century were designated. We learn, from a contemporary chronicle, that in the ninth year of Henry VI., a grievous and terrible fire took place at the manor of the lady queen Joanna, at Langley, in which there was great destruction of the buildings, furniture, gold and silver plate, and household stuff. These disasters happened "through the want of care, and drowsiness, of a player, and the heedless keeping of a candle." This fire is the last event of any importance that befell the royal widow after her restoration to her rights. Joanna was treated with all proper consideration by the grandson of her deceased consort, the young king Henry VI. While residing at her palace of Langley, 1437, she was honoured with a New-year's gift from this amiable prince, as a token of his respect. This was a tablet of gold, garnished with four balass rubies, eight pearls, and in the midst a great sapphire. The tablet had been formerly presented to the young king by my lady of Gloucester; whether by Jaqueline or Eleanora Cobham, is left doubtful.3

This event

Joanna departed this life at Havering-Bower. is thus quaintly noted in the Chronicle of London:* "This same year, 9th of July, died queen Jane, king Henry IV.'s wife. Also the same year died all the lions in the Tower, the which was nought seen in no man's time before out of mind."

This young prince was allowed an annuity of 123 marks.-Issue Rolls. He received the order of the Garter. Great jealousies regarding his English connexions arose on his return to his native country on the death of his grandmother, queen Joanna. An awful tragedy occurred in Bretagne, terminating in his death, and that of his brother, Joanna's elder grandson, duke Francis I.

2 Harl. MSS., 3775, art. 9.

'Excerpta Historica, p. 149.

4

* Page 123.