CHAPTER III

YOLANDA D’ARRAGONA--II.

Royal mourning--Cardinal Louis de Bar--Yolande a constitutional Sovereign--The Duke of Burgundy--Matrimonial alliances--Tournaments--Princess Margherita di Savoia--Louis III. fights for the crown of Naples--Queen Giovanna II.--Princess Isabelle de Lorraine--A stick for a bad woman!--René takes up arms--A vassal--Ordre de la Fidélité--The Van Eycks--Treasures--Gardens at Bar-le-Duc--Floral games--Fortune is a woman!--Battle of Baugé--Birth of Louis XI. of France--Jeanne d’Arc--A panel of matrons--Slanders--Queen Yolande’s daring--Charles VII. inert--René Duke of Barrois--A débauché Prince--A young widow--Preux chevaliers--A love-match--Princess Catherine de Champagne burnt to death--René and Isabelle married--René Duke of Lorraine--Battle of Bulgneville--A royal prisoner--A foisted child--A beretta crown--Prince Jean--Duke of Calabria--Princess Marie de Bourbon--Agnes Sorel, the most lovely girl in France--Queen Yolande in private life--The Castle of Saumur--Queen Yolande’s death--Her character--No trace of her grave--Théophaine la Magine--A quaint epitaph--The stained-glass windows of Le Mans Cathedral--“A good mother and a great Queen” 67-93