CHAPTER VIII

MARGUERITE D’ANJOU

“The loveliest Princess in Christendom”--A storm-rocked cradle--A child’s kiss--Troubadours and glee-maidens--An eligible suitor--The love of all the boys--Neglected education--A delighted grandmother--Marriage tangles--Philippe, Count de Nevers, repudiated--Henry VI. of England looking for a Queen--The “Three Graces of Armagnac”--Cardinal Beaufort charmed with Marguerite--An unpainted face--“Oh fie! oh fie!”--An autograph letter--Splendid nuptials--La Confrèrerie de la Passion--Too poor to buy her own wedding dress--A peachy blush--Fine fashions--Gold garter chains--Sumptuous hair-dressing--A “Marguerite” flower-holder--A sorrowful parting--A truly royal train--The entente cordiale--The Queen short of ready cash--A stormy passage--Chicken-pox?--The King’s ring--A famous tire-woman--Extraordinary presents--Pageants--Queen Margaret crowned--“La Française”--The Queen’s strong character--The Duke of York nonplussed--Pious foundations--The King’s seizure--She had to play the man!--The Prince of Wales--York’s dastardly insinuations--A costly churching-robe--Civil war begins--Margaret leads the Lancastrians in person--Success and failure--York’s grey gory head--“Love Lady-Day”--Lord Grey de Ruthen’s treason--King Henry a prisoner in the Tower--“Fie on thee, thou traitor!”--The Queen in Scotland--King Louis’s double game--A shipwreck--A common robette--Galant Sir Pierre de Brézé--“Une Merrie Mol!”--The kiss of etiquette--Thorns--All the poets sing of Margaret--All is lost!--Margaret at home again--Earl of Warwick’s loyalty--A diplomatic marriage--The sea flouts Margaret--Perjured Lord Wenlock--A treacherous blow--The Prince murdered--“Bloody Edward”--The “she-wolf”--Hands tied behind her back--King Henry killed--The Queen in a dungeon--René’s pathetic letter--The great heroine of the Wars of the Roses--Repose at Reculée--A lioness at bay--“The grim grey wolf of Anjou”--A sad and lonely death 253-305