Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/438

424 to the Saracens. She governed under the direction of two ambitious eunuchs, who were perpetually plotting against each other. Russel's Modern Europe, Andrew's Great Britain.

The follies and vices of this king laid the foundation for those of Isabella, who saw herself neglected by her husband, and insulted by his favourites. The scorn in which the people held this monarch was sometimes extended to his wife. She made a journey of devotion to Canterbury, and wished to lodge in a castle by the road side, but was denied admittance. The master, a discontented baron, was absent, and his wife refused to permit her entrance. The queen appearing to insist upon it, six persons of her suite were killed by the garrison. As the enemy of the Spencers, the then favourites of Edward, she ought to have been kindly received by his and their enemies; but they saw in her only the wife of a monarch they despised. Edward, accustomed to indignities, would have borne it, but Isabella would be revenged. He therefore presented himself in arms before the castle, which was taken by force; and the executions, by which this was followed, only served farther to irritate the spirits of the people. Alienated from her husband, if she had ever loved him, and discontented with her situation, Isabella, under pretence of reconciling him with his brother, passed into France. Her real motive was very different, and she went to arm him against her husband, and to demand succours