Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/444

430 persuasion to be expelled from the university of Oxford. Good Queen Anne was gone, and a new era, with new influences and fortunes, was at hand.





now astonished the whole country by proposing to marry the eldest daughter of the King of France. The strong antipathy which the long and cruel wars had nourished between the two nations made them already regard each other as natural and hereditary enemies. Both the people of England and France, therefore, were surprised at this proposal, and averse to it. But the people are little consulted in any age in these matters; and the proposal, after some discussion at the French court, was well entertained. At the English court it was far from popular. The great princes and barons looked on the French wars as the sources of fresh military glory and promotion. The Duke of Gloucester most of all expressed his opposition to it. He had more reasons than one. The first was, that he had a daughter whom he would fain see married to Richard. By this alliance he could calculate on his descendants succeeding to the throne of England, even if he could not himself usurp it. During the king's life, with his easy and pleasure-loving disposition, he could calculate on engrossing the real power of the state.

Not less strange was his second reason. If the king allied himself to France, he would thus greatly strengthen his authority at home, and Gloucester was too far-seeing not to perceive that Richard, who never forgot an injury, would then be in a position to revenge himself on him for his past attempts to usurp the control over his nephew, and especially for the armed conspiracy which had destroyed his favourite ministers, and suspended his prerogative for twelve months.

That this marriage was a matter entirely of policy was clear enough. The French princess was a mere child, not much more than seven years of age. She was already affianced to the heir of the Duke of Brittany. It would require a dispensation from the Pope to make void that arrangement, and for many years to come Richard could not promise himself in his wife a womanly companion, a mature friend and counsellor, nor could hope to secure his throne by an heir. His attention was zealously turned to the princesses of Brabant, Germany, and Navarre, but to no purpose. He had resolved on the alliance with France, and ambassadors were sent to negotiate the affair, while Robert the Hermit, a personage high in favour with the French king, came for the like purpose to England. Froissart, who himself made a visit to England at this time, describes very amusingly the interview which the Earl Marshal and the Earl of Rutland had with the French royal family and the future Queen of England. "The earl marshal, being on his knees, said to her, 'Fair lady, by the grace of God, you shall be our lady and Queen of England.' Then answered the young lady, well advisedly, without counsel of any other person, 'Sir, an it please God and my lord my father that I shall be Queen of England, I shall be glad thereof, for it is showed me that I shall then be a great lady.' Then she took the earl marshal by the hand, and led him to the queen her mother, who had great joy of the answer that she had made, and so were all other that heard it. The manner, countenance, and behaviour of this young lady pleased greatly the ambassadors, and they said amongst themselves that she was likely to be a lady of high honour and great goodness." The little girl was affianced by proxy through the earl marshal, and "a goodly sight it was," says Froissart, "to see her behaviour; for all she was but young, right pleasantly she bore the part of a queen." In the joy of this transaction Sir John Mercer—who was formerly taken prisoner by Alderman Phillpot—and the Count de la River, who had both been arrested on a political charge, were liberated by the French king.

The worthy chronicler details with great delight all the splendour of the meeting of the Kings of France and England at Guisnes, near Calais, where they came attended by all the great princes, lords, and ladies of their courts. Lancaster and Gloucester—the latter most unwillingly—attended the King of England. Tents were put up for the two royal parties not far from each other, and the two monarchs went on foot, passing between two bodies of knights of each nation, 400 in number, standing with their swords drawn. When the two kings met bare-headed, and took each other's hands, all the knights knelt down. Then the two kings went together into the tent of the King of France, which "was noble and rich," and the four royal dukes, Berri and Burgoyne, Lancaster and Gloucester, taking each other's hands, followed with other knights. The spectacle was striking, for it was long since any English and French kings had met in peace and amity. On the following Saturday, November 1, 1396, they met again in great state in the same place, and after a grand banquet in the French king's pavilion, the young queen was delivered to the King of England, and consigned by him to the care of the Duchesses of Lancaster, Gloucester, York, and Ireland, with many other great ladies, but only one French attendant, the Countess de Courci. The next Tuesday the marriage ceremony was performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of St. Nicholas, in Calais; and on arriving in England, Isabella was crowned in Westminster Abbey on the 1st of January, 1397. Richard received with her 300,000 francs in gold, and 500,000 more were to be paid by annual instalments. It was carefully stipulated that the issue of this marriage should derive no claim from the mother to the crown of France; and if the king should die before the queen reached her twelfth year, all the money paid should be returned with her to France.

The conduct of Richard after this marriage was such as to lead the people the more sensibly to deplore the death of the good Queen Anne. Instead of the better spirit which had distinguished his latter years, instead of the wise and active conduct which he had displayed in Ireland while under the influence of a salutary sorrow, a light and thoughtless disposition had taken its place, as if a mere girlish wife had brought with her an atmosphere of trifling and frivolity. With the exception of his harsh treatment of the city a few years before, and the deprivation of its charter, which, though soon restored, had left 