Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/173

 for them on her knees with the king and his friends. Her pitifulness on this occasion excited general love for her (, p. 48; Annales Paulini, p. 355;, p. 63). After spending Christmas 1333 with the king at Wallingford, she parted from him when the festival was over, and went to Woodstock, where she bore a daughter, Isabella. While she was there, in February 1334, a letter was addressed to her by the chancellor and masters of the university of Oxford, praying her to write to the pope on their behalf against the attempt to set up a university at Stamford to which many of the Oxford students had seceded (Collectanea, i. 8, Oxf. Hist. Soc.) She was at Bamborough apparently in the winter of 1335, when the king was at war with Scotland. The Scots, under the Earl of Moray, made an attempt on the town, were met and defeated before they reached it, and the earl was brought to the queen as a prisoner (, col. 2567). She is said to have taken part in a chivalrous ceremony called the ‘vow of the heron’ in 1338 (Political Poems, i. 23), and, being about to cross over to Flanders with the king, received from him 564l. 3s. 4d. for horses, dress, and jewels (Fœdera, ii. 1059).

She landed at Antwerp with Edward in July, accompanied him on his journey to Coblentz as far as Herenthals, and returned to Antwerp, where, on 29 Nov., she bore her son Lionel (afterwards Duke of Clarence) [q. v.] In 1339 the king's need of money forced him to pledge her crown, which was not redeemed until 1342 (ib. p. 1210). She stayed at Antwerp, Louvain, Brussels, and Ghent, where she was left at St. Peter's Abbey by the king in February 1340, when he proceeded to Antwerp and thence to England. During his absence in March she bore her son John of Gaunt [q. v.], and was constantly visited by Jacob van Artevelde and the ladies of the city. Having been rejoined by the king, she accompanied him to England in November. In 1342 she received a visit from her brother William, count of Hainault, and a tournament was held in his honour at Eltham, at which he was hurt in the arm. She was also present at a great tournament held that year at Northampton, where many were seriously hurt (, p. 124;, Orders of Knighthood, i. Introd. p. lxxx). On 20 Nov. the king gave her the custody of the earldom of Richmond granted to her son John of Gaunt, together with full powers as guardian of him and her other younger children and of their lands (Fœdera, ii. 1214–15). She was staying in the Tower of London when the king returned from Brittany in March 1343, and, having been joined by him there, spent Easter with him at Havering atte Bower in Essex. When Edward held his festival of the ‘Round Table’ at Windsor in January 1344, at which there was jousting for three days and much magnificence, Philippa took part in the rejoicings, splendidly apparelled, and attended by a large number of ladies (, p. 155;, iii. 41, 258). She made some vow of pilgrimages to places over sea, and in 1344 appointed a proxy to perform it for her (Fœdera, iii. 18). On the death of her brother Count William in 1345, her inheritance in Zealand was claimed by the king on her behalf (ib. pp. 61, 65, 80).

During Edward's absence on the campaign of Crécy, David, king of Scotland, was defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of Neville's Cross, near Durham, on 17 Oct. 1346. Jehan le Bel and Froissart relate that the English forces were summoned by Philippa, though her son Lionel was the nominal guardian of the kingdom; that she met and harangued them at Newcastle before the battle; and Froissart says that after the battle she rode from Newcastle to the field, and remained there that day with her army (, ii. 109–10;, iv. 18–29). As this is not confirmed by any known English or Scottish authority, it must be regarded as exceedingly doubtful, especially as both the Flemish chroniclers were evidently mistaken as to the situation of the battle (cf., ed. Buchon, i. 253 n.; , Life of Edward III, i. 269). The victory was won by William de la Zouche, archbishop of York, and the lords and forces of the north (, p. 218;, p. 376; Fœdera, iii. 91).

Before Christmas Philippa joined the king at the siege of Calais. During the siege he is said to have been unfaithful to her, as he had doubtless been before (Political Poems, i. 159). When the town surrendered on 5 Aug. 1347, and six of the principal burgesses appeared before Edward in their shirts and with halters round their necks, putting themselves at his mercy, she joined with the lords there present in beseeching the king to pardon them, and, being then great with child, knelt before him, weeping and praying him that since she had crossed the sea in much peril he would grant her request ‘for the love of our Lady's Son.’ For her sake the king spared the lives of the burgesses, and granted them to her, and she provided them with raiment, food, and a gift of money (there is not the slightest reason for doubting the truth of this story: see under ). Having returned to England with the king in Octo-