Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/174

 ber, she soon after, at Windsor, bore a son, who died in infancy. The offer of the imperial crown to her husband in 1348 caused her much anxiety and sorrow, but Edward declined it (, col. 2597). She appears to have made a progress in the west in 1349, and while at Ford Abbey, Dorset, made an offering at the tomb of Hugh Courtenay, earl of Devon. In August 1350 she went with the king to Winchelsea, Sussex, where the fleet was gathered to intercept the Spaniards, and she remained in a religious house there, or in the immediate neighbourhood, while the king and her two sons, the Prince of Wales and John of Gaunt, sailed forth on the 28th to engage the enemy, with whom they fell in on the next day. She passed the day of the battle of ‘Lespagnols sur mer’ in great anxiety, doubting of the issue; for her attendants, who could see the battle from the hills, told her of the number and size of the enemy's ships. In the evening, after the victory was won, the king and her sons joined her, and the night was spent in revelry (, iv. 4, 97, 327). Her presence at the festival of the Garter on St. George's day, 23 April, 1351, is expressly noted; and in March 1355 she was at a grand tournament held by the king at Woodstock to celebrate her recovery after the birth of her son Thomas at that place. The story related in her ‘Life’ of her contribution to the ransom of Bertrand du Guesclin after the battle of Poitiers is worthless so far as she is concerned (see Mémoires sur Bertrand du Guesclin, c. 26). A special grant was made by the king for her apparel at the St. George's festival of 1358, which was of extraordinary splendour. During the summer of that year she and the king stayed at Marlborough and at Cosham, and while she was hunting there she met with an accident in riding, and dislocated her shoulder-joint (Eulogium, iii. 227). She did not accompany the king to France in 1359.

In 1361 Froissart came over to England and presented her with a book that he had written on the war with France, and specially the battle of Poitiers, the germ of his future chronicles. Philippa, who loved the people of her own land, received him and his gift with kindness, made him her clerk or secretary, and encouraged him to pursue his historical work. He was lodged in the palace, entertained her with noble tales and discourses on love, and received from her the means of travelling about the country to collect materials for his work, being once sent by her to Scotland with letters setting forth that he was one of her secretaries, and there and everywhere he found that for love of his sovereign mistress, that ‘noble and valiant lady,’ great lords and knights welcomed him and gave him aid. For five years he remained in England in her service, and when he left in 1366 travelled as a member of her household (, Froissart, pp. 13–28). Her presence at the magnificent tournaments held in Smithfield in May 1362 is expressly noted. After Christmas she went with the king from Windsor to Berkhampstead in Hertfordshire, on a visit to the Prince of Wales, who resided there, to take leave of him before he went to his government in Aquitaine. She bore her share in the festivities of that year and the early months of 1364, when the kings of France, Scotland, and Cyprus were all in London at the same time, entertained King John of France at Eltham, and gave many rich feasts to King Peter de Lusignan of Cyprus, and made him presents when he left. The illness and death of King John caused her much grief. Her nephew William, count of Holland, second son of the Emperor Lewis of Bavaria, had been insane since 1357, and his dominions were governed for him by his brother Albert of Bavaria as regent. Albert desired to be recognised as sovereign, but the claims that Edward acquired by his marriage with Philippa were unsettled, and hindered the accomplishment of his wish. To remove this obstacle, he obtained from the estates of Holland, assembled at Gertruydenberg on 25 April 1364, a decision that the English queen could not inherit any part of the dominions of her brother Count William, his sovereignty being indivisible. Albert visited the English court in 1365, but was unable to obtain the king's assent to his wishes respecting Philippa's rights (L'Art de vérifier les Dates, xiv. 448; Fœdera, iii. 779, 789). In 1369 she joined the king in his vain endeavours to procure Albert as an ally against France, and it was probably in connection with this attempt that she sent certain jewels over to Maud, countess of Holland, a daughter of Henry of Lancaster, first duke of Lancaster [q. v.] (ib. p. 868). In the course of that year she was dangerously ill at Windsor Castle, and, knowing that she was dying, took leave of the king, requesting that he would fulfil all her engagements to merchants and pay her debts; that he would pay all that she had left or promised to churches in England or the continent, wherein she had made her prayers; and would provide for all her servants, and that he would be buried by her side at Westminster, which things the king promised. She was attended on her deathbed by William of Wykeham,