Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/17

2 the Count's position as a possible heir made him an honourable match, though poor, for the girlish Princess of Savoy. Her father sanctioned the marriage gladly. Louisa's mother was dead, and he had children by his second wife. He was willing to marry his elder daughter honourably and without expense. On her marriage he gave with her a dowry of 35,000 livres—a small sum, considering that her mother had been a very wealthy heiress. But Philip of Savoy, with several children to endow, and a throne ever threatened by the surrounding kingdoms, had many uses for his money. The Count of Angoulême, for his part, assigned the Castles of Cognac and Romorantin to Louisa, and these were to remain to her as dower-houses in the event of her widowhood. Finally, all affairs being settled, Charles of Orleans, in the year 1491, was married to his youthful bride.

The Count went with his wife to live on his property in Angoulême. From the French Court he was debarred by the King's displeasure, for the reason that long ago he had joined the rebellion of Brittany. It was no punishment to Charles to live a country life. His gentle and quiet tastes, his benevolence, his gift for organization, all were employed and satisfied in the orderly routine of managing a great property. He had his reward in peaceful years and in the loving devotion of his tenantry. But such a life might easily have wearied a beautiful child of fifteen, exceedingly accomplished, a princess, brilliant, and fond of power. There was, however, in Louisa's nature a passionate capacity for devotion. This, in fact, is the key-note of her life. She fell in love, deeply and all-sufficingly, with her courteous, elderly husband: the banishment in which he shone delighted her; the