Page:The Queens of England.djvu/105

 ELEANOR OF PROVENCE. 87 and beat the canons, who instantly appealed to the king. But Boniface had anticipated this measure, and, aided by the queen, he persuaded Henry to refuse to see them or give them redress. So great was the indignation of the people on this occasion, that they pursued Boniface to Lambeth, threatening to put him to death, and lavishing on him the most opprobrious epithets. This proof of the bad use made by Eleanor of the influence she possessed over Henry makes us less surprised at the hatred she incurred from her subjects; and that such a state of misrule could so long have continued seems, indeed, the only matter for wonder. Another cause for the dislike entertained against Eleanor was her conduct with regard to the dues on cargoes landed at Oueenhithe, Ripa Reginse, or Queen's Wharf. These dues, "which formed a portion of the revenues of the queens of England, were proportioned to the value of the freights ; and Eleanor, regardless of justice and public opinion, used her influence to compel all ships laden with valuable merchandise to land their cargoes at Rotherhithe. This tyrannical proceeding occasioned great discontent, and kept up such ill-will, that the queen at last sold her privilege to the king's brother, the Earl of Cornwall. Large as were the sums exacted by Eleanor and Henry from their subjects, both found themselves continually involved in pecuniary embarrass- ments by the reckless manner in which they lavished money on their foreign relations and favorites. The Countess of Provence, the mother of the queen, was a perpetual drain on the purse of her daughter ; and even after the queen, by the death of her mother-in-law Isabella, in 1246, came into possession of her dowry, the demands from her mother kept her finances embarrassed. .Some notion of the impoverished state of the king and queen may be formed, when it is known that Henry caused to be pawned an image of the Virgin Mary, for the purpose of raising money to pay the salaries of the officers of the Chapel Royal at Windsor Nor was this the only extraordinary measure to which, in his pecuniary difficul- ties, he had recourse ; for he descended to a meanness of which few, if any, of the reputable portion of his subjects would have been guilty, — namely, the soliciting money from all persons of distinction whom he encountered. The better to excite sympathy and compassion, the king and queen, putting aside the robes befitting their state, adopted simple ones, and, self- invited, dined at the tables of the rich, — a condescension so