Chapter VIII: Marguerite D’anjou

“The loveliest Princess in Christendom”--A storm-rocked
cradle--A child’s kiss--Troubadours and glee-maidens--An
eligible suitor--The love of all the boys--Neglected
education--A delighted grandmother--Marriage tangles--Philippe,
Count de Nevers, repudiated--Henry VI. of England looking for
a Queen--The “Three Graces of Armagnac”--Cardinal Beaufort
charmed with Marguerite--An unpainted face--“Oh fie! oh
fie!”--An autograph letter--Splendid nuptials--La Confrèrerie
de la Passion--Too poor to buy her own wedding dress--A
peachy blush--Fine fashions--Gold garter chains--Sumptuous
hair-dressing--A “Marguerite” flower-holder--A sorrowful
parting--A truly royal train--The entente cordiale--The Queen
short of ready cash--A stormy passage--Chicken-pox?--The
King’s ring--A famous tire-woman--Extraordinary
presents--Pageants--Queen Margaret crowned--“La Française”--The
Queen’s strong character--The Duke of York nonplussed--Pious
foundations--The King’s seizure--She had to play the
man!--The Prince of Wales--York’s dastardly insinuations--A
costly churching-robe--Civil war begins--Margaret leads
the Lancastrians in person--Success and failure--York’s
grey gory head--“Love Lady-Day”--Lord Grey de Ruthen’s
treason--King Henry a prisoner in the Tower--“Fie on thee, thou
traitor!”--The Queen in Scotland--King Louis’s double game--A
shipwreck--A common robette--Galant Sir Pierre de Brézé--“Une
Merrie Mol!”--The kiss of etiquette--Thorns--All the poets
sing of Margaret--All is lost!--Margaret at home again--Earl
of Warwick’s loyalty--A diplomatic marriage--The sea flouts
Margaret--Perjured Lord Wenlock--A treacherous blow--The Prince
murdered--“Bloody Edward”--The “she-wolf”--Hands tied behind
her back--King Henry killed--The Queen in a dungeon--René’s
pathetic letter--The great heroine of the Wars of the
Roses--Repose at Reculée--A lioness at bay--“The grim grey wolf
of Anjou”--A sad and lonely death 253-305