MARGUERITE OF FRANCE, SECOND QUEEN OF EDWARD I.
(A.D. 1282-1317.)
|King Edward I. was so grieved at the death of his "_chère reine_,"
that he gave himself up to the deepest melancholy, which lasted several
months. He was growing old, and felt the loss of his companion of
many years most keenly. However, he learned in time to submit to the
inevitable, and roused himself to attend to the affairs of his kingdom.
No sooner did his ministers observe this favorable change in the mind
of their monarch than they set to work to effect further improvement
by seeking a successor to the defunct queen. Their choice fell on
Marguerite, the sister of Philip le Bel of France.
[[A. D. 1299.]] After the usual preliminaries the treaty was duly
signed, and the marriage was celebrated at Canterbury, Sept. 8, 1299.
Marguerite was only seventeen years old, but she was such a good,
sedate and pious woman that her union with a man old enough to be her
grandfather proved by no means an unhappy one. On the contrary, she
exercised a wholesome influence over him, and prompted him to many
merciful and worthy actions.
It was due to her persuasion that the poor widow, Lady Marguerite
Howard, was released from a debt to the crown which she could not
possibly have paid, and many of her subjects could cite similar acts
prompted by her good and tender heart. {176}The citizens of Winchester
were deeply indebted to her for preserving them from King Henry's wrath
when Bernard Pereres, a hostage from the city of Bayonne, made his
escape. He had been confided to the care of the mayor of Winchester, and
was looked upon as a prisoner of the greatest importance. King Edward
placed a sheriff in charge of the city, deprived the people of all their
liberties, fined the mayor three hundred marks, and shut him up in the
Marshalsea prison until he should be able to pay the sum. The Winchester
citizens were in despair, and threw themselves on the mercy of their
queen. She recalled the exhibition of loyalty that they had made when
she appeared among them a bride, and her heart warmed towards them in
their distress. Fortunately, she was able to aid them, for the king had
presented her with the charter of Winchester, thus entitling her to
all the fines levied on its citizens. With this document she presented
herself before her lord, and claimed the unfortunate mayor with his
three hundred marks, as her property. Edward yielded, and even restored
the liberties of which he had, in his displeasure, deprived the
Winchester people. They never ceased to be grateful to Queen Marguerite.
But this occurred after she had been Edward's wife several years. We
must return to the beginning of her reign.
On the Wednesday after his marriage, the king was suddenly and
unexpectedly summoned to Scotland because of a rebellion that had broken
out there. During his absence the queen occupied apartments in the
Tower, and as the small-pox was raging in London that season, her court
were quarantined in that palace.
The following year she joined the king in Scotland, but stopped at
Brotherton in Yorkshire while he was fighting his battles.
[[A. D. 1300.]] On the first of June, 1300, her first child
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[Illustration: 0181]
{179}was born. It was a boy, and Queen Marguerite gave him the name of
Thomas, after the favorite English saint, Thomas à Becket of Canterbury.
The queen occupied Cawood Castle at that time, and during the four years
she spent in that magnificent fortress, her husband was laying siege
to one stronghold after another, until Scotland was subdued from sea
to sea. Stirling Castle was the last one to yield, but when King
Edward made his triumphal journey home to England, its brave commander,
Wallace, was carried a captive in the royal train.
On their return to London, the king and queen gave a series of
entertainments to celebrate the conquest of Scotland. One of the
grandest tournaments ever witnessed in England took place at that time,
at Westminster Palace, on which occasion Prince Edward and two hundred
other noblemen were knighted. In 1308 the queen had another son. She
named him Edmund, and he afterward became the Earl of Kent.
[[A. D. 1308.]] King Edward was on his way to Scotland in 1308, but fell
ill before he reached the border. He lingered until the Prince of Wales
reached him, and with his dying breath commanded his son, "to be kind
to his little brothers, and, above all, to treat with respect and
tenderness his mother, Queen Marguerite."
Much sorrow was felt at the death of their warrior king, but his wife
mourned for the loss of the tender, affectionate husband Edward had
always been.
A few months after his death she went to France to be present at the
marriage of Edward II., with her niece, Isabella. On her return to
England she lived in seclusion, devoting her time and money to deeds of
charity. Marguerite died on the 14th of February, 1317, at the early
age of thirty-six, and was buried at the Grey Friars church, a splendid
building that she had founded.
[[A. D. 1317.]] {180} Her stepson, Edward II., had always loved her, and
to show his respect for her memory, he not only had her pall draped with
rich material of silk striped with gold, but erected a splendid monument
besides.
Queen Marguerite is the ancestress of all the English nobility bearing
the name of Howard, who unite in their veins the blood of St. Louis with
the greatest of the Plantagenet kings.
[Illustration: 0184]
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