MARGARET'S FATHER AND MOTHER.
[Sidenote: 1420.]
[Sidenote: Provinces of France.]
In former times, the territory which now constitutes France was
divided into a great number of separate provinces, each of which
formed almost a distinct state or kingdom. These several provinces
were the possessions of lords, dukes, and barons, who ruled over them,
respectively, like so many petty kings, with almost absolute sway,
though they all acknowledged a general allegiance to the kings of
France or of England. The more northern provinces pertained to
England. Those in the interior and southern portions of the country
were under the dominion of France.
[Sidenote: Great families.]
The great families who held these provinces as their possessions ruled
over them in a very lordly manner. They regarded not only the
territory itself which they held, but the right to govern the
inhabitants of it as a species of property, which was subject, like
any other estate, to descend from parent to child by hereditary right,
to be conveyed to another owner by treaty or surrender, to be assigned
to a bride as her marriage portion, or to be disposed of in any other
way that the lordly proprietors might prefer. These great families
took their names from the provinces over which they ruled.
[Sidenote: Anjou.]
[Sidenote: King Rene.]
One of these provinces was Anjou.[1] The father of Margaret, the
subject of this history, was a celebrated personage named Regnier or
Rene, commonly called King Rene. He was a younger son of the family
which reigned over Anjou. It is from this circumstance that our
heroine derives the name by which she is generally designated--Margaret
of Anjou. The reason why her father was called _King_ Rene will appear
in the sequel.
[Footnote 1: See map at the commencement of the volume.]
[Sidenote: Lorraine.]
Another of the provinces of France above referred to was Lorraine.
Lorraine was a large, and beautiful, and very valuable country,
situated toward the eastern part of France. Anjou was considerably to
the westward of it.
[Sidenote: 1429.]
[Sidenote: Marriage of Rene to Isabella.]
The name of the Duke of Lorraine at this time was Charles. He had a
daughter named Isabella. She was the heiress to all her father's
possessions. She was a young lady of great beauty, of high spirit, of
a very accomplished education, according to the ideas of those times.
When Rene was about fourteen years old a match was arranged between
him and Isabella, who was then only about ten. The marriage was
celebrated with great parade, and the youthful pair went to reside at
a palace called Pont a Mousson, in a grand castle which was given to
Isabella by her father as a bridal gift at the time of her marriage.
Here it was expected that they would live until the death of her
father, when they were to come into possession of the whole province
of Lorraine.
[Sidenote: Birth of Margaret.]
In process of time, while living at this castle, Rene and Isabella had
several children. Margaret was the fifth. She was born in 1429. Her
birthday was March 23.
[Sidenote: Theophanie.]
The little infant was put under the charge of a family nurse named
Theophanie. Theophanie was a long-tried and very faithful domestic.
She was successively the nurse to all of Isabella's children, and the
family became so much attached to her that when she died Rene caused a
beautiful monument to be raised to her memory. This monument contained
a sculptured image of Theophanie, with two of the children in her
arms.
[Sidenote: 1431.]
Very soon after her birth Margaret was baptized with great pomp in the
Cathedral in the town of Toul. A large number of relatives of high
rank witnessed and took part in the ceremony.
[Sidenote: Isabella's uncle Antoine.]
[Sidenote: Conflict for the possession of Lorraine.]
When at length Charles, Duke of Lorraine, Isabella's father, died, and
the province should have descended to Isabella and Rene, there
suddenly appeared another claimant, who thought, not that he had a
better right to the province than Isabella, but that he had more power
to seize and hold it than she, even with all the aid that her husband
Rene could afford her. This claimant was Isabella's uncle, the younger
brother of Duke Charles who had just died. His name was Antoine de
Vaudemonte, or, as it would be expressed in English, Anthony of
Vaudemont. This uncle, on the death of Isabella's father, determined
to seize the duchy for himself, instead of allowing it to descend to
Isabella, the proper heir, who, being but a woman, was looked upon
with very little respect. "Lorraine," he said, "was too noble and
valuable a fief to descend in the family on the spindle side."
So he collected his adherents and retainers, organized an army, and
took the field. Isabella, on the other hand, did all in her power to
induce the people of the country to espouse her cause. Rene took the
command of the forces which were raised in her behalf, and went forth
to meet Antoine. Isabella herself, taking the children with her, went
to the city of Nancy[2]--which was then, as now, the chief city of
Lorraine, and was consequently the safest place for her--intending to
await there the result of the conflict. Little Margaret was at this
time about two years old.
[Footnote 2: The position of Nancy, as well as the situation
of the two provinces of Anjou and Lorraine, which are now
departments of France, may be seen by referring to any good
map of that country, or to that at the commencement of this
volume.]
[Sidenote: The battle.]
[Sidenote: Rene wounded and made prisoner.]
The battle was fought at a place called Bulgneville, and the fortune
of war, as it would seem, turned in this case against the right, for
Rene's party were entirely defeated, and he himself was wounded and
taken prisoner. He fought like a lion, it is said, as long as he
remained unharmed; but at last he received a desperate wound on his
brow, and the blood from this wound ran down into his eyes and blinded
him, so that he could do no more; and he was immediately seized by the
men who had wounded him, and made prisoner. The person who thus
wounded and captured him was the squire of a certain knight who had
espoused the cause of Antoine, named the Count St. Pol.
[Sidenote: Isabella's terror and distress.]
In the mean time Isabella had remained at Nancy with the children, in
a state of the utmost suspense and anxiety, awaiting the result of a
conflict on which depended the fate of every thing that was valuable
and dear to her. At length, at the window of the tower where she was
watching, with little Margaret in her arms, for the coming of a herald
from her husband to announce his victory, her heart sank within her to
see, instead of a messenger of joy and triumph, a broken crowd of
fugitives, breathless and covered with dust and blood, suddenly
bursting into view, and showing too plainly by their aspect of terror
and distress that all was lost. Isabella was overwhelmed with
consternation at the sight. She clasped little Margaret closely in her
arms, exclaiming in tones of indescribable agony, "My husband is
killed! my husband is killed!"
[Sidenote: Heavy tidings.]
Her distress and anguish were somewhat calmed by the fugitives
assuring her, when they arrived, that her husband was safe, though he
had been wounded and taken prisoner.
[Illustration: Distress of Margaret's Mother.]
[Sidenote: Sympathy for Isabella.]
[Sidenote: Isabella's interview with her uncle.]
There was a great deal of sympathy felt for Isabella in her distress
by all the people of Nancy. She was very young and very beautiful. Her
children, and especially Margaret, were very beautiful too, and this
greatly increased the compassion which the people were disposed to
feel for her. Isabella's mother was strongly inclined to make new
efforts to raise an army, in order to meet and fight Antoine again;
but Isabella herself, who was now more concerned for the safety of her
husband than for the recovery of her dominions, was disposed to pursue
a conciliatory course. So she sent word to her uncle that she wished
to see him, and entreated him to grant her an interview. Antoine
acceded to her request, and at the interview Isabella begged her uncle
to make peace with her, and to give her back her husband.
[Sidenote: Negotiations for peace.]
Antoine said that it was out of his power to liberate Rene, for he had
delivered him to the custody of the Duke of Burgundy, who had been his
ally in the war, and the duke had conveyed him away to his castle at
Dijon, and shut him up there, and that now he would probably not be
willing to give him up without the payment of a ransom. He said,
however, that he was willing to make a truce with Isabella for six
months, to give time to see what arrangement could be made.
[Sidenote: Hostages.]
This truce was agreed upon, and then, at length, after a long
negotiation, terms of peace were concluded. Rene was to pay a large
sum to the Duke of Burgundy for his ransom, and, in the mean time,
while he was procuring the money, he was to leave his two sons in the
duke's hands as hostages, to be held by the duke as security. In
respect to Lorraine, Antoine insisted, as another of the conditions of
peace, that Isabella's oldest daughter, Yolante, then about nine years
old, should be betrothed to his son Frederick, so as to combine, in
the next generation at least, the conflicting claims of the two
parties to the possession of the territory; and, in order to secure
the fulfillment of this condition, Yolante was to be delivered
immediately to the charge and custody of Antoine's wife, the mother of
her future husband. Thus all of Isabella's children were taken away
from her except Margaret. And even Margaret, though left for the
present with her mother, did not escape being involved in the
entanglements of the treaty. Antoine insisted that she, too, should be
betrothed to one of his partisans; and, as if to make the case as
painful and humiliating to Rene and Isabella as possible, the person
chosen to be her future husband was the very Count St. Pol whose
squire had cut down and captured Rene at the battle of Bulgneville.
[Sidenote: Hard conditions of peace.]
[Sidenote: Rene can not procure the money for his ransom.]
These conditions were very hard, but Isabella consented to them, as it
was only by so doing that any hope seemed to be opened before her of
obtaining the release of her husband. And even this hope, in the end,
proved delusive. Rene found that, notwithstanding all his efforts, he
could not obtain the money which the duke required for his ransom.
Accordingly, in order to save his boys, whom he had delivered to the
duke as hostages, he was obliged to return to Dijon and surrender
himself again a prisoner. His parting with his wife and children,
before going a second time into a confinement to which they could now
see no end, was heartrending. Even little Margaret, who was yet so
very young, joined from sympathy in the general sorrow, and wept
bitterly when her father went away.
[Sidenote: His long confinement.]
The duke confined his captive in an upper room in a high tower of the
castle of Dijon, and kept him imprisoned there for several years. One
of the boys was kept with him, but the other was set at liberty. All
this time Margaret remained with her mother. She was a very beautiful
and a very intelligent child, and was a great favorite with all who
knew her. The interest which was awakened by her beauty and her other
personal attractions was greatly increased by the general sympathy
which was felt for the misfortunes of her father, and the loneliness
and distress of her mother.
[Sidenote: 1436.]
[Sidenote: His occupations and amusements in prison.]
In the mean time, Rene, shut up in the tower at the castle of Dijon,
made himself as contented as he could, and employed his time in
various peaceful and ingenious occupations. Though he had fought well
in the battle with Antoine, he was, in fact, not at all of a warlike
disposition. He was very fond of music, and poetry, and painting; and
he occupied his leisure during his confinement in executing beautiful
miniatures and paintings upon glass, after the manner of those times.
Some of these paintings remained in the window of a church in Dijon,
where they were placed soon after Rene painted them, for several
hundred years.
[Sidenote: Origin of Rene's royal title.]
It has already been stated that the name by which Margaret's father is
commonly designated is King Rene. The origin of this royal title is
now to be explained. He had an older brother, who became by
inheritance, with Joanna his wife, king and queen of the Two Sicilies,
that is, of the kingdom consisting of the island of Sicily and the
territory connected with Naples on the main land. The brother, at the
close of his life, designated Rene as his heir. This happened in the
year 1436, while Rene was still in captivity in the castle of Dijon.
He could, of course, do nothing himself to assert his claims to this
new inheritance, but Isabella immediately assumed the title of Queen
of the Two Sicilies for herself, and began at once to make
preparation for proceeding to Italy and taking possession of the
kingdom.
[Sidenote: Isabella and the children at Tarascon.]
While maturing her plans, she took up her residence for a time at the
chateau of Tarascon, on the banks of the Rhone, with the two children
who remained under her care, namely, her son Louis and Margaret. Her
other son was at Dijon with his father, and the other daughter,
Yolante, had been given up, as has already been said, to the custody
of the wife of Antoine, with a view of being married, as soon as she
was old enough, to Antoine's son.
The children attracted great attention at Tarascon. Their mother
Isabella was by birth a lady of very high rank, her family being
intimately connected with the royal family of France. She was now,
too, by title at least, herself a queen. The children were very
intelligent and beautiful, and the misfortunes and cruel captivity of
their father and brother were known and talked of in all the country
around. So the peasants and their families crowded around the chateau
to see the children. They brought them wreaths of flowers and other
votive offerings. They sang songs to serenade them, and they built
bonfires around the walls of the chateau at night, to drive away the
infection of the plague, which was then prevailing in some parts of
the country, and was exciting considerable alarm.
[Sidenote: Witches and the plague.]
The people of the country believed that this plague was produced by
magic and witchcraft, and there were some poor old women, who came
with the other peasants to the walls of the chateau of Tarascon to see
the children, who were believed to be witches. Afterward the plague
broke out at Tarascon, and Margaret's mother was obliged to go away,
taking the children with her. The poor women were, however, seized and
burned at the stake, it being universally believed that it was they
who had caused the plague.
[Sidenote: Isabella goes into Italy.]
Isabella's arrangements were now so far matured that she went at once
into Italy with the children, and took up her abode there in the town
of Capua. Rene still remained in captivity, but Isabella caused him to
be proclaimed King of the Two Sicilies with great pomp and parade. At
the time of this ceremony, the two children, Margaret and her brother,
were seated beside their mother in a grand state carriage, which was
lined with velvet and embroidered with gold, and in this way they were
conveyed through the streets of the city.
[Sidenote: Rene is at last set free.]
After a time Rene was liberated from his confinement, and restored to
his family, but he did not long enjoy this apparent return of
prosperity. His claim to the kingdom of Naples was disputed, and,
after a conflict, he was expelled from the country. In the mean time,
the English had so far extended their conquests in France that both
his native province of Anjou, and his wife's inheritances in Lorraine,
had fallen into their hands, so that with all the aristocratic
distinction of their descent, and the grandeur of their royal titles,
the family were now, as it were, without house or home. They returned
to France, and Isabella, with the children, found refuge from time to
time with one and another of the great families to which she was
related, while Rene led a wandering life, being reduced often to a
state of great destitution.
[Sidenote: His temper and disposition.]
[Sidenote: King Rene's fireside.]
He, however, bore his misfortunes with a very placid temper, and
amused himself, wherever he was, with music, poetry, and painting. He
was so cheerful and good-natured withal that he made himself a very
agreeable companion, and was generally welcome, as a visitor, wherever
he went. He retained the name of King Rene as long as he lived, though
he was a king without a kingdom. At one time he was reduced, it is
said, to such straits that to warm himself he used to walk to and fro
in the streets of Marseilles, on the sunny side of the buildings,
which circumstance gave rise to a proverb long known and often quoted
in those parts, which designated the act of going out into the sun to
escape from the cold as warming one's self at King Rene's fireside.
Such was the family from which Margaret of Anjou sprang.