THE WEDDING.
[Sidenote: Preparations for the wedding.]
[Sidenote: Excitement.]
Preparations were now immediately made for solemnizing the marriage
and bringing the young queen at once to England. The marriage ceremony
by which a foreign princess was united to a reigning prince, according
to the custom of those times, was twofold, or, rather, there were two
distinct ceremonies to be performed, in one of which the bride, at her
father's own court, was united to her future husband by proxy, and in
the second the nuptials were celebrated anew with her husband himself
in person, after her arrival in his kingdom. Suffolk, as was stated in
the last chapter, was appointed to act as the king's proxy in this
case, for the performance of the first of these ceremonies. He was to
proceed to France, espouse the bride in the king's name, and convey
her to England. Of course a universal excitement now spread itself
among all the nobility and among all the ladies of the court, which
was awakened by the interest which all took in the approaching
wedding, and the desire they felt to accompany the expedition.
[Sidenote: Dresses.]
[Sidenote: Company.]
A great many of the lords and ladies began to make preparations to
join Lord and Lady Suffolk. Nothing was talked of but dresses,
equipments, presents, invitations, and every body was occupied in the
collecting and packing of stores and baggage for a long journey. At
length the appointed time arrived, and the expedition set out, and,
after a journey of many days, the several parties which composed it
arrived at Nancy, the capital city of Lorraine, where the ceremony was
to be performed.
[Sidenote: King and Queen of France.]
At about the same time, the King and Queen of France, accompanied by a
great concourse of nobles and gentlemen from the French court, who
were to honor the wedding with their presence, arrived. A great many
other knights and ladies, too, from the provinces and castles of the
surrounding country, were seen coming in gay and splendid cavalcades
to the town, when the appointed day drew nigh, eager to witness the
ceremony, and to join in the magnificent festivities which they well
knew would be arranged to commemorate and honor the occasion. In a
word, the whole town became one brilliant scene of gayety, life, and
excitement.
[Sidenote: The marriage ceremony is performed.]
[Sidenote: The bride's household.]
The marriage ceremony was performed in the church, with great pomp
and parade, and in the midst of a vast concourse of people, composed
of the highest nobility of Europe, both lords and ladies, and all
dressed in the most magnificent and distinguished costumes. No
spectacle could possibly be more splendid and gay. At the close of the
ceremony, the bride was placed solemnly in charge of Lady Suffolk, who
was to be responsible for her safety and welfare until she should
arrive in England, and there be delivered into the hands of her
husband. Lady Suffolk was a cousin of Cardinal Beaufort, and she
undoubtedly received this very exalted appointment through his favor.
The appointment brought with it a great deal of patronage and
influence, for a regular and extended household was now to be
organized for the service of the new queen, and of course, among all
the lords and ladies who had come from England, there was a very eager
competition to obtain places in it. There are enumerated among those
who were appointed to posts of service or honor in attendance on the
queen, under the Marchioness of Suffolk, five barons and baronesses,
seventeen knights, sixty-five squires, and no less than one hundred
and seventy-four valets, besides many other servitors, all under pay.
Then, in addition to these, so great was the eagerness to occupy some
recognized station in the train of the bride, that great numbers
applied for appointments to nominal offices for which they were to
receive no pay.
[Sidenote: The express.]
If Rene, Margaret's father, had been possessed of a fortune
corresponding to his rank, the expense of all these arrangements, at
least up to the time of the departure of the bridal party, would, have
been defrayed by him; but as it was, every thing was paid for by King
Henry, and the precise amount of every expenditure stands recorded in
certain old books of accounts which still remain among the ancient
English archives.
[Sidenote: Tournament.]
[Sidenote: The victors in the games.]
The nuptials of the princess were celebrated by a tournament and other
accompanying festivities, which were continued for eight days. In
these tournaments a great many mock combats were fought, in which the
most exalted personages present on the occasion took conspicuous and
prominent parts. The King of France himself appeared in the lists, and
fought with Rene, the father of the bride. The king was beaten. It
would have been impolite for any one to have vanquished the father of
the bride at a tournament held in honor of the daughter's nuptials.
The Count St. Pol, too, who had formerly been betrothed to Margaret,
but had not been allowed to marry her, fought very successfully, and
won a valuable prize, which was conferred upon him with great ceremony
by the hands of the two most distinguished ladies present, namely, the
Queen of France and Isabella of Lorraine, the bride's mother. Perhaps
he too was politely allowed to win his victory and his honorary prize,
in consideration of his submitting so quietly to the loss of the real
prize which his great competitor, the King of England, was so
triumphantly bearing away from him.
[Sidenote: Romantic incident.]
[Sidenote: Grand elopement.]
[Sidenote: The parents finally appeased.]
The celebrations of the eight days were interrupted and enlivened by
one remarkable incident, which for a time threatened to produce very
serious difficulty. It will be remembered that when the original
contract and treaty were made between Rene and the uncle of Isabella,
Antoine of Vaudemonte, at the time when peace was re-established
between them, after the battle in which Rene was taken prisoner, that
not only was it agreed that Margaret should be betrothed to the Count
St. Pol, but also that Yolante, Margaret's elder sister, was betrothed
to Antoine's son Ferry, as he was called.[3] Now Ferry seemed not
disposed to submit quietly, as St. Pol had done, to the loss of his
bride, and as he had never thus far been able to induce Rene and
Isabella to fulfill their agreement by consenting to the consummation
of the marriage, he determined now to take the matter into his own
hands. So he formed the scheme of an elopement. His plan was to take
advantage of the excitement and confusion attendant on the tournament
for carrying off his bride. He organized a band of adventurous young
knights who were willing to aid him in his enterprise, and, laying his
plans secretly and carefully, he, assisted by his comrades, seized the
young lady and galloped away with her to a place of safety, intending
to keep her there in his own custody until King Rene and her mother
should consent to her immediate marriage. King Rene, when he first
heard of his daughter's abduction, was very angry, and declared that
he would never forgive either Ferry or Yolante. But the King and Queen
of France interceded for the lovers, and Rene at last relented. Ferry
and Yolante were married, and all parties were made friends again,
after which the celebrations and festivities were renewed with greater
spirit and ardor than before.
[Footnote 3: The name was a contraction of Frederick.]
[Sidenote: Margaret takes leave of her friends.]
At length the time for the conclusion of the public rejoicings at
Nancy, and for the commencement of Margaret's journey to England,
arrived. Thus far, though nominally under the care and keeping of Lord
and Lady Suffolk, Margaret had of course been really most intimately
associated with her own family and friends; but now the time had come
when she was to take a final leave of her father and mother, and of
all whom she had known and loved from infancy, and be put really and
fully into the trust and keeping of strangers, to be taken by them to
a distant and foreign land. The parting was very painful. It seems
that Margaret's beauty and the charming vivacity of her manners had
made her universally beloved, and the hearts not only of her father
and mother, but of the whole circle of those who had known her, were
filled with grief at the thought of parting with her forever.
[Sidenote: Setting out of the procession.]
The King and Queen of France, who seem to have loved their niece with
sincere affection, determined to accompany her for a short distance,
as she set out on her journey from Nancy. Of course, many of the
courtiers went too. These together with the great number of English
nobles and gentry that were attached to the service of the bride, made
so large a company, and the dresses, caparisons, and trappings which
were exhibited on the occasion were so splendid and fine, that the
cavalcade, as it set out from the city of Nancy on the morning when
the journey was to commence, formed one of the gayest and grandest
bridal processions that the world has ever seen.
[Sidenote: Parting with the King and Queen of France.]
After proceeding for five or six miles the procession came to a halt,
in order that the King and Queen of France might take their leave. The
parting filled the hearts of their majesties with grief. The king
clasped Margaret again and again in his arms when he bade her
farewell, and told her that in placing her, as he had done, upon one
of the greatest thrones in Europe, it seemed to him, after all, that
he had really done nothing for her, "for even such a throne is
scarcely worthy of you, my darling child," said he. In saying this his
eyes filled with tears. The queen was so overwhelmed with emotion that
she could not speak; but, kissing Margaret again and again amid her
sobbings and tears, she finally turned from her and was borne away.
[Sidenote: Margaret's parents.]
Margaret's father and mother did not take their leave of her at this
place, but went on with her two days' journey, as far as to the town
of Bar le Duc, which was near the frontiers of Lorraine. Here they,
too, at last took their leave, though their hearts were so full, when
the moment of final parting came, that they could not speak, but bade
their child farewell with tears and caresses, unaccompanied with any
words whatever of farewell.
[Sidenote: The bride's new friends.]
Still Margaret was not left entirely alone among strangers when her
father and mother left her. One of her brothers, and some other
friends, were to accompany her to England. She had, moreover, by this
time become well acquainted with the Marquis and Marchioness of
Suffolk, under whose charge and protection she was now traveling, and
she had become strongly attached to them. They were both considerably
advanced in life, and were grave and quiet in their demeanor, but they
were very kind and attentive to Margaret in every respect, and they
made every effort in their power to console the grief that she felt at
parting with her parents and friends, and leaving her native land, and
they endeavored in every way to make the journey as comfortable and as
agreeable as possible to her.
[Sidenote: The vessel.]
[Sidenote: Causes of delay.]
During all this time a vessel, which had been dispatched from England
for the purpose, was waiting at a certain port on the northern coast
of France called Kiddelaws, ready to take the queen and her bridal
train across the Channel. The distance from Nancy to this port was
very considerable, and the means and facilities for traveling enjoyed
in those days were so imperfect that a great deal of time was
necessarily employed on the journey. Besides this, a long delay was
occasioned by the want of funds. King Henry had himself agreed to
defray all the expenses of the marriage, and also of the progress of
the bridal party through France to England. These expenses were
necessarily great, and it happened at this time that the king was in
very straitened circumstances in respect to funds. He was greatly
embarrassed, too, in the efforts which he made to procure money, by
the difficulties which were thrown in his way by the party of the Duke
of Gloucester, who resisted by every means in their power all action
of Parliament tending to furnish the king's treasury with money, and
thus promote the final accomplishment of the marriage.
[Sidenote: Henry's want of money.]
In consequence of all these difficulties and delays, it was nearly
three months from the time when the bridal ceremony was performed at
Nancy before Margaret was ready to embark for England in the vessel
that awaited her at Kiddelaws.
[Sidenote: Expenses to be incurred in England.]
It was not merely for the expenses of the journey through France of
Margaret and her train that Henry had to provide. On her arrival in
England there was to be a grand reception, which would require many
costly equipages, and the giving of many entertainments. Then,
moreover, the marriage ceremony was to be performed anew, and in a far
more pompous and imposing manner than before, and after the marriage a
coronation, with all the attendant festivities and celebrations. All
these things involved great expense, and Margaret could not come into
the kingdom until the preparations were made for the whole. To such
straits was the king reduced in his efforts to raise the money which
he deemed necessary for the proper reception of his bride, that he was
obliged to pledge a large portion of the crown jewels, and also of the
family plate and other personal property of that kind. A considerable
part of the property so pledged was never redeemed.
[Sidenote: Passage across the Channel.]
[Sidenote: Rough weather.]
At length, however, things were so far in readiness that orders
arrived for the sailing of the expedition. The party accordingly
embarked, and the vessel sailed. They crossed the Channel, and entered
Portsmouth harbor, and finally landed at the town of Porchester, which
is situated at the head of the harbor. The voyage was not very
agreeable. The vessel was small, and the Channel in this place is
wide, and Margaret was so sick during the passage, and became so
entirely exhausted, that when the vessel reached the port she could
not stand, and Suffolk carried her to the shore in his arms.
[Sidenote: Margaret's reception.]
The boisterous weather which had attended the party during their
voyage increased till it ended in a dreadful storm of thunder,
lightning, and rain, which burst over the town of Porchester just at
the time while the party were landing. The people, however, paid no
attention to the storm and rain, but flocked in crowds into the
streets where the bride was to pass, and strewed rushes along the way
to make a carpet for her. They also filled the air with joyful
acclamations as the procession passed along. In this way the royal
bride was conveyed through the town to a convent in the vicinity,
where she was to rest for the first night, and prepare for continuing
her journey to London.
[Sidenote: Passage to Southampton.]
The next day, the weather having become settled and fair, it was
arranged that Margaret and her party should be conveyed from
Porchester to Southampton along the shore in barges. The water of this
passage is smooth, being sheltered every where by the land. The barges
first moved down Portsmouth harbor, then out into what is called the
Solent Sea, which is a narrow, sheltered, and beautiful sheet of
water, lying between the Isle of Wight and the main land, and thence,
entering Southampton Water, they passed up, a distance of eight or ten
miles, to the town.[4]
[Footnote 4: See Frontispiece.]
[Sidenote: The queen takes lodgings in a convent.]
On the arrival of the queen at Southampton, she was conveyed again to
a convent in the vicinity of the town, for this was before the days of
hotels. Here she was met by persons sent from the king to assist her
in respect to her farther preparations for appearing at his court.
Among other measures that were adopted, one was the sending a special
messenger to London to bring an English dressmaker to Southampton, in
order that suitable dresses might be prepared for the bride, to enable
her to appear properly in the presence of the English ladies at the
approaching ceremonies.
[Sidenote: The king.]
[Sidenote: Lichfield Abbey.]
[Sidenote: Margaret is seriously sick.]
In the mean time, King Henry, whom the rules of royal etiquette did
not allow to join the queen until the time should arrive for the
performance of the second part of the nuptial ceremony, came down from
London, and took up his abode at a place ten or twelve miles distant,
called Southwick, where he had a palace and a park. The nuptials were
to be celebrated at a certain abbey called Lichfield Abbey, which was
situated about midway between Southampton, where the queen was
lodged, and Southwick, the place of waiting for the king. The king had
expected that every thing would be ready in a few days, but he was
destined to encounter a new delay. Margaret had scarcely arrived in
Southampton when she was attacked by an eruptive fever of some sort,
resembling small-pox, which threw all her friends into a state of
great alarm concerning her. The disease, however, proved less serious
than was at first apprehended, and after a week or two the danger
seemed to be over.
During all the time while his bride was thus sick Henry remained in
great suspense and anxiety at Southwick, being forbidden, by the rigid
rules of royal etiquette, to see her.
[Sidenote: Recovery.]
At length Margaret recovered, and the day was appointed for the final
celebration of the nuptials. When the time arrived, Margaret was
conveyed in great state, and at the head of a splendid cavalcade, to
the abbey, and there the marriage ceremony was again performed in the
presence of a great concourse of lords and ladies that had come from
London and Windsor, or from their various castles in the country
around, to be present on the occasion.
[Illustration: Suffolk Presenting Margaret to the King.]
[Sidenote: 1445.]
[Sidenote: The final ceremony.]
This final ceremony was performed in April, 1445. Of course, as
Margaret was born in March, 1429, she was at this time sixteen
years and one month old.
[Sidenote: Strange bridal present.]
Among other curious incidents which are recorded in connection with
this wedding, there is an account of Margaret's receiving, as a
present on the occasion--for a pet, as it were, just as at the present
day a young bride might receive a gift of a spaniel or a
canary-bird--a lion. It was very common in those times for the wealthy
nobles to keep such animals as these at their castles. They were
confined in dens constructed for them near the castle walls. The kings
of England, however, kept their lions, when they had any, in the Tower
of London, and the practice thus established of keeping wild beasts in
the Tower was continued down to a very late period; so that I remember
of often reading, when I was a boy, in English story-books, accounts
of children, when they went to London, being taken by their parents to
see the "lions in the Tower."
[Sidenote: The lion sent to the Tower.]
Margaret sent her lion to the Tower. In the book of expenses which was
kept for this famous bridal progress, there is an account of the sum
of money paid to two men for taking care of this lion, feeding him and
conveying him to London. The amount was L2 5_s._ 3_d._, which is equal
to about ten or twelve dollars of our money. This seems very little
for such a service, but it must be remembered that the value of money
was much greater in those times than it is now.
[Sidenote: Margaret continues her journey toward London.]
[Sidenote: Rejoicings.]
Immediately after the marriage ceremony was completed, the
preparations for the journey having been all made beforehand, the king
and queen set out together for London, and it soon began to appear
that this part of the journey was to be more splendid and gay than any
other. The people of the country, who had heard marvelous stories of
the youth and beauty and the early family misfortunes of the queen,
flocked in crowds along the roadsides to get a glimpse of her as she
passed, and to gaze on the grand train of knights and nobles that
accompanied her, and to admire the magnificence of the dresses and
decorations which were so profusely displayed. Every body came wearing
a daisy in his cap or in his buttonhole, for the daisy was the flower
which Margaret had chosen for her emblem. At every town through which
the bride passed she was met by immense crowds that thronged all the
accessible places, and filled the windows, and in some places covered
the roofs of the houses and the tops of the walls, and welcomed her
with the sound of trumpets, the waving of banners, and with prolonged
shouts and acclamations.
[Sidenote: The Duke of Gloucester.]
[Sidenote: His plans.]
[Sidenote: His invitation to the queen.]
In the mean time, the Duke of Gloucester, who, with his party, had
done every thing in his power to oppose the marriage, now, finding
that it was an accomplished fact, and that all farther opposition
would not only be useless, but would only tend to hasten and complete
his own utter downfall, concluded to change his course, and join
heartily himself in the general welcome which was given to the bride.
His plan was to persuade the queen that the opposition which he had
made to King Henry's measures was directed only against the peace
which had been made with France, and which he had opposed for
political considerations alone, but that, so far as the marriage with
Margaret was concerned, he approved it. So he prepared to outdo, if
possible, all the rest of the nobility in the magnificence of the
welcome which he was to give her on her arrival in London. He
possessed a palace at Greenwich, on the Thames, a short distance below
London, and he sent an invitation to Margaret to come there on the
last day of her journey, in order to rest and refresh herself a little
preparatory to the excitement and fatigue of entering London. Margaret
accepted this invitation, and when the bridal procession began to
draw nigh, Gloucester came forth to meet her at the head of a band of
five hundred of his own retainers, all dressed in his uniform, and
wearing the badge of his personal service. This great parade was
intended partly to do honor to the bride, and partly to impress her
with a proper sense of his own rank and importance as one of the
nobles of England, and of the danger that she would incur in making
him her enemy.
[Sidenote: Great preparations in London.]
[Sidenote: Curious exhibitions.]
[Sidenote: Justice and peace.]
Very splendid preparations were made in the city of London to do honor
to the royal bride in her passage through the city. It was the custom
in those times to exhibit in the streets, on great public days,
tableaux, and emblematic or dramatic representations of certain truths
or moral sentiments appropriate to the occasion, and sometimes of
passages of Scripture history. A great many of these exhibitions were
arranged by the citizens of London, to be seen by the bride and the
bridal procession as they passed through the streets. Some of these
were very quaint and queer, and would only be laughed at at the
present day. For instance, in one place was an arrangement of two
figures, one dressed to represent justice, and the other peace; and
these figures were made movable and fitted with strings, so that, at
the proper moment, when the queen was passing, they could be made to
come together and apparently kiss each other. This was intended as an
expression of the text, justice and peace have kissed each other,
which was considered as an appropriate text to characterize and
commemorate the peace between England and France which this marriage
had sealed. In another place there was an emblematical pageant
representing peace and plenty. There were also, at other places,
representations of Noah's ark, of the parable of the wise and foolish
virgins, of the heavenly Jerusalem, and even one of the general
resurrection and judgment day.
[Sidenote: The queen passes through London.]
On the morning of the day appointed for the queen's entry into London,
the pageants having all been prepared and set up in their places, a
grand procession of the mayor and aldermen, and other dignitaries, was
formed, and proceeded down the river toward Greenwich, in order to
meet the queen and escort her through the city. These civic officers
were all mounted on horseback, and dressed in their gay official
costumes. The chiefs were dressed in scarlet, and the body of their
followers, arranged in bands according to their respective trades,
wore blue gowns, with embroidered sleeves and red hoods. In this way
the royal procession was escorted over London Bridge, and through the
principal streets of the city to Westminster, where the bride was at
length safely received in the palace of her husband.
[Sidenote: The coronation.]
[Sidenote: The queen left to repose.]
This was on the 28th of May. Two days afterward Margaret was crowned
queen in Westminster with great parade and ceremony. The coronation
was followed by a grand tournament of three days' duration,
accompanied with banquets and other festivities usual on such
occasions, and then at length the bride had the satisfaction of
feeling that the long-protracted ceremony was over, and that she was
now to be left to repose.