GOOD QUEEN ANNE.
A.D. 1382-1394
The planning of Richard's first marriage.--Journey of the bridal party
toward England.--Their way is cut off by sea.--The bride enters
Calais.--Great display.--The bride arrives in England.--Great
excitement in London.--A contrast.--The bride enters London.--Parades
and rejoicings.--Character of the queen.--Why she was called Good Queen
Anne.--Ancient drawings.--Curious fashions of those times.--Costumes
of Richard's time.--The Cracows.--Origin of the name.--The horned
caps.--Description of the horns.--Pins.--Side-saddles.--Queen
Anne's useful and busy life.--Shene.--Grand celebration.--The
tournament.--Knights.--Magnificence of the king's mode of life.--Death
of Queen Anne.--The king inconsolable.--The funeral.--Inscription on
Queen Anne's tomb.
King Richard was married twice. His first queen was named Anne. She
was a Bohemian princess, and so is sometimes called in history Anne of
Bohemia. She was, however, more commonly called Good Queen Anne.
The marriage was planned by Richard's courtiers and counselors when
Richard himself was about fifteen years old. The negotiations were
interrupted by the troubles connected with the insurrection described
in the two last chapters; but immediately after the insurrection was
quelled they were renewed. The proposals were sent to Bohemia by
Richard's government. After suitable inquiries had been made by Anne's
parents and friends, the proposals were accepted, and preparations
were made for sending Anne to England to be married. Richard was now
about sixteen years of age. Anne was fifteen. Neither of them had ever
seen the other.
In due time, when every thing had been made ready, the princess set
out on her journey, accompanied by a large train of attendants. She
was under the charge of a nobleman named the Duke of Saxony, and of
his wife the duchess. The duchess was Anne's aunt. Besides the duke,
there were in the party a number of knights, and other persons of
distinction, and also several young ladies of the court, who went to
accompany and wait upon the princess. There were also many other
attendants of lower degree.
The party traveled slowly, as was the custom in those days, until at
length they reached Flanders. Here, at Brussels, the capital, the
princess was received by the Duke and Duchess of Brabant, who were her
relatives, and was entertained by them in a very sumptuous manner.
She, however, heard alarming news at Brussels. The intention of the
party had been to take ship on the coast of Flanders, and proceed to
Calais by water. Calais was then in the hands of the English, and an
embassador with a grand suite had been sent from Richard's court to
receive the princess on her arrival there, and conduct her across the
Channel to Dover, and thence to London.
The reason why the princess and her party did not propose to go by
land all the way to Calais was that, by so doing, they would
necessarily pass through the territories of the King of France, and
they were afraid that the French government would intercept them. It
was known that the government of France had been opposed to the match,
as tending to give Richard too much influence on the Continent.
But now, on their arrival at Brussels, the bridal party learned that
there was a fleet of Norman vessels, ten or twelve in number, that
were cruising to and fro on the coast, between Brussels and Calais,
with a view of blocking up the princess's way by sea as well as by
land. Both she herself and the Duke of Saxony were much chagrined at
receiving this information, and for a time they did not know what to
do. At length they sent an embassage to Paris, and after some
difficulties and delay they succeeded in obtaining the consent of the
French government that the princess should pass through the French
territories by land. The embassadors brought back a passport for her
and for her party.
Although the King of France thus granted the desired permission, he
did it in a very ungracious manner, for he took care to say that he
yielded to the Duke of Saxony's request solely out of kindness to his
good cousin Anne, and a desire to do her a favor, and not at all out
of regard to the King of England.
The princess was detained a month in Brussels while they were
arranging this affair, and when at last it was settled she resumed her
journey, taking the road from Brussels to Calais. The Duke of Brabant
accompanied her, with an escort of one hundred spearmen. This,
however, was an escort of honor rather than of protection, as the duke
relied mainly upon the French passport for the safety of the party.
As the party were approaching Calais, they were received at the town
of Gravelines by the English embassador and his suite, who had come
out from Calais to meet them. This embassador was the Earl of
Salisbury. He was attended by a force of one thousand men, namely,
five hundred spearmen and five hundred archers. Conducted by this
grand escort, and accompanied by a large cavalcade of knights and
nobles, all clad in full armor, and splendidly mounted, the princess
and the ladies in her train made a magnificent entry into Calais,
through the midst of a vast concourse of spectators, with trumpets
sounding and banners waving, and their hearts beating high with
ecstasy and delight. In passing over the drawbridge and through the
gates of Calais, Anne felt an emotion of exultation and pride in
thinking that she was here entering the dominions of her future
husband.
The princess did not remain long in Calais. She set out on the
following day for Dover. The distance across is about twenty miles.
They were dependent wholly on the wind in those days for crossing the
Channel; but the princess had a prosperous passage, and arrived safely
at Dover that night. News then spread rapidly all over the country,
and ran up to London, that the queen had come.
The news, of course, produced universal excitement. No certain tidings
of the movements of the bride had been heard for some weeks before,
and no one could tell when to expect her. Her arrival awakened
universal joy. Parliament was in session at the time. They voted a
large sum of money to be expended in arrangements for receiving the
young queen in a proper manner, and in public rejoicings on the
occasion. They then immediately adjourned, and all the world began to
prepare for the arrival of the royal cortege in London.
The princess, after resting a day in Dover, moved on to Canterbury,
admiring, as she journeyed, the beautiful scenery of the country over
which she was henceforth to be queen. Richard's uncle Thomas, the Duke
of Gloucester, with a large retinue, was ready there to receive her.
He conducted her to London. As they approached the city, the
lord-mayor of London and all the great civic functionaries, with a
long train of attendants, came out in great state to receive her and
escort her into town. The place of their meeting with her was
Blackheath, the same place which a year before had been the bivouac of
the immense horde of ragged and miserable men that Wat Tyler and his
fellow-insurgents had brought to London. But how changed now was the
scene! Then the country was excited by the deepest anxiety and alarm,
and the spectacle on the field was that of one immense mass of squalid
poverty and wretchedness, of misery reduced by hopeless suffering to
recklessness and despair. Now all was gayety and splendor in the
spectacle, and the whole country was excited to the highest pitch of
exultation and joy.
At Blackheath the grand cavalcade was formed for passing through
London. Splendid preparations had been made in London to receive the
bride, and to do honor to her passage through the city. Many of these
preparations were similar to those which had been made on the occasion
of the king's coronation. There was a castle and tower, with young
girls at the top throwing down a shower of golden snow, and fountains
at the sides flowing with wine, with fancifully-dressed pages
attending to offer the princess drink from golden cups. In a word, the
young and beautiful bride was received by the civic authorities of
London with the same tokens of honor and the same public rejoicings
that had been accorded to the king.
In a few days the marriage took place. The ceremony was performed in
the chapel royal of the king's palace at Westminster. The king
appeared to be very much pleased with his bride, and paid her great
attention. After a week spent with her and the court in festivities
and rejoicings in Westminster, he took her up the river to the royal
castle at Windsor. His mother, the Princess of Wales, and other ladies
of rank, went with them, and formed part of their household. They
lived here very happily together for some time.
The young queen soon began to evince those kind and gracious qualities
of heart which afterward made her so beloved among the people of
England. Instead of occupying herself solely with her own greatness
and grandeur, and with the uninterrupted round of pleasures to which
her husband invited her, she began very soon to think of the
sufferings which she found that a great many of the common people of
England were enduring, and to consider what she could do to relieve
them. The condition of the people was particularly unhappy at this
time, for the king and the nobles were greatly exasperated against
them on account of the rebellion, and were hunting out all who could
be proved, or were even suspected to have been engaged in it, and
persecuting them in the most severe and oppressive manner, and they
were bloody and barbarous beyond precedent. The young queen, hearing
of these things, was greatly distressed, and she begged the king, for
her sake, to grant a general pardon to all his subjects, on the
occasion of her coronation, which ceremony was now soon to be
performed. The king granted this request, and thus peace and
tranquillity were once more fully restored to the land.
After this, during all her life, Anne watched for every opportunity to
do good, and she was continually engaged in gentle but effective
efforts to heal dissensions, to assuage angry feelings, and to
alleviate suffering. She was a general peace-maker; and her lofty
position, and the great influence which she exercised over the king,
gave her great power to accomplish the benevolent purposes which the
kindness of her heart led her to form.
The arrival of the young queen produced a great sensation among the
ladies of Richard's court, in consequence of the new fashions which
she introduced into England. The fashions of dress in those days were
very peculiar. We learn what they were from the pictures, drawn with
the pen or painted in water-colors, in the manuscripts of those days
that still remain in the old English libraries. There are a great many
of these drawings, and, as they agree together in the style and
fashion of the costumes represented, there is no doubt that they give
us correct ideas of the dresses really worn. Besides, there are many
allusions in the chronicles of those times, and in poems and books of
accounts, which correspond precisely with the drawings, and thus
confirm their correctness and accuracy.
The engravings on the following page are copied from one of these
ancient manuscripts.
Observe the singular forms of the caps, both those of the men and of
the women. The men wore sometimes jackets, and sometimes long gowns
which came down to the ground. The most singular feature of the
dresses of the men, however, is the long-pointed shoes. Were it not
that fashions are often equally absurd at the present day, we should
think it impossible that such shoes as these could ever have been
made.
[Illustration: MALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF RICHARD II.]
[Illustration: FEMALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF RICHARD II.]
These shoes were called Cracows. Cracow was a town in Poland which was
at that time within the dominions of Anne's father, and it is supposed
that the fashion of wearing these shoes may have been brought into
England by some of the gentlemen in Anne's train, when she came to
England to be married. It is known that the queen did introduce a
great many foreign fashions to the court, and, among the rest, a
fashion of head-dress for ladies, which was quite as strange as peaked
shoes for the gentlemen. It consisted of what was called the horned
cap.
[Illustration: FASHIONABLE HEAD-DRESSES.]
These horns were often two feet high, and sometimes two feet wide from
one side to the other. The frame of this head-dress was made of wire
and pasteboard, and the covering was of some glittering tissue or
gauze. There were other head-dresses scarcely less monstrous than
these. Some of them are represented in the engraving. These fashions,
when introduced by the queen, spread with great rapidity among all the
court ladies, and thence to all fashionable circles in England.
It is said, too, that it was this young queen who first introduced
pins into England. Dresses had been fastened before by little skewers
made of wood or ivory. Queen Anne brought pins, which had been made
for some time in Germany, and the use of them soon extended all over
England.
Side-saddles for ladies on horseback were a third fashion which Queen
Anne is said to have introduced. The side-saddle which she brought
was, however, of a very simple construction. It consisted of a seat
placed upon the horse's back, with a sort of step depending from it on
one side for the feet to rest upon. Both feet were placed upon this
step together.
Queen Anne, after her marriage, lived very happily with her husband
for twelve years. She was devotedly attached to him, and he seems
sincerely to have loved her. He was naturally kind and affectionate in
his disposition, and, while Anne lived, he yielded himself to the good
influences which she exerted over him. She journeyed with him wherever
he went, and aided him in the accomplishment of all his plans.
Whenever he became involved in any difficulty, either with his nobles
or with his subjects, she acted the part of mediator, and almost
always succeeded in allaying the animosity and healing the feud before
it proceeded to extremes. She resided with her husband sometimes at
one palace and sometimes at another, but her favorite residence was at
the palace of Shene, near the present town of Richmond.
Although the king was crowned at the time of his accession to the
throne, he did not fully assume the government at that time on account
of his youth, for you will remember that he was then only about eleven
years old; nor did he, in fact, come fully into possession of power at
the time of his marriage, for he was then under sixteen. At that time,
and for several years afterward, his uncles and the other influential
nobles managed the government in his name. At length, however, when
he was about twenty-one years old, he thought it was time for him to
assume the direction of affairs himself, and he accordingly did so. At
this time there was another grand celebration, one scarcely inferior
in pomp and splendor to the coronation itself.
Among other performances on this occasion there was a tournament, in
which knights mounted on horseback, and armed from head to foot with
iron armor, fought in the lists, endeavoring to unhorse each other by
means of their spears. The tournament was held at Smithfield. Raised
platforms were set up by the side of the lists for the lords and
ladies of the court, and a beautiful canopy for the queen, who was to
act as judge of the combat, and was to award the prizes. The prizes
consisted of a rich jeweled clasp and a splendid crown of gold.
The queen went first to the ground, and took her place with her
attendants under her canopy. The knights who were to enter the lists
then came in a grand cavalcade through the streets of London to the
palace. There were sixty ladies mounted on beautiful palfreys,
accoutred with the new-fashioned side-saddles. Each of these ladies
conducted a knight, whom she led by a silver chain. They were preceded
by minstrels and bands of instrumental music, and the streets were
thronged with spectators.
After the tournament there was a grand banquet at the palace of the
Bishop of London, with music and dancing, and other such amusements,
which continued to a late hour of the night.
* * * * *
For some years after this the king and queen lived together in great
prosperity. Outwardly things went pretty well with the king's affairs,
and, as he was fond of pomp and display, he gradually acquired habits
of very profuse and lavish expenditure. Indeed, he is said to have
made it an object of his ambition to surpass, in the magnificence of
his style of living, all the sovereigns of Europe. He kept many
separate establishments in his different palaces, and at all of them
gave entertainments and banquets of immense magnificence and of the
most luxurious character. It is said that three hundred persons were
employed in his kitchens.
At length, in the year 1394, when Richard was preparing for an
expedition into Ireland to quell a rebellion which had broken out
there, the queen was seized with a fatal epidemic which was then
prevailing in England, and after a short illness she died. She was at
her palace of Shene at this time. The king hastened to attend her the
moment that he heard the tidings of her illness, and was with her when
she died. He was inconsolable at the loss of his wife, for he had
loved her sincerely, and she had been a singularly faithful and
devoted wife to him. He was made almost crazy by her death. He
imprecated bitter curses on the palace where she died, and he ordered
it to be destroyed. It was, in fact, partially dismantled, in
obedience to these orders, and Richard himself never occupied it
again. It was, however, repaired under a subsequent reign.
Richard gave up, for the time being, his expedition into Ireland,
being wholly absorbed in his sorrow for the irreparable loss he had
suffered. He wrote letters to all the great nobles and barons of
England to come to the funeral, and the obsequies were celebrated with
the greatest possible pomp and parade. Two months were expended in
making preparations for the funeral. When the day arrived, a very long
procession was formed to escort the body from Shene to Westminster.
This procession was accompanied by an immense number of torch-bearers,
all carrying lighted torches in their hands. So great was the number
of these torches, that a large quantity of wax was imported from
Flanders expressly for the purpose.
The tomb of Anne was not made until a year after her death. Richard
himself attended to all the details connected with the construction of
it. The inscription was in Latin. The following is an exact
translation of it:
"Under this stone lies Anne, here entombed,
Wedded in this world's life to the second Richard.
To Christ were her meek virtues devoted:
His poor she freely fed from her treasures;
Strife she assuaged, and swelling feuds appeased;
Beauteous her form, her face surpassing fair.
On July's seventh day, thirteen hundred ninety-four,
All comfort was bereft, for through irremediable sickness
She passed away into interminable joys."
By the death of his wife, Richard was left, as it were, almost alone
in the world. His mother, the Princess of Wales, had died some time
before, and Anne had had no children. There were his uncles and his
cousins, it is true, but they were his rivals and competitors rather
than his friends. Indeed, they were destined soon to become his open
enemies.
Richard was afterward married again, to his "little wife," as we shall
see in a future chapter.