THE LITTLE QUEEN.
A.D. 1395-1396
Some account of Isabella of France, the little queen.--Richard opens
negotiations with the King of France.--A grand embassage sent to
France.--Their reception.--Interview of the embassadors with little
Isabella.--The negotiations go on satisfactorily.--The marriage
ceremony is performed by proxy.--Richard makes arrangements to go
and receive his bride.--Grand preparations for the expedition.--The
meeting on the French frontier.--The pavilions.--Precautions to guard
against violence or treachery.--Ceremonious interviews.--Grand
entertainment.--Richard receives his bride.--The palanquin.--Excitement
in London.--Reception of the little queen.--The little queen's mode of
life in England.
King Richard's second wife was called the little queen, because she
was so young and small when she was married. She was only about nine
years old at that time. The story of this case will show a little how
the marriages of kings and princesses in those days were managed.
It was not long after the death of good Queen Anne before some of
Richard's courtiers and counselors began to advise him to be married
again. He replied, as men always do in such cases, that he did not
know where to find a wife. The choice was indeed not very large, being
restricted by etiquette to the royal families of England and of the
neighboring countries. Several princesses were proposed one after
another, but Richard did not seem to like any of them. Among other
ladies, one of his cousins was proposed to him, a daughter of the Duke
of Gloucester. But Richard said no; she was too nearly related to him.
At last he took it into his head that he should like to marry little
Isabella, the Princess of France, then about nine years old. The idea
of his being married to Isabella was calculated to surprise people for
two reasons: first, because Isabella was so small, and, secondly,
because the King of France, her father, was Richard's greatest and
most implacable enemy. France and England had been on bad terms with
each other not only during the whole of Richard's reign, but through a
great number of reigns preceding; and now, just before the period when
this marriage was proposed, the two nations had been engaged in a long
and sanguinary war. But Richard said that he was going to make peace,
and that this marriage was to be the means of confirming it.
"But she is altogether too young for your majesty," said Richard's
counselors. "She is a mere child."
"True," said the king; "but that is an objection which will grow less
and less every year. Besides, I am in no haste. I am young enough
myself to wait till she grows up, and, in the mean time, I can have
her trained and educated to suit me exactly."
So, after a great deal of debate among the king's counselors and in
Parliament, it was finally decided to send a grand embassage to Paris
to propose to the King of France that he should give his little
daughter Isabella in marriage to Richard, King of England.
This embassage consisted of an archbishop, two earls, and twenty
knights, attended each by two squires, making forty squires in all,
and five hundred horsemen. The party proceeded from London to Dover,
then crossed to Calais, which was at this time an English possession,
and thence proceeded to Paris.
When they arrived at Paris they entered the city with great pomp and
parade, being received with great honor by the French king, and they
were lodged sumptuously in quarters provided for them.
The embassadors were also very honorably received at court. The king
invited them to dine with him, and entertained them handsomely, but
many objections were made to the proposed marriage.
"How can we," said the French counselors, "give a Princess of France
in marriage to our worst and bitterest enemy?"
To this the embassadors replied that the marriage would establish and
confirm a permanent peace between the two countries.
Then there was another objection. Isabella was already engaged. She
had been betrothed some time before to the son of a duke of one of
the neighboring countries. But the embassadors said that they thought
this could be arranged.
While these negotiations were going on, the embassadors asked
permission to see the princess. This at first the king and queen,
Isabella's father and mother, declined. They said that she was only
eight or nine years old, and that such a child would not know at all
how to conduct at such an interview.
However, the interview was granted at last. The embassadors were
conducted to an apartment in the palace of the Louvre, where the
princess and her parents were ready to receive them. On coming into
the presence of the child, the chief embassador advanced to her, and,
kneeling down before her, he said,
"Madam, if it please God, you shall be our lady and queen."
The princess looked at him attentively while he said this. She was a
very beautiful child, with a gentle and thoughtful expression of
countenance, and large dark eyes, full of meaning.
She replied to the embassador of her own accord in a clear, childish
voice,
"Sir, if it please God and my lord and father that I be Queen of
England, I should be well pleased, for I have been told that there I
shall be a great lady."
Isabella then took the kneeling embassador by the hand and lifted him
up. She then led him to her mother.
The embassadors were extremely pleased with the appearance and
behavior of the princess, and were more than ever desirous of
succeeding in their mission. But, after some farther negotiations,
they received for their answer that the French court were disposed to
entertain favorably the proposal which Richard made, but that nothing
could be determined upon the subject at that time.
"We must wait," said the king, "until we can see what arrangement can
be made in regard to the princess's present engagement, and then, if
King Richard will send to us again, next spring we will give a final
answer."
So slow are the movements and operations in such a case as this among
the great, that the embassadors were occupied three weeks in Paris in
advancing the business to this point. They were, however, well
satisfied with what they had done, and at length took their leave, and
returned to London in high spirits with their success, and reported
the result to King Richard. He himself was well satisfied too.
The negotiations went on prosperously during the winter, and in the
spring another embassage was sent, larger than the preceding. The
attendants of this embassage were several thousand in number, and they
occupied a whole street in Paris when they arrived there. By this
embassage the arrangement of the marriage was finally concluded. The
ceremony was in fact performed, for Isabella was actually married to
Richard, by proxy as it is called, a customary mode of conducting
marriages between a princess and a king. One of the embassadors, a
grand officer of state, personated King Richard on this occasion, and
the marriage was celebrated with the greatest possible pomp and
splendor.
Besides the marriage contracts, there were various other treaties and
covenants to be drawn up, and signed and sealed. All this business
required so much time, that this embassage, like the other, remained
three weeks in Paris, and then they returned home to London, and
reported to Richard what they had done.
Still the affair was not yet fully settled. A great many of the nobles
and the people of England very strenuously opposed the match, for they
wished the war with France to be continued. This was particularly the
case with Richard's uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. He had greatly
distinguished himself in the war thus far, and he wished it to be
continued; so he did all he could to oppose the consummation of the
marriage, and the negotiations and delays were long protracted.
Richard, however, persevered, and at length the obstacles were so far
removed, that in the fall of 1396 he began to organize a grand
expedition to go with him to the frontiers of France to receive his
bride.
Immense preparations were made on both sides for the ceremonial of
this visit. The meeting was to take place on the frontier, since
neither sovereign dared to trust himself within the dominions of the
other, for fear of treachery. For the same reason, each one deemed it
necessary to take with him a very large armed force. Great stores of
provisions for the expedition were accordingly prepared, and sent on
beforehand; portions being sent down the Thames from London, and the
rest being purchased in Flanders and other countries on the Continent,
and forwarded to Calais by water. The King of France also, for the use
of his party, sent stores from Paris to all the towns in the
neighborhood of the frontier.
Among the ladies of the court on both sides there was universal
emulation and excitement in respect to plans and preparations which
they had to make for the wedding. Great numbers of them were to
accompany the expedition, and nothing was talked of but the dresses
and decorations which they should wear, and the parts that they should
respectively perform in the grand parade. Hundreds of armorers, and
smiths, and other artisans were employed in repairing and embellishing
the armor of the knights and barons, and in designing and executing
new banners, and new caparisons for the horses, richer and more
splendid than were ever known before.
There was a great deal of heartburning and ill-will in respect to the
Duke of Lancaster's new wife, with whom the other ladies of the court
had declared they would not associate on any terms. The king was
determined that she should go on the expedition, and the other ladies
consequently found themselves obliged either to submit to her
presence, or forego the grandest display which they would ever have
the opportunity to witness as long as they should live. They concluded
to submit, though they did it with great reluctance and with a very
ill grace.
At length every thing was ready, and the expedition, leaving London,
journeyed to Dover, and then crossed the Straits to Calais. A long
time was then consumed in negotiations in respect to the peace; for,
although Richard himself was willing to make peace on almost any
terms, so that he might obtain his little bride, his uncles and the
other leading nobles made great difficulties, and it was a long time
before the treaties could be arranged. At length, however, every thing
was settled, and the preparations were made for delivering to Richard
his bride.
Two magnificent pavilions were erected near the frontier, one on the
French and the other on the English side. These pavilions were for the
use of the two monarchs respectively, and of their lords and nobles.
Then, in the centre, between these, and, of course, exactly upon the
frontier, a third and more open pavilion was set up. In this central
pavilion the two kings were to have their first meeting. For either of
the kings to have entered first into the dominions of the other would
have been, in some sense, an acknowledgment of inferiority on his
part. So it was contrived that neither should first visit the other,
but that they should advance together, each from his own pavilion, and
meet in the central one, after which they could visit each other as it
might be convenient. The first interview therefore took place in the
centre pavilion. It was necessary, however, to take some strong
precautions against treachery. Accordingly, before the meeting, an
oath was administered to both monarchs, by which each one solemnly
asseverated that he was acting in good faith in this transaction, and
that he had no secret reservation or treachery in his heart, and
pledged his sacred honor that the other should suffer no violence,
damage, molestation, arrest, constraint, or any other inconvenience
whatever during the interview.
As an additional precaution, a strong force, consisting of four
hundred knights on each side, all fully armed, were drawn up on
opposite sides of the central pavilion, the English troops on the
English side, and the French on the French side.[I] These troops were
arranged in such a manner that the King of England should pass between
the ranks of the English knights in going to the pavilion, and the
French king between the French knights.
[Footnote I: Besides these knights, each of the kings had a strong
force stationed in reserve, at a little distance from their respective
pavilions, to be ready in case of any difficulty.]
Things being thus arranged, at the appointed hour the two kings set
out together from their own pavilions, and walked, accompanied each
by a number of dukes and nobles of high rank, to the central
pavilion. Here the kings, both being uncovered, approached each other.
They saluted each other in a very friendly manner, and held a brief
conversation together. Some of the accounts say that the French king,
then taking the English king by the hand, led him to the French tent,
the French dukes who had accompanied him following with the English
dukes who had accompanied Richard, and that there the whole party
partook of refreshment.
However this may be, the first interview was one mainly of ceremony.
Afterward there were other interviews in the different pavilions.
These alternating visits were continued for several days, until at
length the time was appointed for a final meeting, at which the little
queen was to be delivered into her husband's hands.
This final grand ceremony took place in the French pavilion. The order
of proceeding was as follows. First there was a grand entertainment.
The table was splendidly laid out, and there was a sideboard loaded
with costly plate. At the table the kings were waited upon by dukes.
During the dinner, Richard talked with the King of France about his
wife, and about the peace which was now so happily confirmed and
established between the two countries.
After dinner the cloth was removed and the tables were taken away.
When the pavilion was cleared a door was opened, and a party of ladies
of the French court, headed by the queen, came in, conducting the
little princess. As soon as she had entered, the King of France took
her by the hand and led her to Richard. Richard received her with a
warm welcome, and, lifting her up in his arms, kissed her. He told the
King of France that he was fully sensible of the value of such a gift,
and that he received it as a pledge of perpetual amity and peace
between the two countries. He also, as had been previously agreed
upon, solemnly renounced all claim to the throne of France on account
of Isabella or her descendants, forever.
He then immediately committed the princess to the hands of the Duchess
of Lancaster, and the other ladies, and they at once conveyed her to
the door of the tent. Here there was a sort of palanquin,
magnificently made and adorned, waiting to receive her. The princess
was put into this palanquin, and immediately set out for Calais.
Richard and the immense train of knights and nobles followed, and
thus, at a very rapid pace, the whole party returned to Calais.
A few days after this the marriage ceremony was performed anew between
Richard and Isabella, Richard himself being personally present this
time. Great was the parade and great the rejoicing on this occasion.
After the marriage, the little queen was again put under the charge of
the Duchess of Lancaster and the other English ladies who had been
appointed to receive her.
In the mean time, all London was becoming every day more and more
excited in expectation of the arrival of the bridal party there. Great
preparations were made for receiving them. At length, about a
fortnight after taking leave of her father, Isabella arrived in
London. She spent the first night at the Tower, and on the following
day passed through London to Westminster in a grand procession. An
immense concourse of people assembled on the occasion. Indeed, such
was the eagerness of the people to see the queen on her arrival in
London, that there were nine persons crushed to death by the crowd on
London Bridge when she was passing over it.
The queen took up her residence at Windsor Castle, where she was under
the charge of the Duchess of Lancaster and other ladies, who were to
superintend her education. King Richard used to come and visit her
very often, and on such occasions she was excused from her studies,
and so she was always glad to see him; besides, he used to talk with
her and play with her in a very friendly and affectionate manner. He
was now about thirty years old, and she was ten. He, however, liked
her very much, for she was very beautiful, and very amiable and
affectionate in her manners. She liked to have Richard come and see
her too, for his visits not only released her for the time from her
studies, but he was very gentle and kind to her, and he used to play
to her on musical instruments, and sing to her, and amuse her in
various other ways. She admired, moreover, the splendor of his dress,
for he always came in very magnificent apparel.
In a word, Richard and his little queen, notwithstanding the disparity
of their years, were both very well pleased with the match which they
had made. Richard was proud of the youth and beauty of his wife, and
Isabella was proud of the greatness, power, and glory of her husband.