Margaret of Anjou Part 21

[Sidenote: London.]

When Edward arrived in London he was received by the whole population as their deliverer. A grand council of the n.o.bles and prelates was convened, and, after solemn deliberations, Henry was deposed and Edward was declared king.

Two days after this a great procession was formed, at the head of which Edward rode royally to Westminster and took his seat upon the throne.

[Sidenote: Battle of Towton.]

Margaret made one more desperate effort to retrieve the fortunes of her family by a battle fought at a place called Towton. This battle was fought in a snow-storm. It was an awful day. Margaret's party were entirely defeated, and nearly thirty thousand of them were left dead upon the field.

[Sidenote: Flight of the queen.]

As soon as the result was known, Margaret, taking with her her husband and child and a small retinue of attendants, fled to the northward.

She stopped a short time at the Castle of Alnwick,[15] a strong-hold belonging to one of her friends; but, finding that the forces opposed to her were gathering strength every day and advancing toward her, and that the country generally was becoming more and more disposed to yield allegiance to the new king, she concluded that it would not be safe for her to remain in England any longer.

[Footnote 15: See map of the border at the commencement of chapter xix.]

[Sidenote: Alnwick.]

So, taking her husband and the little prince with her, and also a few personal attendants, she left Alnwick, and crossed the frontier into Scotland, a fugitive and an exile, and with no hope apparently of ever being able to enter England again.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A ROYAL COUSIN.

[Sidenote: 1461.]

[Sidenote: Margaret in Scotland.]

[Sidenote: Her friends.]

As soon as Margaret escaped to Scotland, far from being disheartened by her misfortunes, she began at once to concert measures for raising a new army and going into England again, with a view of making one more effort to recover her husband's throne. She knew, of course, that there was a large body of n.o.bles, and of the people of the country, who were still faithful to her husband's cause, and who would be ready to rally round his standard whenever and wherever it should appear.

All that she required was the nucleus of an army at the outset, and a tolerably successful beginning in entering the country. There were knights and n.o.bles, and great numbers of men, every where ready to join her as soon as she should appear, but they were nowhere strong enough to commence a movement on their own responsibility.

[Sidenote: The prince.]

One of the measures which she adopted for strengthening her interest with the royal family of Scotland was to negotiate a marriage between the young prince, who was now seven years old, and a Scotch princess.

She succeeded in conditionally arranging this marriage, but she found that she could not raise troops for a second invasion of England.

[Sidenote: Messengers sent to France.]

In the mean time, she had sent three n.o.blemen as her messengers into France, to see what could be done in that country. France was her native land, and the king at that time, Charles VII., was her uncle.

She had strong reason to hope, therefore, that she might find aid and sympathy there. Toward the close of the summer, however, she received a letter from two of her messengers at Dieppe which was not at all encouraging.

[Sidenote: Their letter.]

The letter began by saying, on the part of the messengers, that they had already written to Margaret three times before; once by the return of the vessel, called the _Carvel_, in which they went to France, and twice from Dieppe, where they then were, but all the letters were substantially to communicate the same evil tidings, namely, that the king, her uncle, was dead, and that her cousin had succeeded to the throne, but that the new king seemed not at all disposed to regard her cause favorably. His officers at Dieppe had caused all their papers to be seized and taken to the king, and he had shut up one of their number in the castle of Arques, which is situated at a short distance from Dieppe. He had been apparently prevented from imprisoning the other two by their having been provided with a safe-conduct, which protected them.

[Sidenote: The messengers' advice to the queen.]

Furthermore, the writers of the letter bade the queen keep up good courage, and advised her, for the present, to remain quietly where she was. She must not, they said, venture herself, or the little prince, upon the sea in an attempt to come to France, unless she found herself exposed to great danger in remaining in Scotland. They wished her to notify the king, too, who they supposed was at that time secreted in Wales, for they had heard that the Earl of March--they would not call him King of England, but still designated him by his old name--was going into Wales with an army to look for him.

[Sidenote: Their professions and promises.]

They said, in conclusion, that as soon as they were set at liberty they should immediately come to the queen in Scotland. Nothing but death would prevent their rejoining her, and they devoutly hoped and believed that they should not be called to meet with death until they could have the satisfaction of seeing her husband the king and herself once more in peaceable possession of their realm.

But the reader may perhaps like to peruse the letter itself in the words in which it was written. It is a very good specimen of the form in which the English language was written in those days, though it seems very quaint and old-fas.h.i.+oned now. It was as follows:

[Sidenote: The letter itself.]

"MADAM,--Please your good G.o.d, we have, since our coming hither, written to your highness thrice; once by the carvel in which we came, the other two from Dieppe. But, madam, it was all one thing in substance, putting you in knowledge of your uncle's death, whom G.o.d a.s.soil, and how we stood arrested, and do yet. But on Tuesday next we shall up to the king, your cousin-german. His commissaires, at the first of our tarrying, took all our letters and writings, and bore them up to the king, leaving my Lord of Somerset in keeping at the castle of Arques, and my fellow Whyttingham and me (for we had safe-conduct) in the town of Dieppe, where we are yet.

"Madam, fear not, but be of good comfort, and beware ye venture not your person, nor my lord the prince, by sea, till ye have other word from us, unless your person can not be sure where ye are, and extreme necessity drive ye thence.

"And, for G.o.d's sake, let the king's highness be advised of the same; for, as we are informed, the Earl of March is into Wales by land, and hath sent his navy thither by sea.

"And, madam, think verily, as soon as we be delivered, we shall come straight to you, unless death take us by the way, which we trust he will not till we see the king and you peaceably again in your realm; the which we beseech G.o.d soon to see, and to send you that your highness desireth. Written at Dieppe the 30th day of August, 1461.

"Your true subjects and liegemen,

"HUNGERFORD and WHYTTINGHAM."

[Sidenote: Fidelity.]

[Sidenote: Suspense.]

[Sidenote: King Louis XI.]

Margaret remained through the winter in Scotland, anxiously endeavoring to devise means to rebuild her fallen fortunes. But all was in vain; no light or hope appeared. At length, when the spring opened, she determined to go herself to France and see the king her cousin, in hopes that, by her presence at the court, and her personal influence over the king, something might be done.

The king her cousin had been her playmate in their childhood. He was the son of Mary, her father Rene's sister. Mary and Rene had been very strongly attached to each other, and the children had been brought up much together. Margaret now hoped that, on seeing her again in her present forlorn and helpless condition, his former friends.h.i.+p for her would revive, and that he would do something to aid her.

[Sidenote: Want of funds.]

[Sidenote: Grat.i.tude.]

[Sidenote: Voyage to France.]

She was, however, entirely dest.i.tute of money, and she would have found it very difficult to contrive the means of getting to France, had it not been for the kindness of a French merchant who resided in Scotland, and whom she had known in former years in Nancy, in Lorraine, where she had rendered him some service. The merchant had since acquired a large fortune in commercial operations between Scotland and Flanders which he conducted. In his prosperity he did not forget the kindness he had received from the queen in former years, and, now that she was in want and in distress, he came forward promptly to relieve her. He furnished her with the funds necessary for her voyage, and provided a vessel to convey her and her attendants to the coast of France. She sailed from the port of Kirkcudbright, on the western coast of Scotland, and so pa.s.sed down through the Irish Sea and St. George's Channel, thus avoiding altogether the Straits of Dover, where she would have incurred danger of being intercepted by the English men-of-war.

She took the young prince with her. The king it was thought best to leave behind.

[Sidenote: 1462.]

[Sidenote: Funds exhausted.]