Margaret of Anjou Part 6

[Sidenote: His conversations with the king.]

If this was the secret plan of the cardinal, it succeeded admirably well. The king's curiosity was strongly awakened by the piquant accounts that Champchevrier gave him of the brilliancy of young Margaret's beauty, and of her charming vivacity and wit.

[Sidenote: The king wishes for a picture.]

"I should like very much to see a picture of the young lady," said the king.

"I can easily obtain a picture of her for your majesty," replied Champchevrier, "if your majesty will commission me to go to Lorraine for the purpose."

Champchevrier considered that a commission from the king to go to Lorraine on business for his majesty would be a sufficient release for him from the obligations of his parole.

[Sidenote: Champchevrier's expedition.]

The king finally gave Champchevrier the required authority to leave the kingdom. Champchevrier was not satisfied with a verbal permission merely, but required the king to give him a regular safe-conduct, drawn up in due form, and signed by the king's name. Having received this doc.u.ment, Champchevrier left London and set out upon his journey, the nature and object of the expedition being of course kept a profound secret.

[Sidenote: The Earl of Suffolk.]

A certain n.o.bleman, however, named the Earl of Suffolk, was admitted to the confidence of the king in this affair, and was by him a.s.sociated with Champchevrier in the arrangements which were to be made for carrying the plan into execution. It would seem that he accompanied Champchevrier in his journey to Lorraine, where Margaret was then residing with her mother, and there a.s.sisted him in making arrangements for the painting of the picture. They employed one of the first artists in France for this purpose. When the work was finished, Champchevrier set out with it on his return to England.

[Sidenote: Champchevrier in danger.]

In the mean time, the English knight whose prisoner Champchevrier was, heard in some way that his captive had left England, and had returned to France, and the intelligence made him exceedingly angry. He thought that Champchevrier had broken his parole and had gone home without paying his ransom. Such an act as this was regarded as extremely dishonorable in those days, and it was, moreover, not only considered dishonorable in a prisoner himself to break his parole, but also in any one else to aid or abet him in so doing, or to harbor or protect him after his escape. The knight determined, therefore, that he would at once communicate with the King of France on the subject, explaining the circ.u.mstances, and asking him to rearrest the supposed fugitive and send him back.

[Sidenote: Gloucester writes to the King of France.]

So he went to the Duke of Gloucester, and, stating the case to him, asked his grace to write to the King of France, informing him that Champchevrier had escaped from his parole, and asking him not to give him refuge, but to seize and send him back. Gloucester was very willing to do this. It is probable that he knew that Champchevrier was a friend of the cardinal's, or at least that he was attached to his interests, and that it was altogether probable that his going into France was connected with some plot or scheme by which the cardinal and his party were to derive some advantage. So he wrote the letter, and it was at once sent to the King of France. The King of France at this time was Charles VII.

[Sidenote: Champchevrier arrested.]

The king, on receiving the letter, gave orders immediately that Champchevrier should be arrested. By this time, however, the painting was finished, and Champchevrier was on the way with it from Lorraine toward England. He was intercepted on his journey, taken to Vincennes, and there brought before King Charles, and called upon to give an account of himself.

[Sidenote: The whole story comes out.]

Of course he was now obliged to tell the whole story. He said that he had not broken his parole at all, nor intended in any manner to defraud his captor in England of the ransom money that was due to him, but had come to France _by the orders of the King of England_. He explained, too, what he had come for, and showed Charles the painting which he was carrying back to the king. He also, in proof of the truth of what he said, produced the safe-conduct which King Henry had given him.

King Charles laughed very heartily at hearing this explanation, and at perceiving how neatly he had discovered the secret of King Henry's love affairs. He was much pleased, too, with the idea of King Henry's taking a fancy to a lady so nearly related to the royal family of France. He thought that he might make the negotiation of such a marriage the occasion for making peace with England on favorable terms. So he dismissed Champchevrier at once, and recommended to him to proceed to England as soon as possible, and there to do all in his power to induce King Henry to choose Margaret for his queen.

[Sidenote: Trouble in court.]

Champchevrier accordingly returned to England and reported the result of his mission. The king was very much pleased with the painting, and he immediately determined to send Champchevrier again to Lorraine on a secret mission to Margaret's mother. He first, however, determined to release Champchevrier entirely from his parole, and so he paid the ransom himself for which he had been held. The Duke of Gloucester watched all these proceedings with a very jealous eye. When he found that Champchevrier, on his return to England, came at once to the king's court, and that there he held frequent conferences, which were full of mystery, with the king and with the cardinal, and when, moreover, he learned that the king had paid the ransom money due to the knight, and that Champchevrier was to be sent away again, he at once suspected what was going on, and the whole court was soon in a great ferment of excitement in respect to the proposed marriage of the king to Margaret of Anjou.

[Sidenote: Gloucester's opposition.]

[Sidenote: Margaret gains the day.]

[Sidenote: Truce proposed.]

The Duke of Gloucester and his party were, of course, strongly opposed to Margaret of Anjou; for they knew well that, as she had been brought to the king's notice by the other party, her becoming Queen of England would well-nigh destroy their hopes and expectations for all time to come. The other party acted as decidedly and vigorously in favor of the marriage. There followed a long contest, in which there was plotting and counterplotting on one side and on the other, and manoeuvres without end. At last the friends of the beautiful little Margaret carried the day; and in the year 1444 commissioners were formally appointed by the governments of England and France to meet at the city of Tours at a specified day, to negotiate a truce between the two countries preparatory to a permanent peace, the basis and cement of which was to be the marriage of King Henry with Margaret of Anjou.

The truce was made for two years, so as to allow full time to arrange all the details both for a peace between the two countries, and also in respect to the terms and conditions of the marriage.

[Sidenote: Opposition in England.]

As soon as the news that this truce was made arrived in England, it produced great excitement. The Duke of Gloucester and those who were, with him, interested to prevent the accomplishment of the marriage, formed a powerful political party to oppose it. They did not, however, openly object to the marriage itself, thinking that not politic, but directed their hostility chiefly against the plan of making peace with France just at the time, they said, when the glory of the English arms and the progress of the English power in that country were at their height. It was very discreditable to the advisers of the king, they said, that they should counsel him to stop short in the career of conquest which his armies were pursuing, and thus sacrifice the grand advantages for the realm of England which were just within reach.

[Sidenote: Violent discussions.]

[Sidenote: Suffolk is alarmed.]

The discussions and dissensions which arose in the court and in Parliament on this subject were very violent; but in the end Cardinal Beaufort and his party were successful, and the king appointed the Earl of Suffolk emba.s.sador extraordinary to the court of France to negotiate the terms and conditions of the permanent peace which was to be made between the two countries, and also of the marriage of the king. At first Suffolk was very unwilling to undertake this emba.s.sy.

He feared that, in order to carry out the king's wishes, he should be obliged to make such important concessions to France that, at some future time, when perhaps the party of the Duke of Gloucester should come into power, he might be held responsible for the measure, and be tried and condemned, perhaps, for high treason, in having been the means of sacrificing the interests and honor of the kingdom by advising and negotiating a dishonorable peace. These fears of his were probably increased by the intensity of the excitement which he perceived in the Gloucester party, and perhaps, also, by open threats and demonstrations which they may have uttered for the express purpose of intimidating him.

[Sidenote: His safe-conduct.]

At any rate, after receiving the appointment, his courage failed him, and he begged the king to excuse him from performing so dangerous a commission. The king was, however, very unwilling to do so. Finally, it was agreed that the king should give the earl his written order, executed in due and solemn form, and signed with the great seal, commanding him, on the royal authority, to undertake the emba.s.sage.

Suffolk relied on this doc.u.ment as his means of defense from all legal responsibility for his action in case his enemies should at any future time have it in their power to bring him to trial for it.

[Sidenote: Various difficulties and objections.]

In negotiating the peace, and in arranging the terms and conditions of the marriage, a great many difficulties were found to be in the way, but they were all at last overcome. One of these difficulties was made by King Rene, the father of Margaret. He declared that he could not consent to give his daughter in marriage to the King of England unless the king would first restore to him and to his family the province of Anjou, which had been the possession of his ancestors, but which King Henry's armies had overrun and conquered. The Earl of Suffolk was very unwilling to cede back this territory, for he knew very well that nothing would be so unpopular in England, or so likely to increase the hostility of the English people to the proposed marriage, and consequently to give new life and vigor to the Gloucester party in their opposition to it, as the giving up again of territory which the English troops had won by so many hard-fought battles and the sacrifice of so many lives. But Rene was inflexible, and Suffolk finally yielded, and so Anjou was restored to its former possessors.

[Sidenote: The king asks no dowry.]

Another objection which Rene made was that his fortune was not sufficient to enable him to endow his daughter properly for so splendid a marriage; not having the means, he said, of sending her in a suitable manner into England.

But this the King of England said should make no difference. All that he asked was the hand of the princess without any dowry. Her personal charms and mental endowments were sufficient to outweigh all the riches in the world; and if her royal father and mother would grant her to King Henry as his bride, he would not ask to receive with her "either penny or farthing."

[Sidenote: The king has a rival.]

[Sidenote: Margaret's wishes.]

King Henry was made all the more eager to close the negotiations for the marriage as soon as possible, and to consent to almost any terms which the King of France and Rene might exact, from the fact that there was a young prince of the house of Burgundy--a very brave, handsome, and accomplished man--who was also a suitor for Margaret's hand, and was very devotedly attached to her. This young prince was in France at this time, and ready, at any moment, to take advantage of any difficulty which might arise in the negotiations with Henry to press his claims, and, perhaps, to carry off the prize. Which of the two candidates Margaret herself would have preferred there is no means of knowing. She was yet only about fifteen years of age, and was completely in the power and at the disposal of her father and mother.

And then the political and family interests which were at stake in the decision of the question were too vast to allow of the personal preferences of the young girl herself being taken much into the account.

[Sidenote: The affair finally settled.]

At last every thing was arranged, and Suffolk returned to England, bringing with him the treaty of peace and the contract of marriage, to be ratified by the king's council and by Parliament. A new contest now ensued between the Gloucester and Beaufort parties. The king, of course, threw all his influence on the cardinal's side, and so the treaty and the contract carried the day. Both were ratified. The Earl of Suffolk, as a reward for his services, was made a marquis, and he was appointed the king's proxy to proceed to France and espouse the bride in the king's name, according to the usual custom in the case of royal marriages.

CHAPTER VI.

THE WEDDING.

[Sidenote: Preparations for the wedding.]

[Sidenote: Excitement.]