Page:The Queens of England.djvu/155

PHILIPPA OF HAINAULT. 131 William the Good. Edward at an early age had taken refuge at the court of Hainault with his mother, and there a mutual attachment sprung up between Philippa and himself ; and thus by a strange dispensation of fortune, the vices of the mother were the instruments for providing the son with a virtuous, rational, active and affectionate wife. But though the betrothal took- place at Valenciennes in October, 1327, the marriage did not occur until Janu- ary, 1328, at York. At this period he was still under the domination of his mother and the infamous Mortimer, who appropriated to themselves all the power and the revenues of the state. With little pomp, therefore, his union must have been celebrated, had not his bride, who was the daughter of one of the richest princes of that time, arrived in England with a splendid retinue and all the other accessories of opulence. Thanks, therefore, to this assistance, and to the attendance of many of the nobility, the ceremony of the marriage was per- formed with a decent parade. Thus, from the very beginning of his life until the end, one of the most prominent features in the career of this redoubted conqueror was his poverty. In vain he appears to have strained acts, and to have violated acts ; to have systematized plunder under the title of purveyance ; to have infringed all the rights of property, and all the few privileges which the subjects then possessed; to have taxed, traded, begged, borrowed, stolen, and even pawned his own person to his creditors — still the mighty Edward and his hungry court seem always to have been half-clothed and half-fed. For nearly two years after his marriage, Edward still re- mained under the sinister influence of Isabella and Mortimer. But in the autumn of 1330 he undertook one of those enter- prises which excite in its favor the interest and sympathy of every reader. Being as he was, not yet eighteen, he resolved to rid himself of the pernicious control of his vicious mother and her usurping and detestable paramour ; when he, the sov- ereign, to obtain this end, was compelled to work as secretly and darkly as if he had been some fell conspirator seeking to destroy the_ rightful occupant of the throne. With so much prudence did he mature his plans, and with so much spirit execute them, that the blow fell on the base Mortimer like a thunderbolt ; and without even the power to attempt resistance, he was made a prisoner in Nottingham Castle. But then the .lawless disposition of Edward evinced itself; for prompted