Page:The Queens of England.djvu/167

ANNE OF BOHEMIA. 141 land and Calais, with the intention, it was reported, of seizing upon the person of the princess, and partly to a violent ground- swell, which, rising at the moment she was about to embark, rent the ship in pieces — she arrived in safety. At this period Richard was sixteen ; Anne, a year younger. He is described as "the loveliest youth that the eye could be- hold/' singularly fond of splendor and magnificence, generous and munificent; "fair, and of a ruddy complexion, well made, finely shaped, somewhat taller than the middle size, and ex- tremely handsome." He had a lisp in his speech which would have "become a lady better, and an hastiness of temper, which subjected him to some inconveniences; but he had an infinite deal of good nature, great politeness, and a candor that could not be enough admired." But Richard had been brought up oy his mother and her sons in the most lavish indulgence, and in the most fatal ideas of his own importance. As to the person of the young queen, it is more difficult to form a correct notion ; she is repeatedly called "the beauteous aueen ;" but the portraits that exist of her do not give an idea of great loveliness. Her dress seems to have been more re- markable for singularity than for elegance or taste. Stow tells us that the female fashion of the day (which she introduced) was a high head dress, two feet high and as many wide, built of wire and pasteboard, and with piked horns, and a long train- ing gown ; it seems, however, that they occasionally wore hoods instead of these widespreading and monstrous coiffures, which must have been equally ridiculous and unbecoming. The Church denounced them as the "moony tire" mentioned by Ezekiel, and very possibly, as they were brought from the East by the Crusaders. Sidesaddles (more resembling pillions than the sidesaddles of the present day) were also brought into England by her ; and pins, such as are now in use, have been said to have been introduced by her, though pins were certainly common long before. Nothing could exceed the splendor that attended the royal bride's entrance into London ; she was met by the Goldsmiths' Company, splendidly attired. At the Fountain in Cheapside the citizens presented to her and to the king a gold crown, of great value each ; and when the procession had proceeded a little further, a table of gold, with a representation of the Trinity richly embossed or chased upon it — worth about ten thousand