induced him to seek that with France. His grief for the loss of his beloved Anne had been so intense, that, as before stated, he never could bear to behold the palace of Shene, where she had expired; though he deemed it right to marry again, his regret for her loss was yet too bitter and too fresh to allow him to regard with complacency the idea of already giving her a successor in his affections. He thought, .therefore, that by selecting as his wife a child of such tender years, time would have softened his grief before she was of an age to rival in his heart the memory of her he had lost; this was his first reason; the others were of a political nature.
The Duke of Gloucester, his uncle— who is described as "a man very dangerous and enterprising, possessed of a great estate, yet doing nothing but for money, of wonderful parts, and an excellent politician; proud, presumptuous, imperious, revengeful, bloody, false, and insincere; rather feared than loved, yet having a strong party attached to his interests"—had resolved on getting the government of the nation into his own hands, if not on absolutely taking possession of the throne. Against such an enemy, Richard deemed that the alliance of Charles the Sixth would prove a great protection, and as he, far from sharing in the anxiety of his subjects to continue an unequal and injurious war with France, desired nothing more than a lasting peace with that country, he saw in this marriage the means of procuring that blessing, or at least a truce of such long duration as would insure him repose from that quarter for the remainder of his reign.
Accordingly, the Archbishop of Dublin, the Bishop of St. David's, the Earls of Rutland and Nottingham, Lord Beaumont, and William le Scrope, chamberlain of the household, were sent to negotiate the marriage. They were commanded to insist that the portion of Isabella should not be less than two hundred and fifty thousand marks, and were in return to offer ten thousand marks a year rent in land for her jointure. Their proposals, however," were not immediately accepted, as negotiations had been entered into between Charles and the Duke de Bretagne for a marriage between her and the eldest son of that nobleman, which had almost terminated in an engagement, beside which, no treaty of peace having yet been made between the two monarchs, the French council deemed it not right that their king should give his daughter to one who was still an adversary: as, however, they were as well disposed for peace
