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i(52 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. the captive princes, unceasingly besought her brother, the King of Castile, to interfere and procure their release, which he did successfully, and thus Joanna at last obtained her freedom by the intercession of the very prince who had refused to accept her as affianced bride. Joanna of Navarre first becomes distinguished in history on the occasion of her marriage with John the Fourth, Duke of Brittany. She was that prince's third wife. John had passed his youth in England ; and his first consort was Mary Planta- genet, the daughter of King Edward the Third, with whose family he had been educated. Upon the death of this lady, without children, he entered into a second union, three years after, with the half-sister of King Richard the Second, the Lady Jane Holland. At the time that Joanna was first proposed to him as his third consort, fears were entertained by the Regents of France that the duke's par- tiality to England would induce him to enter into another al- liance with that country. To counteract the disadvantage of such a match, and to secure Brittany as a fief for France, they proposed to John that he. should become a suitor for the hand of their niece, the Princess Joanna of Navarre, with whom they offered a very high dower. Some years before this proposition, Joan of Navarre, the aunt of Joanna, had married the Viscount de Rohan, a relative and vassel of the Duke of Brittany ; this lady was employed by the regents to bring about the marriage of their niece. It was through her exertions that John de Montfort, although declin- ing in years, was induced to unite himself with the Spanish princess, who was then in the bloom of youth ; and Pierre de Lesnerac was dismissed, in June, 1384, to solicit for the duke, the hand of Joanna, and to convey her into Brittany/ Many obstacles occurred in the course of these negotiations, which delayed the marriage, but there was no indifference on the part of the duke, who, having no children, was anxious to have an heir to his dukedom ; and, therefore, earnestly desired his union with this princess. A second time he dismissed his envoy, on the 13th of June, 1386, with every requisite provision for the use of his bride and her attendants, to escort her to his dominions. The marriage contract was signed at Pampeluna, on the 25th of August, 1386. Charles, King of Navarre, engaged to be- stow upon his daughter Joanna 120,000 livres of gold, of the