Page:The Queens of England.djvu/202

i;o THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. though hy some she had been accused of avarice, probably aris- ing from her pecuniary difficulties in all her three positions, first in Spain, then in Brittany, and lastly in England. She sur- vived her husband some years. King Henry died on the 20th of March, 1413; and his successor continued to testify to her the same respect and esteem as he had previously evinced ; and some historians even say that he entrusted her with a share in the government during his expedition to France. Upon the news of the victory at Agincourt, Queen Joanna went in pro- cession from St. Paul's to Westminster with the prelates, nobil- ity, Lord Mayor and corporation of the city, to return thanks for this signal success. But she had little cause for joy ; for the Duke of Alecon, the husband of her eldest daughter, after cleaving the jeweled coronal of her stepson, King Henry, was killed in this battle, and her own brother, Charles of Navarre, died of his wounds on the following day ; besides which, her son Arthur, a gallant prince, who had embraced the cause of France, was taken prisoner. Thus, while acting the part of a sovereign on this occasion of public rejoicing, the heart of the mother mourned in secret over her family bereavements ; yet she forbore to weep until she had fulfilled the outward acts of her regal station. Queen Joanna had to endure much anxiety respecting the future position of her eldest son, the Duke of Brittany, who had much offended King Henry the Fifth ; and equally so on account of Prince Arthur, who, as Earl of Rich- mond, had violated his oath of allegiance and greatly exas- perated the monarch, who, therefore, was deaf to the interces- sions of Joanna in his behalf, and kept him in close confinement for many years. In 1417 King Henry the Fifth concluded a treaty with the Duke of Brittany ; he himself specifying that he does this "at the prayer of Joanna, that excellent and most dear lady, the queen our mother." Two years later, we find Joanna was arrested at her palace of Havering Bower, by order of the Duke of Bedford, then regent, on the extraordinary charge of having practiced against the king's life, while in Normandy, by means of witchcraft. Her chief accuser was her confessor, John Randolf , a Minorite friar, through whose statements King Henry resolved to proceed with the utmost severity against his stepmother, who, with all such of her household as were suspected, were committed to prison. The queen was first confined in the castle of Leeds, and