Page:The Queens of England.djvu/205

KATHERINE OF VALOIS, CONSORT OF HENRY THE FIFTH. Katherine, the daughter of Charles the Sixth of France, surnamed the Well-beloved, and of Isabella of Bavaria, — cette furie de I'etat, as Moreri calls her — was the youngest daughter of the twelve children which the unprincipled Isabella bore to her unhappy husband. She was born in the Hotel of St. Paul, at Paris, on the 27th of October, 1401. When but seventeen she was easily persuaded to adopt her mother's views, who had' conceived a mortal hatred to her own son Charles, and resolved to do all possible injury to his interests, and to promote those of the English in France. Accordingly Katherine abandoned her- self entirely to the interests of the English party, and seems to have been desirous to unite herself with Henry, who, when she was a child in the cradle, had been an unsuccessful suitor for the hand of her eldest sister Isabella, and since that of her own. Mother and daughter being of one opinion, but a brief time elasped before another and far more strenuous effort was made to arrange matrimonial matters with the covetous and ungal- lant invader. They went in person to meet him at Meulan, and dragged with them, though then very ill, the unhappy king, who seems to have been invariably the most humble servant of all his successive custodiers, and their name was Legion. How- ever diametrically opposite their views, he adopted them all in turn, not malgre, but de b'ongre, with perfect good will ; and, instead of opposing, he was always prompt to see with the eyes and hear with the ears of those who were nearest to him. The story of the manner in which this unhappy monarch lost his senses, and how he again recovered them, is one of the most singular things in history, but too long for detail here. Whether he ever did recover full possession of a sound intellect is doubt- ful. Rightly does Bayle select this unfortunate period as an illustration of what he calls "the weak side of monarchical gov- ernments," for, he observes, "whatever political ills may occur, 173