MARGARET OF ANJOU. 189 sort. According to Stow and others, Henry had been awaiting her at Southwick, where, on the 22nd of April, 1445, the mar- riage was personally solemnized ; the ring used on this occa- sion being made from one "of gold, garnyshed with a fayr rubie, sometime yeven unto us by our bel oncle the Cardinal of Englande, with the which we were sacred on the day of our coronation at Parys, delivered unto Mathew Phelip to breke, and thereof to make an other ryng for the quene's wedding- ring."* It was here on the very spot of her marriage, that the youthful queen came first into contact with those troubled elements which were to render her life one long source of tempests and calamities. The court at this time was rent by the contending factions of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the king's uncle, and the protector of the realm, and Cardinal Beau- fort, the king's great uncle. Each of these noblemen was anxious to ally the king so as to strengthen their own party. Gloucester had been in treaty with the Count of Armagne for his daughter, and, it is said, had gone so far as a betrothal ; but Cardinal Beaufort defeated his rival's object by bringing to the young king's knowledge, the beauty and accomplishments of Margaret of Anjou, niece of Louis XL, king of France. So much was Henry enamored of the picture and the descriptions which he received of Margaret, that he hurried on the negotia- tion with youthful precipitance, and even sacrificed for the accomplishment, the province of Maine, the key of Normandy, for which his father had shed so much blood. The Duke of Gloucester was, of course, highly incensed at the triumph of the measures of the Beaufort faction over his own, and in which Margaret was so innocently involved. Yet Gloucester, whose near relationship inferred a due amount of courtesy, seeming to have forgotten his disinclination to the match in his desire to show every mark of honor to his new sovereign, met her at Blackheath, and on the following Friday, May 28, con- ducted her in triumph to London, "attended (Stow says) by the mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs of the city, and the crafts of the same on horseback." Another tournament completed the celebration of the event, which was distinguished by a costly magnificence and display hardly justified by the empty state of the exchequer on both sides, and somewhat in con- trast with the scantiness of the young queen's personal ward- robe.
- Fce>.'era, vol. xi., p. 76.
