Page:The Queens of England.djvu/92

76 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. robbed him of the mother in former years ; and John actually delivered over to Lusignan's custody Isabella's infant daugh- ter, Joanna, in order that she might be placed in one of his castles, as her mother had been before her. Soon after his return to England, the queen found herself suddenly superseded in the affections of her consort by Ma- tilda, surnamed "The Fair," the daughter of Lord Fitzwalter ; and Isabella was again imprisoned in order to keep her out of the way. This act of violence, however, completed the exas- peration of John's English subjects. The beautiful Matilda, who resisted the passions of the lawless monarch, being pois- oned, as was supposed, by his orders, the barons flew to arms to avenge the honor of their class, outraged in the person of Lord Fitzwalter, the father of Matilda ; and the granting of Magna Charta was the consequence. John's demoniac rage was now without bounds ; nevertheless, he and his wife became again reconciled ; she was released from confinement, and entrusted with the custody of her son, Prince Henry, the heir to the crown, and, with the remainder of her children, took up her abode at Gloucester, where she gave birth to two other children, both daughters. It was during the time of this royal residence at Gloucester that the nation, exasperated by the tyranny of their depraved king, offered the crown to the heir of France. John, on this invasion, fled into Norfolk, thence to Swineshead Abbey, in Lincolnshire, where, suddenly falling sick, or being poisoned as some suppose, he was thence removed to Newark, where he died. On the death of her husband. Isabella seems to have roused herself to action, and assumed somewhat of the stern, resolved deportment of her fierce mother-in-law. She assem- bled her followers, and, together with the noble Pembroke, sal- lied from the castle and proclaimed her son Henry king, in the streets of Gloucester ; and a few days afterward the boy king was crowned in the cathedral. At this coronation, so hastily performed, a curious circumstance took place, which suffi- ciently marked the spirit of the period. John, while marching with his hastily levied powers across the seashore from Lynn to Lincolnshire, lost the crown from his helmet. In conse- quence of this loss, and the regal crown being in London, the queen, dreading the danger of delay, plucked the collar she usually wore from her throat, and with this the young king was crowned.