was born. It was a boy, and Queen Marguerite gave him the name of Thomas, after the favorite English saint, Thomas à Becket of Canterbury.
The queen occupied Cawood Castle at that time, and during the four years she spent in that magnificent fortress, her husband was laying siege to one stronghold after another, until Scotland was subdued from sea to sea. Stirling Castle was the last one to yield, but when King Edward made his triumphal journey home to England, its brave commander, Wallace, was carried a captive in the royal train.
On their return to London, the king and queen gave a series of entertainments to celebrate the conquest of Scotland. One of the grandest tournaments ever witnessed in England took place at that time, at Westminster Palace, on which occasion Prince Edward and two hundred other noblemen were knighted. In 1308 the queen had another son. She named him Edmund, and he afterward became the Earl of Kent.
A. D. 1308. King Edward was on his way to Scotland in 1308, but fell ill before he reached the border. He lingered until the Prince of Wales reached him, and with his dying breath commanded his son, "to be kind to his little brothers, and, above all, to treat with respect and tenderness his mother, Queen Marguerite."
Much sorrow was felt at the death of their warrior king, but his wife mourned for the loss of the tender, affectionate husband Edward had always been.
A few months after his death she went to France to be present at the marriage of Edward II., with her niece, Isabella. On her return to England she lived in seclusion, devoting her time and money to deeds of charity. Marguerite died on the 14th of February, 1317, at the early age of thirty-six, and was buried at the Grey Friars church, a splendid building that she had founded.
A. D. 1317. Her stepson, Edward II., had always loved her, and to show his respect for her memory, he not only had her pall draped with rich material of silk striped with gold, but erected a splendid monument besides.
Queen Marguerite is the ancestress of all the English nobility bearing the name of Howard, who unite in their veins the blood of St. Louis with the greatest of the Plantagenet kings.
