Margaret of Anjou / Makers of History

by Jacob Abbott

The queen attaches herself to Cardinal Beaufort.

Jealousy of Gloucester.

The palaces were, however, at last made ready before Margaret came. There were apartments for her in the Tower, and there were also three other palaces in and near London, in either of which she could reside at her pleasure. Besides this, the cardinal, who, as has already been remarked, was possessed of immense wealth, owned, among his other establishments, a beautiful mansion at Waltham Forest, a few miles north of London. The cardinal set apart a state chamber in this house for the exclusive use of the queen when she came to visit him, and caused it to be fitted up and furnished in a magnificent manner for her. The drapery of the bed was of cloth of gold from Damascus, and the other furniture and fittings were to correspond. The queen used often to go and visit the cardinal at this country seat. She soon became very fond of him, and willing to be guided by his counsel in almost every thing that she did. Indeed, the ascendency which the cardinal thus exercised over Margaret greatly increased his power over the king. The affairs of the court and of the government were directed almost wholly by his counsels. The Duke of Gloucester and the nobles of his party became more and more indignant and angry at this state of things. The realm of England, they said, through the weakness and imbecility of the king, had fallen into the hands of a priest and of a woman—a French woman, too.

Great mistakes often made.

But there was nothing that they could do. Margaret was so young and so beautiful that every body was captivated with her person and behavior, and whatever she did was thought to be right. Indeed, the general course which she pursued on her first arrival in England was right in an eminent degree. There have been many cases in which young queens, in coming as Margaret did, away from their native land and from all their early friends, to reign in a foreign court, have brought with them from home personages of distinction to be their favorites and friends in their new position. But when this is done, jealousies and ill-will always sooner or later spring up between these relatives and friends of the foreign bride and the old native advisers of the king her husband. The result is, in the end, a king's party and a queen's party at court, and perpetual quarrels and dissensions ensue, in which at least the people of the country are sure to become involved, from their natural jealousy of the foreign influence, as they call it, introduced by the queen.

Margaret's friends and counselors.

Her good sense.

Example for all young brides.

Queen Margaret had the good sense to avoid this danger. All the principal persons who came with her to England, for the purpose of accompanying her on the journey, and of carrying back to her father and friends in France authentic assurances of her having been honorably received by her husband as his bride and queen, were dismissed and sent home again immediately after the coronation, as we have already seen. Margaret retained only certain domestic servants, and perhaps some two or three private and personal friends. As for counselors and advisers, she threw herself at once upon the ministers and counselors of the king—the Cardinal Beaufort, who had been his guardian from childhood, and the Earl of Suffolk, who was one of his principal ministers, and had been sent by him, as his proxy and representative, to negotiate the marriage and bring home the bride. She made Lady Suffolk, too—the wife of the earl—her most intimate female friend. She appointed her to the principal place of honor in her household, and in other ways manifested great affection for her. The good sense and discretion which she thus manifested—young as she was, for she was not yet seventeen—in choosing for her confidential friend a lady of the age and standing of Lady Suffolk, instead of attempting to place in that position some foreign belle of her own years, whom she had brought with her for the purpose from her native land, as many young brides in her situation would have done, deserves much commendation. In a word, Margaret, in becoming a wife, gave herself up entirely to her husband. She made his friends her friends, and his interests her interests, and thus transferred herself, wholly and without reserve, to her new position; an example which all young ladies whose marriage brings them into entirely new circumstances and relations would do well to follow. Nothing is more dangerous than the attempt in such cases to bring from the old home influences in any form to be introduced with a view of sharing the control in the new.