Philippa, instead of being angry, only smiled at the boy’s spirit, and she treated him as one of her own sons as long as he remained with her.
The following year Philippa, her husband, and four sons went to France, leaving Thomas, a child of five, guardian of the kingdom. There she saw her eldest son married.
She did not live to see the sad change which made the last years of her son’s life so unhappy; she did not live to see her husband, with a mind once so mighty, sink into helpless old age, but she died in 1369, at Windsor.
When she was dying, she called the king: “We have, my husband, enjoyed our long union in peace and happiness, but before we are for ever parted in this world, I entreat you will grant me three requests.”
“Lady, name them,” answered Edward, “they shall be granted.”
“My lord,” she whispered, “I beg you will pay all the merchants I have engaged for their wares; I beseech you to fulfil any gifts or legacies I have made to churches and my servants; and when it shall please God to call you hence, that you will lie by my side in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.”
She ceased speaking. The king was in tears. “Lady,” he said, “all this shall be done.” And Philippa the queen died.