Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Margaret of Anjou
    Margaret of Anjou
    Margaret of Anjou
    Ebook247 pages3 hours

    Margaret of Anjou

    By Jacob Abbott

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    According to Wikipedia: "Jacob Abbott (November 14, 1803 – October 31, 1879) was an American writer of children's books. Abbott was born at Hallowell, Maine to Jacob and Betsey Abbott. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1820; studied at Andover Theological Seminary in 1821, 1822, and 1824; was tutor in 1824-1825, and from 1825 to 1829 was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Amherst College; was licensed to preach by the Hampshire Association in 1826; founded the Mount Vernon School for Young Ladies in Boston in 1829, and was principal of it in 1829-1833; was pastor of Eliot Congregational Church (which he founded), at Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1834-1835; and was, with his brothers, a founder, and in 1843-1851 a principal of Abbott's Institute, and in 1845-1848 of the Mount Vernon School for Boys, in New York City. He was a prolific author, writing juvenile fiction, brief histories, biographies, religious books for the general reader, and a few works in popular science. He died in Farmington, Maine, where he had spent part of his time after 1839, and where his brother, Samuel Phillips Abbott, founded the Abbott School."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSeltzer Books
    Release dateMar 1, 2018
    ISBN9781455402274
    Margaret of Anjou
    Author

    Jacob Abbott

    THE history of the life of every individual who has, for any reason, attracted extensively the attention of mankind, has been written in a great variety of ways by a multitude of authors, and persons sometimes wonder why we should have so many different accounts of the same thing. The reason is, that each one of these accounts is intended for a different set of readers, who read with ideas and purposes widely dissimilar from each other. Among the twenty millions of people in the United States, there are perhaps two millions, between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, who wish to become acquainted, in general, with the leading events in the history of the Old World, and of ancient times, but who, coming upon the stage in this land and at this period, have ideas and conceptions so widely different from those of other nations and of other times, that a mere republication of existing accounts is not what they require.The story must be told expressly to them. The things that are to be explained, the points that are to be brought out, the comparative degree of prominence to be given to the various particulars, will all be different, on account of the difference in the situation, the ideas, and the objects of these new readers, compared with those of the various other classes of readers which former authors have had in view. It is for this reason, and with this view, that the present series of historical narratives is presented to the public. The author, having had some opportunity to become acquainted with the position, the ideas, and the intellectual wants of those whom he addresses, presents the result of his labors to them, with the hope that it may be found successful in accomplishing its design.

    Read more from Jacob Abbott

    Related to Margaret of Anjou

    Related ebooks

    European History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Henry Vii Had Been Overthrown?

      Oct 8, 2020

      Henry Vii Had Been Overthrown?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Battle Of Tewkesbury

      Mar 21, 2024

      Battle Of Tewkesbury
      10 min read

    • Article

      Q&A Alison Weir

      May 12, 2022

      Alison Weir is Britain’s top-selling female historian. Her works include the Six Tudor Queens series of novels, as well as the recent non-fiction book Queens of the Crusades. Her latest novel, Elizabeth of York: The Last White Rose, is the first inst

      2 min read

    • Article

      Elizabethan Espionage

      Aug 13, 2022

      Elizabethan Secret Agent: The Untold Story of William Ashby 1536-1593 Timothy Ashby Scotland Street Press, 2022 429 pages Hardback, £24.99 ISBN: 9781910895597 Spying on one’s neighbour, by any standard, is an unfriendly act, though now taken as neces

      3 min read

    • Article

      England’s Last Boy King

      Nov 4, 2022

      Edward VI was a pale-faced, sickly child. Just nine years old when declared king in 1547, he would be a puppet of powerful courtiers and die, aged 15, in the summer of 1553. His six-year kingship is a near-forgotten interlude between the rule of his

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Concept Of Scottishness

      Feb 12, 2022

      The Concept Of Scottishness
      3 min read

    • Article

      Brit Edit

      Jan 6, 2023

      Brit Edit
      2 min read

    • Article

      Fit For A Queen

      Oct 29, 2020

      Fit For A Queen
      6 min read

    • Article

      Louis Ix's Large Family

      May 5, 2023

      Louis IX was only twelve when his father, Louis VIII, died in 1226. It was up to his mother, Blanche of Castile, to preserve his throne through a tumultuous period of baronial rebellion. With a boy king and a female guardian, might it be possible to

      6 min read

    • Article

      Romanticising the STONE

      Dec 16, 2022

      Romanticising the STONE
      6 min read

    • Article

      In A Nutshell

      Jun 8, 2023

      In A Nutshell
      4 min read

    • Article

      The WARRIOR KING

      Aug 12, 2022

      The WARRIOR KING
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Discovery Of A Unique World War II Domestic Air Raid Shelter

      Apr 9, 2022

      In February 2021, after moving to Falkirk, I noticed a brick building at the bottom of my new garden. Covered in decades of household rubbish, green waste and unchecked growth, I was unsure if this building was a forsaken garden shed or, perhaps, som

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Medieval Palace Reborn

      Jun 8, 2023

      A Medieval Palace Reborn
      2 min read

    • Article

      The BULLETIN

      Jun 10, 2022

      The BULLETIN
      3 min read

    • Article

      Notes From The Isles

      Aug 19, 2022

      My three darling daughters took me on a birthday trip to Orkney recently; sadly, my son couldn’t attend because he was committed to a charity hike in the south. Because of work schedules, we could only stay for two days and nights, but we managed to

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Search for RICHARD III

      Oct 6, 2022

      The Search for RICHARD III
      3 min read

    • Article

      Henry II: The Muslim Monarch?

      Jan 23, 2020

      Henry II: The Muslim Monarch?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Shaftesbury

      Apr 8, 2022

      Shaftesbury
      3 min read

    • Article

      Anniversaries

      Jun 6, 2024

      Anniversaries
      5 min read

    • Article

      Royal Treasures

      Feb 3, 2022

      Royal Treasures
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Margaret of Anjou

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Margaret of Anjou - Jacob Abbott

      MARGARET OF ANJOU BY JACOB ABBOTT 

      Published by Seltzer Books

      established in 1974 as B&R Samizdat Express, now offering over 14,000  books

      feedback welcome: [email protected]

      Biographies by Jacob Abbott available from Seltzer Books:

      Alexander the Great

      Charles I

      Charles II

      Cleopatra

      Cyrus the Great

      Darius the Great

      Genghis Khan

      Hannibal

      Julius Caesar

      King Alfred of England

      Margaret of Anjou

      Mary Queen of Scots

      Nero

      Peter the Great

      Pyrrhus

      Queen Elizabeth

      Richard I

      Richard II

      Richard III

      Romulus

      William the Conqueror

      Xerxes

      Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight

      hundred and sixty-one, by

      HARPER & BROTHERS,

      In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District

      of New York.

      PREFACE

      1.  THE HOUSES OF YORK AND LANCASTER

      2.  MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TIME

      3.  KING HENRY VI

      4.  MARGARET'S FATHER AND MOTHER

      5.  ROYAL COURTSHIP

      6.  THE WEDDING

      7.  RECEPTION IN ENGLAND

      8.  THE STORY OF LADY NEVILLE

      9.  PLOTTINGS

      10. THE FALL OF GLOUCESTER

      11. THE FALL OF SUFFOLK

      12. BIRTH OF A PRINCE

      13. ILLNESS OF THE KING

      14. ANXIETY AND TROUBLE

      15. MARGARET A FUGITIVE

      16. MARGARET TRIUMPHANT

      17. MARGARET AN EXILE

      18. A ROYAL COUSIN

      19. RETURN TO ENGLAND

      20. YEARS OF EXILE

      21. THE RECONCILIATION WITH WARWICK

      22. BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT

      23. CHILDLESS, AND A WIDOW

      24. CONCLUSION

      PREFACE.

       The story of Margaret of Anjou forms a part of the history of England, for the lady, though of Continental origin, was the queen of one of the English kings, and England was the scene of her most remarkable adventures and exploits. She lived in very stormy times, and led a very stormy life; and her history, besides the interest which it excites from the extraordinary personal and political vicissitudes which it records, is also useful in throwing a great deal of light upon the ideas of right and wrong, and of good and evil, and upon the manners and customs, both of peace and war, which prevailed in England during the age of chivalry.

      1.  THE HOUSES OF YORK AND LANCASTER.

       [Sidenote: A real heroine.]

      Margaret of Anjou was a heroine; not a heroine of romance and fiction, but of stern and terrible reality. Her life was a series of military exploits, attended with dangers, privations, sufferings, and wonderful vicissitudes of fortune, scarcely to be paralleled in the whole history of mankind.

      [Sidenote: Two great quarrels.]

      She was born and lived in a period during which there prevailed in the western part of Europe two great and dreadful quarrels, which lasted for more than a hundred years, and which kept France and England, and all the countries contiguous to them, in a state of continual commotion during all that time.

      [Sidenote: Contest between the houses of York and Lancaster.]

      The first of these quarrels grew out of a dispute which arose among the various branches of the royal family of England in respect to the succession to the crown. The two principal branches of the family were the descendants respectively of the Dukes of York and Lancaster, and the wars which they waged against each other are called in history the wars of the houses of York and Lancaster. These wars continued for several successive generations, and Margaret of Anjou was the queen of one of the most prominent representatives of the Lancaster line. Thus she became most intimately involved in the quarrel.

      [Sidenote: Wars in France.]

      The second great contention which prevailed during this period consisted of the wars waged between France and England for the possession of the territory which now forms the northern portion of France. A large portion of that territory, during the reigns that immediately preceded the time of Margaret of Anjou, had belonged to England. But the kings of France were continually attempting to regain possession of it--the English, of course, all the time making desperate resistance. Thus, for a hundred years, including the time while Margaret lived, England was involved in a double set of wars--the one internal, being waged by one branch of the royal family against the other for the possession of the throne, and the other external, being waged against France and other Continental powers for the possession of the towns and castles, and the country dependent upon them, which lay along the southern shore of the English Channel.

      [Sidenote: Origin of Difficulty.]

      In order that the story of Margaret of Anjou may be properly understood, it will be necessary first to give some explanations in respect to the nature of these two quarrels, and to the progress which had been made in them up to the time when Margaret came upon the stage. We shall begin with the internal or civil wars which were waged between the families of York and Lancaster. Some account of the origin and nature of this difficulty is given in our history of Richard III., but it is necessary to allude to it again here, and to state some additional particulars in respect to it, on account of the very important part which Margaret of Anjou performed in the quarrel.

      The difficulty originated among the children and descendants of King Edward III. He reigned in the early part of the fourteenth century. He occupied the throne a long time, and his reign was considered very prosperous and glorious. The prosperity and glory of it consisted, in a great measure, in the success of the wars which he waged in France, and in the towns, and castles, and districts of country which he conquered there, and annexed to the English domain.

      [Sidenote: The sons of Edward III.]

      In these wars old King Edward was assisted very much by the princes his sons, who were very warlike young men, and who were engaged from time to time in many victorious campaigns on the Continent. They began this career when they were very young, and they continued it through all the years of their manhood and middle life, for their father lived to an advanced age.

      [Sidenote: The Black Prince.]

      The most remarkable of these warlike princes were Edward and John. Edward was the oldest son, and John the third in order of age of those who arrived at maturity. The name of the second was Lionel. Edward, the oldest son, was of course the Prince of Wales; but, to distinguish him from other Princes of Wales that preceded and followed him, he is known commonly in history by the name of the Black Prince. He received this name originally on account of something about his armor which was black, and which marked his appearance among the other knights on the field of battle.

      [Sidenote: Richard II.]

      The Black Prince did not live to succeed his father and inherit the throne, for he lost his health in his campaigns on the Continent, and came home to England, and died a few years before his father died. His son, whose name was Richard, was his heir, and when at length old King Edward died, this young Richard succeeded to the crown, under the title of King Richard II. In the history of Richard II., in this series, a full account of the life of his father, the Black Prince, is given, and of the various remarkable adventures that he met with in his Continental campaigns.

      [Sidenote: John of Gaunt.]

      Prince John, the third of the sons of old King Edward, is commonly known in history as John of Gaunt. This word Gaunt was the nearest approach that the English people could make in those days to the pronunciation of the word Ghent, the name of the town where John was born. For King Edward, in the early part of his life, was accustomed to take all his family with him in his Continental campaigns, and so his several children were born in different places, one in one city and another in another, and many of them received names from the places where they happened to be born.

      On the following page we have a genealogical table of the family of Edward III. At the head of it we have the names of Edward III. and Philippa his wife. In a line below are the names of those four of his sons whose descendants figure in English history. It was among the descendants of these sons that the celebrated wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, called the wars of the roses, arose.

      Genealogical Table of the Family of Edward III., Showing the Connection of the Houses of York and Lancaster.

      Genealogical table of the descendants of Edward III.

                                EDWARD III.==Philippa.                                      |        ______________________________|_______________________________       |                   |                     |                   |     EDWARD              LIONEL                JOHN                EDMUND   (The Black           (Duke of         (of Gaunt, Duke of       (Duke of    Prince).            Clarence).         of Lancaster).           York).       |                   |                     |                   |       |                   |                     |                   |    RICHARD II.  PHILIPPA==Edward Mortimer.   HENRY            RICHARD==Anne.                           |                     |         (_See second Column._)                           |                     |                   |                     ROGER MORTIMER            HENRY V      RICHARD PLANTAGENET                    (Earl of Marche).            |            (Duke of York).                           |                   HENRY VI.             |                           |                     |                   |                       ANNE==Richard of York.    |                   |                    (_See fourth column._)     EDWARD       _________|__________                                             (Prince of    |         |          |                                               Wales).  EDWARD IV.  GEORGE   RICHARD III.                                                                   (Duke of                                                                   Clarence).

        The character == denotes marriage; the short perpendicular line | a   descent. There were many other children and descendants in the   different branches of the family besides those whose names are   inserted in the table. The table includes only those essential to an   understanding of the history.

      [Sidenote: The roses.]

      These wars were called the wars of the roses from the circumstance that the white and the red rose happened in some way to be chosen as the badges of the two parties--the white rose being that of the house of York, and the red that of the house of Lancaster.

      [Sidenote: The four brothers.]

      The reader will observe that the dukes of Lancaster and York are the third and fourth of the brothers enumerated in the table, whereas it might have been supposed that any contest which should have arisen in respect to the crown would have taken place between families of the first and second. But the first and second sons and their descendants were soon set aside, as it were, from the competition, in the following manner.

      [Sidenote: Ambition of Richard's uncles.]

      [Sidenote: Richard's character.]

      The line of the first brother soon became extinct. Edward himself, the Prince of Wales, died during his father's lifetime, leaving his son Richard as his heir. Then, when the old king died, Richard succeeded him. As he was the oldest living son of the oldest son, his claim could not be disputed, and so his uncles acquiesced in it. They wished very much, it is true, to govern the realm, but they contented themselves with ruling in Richard's name until he became of age, and then Richard took the government into his own hands. The country was tolerably well satisfied under his dominion for some years, but at length Richard became dissipated and vicious, and he domineered over the people of England in so haughty a manner, and oppressed them so severely by the taxes and other exactions which he laid upon them, that a very general discontent prevailed at last against him and against his government. This discontent would have given either of his uncles a great advantage in any design which they might have formed to take away the crown from him. As it was, it greatly increased their power and influence in the land, and diminished, in a corresponding degree, that of the king. The uncles appear to have been contented with this share of power and influence, which seemed naturally to fall into their hands, and did not attempt any open rebellion.

      [Sidenote: His cousin Henry.]

      Richard had a cousin, however, a young man of just about his own age, who was driven at last, by a peculiar train of circumstances, to rise against him. This cousin was the son of his uncle John. His name was Henry Bolingbroke. He appears in the genealogical table as Henry IV., that having been his title subsequently as King of England.

      [Sidenote: Quarrel between Henry and Norfolk.]

      [Sidenote: The trial.]

      This cousin Henry became involved in a quarrel with a certain nobleman named Norfolk. Indeed, the nobles of those days were continually getting engaged in feuds and quarrels, which they fought out with the greatest recklessness, sometimes by regular battles between armies of retainers, and sometimes by single combat, in which the parties to the dispute were supposed to appeal to Almighty God, who they believed, or professed to believe, would give the victory to the just side in the quarrel. These single combats were arranged with great ceremony and parade, and were performed in a very public and solemn manner; being, in fact, a recognized and established part of the system of public law as administered in those days. In the next chapter, when speaking more particularly of the manners and customs of the times, I shall give an account in full of one of these duels. I have only to say here that Richard, on hearing of the quarrel between his cousin Henry and Norfolk, decreed that they should settle it by single combat, and preparations were accordingly made for the trial, and the parties appeared, armed and equipped for the fight, in the presence of an immense concourse of people assembled to witness the spectacle. The king himself was to preside on the occasion.

      [Sidenote: Henry is sent into banishment.]

      But just before the signal was to be given for the combat to begin, the king interrupted the proceedings, and declared that he would decide the question himself. He pronounced both the combatants guilty, and issued a decree of banishment against both. Henry submitted, and both prepared to leave the country. These transactions, of course, attracted great attention throughout England, and they operated to bring Henry forward in a very conspicuous manner before the people of the realm. He was in the direct line of succession to the crown, and he was, moreover, a prince of great wealth, and of immense personal influence, and so, just in proportion as Richard himself was disliked, Henry would naturally become an object of popular sympathy and regard. When he set out on his journey toward the southern coast, in order to leave the country in pursuance of his sentence, the people flocked along the waysides, and assembled in the towns where he passed, as if he were a conqueror returning from his victories instead of a condemned criminal going into banishment.

      [Sidenote: 1400.]

      [Sidenote: His estates confiscated.]

      Soon after this, the Duke of Lancaster, Henry's father, died, and then Richard, instead of allowing his cousin to succeed to the immense estates which his father left, confiscated all the property, under the pretext that Henry had forfeited it, and so converted it to his own use. This last outrage aroused Henry to such a pitch of indignation that he resolved to invade England, depose Richard, and claim the crown for himself.

      [Sidenote: A revolution.]

      This plan was carried into effect. Henry raised an armament, crossed the Channel, and landed in England. The people took sides. A great majority sided with Henry. A full account of this insurrection and invasion is given in our history of Richard II. All that it is necessary to say here is that the revolution was effected. Richard was deposed, and Henry obtained possession of the kingdom. It was thus that the house of Lancaster first became established on the throne.

      [Sidenote: The elder branches of the family.]

      But you will very naturally wonder where the representatives of the second brother in Edward the Third's family were all this time, and why, when Richard was deposed, who was the son of the first brother, they did not appear, and advance their claims in competition with Henry. The reason was because there was no male heir of that branch living in that line. You will see by referring again to the table that the only child of Lionel, the second brother, was Philippa, a girl. She had a son, it is true, Roger Mortimer, as appears by the table; but he was yet very young, and could do nothing to assert the claims of his line. Besides, Henry pretended that, together with his claims to the throne through his father, he had others more ancient and better founded still through his mother, who, as he attempted to prove, was descended from an English king who reigned _before Edward III._ The people of England, as they wished to have Henry for king, were very easily satisfied with his arguments, and so it was settled that he should reign. The line of this second brother, however, did not give up their claims, but reserved them, intending to rise and assert them on the very first favorable opportunity.

      Henry reigned about thirteen years, and then was succeeded by his son, Henry V., as appears by the table. There was no attempt to disturb the Lancastrian line in their possession of the throne during these two reigns. The attention, both of the kings and of the people, during all this period, was almost wholly engrossed in the wars which they were waging in France. These wars were very successful. The English conquered province after province and castle after castle, until at length almost the whole country was brought under their sway.

      [Sidenote: 1422.]

      [Sidenote: Birth and accession of Henry VI.]

      This state of things continued until the death of Henry V., which took

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1