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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ. Queens of England. Vol.1.

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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ.
Queens of England. Vol.1.
page 246



The Duke of Norfolk immediately appeared in arms, mounted upon a barbed horse, with a coat of arms of crimson velvet, embroidered with lions of silver and mulberry-trees, and having taken his oath before the constables "and mareschal, entered the field, exclaiming aloud, " God defend the right!" Alighting from his horse, he placed himself in a chair of crimson, velvet, opposite his antagonist, at the other end of the lists. Then the mareschal having measured their lances, delivered one to the challenger, and sent a knight with the other to the Duke of Norfolk ; and proclamation was made that they should prepare for the combat. They immediately mounted their horses, then closed their beavers, fixed their lances on their rests, and the trumpets sounding a charge, the Duke cf Hereford began his career with great violence ; but before he could join his antagonist, the King, throwing down his warder, took, in the language of the age, the battle into his own hands, and closed the scene by banishing Norfolk for ten years, and Hereford for life. lly this act Richard showed, if not just, at least humane policy ; yet so inconsistent was his character, that in the very next year he committed a most wanton and despotic wrong. Hereford had been banished but three months when his father, the Duke of Lancaster, died.; and the exile expected to succeed, by his attorneys, to the ample estates of his sire, as secured by the King's own patent. Rut Richard, jealous of that succession, pretended to have discovered that his banishment had rendered him incapable of inheriting property ; and at a great council, it was decreed that the patent granted to him was null and void, and that his banishment should be perpetual. Hereford, who, on the death of his father, had assumed the title of Duke of Lancaster, had long been the idol of the nation. On his last departure from London he was warmly greeted by thousands. The greatest part of the people, goaded to a spirit of resistance by the wrongs they themselves suifered, and. the new injury offered to their favourite, turned their eyes on him as their leader. Private meetings were held, the dispositions of the great lords sounded, and the whole nation appeared ripe for rebellion. Whilst the court and country were in this state of feverish ferment, the Earl of March, presumptive heir of the crown, and viceroy in Ireland, was slain, in a skirmish, by the native Irish ; and Richard, in his eagerness to revenge the loss of his cousin, shut his eyes to the designs of his enemies, and, at the head of a large army, went over to Ireland, to chastise the turbulent Septs. Before departing for Ireland, Richard held a grand tournament at Windsor, where four hundred knights, and as many esquires, splendidly arrayed in green, and bearing a white falcon, the device of Isabella, tilted against all comers. Such numbers resorted to this tourney, that two hundred oxen and three hundred sheep, besides fowls out of number, were daily consumed. The King wore a rich garment made for the occasion, of silk, gold, silver, and precious stones, worth three thousand marks; and the young Queen, attended by the fairest and noblest in the land, presided, and bestowed the prizes. After appointing the Duke of York regent during his absence, Richard assisted at a solemn mass in Windsor church, ehaunted a collect, and made a rich offering. At the church door he took wine and comfits with his young consort; and, lifting her up in his arms, repeatedly kissed her, saying, " Adieu, Madam ! adieu, till we meet again !" It was during this visit that Richard won the heart of the young Isabella. She was then eleven years old, tall in stature, graceful in carriage, and with features already tinged with the bloom of youthful maidenhood. But, although the King treated her with great kindness, was struck with her beauty, and well pleased at the progress she hud made in her education, he, with an unaccountable inconsistency, sent to dwell with her, probably under restraint, the deeply dejected widow and children of the murdered Duke of Gloucester. It was at this period that the King, exasperated at the extravagance and profuse display of the Queen's governess.


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