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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 234



furnished by the Goldsmiths' Company, at an expense of thirty-five pounds and ninepeuco halfpenny. Shortly alter this pompous entry into London, the marriage of Anne of Bohemia to Richard the Second was solemnized, with royal splendour, on the fourteenth of January, 13S2, in St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster. At the end of the week, Richard and his consort, accompanied by the Princess of Wales, the Duchess of Brittany, and other royal and noble personages, proceeded to Windsor, where for several days they kept open house, feasting and magnificently entertaining all comers, high and low, gratuitously. These festivities terminated, the royal pair returned to London, and the splendid coronation of the Queen was performed at Westminster by Courtney, Archbishop of Canterbury. At the intercession of the Queen, the King marked her marriage and coronation by proclaiming a general pardon to all implicated in the late insurrection,—an act of grace much needed, as since the suppression of the popular tumults under Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, John Ball, and other ultra-democrats, upwards of one thousand five hundred of the deluded peasantry had been executed as traitors, At her wedding, the Queen's headdress consisted of an ungainly horned cap, about two feet high, and as many wide, made of pasteboard, like an expanding mitre, and with light gauze tissue spread over the to]j. Ugly as this "moony tire" was, the royal bride no sooner appeared in it, than every maid, wife, and widow, who aspired to the rank of a lady, imitated her example, and horned caps became so general, that, both at home and abroad, the heads of the lords of the creation were quite eclipsed by the ambitious head-gear of their better halves. Although the importer of this hideous fashion from Bohemia, Queen Anne deserves credit for introducing the first side-saddles used in this country, and also for making us acquainted with pins, such as are at present in use. Previous to her arrival in England both sexes used ribands, loop-holes, laces with points and tags, clasps, hooks and eyes, and skewers of brass, silver, and gold. Shoes were worn in this reign with long pointed tocs,—a fashion probably introduced by Anne of Bohemia. " Their shoes and pattern," says Camden, "were snowted and piked more than a finger long, which, as they look like the claws of the devil, they call cracowes, and which they fasten with chains of silver or gold to their knees." According to Froissart, Richard the Second dowered his consort, Anne, with property worth twenty-five thousand nobles a-year ; and, instead of her bringing a marriage portion, her royal husband gave the Emperor ten thousand marks for the alliance, and paid all the expenses of her journey over to boot,—• indeed, the expenses of the bridal were so enormous, that, to cover them, the coronet of Aquitaine, and much of the royal jewellery and plate, were pawned to the London merchants. By the Protestant Church, the name of Anne of Bohemia is enrolled at the head of the list of the illustrious prin-Dcssscs who supported those principles of religious freedom which ultimately led to the Reformation. Shortly after her arrival in England, Wickliife triumphantly referred to the Queen as possessing a Bible, a polyglot translated into the Bohemian and German, which she perused with pride and diligence : and he urged, that by rendering the Scriptures available to all, he did but that which she greatly approved of. Whether Anne ever met Wiekliffo, or studied his writings, is not known ; but certain it is, that she was surrounded by many of his converts : and when he was condemned by the Council of Lambeth, in 1382, it was chiefly her secret influence with the King that saved him from the vindictive vengeance of Archbishop Courtney, who, above all things, desired his destruction. Not the least of the illustrious disciples of the bold reformer was Joanna of Kent, Princess of Wales. This Princess had been introduced to him by his follower, John of Gaunt, and she greatly aided the Queen in saving his life. The efforts of the Queen to extend a purer faith pro


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