The End of the Hundred Years War

Abstract

On 24 May 1444 Margaret of Anjou was betrothed to king Henry VI of England in the cathedral of St Martin, Tours. William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, stood proxy for the king and the glittering group of French royalty who attended demonstrated the importance of the ceremony. King René and queen Isabelle were there together with Charles VII and his wife queen Marie, the bride’s aunt, Louis the dauphin and his wife the dauphine, Margaret of Scotland. The duke and duchess of Calabria joined other great nobles such as Charles of Maine and the dukes of Brittany and Alençon. The papal legate, Piero da Monte bishop of Brescia, gave a provisional dispensation for marriage within the prohibited degrees: ‘Dame Margaret made surance to the Marquis of Suffolk, and principally to the King of England, and all these ambassadors; and she was made there queen of England.’1 All the people cried ‘Noël’ and the cortege retired to the abbey of St Julien where the fourteen-year-old Margaret was treated with all the honours of a queen. They enjoyed a spectacle of two giants carrying trees covered with great fruits, two camels bearing towers and men-at-arms who jousted with their lances. A ball followed that continued to a late hour.2KeywordsEnglish GovernmentPeace NegotiationFrench CourtLate Fourteenth CenturyFrench KingThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.