260 HENRY VI.-PART II. THE "Second Part of Henry VI." opens with the introduction of Queen Margaret to the King and his court* by Suffolk, who had been sent to marry her as the King's proxy, and bring her to England. This commencement fits exactly, as Johnson observes, the conclusion of the former; but I have already shown that the narrative of the first play went deeply into the period to which this refers. Holinshed is followed in making the cession of Anjou and Maine a part of the arrangement concluded by Suffolk.+ But the State Paper by which * Consisting of Gloucester, Cardinal Beaufort, Warwick, York, and Somerset, all known to us in the former play, and two new characters. Richard Neville, third son of Ralph Earl of Westmoreland, and husband of Alice, daughter of the Salisbury who was killed before Orleans, and thence became himself Earl of Salisbury. He was father to Warwick. Buckingham was Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford, Earl of Buckingham in right of his mother (who was sister of Humphrey Plantagenet, the last earl), and created duke in 1441.-Nicolas, i. 92. † Hol., 206. See p. 255. the cessions are stipulated, and which Gloucester is on that account unable to read to the end, is apparently the composition of the dramatist; at least I can nowhere find it, or any written agreement whatever upon the subject. Holinshed's language, indeed, is consistent with the third article of the impeachment of Suffolk (of which hereafter), stating that he was believed to have consented to this cession, apparently by a private understanding, without the assent, perhaps without the privity, of his colleagues in the embassy.* There is nothing about the marriage, or these provinces, in the treaty by which the truce was stipulated. † Suffolk's elevation to the rank of duke did not take place until three years afterwards; he got his marquisate between the date of his mission and that of the marriage.‡ For the measure next announced I find neither authority nor reason :— 66 Cousin of York, we here discharge your grace From being regent in the parts of France, Till term of eighteen months be full expired." I have already said that I seek in vain for the * Parl. Hist., i. 387. Rolls, v. 178, anno 1450. + Rymer, xi. 59. ↑ Sept. 14, 1444. The marriage, May 30, 1445. Holinshed himself makes the Marquisate the reward of the mission, p. 207. alleged opposition of Gloucester, and that authentic records appear to negative the allegation. Shakspeare's account is from Holinshed: "Although this marriage pleased the king and divers of his council, yet Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, protector of the realm, was much against it, alleging that it was both contrary to the laws of God and dishonourable to the prince, if he should break that promise and contract of marriage made by ambassadors sufficiently thereto instructed, with the daughter of the Earl of Armagnac, upon conditions both to him and his realm as much profitable as honourable; but the duke's word would not be heard, for the earl's doings were only liked and allowed." * This Chronicler mentions the petition of the Commons in favour of Suffolk,+ and the support given to it by the peers, though he does not mention Gloucester either as concurring or dissenting on that occasion. who, Holinshed, as usual, copied from Hall, whether inventor or transmitter, is, I believe, the oldest Chronicler of the Protector's displeasure. I now give the account of Fabyan, § who, although not, as Mackintosh calls him,|| a contemporary, • Hol., 207. + P. 204. + See || Hist. Eng., ii. 7. I cannot call a writer contemporary because he might have been born when the events took flourished within less than half a century of these times : "In this 21st year the foresaid Earl of Suffolk, which, as before is touched, had foredone the conclusion of the marriage late by the ambassadors between the King and the Earl of Armagnac's daughter, went over himself with other unto him assigned, and there in France concluded a marriage between the King and Dame Margaret, the King's daughter of Sicily and Jerusalem, as saith the English Chronicle.* And for this marriage to bring about to the said King of Sicily was delivered the duchy of Anjou and earldom of Maine, which are called the keys of Normandy. But the French writer saith in his later Chronicle, that about this time the Earl of Suffolk came unto Charles, the French king, to a town in Lorraine, named Nance or Nant, and asked of him his daughter to be Queen of England, but he giveth her no name; the which request of the said earl to the said Charles was granted: also he affirmeth little before that season a peace between both realms was concluded for the term of twenty months, which peace endured but for a while after. Of this marriage are of divers writers left divers remembrances, place. But it is very doubtful whether Fabyan, who was Sheriff of London in 1493, was born in 1445. The date of Hall's birth is uncertain, but it was, at the very least, half a century after Margaret's marriage. * I apprehend that the Chronicle here intended is Caxton's, in Leland, ii. 493. saying that this marriage was unprofitable to the realm divers ways. For first was given up for her, out of the King's possession, the duchy of Anjou and earldom of Maine, and for the cost of her conveying into this land was acted in plain parliament a fifteen and a half by the Marquis of Suffolk, by reason whereof he grew in such hatred of the people that it finally cost him his life."* And this writer traces all the subsequent losses of England to "the breaking of the promise made by the King to the Earl of Armagnac's daughter." Genuine or not, Gloucester's speech in the play, though not equal to some which I have cited, is Shakspearian enough to justify those who believe that he did write or alter this play, though not the preceding : "Brave peers of England, pillars of the state, To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief, In winter's cold, and summer's parching heat, *P. 617-18. |
