Roses--“December” and “May”--A famous House--The Queen of Beauty--All in love with Jehanne--The champion’s crest--A tournament banquet--The Grand Prix--René struck with Jehanne--His Genoese innamorate--“Devils at home”--A second marriage desirable--The King bemoans Isabelle--No festivities--A moral allegory--A new course of life--Costly offerings--“Les Tards-Venus”--Court of Love at Les Baux--“La Passe Rose”--A coffin full of golden hair--Ruralizing royalty--Jehanne, nymph of the bosquets--“Pastorals”--“Regnault et Jehanneton”--All fall in love, and all fall out!--An allegory of chivalry--Cuer reads the strange inscription--Louis XI.’s outrageous behaviour--“L’Abuzé en Court”--René the victim--The Pageant of the Pheasant--An elysium of love--The Queen’s virtues--Her portrait--René’s school of architects--St. Bernardin, the King’s confessor--René’s heart--Pious Sovereigns--Relics--The crown of Catalonia--Queen Jehanne and Queen Margaret--Church spectacles--Magnificent hospitality--Demoiselle Odille--La Petite Hélène--Patroness of crafts--“The Golden Rose”--René’s green old age--“Le bon Roy est mort!”--Marie de la Chapelle’s children--Queen Jehanne retires to Beaufort--A studious widow--“I have no other rôle to play!”-“La Reine” in an iron cage--The Queen’s sweet death--Her will--Her monument and René’s--“Priez pour la bonne Jehanne” 306-356
CEREMONIOUS ENTRY OF THE “LADY OF THE CREST” _Frontispiece_
KING RENÉ D’ANJOU AND HIS SEVEN QUEENS--yes, I stand by my title, and offer no apology to the captious and the curious.
René was the most remarkable personality in the French Renaissance. How many English readers of the romance of history, I wonder, know anything about him but his name? Of his “seven Queens,” two only are at all familiar to the English public,--Marguerite d’Anjou and Jeanne d’Arc,--and their stories as commonly told are unconvincing. The other five are not known even by name to the majority of people; therefore I have immense pleasure in introducing them to any clientèle: Yolanda d’Arragona, Isabelle de Lorraine, Jehanne de Laval, Giovanna II. da Napoli, Jeanne d’Arc and Marguerite d’Anjou. This galaxy of Queens, fair and frail, will appeal as something entirely new in sentimental biography to those in search of novelty.
