King René sacrificed his inheritance of Provence to Louis XI. for the liberation of his daughter Margaret. Then an agreement having been made between the Kings of France and England for her ransom, in August, 1475, she landed in France, with three ladies and seven gentlemen sent by her father to escort her. Thirty years before she had left the shores of her native land a monarch's bride in all the pride and flush of youthful beauty; she returned a broken-hearted, childless widow, for whose afflictions it was treason to shed a tear. "Ambition, pride, the rival names Of York and Lancaster, With all their long-contested claims, What were they then to her?" [[A.D. 1479.]] She died in the fifty-first year of her age, and was buried in the Cathedral of Angers, in the same tomb with her royal parents. {316} CHAPTER XIX. ELIZABETH WOODVILLE, QUEEN OF EDWARD IV. (A.D. 1431-1492.) |When Elizabeth Woodville was maid of honor to Queen Margaret of Anjou she little supposed that she would ever ascend the throne of England, yet that was her destiny not many years later. But, first, she became the wife of John Grey, son and heir of the wealthy Lord Ferrers, who owned the domain of Bradgate, where she lived until her husband's death. John Grey was a brave, handsome man of twenty-five when he married Elizabeth, and occupied the important position of leader of Queen Margaret's cavalry. He was killed at the second battle of St. Albans, leaving his young wife with two little children, named Thomas and Richard, both under four years of age. By the cruel fortunes of war these little ones were deprived of their inheritance of Bradgate, and so, with their mother, went to live at the Castle of Grafton, which belonged to the Duchess of Bedford, Elizabeth's mother. One day when Edward IV. was hunting in the forest of Whittlebury, the young widow waylaid him, and throwing herself at his feet, pleaded earnestly for the restoration of Bradgate to her fatherless boys, who stood by her side. Struck by her beauty and downcast looks, the king listened attentively to her request, and not only granted it, but fell in love with her on the spot. This interview took place beneath the shade of a wide-spreading tree that is known to this day as the Queen's Oak. {317} [Illustration: 0321] [[A.D. 1464.]] {319}Elizabeth met her royal lover many times after that in the same place, and when the Duchess of Bedford, who was a most ambitious and manoeuvring mother, found out how matters stood, she arranged for a private marriage, which took place May 1, 1464, in the town of Grafton.