King Richard went to Ireland shortly after, and frequently in the council-chamber of Dublin when anything recalled his "good Queen Anne" to his thoughts he suddenly would burst into tears and leave the room. [Illustration: 0246] {243} CHAPTER XV. ISABELLA OF VALOIS, SURNAMED THE LITTLE QUEEN, SECOND WIFE OF RICHARD II. (A. D. 1387-1410.) |It seems strange that when Richard II. reached the age of thirty he should have had a fancy to share his throne with a child of nine, yet that was the age of Isabella of Valois, when he married her. She was the eldest daughter of Charles VI. of France and the wicked Isabeau of Bavaria; but fortunately she inherited nothing from her mother but her beautiful dark eyes and clear olive complexion; her goodness and lovely character she got from her father. When Richard was told that Isabella was too young for him, he replied: "that every day would remedy the deficiency of age, and her youth was one of his reasons for preferring her, because he should educate her to his own mind, to the manners and customs of the English; and that, as for himself, he was young enough to wait for her." [[A.D. 1396.]] When the English ambassadors waited on Isabella to solicit her hand for Richard, one of them dropped upon his knees and said: "Madam, if it please God, you shall be our lady and queen." Without any prompting, the little maid replied; "Sir, if it please God and my lord and father that I be Queen of England, I shall be pleased thereat, for I have been told I shall then be a great lady." Her appearance and manners were very pleasing, and {244}from the time when it was proposed that she should marry Richard, she began to practise how to behave as queen, though she could not prepare herself for the sad experience that awaited her in that exalted position. King Richard went to Paris, attended by a retinue of the first noblemen of his realm, to claim his little wife. At a magnificent dinner given by the King of France, the last of a series of entertainments that had been held in honor of his royal guest, Isabella was presented to her future lord. Then, attended by her parents and the whole court, she was conveyed in a rich litter to Calais, where the marriage ceremony was performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. "The little queen," as Isabella was called from that time, made a public entry into London a few days later, when many rich and beautiful gifts were presented to her.