[[A.D. 1402.]] The two daughters accompanied their mother to Winchester, where King Henry awaited her. The marriage was publicly solemnized at the church, of St Swithin, and afterwards there was a splendid feast. The citizens of London made costly preparations to receive the bride, whose coronation took place Feb. 26, 1403, nearly three weeks after her landing in England. Joanna was thirty-three years old at that time, but she was still handsome, majestic, and graceful; she was, besides, a woman of excellent common sense, but excessively avaricious. Indeed, this besetting sin not only prompted her to make unjust demands on her subjects, and to accept unlawful bribes, but also prevented her from performing those deeds of charity that one reasonably expects from people in lofty positions. The festivities that succeeded the coronation were rudely interrupted by an attack of the Bretons on the merchant shipping along the coast of Cornwall. This made the queen distasteful to her new subjects at once, though as her own son, the Duke of Bretagne, was then entirely under the influence of the Duke of Burgundy, it was the French who were responsible for the attack. Then followed the Percy rebellion and the battle of Shrewsbury, where the king so nearly lost his life. [[A.D. 1404]] Joanna further increased her unpopularity by filling her palace with her former subjects, an error that many Queens of England had made before her. But in this instance it was soon rectified, for the House of Commons took the matter in hand and cleared the royal household of nearly all the Breton servants. As the king {258}was well aware that the voice of the people had secured for him his position, he dared not interfere. [Illustration: 0262] Three years after she had ascended the throne of England, Joanna was called upon to part with her daughters, because their brother, whose subjects they were, claimed them. {259} [Illustration: 0263] {261}He had a husband provided for each, and they were married soon after their return to France. [[A.D. 1413.]] The death of Henry IV., which occurred in 1413, left Joanna again a widow. His interview with the Prince of Wales, during which he resigns his crown and offers most excellent advice, is correctly given in the fifth act of Shakespeare's Henry IV. When the new king, Henry V., ascended the throne, he treated his stepmother with every mark of attention and respect, so much so that when he started on his expedition against France she was appointed regent in his absence. [[A.D. 1415.]] The Duke of Bretagne took no part in this contest; but Queen Joanna's second son, Arthur, made the first attack on Henry's camp, at the head of two thousand French cavalry, near Agincourt. It was midnight on the eve of St. Crispin's day and a violent storm was raging when the assault was made. It resulted in victory for the English; Arthur was wounded and taken prisoner.