Royal Edinburgh: Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and PoetsOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
History
Royal Edinburgh: Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Edinburgh (Scotland) -- History
Andrews, and who might consider frugality and sobriety
the best qualities for the Court of a minor. At all events the crowd had
risen and was ripe for tumult, when Bishop Kennedy persuaded them to
pause, and reminded them of the mutual forbearance and patience and
quiet which was above all necessary at such a troublous time. Other
prelates would seem to have been in his train, for we are told it was
the intercessions and explanations of "the bishops" which prevented the
tumult from rising into a fight. The parties would seem to have been so
strong, and so evenly divided, that the question was finally solved by a
compromise, Parliament appointing a council of guardians, two on each
side: Seaton and Boyd for the Queen; John Kennedy, brother of the
Bishop, and the Earl of Orkney, for the others--an experiment which was
no more successful than in the previous minority.
The Queen-mother had soon, however, something to occupy her leisure in
the visit, if visit it can be called, of Henry VI and his Queen and
household, fugitives before the victorious party of York, who had sought
refuge from the Scots, and lodging for a thousand attendants--a request
which was granted, and the convent of the Greyfriars allotted to them as
their residence. The Queen at the Castle would thus be a near neighbour
of the royal fugitives, and it is interesting to think of the meeting,
the sympathy and mutual condolences of the two women. Margaret, the
fervid Provencal, with her passionate sense of wrong and restless
energy, and the hopeless task she had of maintaining and inspiring to
play his part with any dignity her too patient and gentle king; and
Mary, the fair and placid Fleming, stung too in her pride and affections
by the refusal of the regency, and her subordination to those riotous
and unmannerly lords and the proud Bishop who had got the affairs of
Scotland in his hand. The two Queens might have had some previous
acquaintance with each other, at a time when both had fairer hopes; at
all events they amused themselves sadly, as they sat and talked
together, with fancies such as please women, of making a marriage
between the little Edward, the future victim of Tewkesbury, then a child
at his mother's knee, and the little Princess of Scotland who played
beside him, in the good days when all these troubles should be past, and
Henry or his son after him should have regained the English crown. One
follows with regretful interest the noble figure of Margaret, under the
guise in which that sworn Lancastrian Shakspeare has disclosed it to us,
before her sweeter mood had disappeared under the pressure of fate, and
when not curses but hopes came from her mouth in her young motherhood,
and every recovery and restoration, and happy marriage and royal state,
were possible for her boy. Mary too had been cut off in the middle of
her greatness. They were two Queens discrowned, two fair heads veiled
with misfortune, though nothing irremediable had as yet happened,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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