many times would not so much as see the persons who brought them to him. In short, he behaved himself after so strange a manner, that he was more formidable, both to his neighbours and subjects, than he had ever been before; and indeed that was his design, and the motive which induced him to act so unaccountably. CH. VIII.—Of the Conclusion of the Marriage between the Dauphin and Margaret of Flanders, and how she was brought into France; upon which Edward IV., King of England, died with displeasure.—1482-3. But to return to our principal design, and to the conclusion of these Memoirs, and the affairs of all the illustrious persons of the age in which they were transacted, it is absolutely necessary for us to speak of the conclusion of the marriage between our present king (then Dauphin of France) and the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Austria, which was effected by the mediation of the citizens of Ghent, to the great displeasure of the King of England, who found himself deluded in the hopes he had entertained of marrying his daughter to the Dauphin, of which marriage both himself and his queen were more ambitious than of any other match in the world; and never would believe any man, whether subject or foreigner, that endeavoured to persuade them that our king’s intentions were not sincere and honourable. For the Parliament of England had remonstrated to King Edward several times, when our king was in Picardy, that after he had conquered that province he would certainly fall upon Calais and Guynes, which are not far off. The ambassadors from the Duke and Duchess of Austria, as also those from the Duke of Bretagne, who were continually in England at that time, represented the same thing to him, but to no purpose; for he would believe nothing of it[107], and he suffered greatly for his incredulity: yet I am entirely of opinion his conduct proceeded not so much from ignorance as avarice, for he was afraid to lose his annual pension of fifty thousand crowns, which our master paid very punctually; and, besides, he was unwilling to leave his ease and pleasures, to which he was extremely given.