Henry was shortly after this again attacked by insanity, and for a
few months York was appointed regent. Duke Richard's power did not,
however, wholly cease with the King's recovery, and after March 1456
he continued for some months to direct the government, which was
nominally in the hands of the Bourchiers, half-brothers of the Duke
of Buckingham. Meanwhile the two arch-enemies, the Queen and the Duke
of York, watched and "waited on" each other ceaselessly until August,
when Margaret's plans were laid, and she drew off the King to sport
in the Midlands, having fortified Kenilworth with cannon in case of
another appeal to arms. A great council of notables was summoned to
meet at Coventry for October 7.[252] The news of the Queen's intended
visit reached the city about August 24, and a council was called to
provide for her highness's welcome.[253] A hundred marks was collected
throughout the wards to be given as an offering to the Prince of
Wales and his mother, together with two cups whereof the joint value
amounted to £10, 7s. 1d. The prince did not, however, accompany the
Queen on this occasion, so fifty marks were laid aside "against his
coming," though the magnificence of his mother's reception was not
lessened on this account. The "makyng of the premesses " of the Queen's
welcoming fell to the lot of one John Wedurby, of Leicester,[254] and
by his arrangement pageants as gaily dressed as at the Corpus Christi
festival, with appropriate personages standing thereon to utter words
of welcome, were placed at all the principal points in the streets
between Bablake and the "utter" gate of the Priory. John Wedurby
thought as other men of his time, that Margaret's son would one day
have rule in England, and hoped that each party would forget their
differences and live in peace under his government.
"The blessyd babe that ye have born prynce Edward is he,
Thurrowe whom pece & tranquilite shall take this reme (realm) on hand,"
said Prudence to the Queen in the pageant of the four Cardinal Virtues;
while the prophet Isaiah declared to the Queen that,--
"Like as mankynde was gladdid by the birght of Jhesus,
So shall this empyre joy the birthe of your bodye."
And the companion prophet Jeremiah was equally positive:
"The fragrant floure sprongen of you shall so encrece & sprede,
That all the world yn ich (each) party shall cherisshe hym & love & drede."
In his conception of the Queen's character Wedurby was a thorough
courtier.
"The mellyflue mekenes of your person shall put all wo away,"
the same prophet said; and S. Edward greeted her as "moder of mekeness."
To what strange freaks will not the rules of his art--and especially
alliteration--betray a poet! The "she wolf of France" had nothing of
the quality thus assigned to her; her name had merely the same initial
letter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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