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his marriage contracted ten years before with Hawise, daughter and heiress of the duke of Gloster. Ere final sentence of divorce was pronounced, attracted by the fame of the beauty of the princess of Portugal, he sent ambassadors thither to obtain her hand; and meanwhile, passing over into Normandy, entered into a treaty with Philip Augustus. Here he first saw Isabel, at that period a very young girl, but who had already, at the recommendation of the late king Richard, been betrothed to Hugh le Brun, earl of Marche, to whose castle she had already been sent.* Struck with her beauty, the versatile king forgot the princess of Portugal, and demanded Isabel of her father. The earl of Angoulesme, dazzled at the splendid pro.. spect, took her from the castle of Hugh le Brun, and sentence of divorce between John and Hawise having been finally pronounced by the archbishop of Bourdeaux, and the bishops of Poictou and Saintonges, he was married by the archbishop to Isabel at Angoulesme.

During several months after, John and his young bride remained in Normandy, but in October he returned to England; and on the 8th of October, in the abbey of Westminster, he, for the second time, and Isabel for the first, were crowned by archbishop Hubert. The following year, at Easter, they were again crowned at Canterbury, on which occasion the archbishop provided a splendid enter

* Hoveden, p. 803. He states that John's marriage took place at the instigation of Philip; to whom, indeed, on her mother's side, she was related.

tainment, and this later coronation has by some historians been mistaken for the first.

John, by the
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The importance assigned by our forefathers to this ceremony, not only for their kings but also for their queens, is forcibly expressed in the introduction to the charter which specifies Isabel's dower, and which is dated 1203. The reason of the introductory clause being so strongly worded, may probably be found in the circumstances of the marriage; and it is worthy of remark, that the claim of Isabel to her dower is founded not upon her marriage, but upon her recognition as queen of England, by her coronation. It commences, grace of God, king of England, &c. we have given unto our beloved wife Isabel, by the same grace queen of England, who in England, by common assent, and willing concord of our archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, clergy, and people of the whole realm, was crowned queen of England." This form is, in the course of the charter, used a second time; and the modern reader will scarcely repress his astonishment at the long catalogue of broad lands, and large and important towns and cities, which apparently, as matter of course, form the queen's noble dower. The city of Exeter (with its adjacent forests and villages), Ilchester, Wilton, Malmsbury, Belesdun and Wiltershawe, Chichester, Waltham, the honour of Berkhampstead, Rochester, the wharf in London called Queenhithe, and the whole county of Rutland, are assigned her; and, in addition to this splendid portion, the towns of Calais, Damfront, and Bonville, besides "all those

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others that were apportioned to our beloved mother Elinor, as well on this side of the sea, as on the other."*

As this is the earliest document hitherto discovered relative to the dowry of our queens, it is impossible to determine whether the towns and lands here specified belonged to the regular provision made for each queen-consort, or whether they were assigned to Isabel by the profuse liberality of John. That the greater part of them formed the usual dower of our queens, is probable, from the circumstance of Exeter being expressly mentioned by Maude, the wife of Beauclerc, as belonging to her ;† and the same city, together with the honour of Berkhampstead and Queenhithe, being specified in a charter granted by Adelais to the abbey of Reading, as also being her property.

But a provision for the queen consort, was not only supplied from the extensive domains which formed her dower; another, and most important source of revenue was derived from fines, which under peculiar arrangements were paid into the exchequer, and designated by the name of "queen'sgold." Thanks to the toilsome but most loyal labours of the celebrated Prynne, we are put into possession of a number of very curious facts relating to this celebrated tax, in a tract entitled “Aurum Reginæ," compiled by him for the use of, and dedicated to, the unhappy Catherine of Portugal. In this treatise he acquaints us that the claim of

* See the whole in the Fœdera, vol. i.

+ Vide Monasticon-Priory of the Holy Trinity.

queen's-gold took its rise from "the frequent mediations and powerful intercessions of queen consorts to our monarchs, in most grants of honours, offices, licences, franchises, privileges, pardons, &c. to their subjects, which being commonly procured, or their fines moderated, or much abated by their royal mediations, the subjects thereupon for these favours, by way of gratitude and justice, held themselves obliged to present them with so much gold, as amounted to at least one tenth part over and above their entire fines." It seems rather singular, after this clear statement, to find that, "in case of their ungrateful neglect thereof, they were, by custom, justice, and law of the realm, enforced to pay it by legal process:" thus, after all, like the loans and benevolences of a later period, queen's-gold, whatever milder terms might be used to designate it, was a real and direct tax. The reason for enforcing its payment is thus illustrated: "The rather, because in many copyholds the wives or ladies of the landlords do still claim and receive from the copyholder or tenant, on renewing or changing leases or estates, a gratuity over and above." He next proceeds to inform us on what occasions, and for what species of fines, it was received. These were all fines of ten marks and upward; and for a long list of liberties, licenses, grants, immunities, and et ceteras, which fill up two thirds of a quarto page. From the section specifying those payments upon which the superadded tax of queen's-gold could not be claimed, we learn that it was not due "from subsidies of tonnage, or poundage granted by Parliament,"

nor from aids raised by the clergy for the necessary defence of the realm, or of the Holy Land; nor for fines paid in kind, such as palfreys, hawks, tuns of wine, "because these were not money, and therefore their rates and value were uncertain.

This due, he farther states, was so absolutely vested in the queen, that the king's remission of his fine would not remit the superadded tenth due to her, and if the king died ere his fine were paid, "this debt survived to the queen." If, however, the queen died, "all arrears due to her became the king's, and if he meanwhile died, to his successor." When this ancient tax was first imposed, the industry and research of Prynne have not been able to discover. "It was due time out of mind," he says; at the same time acknowledging that he finds no traces of it under our Saxon monarchs, nor any entry in the rolls of the exchequer relating to it, until the reign of the subject of the present chapter. That queen'sgold, both in name and in reality, was known previously to the times of Isabel, is proved, he remarks, by a passage in the curious dialogue on the exchequer, which states, that one gold mark on this account was due from each fine of one hundred, and two gold marks for each fine of two hundred.* it is not in this dialogue spoken of as a new tax, it seems on the whole most probable that it was a Norman custom, and introduced either at the conquest or soon after; and this opinion derives additional

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* This dialogue may be found appended to Madox's history of the Exchequer. It was certainly written in the reign of Henry II. and the authorship has been assigned to his justiciary Glanville.

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