Biography of Anne of Bohemia Queen Consort England 1366-1394

Chronicle of Adam of Usk [~1352-1430]. 18th December 1381. In this same year there came into England one Pileus¹, cardinal priest of Saint Praxedes, to treat, on behalf of the emperor of Germany and [her father] king of Bohemia, with the council of England of and about a marriage between our king and the lady Ann [aged 15], sister of the same emperor²; who afterwards became thereby our most gracious queen, howbeit she died without issue. At his coming, this cardinal, falsely feigning himself legate a latere and as having the power of the pope, then did exercise the papal offices. And among other things he made me notary, though to no purpose, in the house of the friars preachers of London, where he was then dwelling. Thus did he gather to himself countless money, and, the treaty of marriage being settled, he departed from England with his gains, to his own condemnation; idly trusting that the pope would approve these his acts. And, after his departure, the said lady Ann was bought for a great price by our [her future husband] lord the king [aged 14], for she was much sought in marriage by the king of France³; and she was then sent over into England to be crowned queen.

Note 1. Pileo di Prata, bishop of Padua, and, in 1370, archbishop of Ravenna. He was one of the papal legates employed, at Bruges, in negotiating a peace between England and France, in 1375. At the papal schism, in 1378, he threw in his lot with Urban VI., by whom he was made cardinal, and was sent nuncio to Germany. In 1386, he seceded to Clement VII., who employed him in an unsuccessful attempt to break the power of Urban in Florence. But three years after, on the death of Urban, he deserted Clement for Boniface IX., who made him cardinal bishop of Tusculum. By these agile changes he got the nickname of '"Cardinalis trium Pileorum," the Cardinal of Three Hats. He was further appointed legate at Viterbo; but he exasperated the people to such a degree that they drove him out. He died in 1401.—Ciaconius, Vite Pont. Rom. ij. 637.

Note 2. Wenceslaus, or Wenzel, emperor of Germany, 1378.

Note 3. This is not stated by the other chroniclers. The idea was no doubt suggested by the intention of the king of France, Charles V., to waylay and capture her on the sea, out of hostility to England. He desisted on the remonstrance of Ann's uncle, the duke of Brabant [aged 44]. Ann landed in England on the 18th December, 1381, and was married on the 14th January, 1382. Knighton (ij. 150) says:— "dedit imperatori, ut dicebatur, pro maritagio decem mille libras, preter alias expensas in querendo eam et adducendo eam sumptibus suis propriis."

Chronicle of the Betrayal of Richard II. 17th September 1397. It was the Sunday before the day of the Holy Cross in September, when King Richard entered London, and all the other nobles of the kingdom with him; and on the morrow began the great Parliament, which the King opened by complaining of the government of those lords¹, and that they had deprived him of the crown in his youth, and that the Queen was three hours on her knees interceding for one of her knights, named John of Burley², Jwho, notwithstanding, was beheaded; which Earl answered the Queen, 'My friend, pray for yourself and for your husband ; you had much better³.'

Note 1. The thirteen commissioners, all of Gloucester's faction, who with the Archbishop of York held the reins of government after the King had attained his majority. (Hume.)

Note 2. The party intended is evidently Sir Simon Burley, Richard's tutor during his minority. At the same time it should be stated, that mention is made of a j Sir John Burley being associated with the poet Chaucer in some secret business, for which he received £13. 6s. 8d., 23rd Dec. 1376. (Issue Roll, Michs. 51 | Edw. III.) I know not whelher it was another party, or whether Sir Simon Burley is there misnamed. Sir Simon Burley was a K. G., Governor of Windsor Castle, "W'arden of the Cinque Ports, and Vice-chamberlain, Nov. 3, 1382. He was often employed in public embassies, and was the persoual friend of Froissart.

Note 3. I am much inclined to think that the version of MS. Y is the correct one, and that the intercessor was the widow of the Black Prince. It is not a valid objection to urge that her husband was dead; for, as a Roman Catholic, she could still pray for him. She would be more likely to be interested in the tutor of her son than even the 'good Queen Anne.' Dr. Vaughan, in his Life of Wycliffe, (a work of extensive research,) characterises her (ii. 157) as * a female whose intellectual character, and known solicitude for the tranquility of the nation, seemed to authorize that interference with the disputes of the period which is not unfrequent in her history.' It was owing to her interposition by Sir Lewis Clifford that no definite sentence was passed on Wycliffe by the Synod at Lambeth; and on another occasion she delegated Sir Simon Burley, with Sir Alfred Lewes, and the same Sir Lewis Clifford, to terminate a dispute between the Londoners and the Duke of Lancaster; when the Londoners answered, that 'they for the honour of the Princess would obey, and do with all reverence what she would require (Fox's Acts and Monuments, i. 559.) In the 8th of Richard she travelled incessantly between Pomfret Castle and London to reconcile the Duke of Lancaster and Richard, notwithstanding she was both corpulent and in years. (Sir J. Hayward.)

In Rymer, 12th June 1385, I find the appointment of four parties 'to attend upon the person of our very dear mother the Queen, wherever in our kingdom she may wish to go for her comfort and security.' I may perhaps be allowed to add, that Queen Anne possessed the Gospel written in Bohemian, German, and Latin; and Archbp. Arundel remarked that 'she studied the four GospeIs constantly in English, examined by the expositions of the doctors; and in the study of these, and reading of godly books, she was more diligent than even the preIates themselves.' She appears to have imbibed the spirit of a pure Christianily froni Matthias Janovius, a native of Prague, and had several attendants who participated in lier religions feelings. (Fox, Acts, &c., and the History of the Bohemian Persecution, from the beginning of their conversion to Christianity in the year 894, to the year 1632, as quoted by Dr. Vaughan.)

I believe it is not generally known that a translation of the Old Testament into the French language was made as early as the year 1377, by Raoul de Presles, 'maître du requestre du Roi Charles.' It still exists. The MS. is in three volumes folio, two of them being at Paris, and one at Grenoble. (Vie des Ducs d'Orléans, par Champollion, i. 149.)

The greatest charge laid to good Queen Anne is that of Stow. 'Since the 5th of Richard II.,' says he, ' (when he took to wife Anne, daughter of Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia,) by her example the English people had used piked shoes to their knees, with silken laces or chains of silver and gilt.' (Survey of London, B. 200.) In the following reign the length of these pikes was restrained by statute.