PLATE XXXI.

THE DEATH OF ANNE OF BOHEMIA, &c. &c.

Richard II., soon after his accession, married Anne of Bohemia, sister of Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia and Emperor of Germany, with whom he lived happily till the year 1394, when about to start on his Irish expedition; at which period, Froissart tells us, “the Lady Anne, Queen of England, fell sick, to the great distress of the King and her household. Her disorder increased so rapidly, that she departed this life on the feast of Whitsuntide, in the year of grace 1394.”[17] It appears that the King felt her loss very severely, even venting his anguish upon the palace at Sheen, where she died, which he caused to be razed to the ground.

The funeral service was not performed at the time, as the King ordered extraordinary preparations to be made for the occasion, insomuch that, as our author says, “nothing was over seen like to it before, not even at the burial of the good Queen Philippa, nor of any other. The King would have it so, because she was the daughter of the King of Bohemia,[18] Emperor of Rome and of Germany. He was inconsolable for her loss, as they mutually loved each other, having been married young.” He farther states, that “there was no talk of the King’s marrying again, for he would not hear of it,” &c. &c. Nevertheless, not very long afterwards, he married Isabella, daughter of Charles VI., of France.

This Illumination has been selected principally for the accurate manner in which the ordinary fittings of a bed-room of the period are delineated, particularly the carpet of stamped leather, then in general use in the rooms of the sick.

Evan de Foix, burnt to death at a masked dance at the Hotel de Sᵗ. Pol.