AGNES SOREL 



Burgundy, as well as Bedford, the able Regent, 

 and there was no fit man to take the latter's 

 place. Paris opened her gates to Charles in 

 1436, and in the following year Charles, after 

 having reigned for fourteen years, made his first 

 State entry into the capital of his kingdom, 

 mounted on a white charger, the sign of 

 sovereignty. In 1444 a treaty was concluded 

 at Tours with the English, and, to make the 

 compact doubly sure, Margaret of Anjou, a 

 niece of the king, was married to Henry the 

 Sixth of England. For about a month the 

 Court and its princely visitors gave themselves 

 up to fetes and pageants, and it was during this 

 time of rejoicing that the position of Agnes was 

 officially recognised. She was made lady-in- 

 waiting to the queen, and took a prominent 

 part throughout the festival. Charles gave her 

 the royal castle of Beaute, on the Marne, near 

 the Bois de Vincennes, " le plus bel chastel et 

 joly et le mieux assis qui fust en 1'Isle de France," 

 desiring, as was said, that she should be " Dame 

 de Beaute de nom comme de fait." From the 

 time of her public recognition she appeared with 

 the king at all the brilliant festivities celebrated 

 in honour of treaties and marriages. She also 

 sat in the royal council, a position which, as a 

 king's mistress, she was the first to occupy, 

 though we know that Henri II. took no step 

 without first conferring with Diane de Poitiers, 

 and that Madame de Maintenon sat in Louis 

 the Fourteenth's privy council. 



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