hand.  Three treaties were concluded on the 7th of August, 1514, between the Kings of France and England, in order to regulate the conditions of their political and matrimonial alliance; on the 13th of August, the Duke de Longueville, in his sovereign’s name, espoused the Princess Mary at Greenwich; and she, escorted to France by brilliant embassy, arrived on the 8th of October at Abbeville where Louis XII. was awaiting her.  Three days afterwards the marriage was solemnized there in state, and Louis, who had suffered from gout during the ceremony, carried off his young queen to Paris, after having had her crowned at St. Denis Mary Tudor had given up the German prince, who was destined to become Charles V., but not the handsome English nobleman she loved.  The Duke of Suffolk went to France to see her after her marriage, and in her train she had as maid of honor a young girl, a beauty as well, who was one day to be Queen of England—­Anne Boleyn.

Less than three months after this marriage, on the 1st of January, 1515, “the death-bell-men were traversing the streets of Paris, ringing their bells and crying, ‘The good King Louis, father of the people, is dead.’” Louis XII., in fact, had died that very day, at midnight, from an attack of gout and a rapid decline.  “He had no great need to be married, for many reasons,” says the Loyal Serviteur of Bayard, “and he likewise had no great desire that way; but, because he found himself on every side at war, which he could not maintain without pressing very hard upon his people, he behaved like the pelican.  After that Queen Mary had made her entry, which was mighty triumphant, into Paris, and that there had taken place many jousts and tourneys, which lasted more than six weeks, the good king, because of his wife, changed all his manner of living:  he had been wont to dine at eight, and he now dined at midday; he had been wont to go to bed at six in the evening, and he often now went to bed at midnight.  He fell ill at the end of December, from the which illness nought could save him.  He was, whilst he lived, a good prince, wise and virtuous, who maintained his people in peace, without pressing hard upon them in any way, save by constraint.  He had in his time much of good and of evil, whereby he got ample knowledge of the world.  He obtained many victories over his enemies; but towards the end of his days Fortune gave him a little turn of her frowning face.  He was borne to his grave at St. Denis amongst his good predecessors, with great weeping and wailing, and to the great regret of his subjects.”

“He was a gentle prince,” says Robert de la Marck, lord of Fleuranges, “both in war and otherwise, and in all matters wherein he was required to take part.  It was pity when this malady of gout attacked him, for he was not an old man.”