this end, both parties began very early to plan
and manoeuvre with a view of choosing the king a wife. Whichever of
the two great leaders should succeed in negotiating the marriage of
the king, they knew well would, by that very act, establish his
influence at court in the most absolute manner.

[Sidenote: Princes and kings.]

[Sidenote: Their matrimonial plans.]

Princes and kings in those days, as, indeed, is the case to a
considerable extent now, had some peculiar difficulties to contend
with in making their matrimonial arrangements, so far at least as
concerned the indulgence of any personal preferences which they might
themselves entertain on the subject. Indeed, these arrangements were
generally made for them, while they were too young to have any voice
or to take any part in the question, and nothing was left for them but
to ratify and carry into effect, when they came to years of maturity,
what their parents, or grand councils of state, had determined for
them when they were children, or else to refuse to ratify and confirm
it at the cost of incurring a vast amount of difficulty and political
entanglement, and perhaps even open and formidable war.

[Sidenote: Embarrassments.]

[Sidenote: Difficulty of leaving the country.]

And even in those cases where the prince or king arrived at an age to
judge for himself before any arrangements were made for him, which was
the fact in regard to Henry VI., he was still very much embarrassed
and circumscribed in his choice if he attempted to select a wife for
himself. He could not visit foreign courts and see the princesses
there, so as to judge for himself who would best please him; for in
those days it was very unsafe for personages of any considerable rank
or position to visit foreign countries at all, except at the head of
an army, and in a military campaign. In the case, too, of any actually
reigning monarch, there was a special difficulty in the way of his
leaving his kingdom, on account of the feuds and quarrels which always
in such cases arose in making the necessary arrangements for the
government of the kingdom during his absence.

[Sidenote: Miniatures.]

[Sidenote: Situation of King Henry.]

For these and various other causes, a king or a prince desiring to
choose a wife was obliged to content himself with such information
relating to the several candidates as he could obtain from hearsay in
respect to their characters, and from miniatures and portrait