And because many of our Countrymen have a far different Opinion of the Life and Manners of Queen Blanch, occasioned (as ’tis probable) by the Flattery of the Writers of those Times; (For all Writers either thro’ Fear of Punishment, or, by Reason of the Esteem which the Kings their Sons have in the World, are cautious how they write of Queen-Mothers:) I think it not amiss to relate what Joinville himself records [cap 76.] viz. That She had so great a Command over her Son, and had reduced him to that Degree of Timidity and Lowness of Spirit, that She would very seldom suffer the King to converse with his Wife Margaret, (her Daughter-in-Law) whom She hated.  And therefore whenever the King went a Journey, She ordered the Purveyors to mark out different Lodgings, that the Queen might lie separate from the King.  So that the poor King was forced to place Waiters and Doorkeepers in Ambush whenever He went near his Queen; Ordering them, that when they heard his Mother Blanch approach the Lodgings, they shou’d beat some Dogs, by whose Cry he might have Warning to hide himself:  And one Day (says Joinville) when Queen Margaret was in Labour, and the King in Kindness was come to visit her, on a sudden Queen Blanch surprized him in her Lodgings:  For altho’ he had been warned by the howling of the Dogs, and had hid himself (wrapp’d up in the Curtains) behind the Bed; yet She found him out, and in the Presence of all the Company laid Hands on him, and drew him out of the Chamber:  You have nothing to do here (said She) get out.  The poor Queen, in the mean Time, being not able to bear the Disgrace of such a Reproof, fell into a Swoon for Grief; so that the Attendants were forced to call back the King to bring her to her self again, by whose Return She was comforted and recover’d. Joinville tells this Story [cap. hist. 76.] in almost these same Words.

Again, Some Years after this, Isabella, Widow of Charles the 6th, (Sirnamed the Simple) got Possession of the Government:  For before the Administration of the Publick Affairs cou’d be taken care of by the Great Council, or committed by them to the Management of chosen and approved Men, many ambitious Courtiers had stirr’d up Contentions:  Six Times these Controversies were renewed, and as often composed by Agreement.  At last Isabella being driven out of Paris betook her self to Chartres:  There, having taken into her Service a subtle Knave, one Philip de Morvilliers, She made up a Council of her own, with a President, and appointed this Morvilliers her Chancellor; by whose Advice She order’d a Broad-Seal, commonly called, a Chancery-Seal, to be engraven:  On which her own Image was cut, holding her Arms down by her Sides:  and in her Patents She made use of this Preamble.  “Isabella, by the Grace of God, Queen of France:  who, by Reason of the King’s Infirmity, has the Administration