Queen Of Four Kingdoms, The by HRH Princess Michael of Kent

Angers, where Louis’ people meet them and take them to a large wooden inn by the river, smoke billowing from its two chimneys. In warm rooms they change out of their travelling clothes into formal attire, to make their official entry into Louis’ capital.
    Seeing how excited and happy his wife is to be arriving at her new home at last, Louis explains: ‘A page will carry my ducal crown on a cushion while I will leave my head bare so the people can see me.’ He is dressed in a beautiful suit of burgundy velvet with collar and cuffs of sable fur against the cold, a shining brooch of many colours at his throat – ‘A gift to my grandfather Charles V from an Ottoman sultan,’ he tells her proudly. To complement him – and she marks his approving look – Yolande wears a burgundy velvet tight-fitting short jacket, with a sable collar and cuffs like his, and a long skirt of burgundy velvet to hang down the side of her horse, also hemmed all around with sable. To keep her head warm, yet more sable turned like a crown around a burgundy velvet cap. On the side of it she pins a large golden topaz surrounded with diamonds, which gleams in the brown fur. Their horses are caparisoned in quilted ornamental ceremonial cloths almost to the ground, bearing the red and yellow colours of Anjou. Husband and wife smile approvingly at one another – he to reassure her, she full of admiration.
    For the short distance, they are preceded by a company of dashing Angevin knights riding four abreast, fully armed and carrying pennants. Soon they see people lining the road, the crowds becoming thicker as they near the city. They hear the high-pitched blast of silver trumpets – a fanfare of welcome – as they walk their horses slowly through a sea of smiling, waving, cheering citizens. Throughout the ceremonial entry, Louis and Yolande often glance at one another and smile. They do not need words at moments like this – they already know one another’s hearts and minds. Many emotions fill her breast: delight at the people’s warm reaction to her; excitement about the challenges ahead, the new life unfolding.
    After Louis has presented to her a long line of servants with a word about each, he leads her, followed by Ajax and Hector, around the great castle of Angers. Only now does she begin to appreciate the might of the House of Anjou. Angers is a massive, powerful fortress, almost a city in itself, rising majestically from huge rocks at the edge of the River Maine. Looking down, she can see a substantial parade area within its walls and many buildings. Not a talkative man by nature, Louis points out the seventeen enormous pepperpot towers high above them: ‘A castle strong and large enough to house an army, my darling,’ he tells her proudly. Never before has she seen anything to match its dramatic alternating horizontal stripes of what she later learns is black schist and white tuffeau stone – and the sheer scale of it overwhelms her.
    ‘Angers,’ explains Louis, squeezing her hand reassuringly, ‘is the most important fortress in all France.’ And Yolande can do nothing but nod in wide-eyed wonder.
    In contrast to its severe military exterior, once again, the luxurious and surprisingly comfortable interior – with the exception of the immense stone Great Hall – is due to the taste and elegance of her mother-in-law.
    To Yolande’s relief, Marie de Blois herself arrives at Angers not long afterwards, to teach her daughter-in-law how to become the absolute mistress of her great house.
    ‘Yolande, my dear, come, I will have you meet the people who run Angers in my absence. I hope they will serve you as well as they have served me,’ she says with her sweet smile as she presents the staff. ‘This is Vincenzo, my major-domo, who has been here since he was seven years old. He learnt everything from his father, who had the post before him.’ A tall man of about thirty years bows low before her and meets her eyes with his own honest