Excerpt from The History of England, Vol. 3: From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Abdication of James the Second, 1688 The French court now began to changeitheir scheme with regard to the, subjection, of Brittany. Charles had: fbrmerl'y been afiianced to Margaret, daughter of 'maximilian; who, thoiigh too young for the consummation of her marriage, had been? Sent to Paris to be educated, and at this time. Bore the title of queen, of France. Besides the rich dowry which she bropght gthe king, she was, after her brother Philip; then in early youth, heir to all the dominions of the house of Burgun dy; and seemed in many respects the most proper match that could be chosen for the young monarch. These circumstances had so blinded both Maximilian and Henry, that. They never suspected any other intentions in the French court nor were they able to discover that engagements, seemingly. So advan tageous and so solemnly entered into, could be infringed and set aside. But Charles began to, perceive that the.condues't of Brittany, in opposition to the natives, and to all the great powers of Christendom, would prove a difficult enterprise, and that even if he should overrun the country and make himself master of the fortiesses, it would be impossible for him long to retain possession of them. The marriage. Alone of the duchess could fully reannex that fief to the crown; and the present and certain enjoyment of so considerable a territory, seemed preferable to the prospect of inheriting the dominions of the house of Burgundy a prospect which became everyday more distant and precaiious. Above all, the mar riage'of Maximilian and Anne appeared destructiveto the grandeur and even security ofthe French monarchy; 'while that prince, possessing Flanders on the one hand, and Brittany on the other; might thus, from both quarters, make inroads into the. Heart, of the country. The only' remedy _for these evils was therefore concluded to be the dissolution of the two. Marriages, which had been celebrated, but not consummated; and the espousal of the duchess of Brittany by the king of. France. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.