Add Ch 13293

A notarial instrument certifying the safe delivery of Margaret of Anjou (b. 1430, d. 1482), once Queen of England and daughter of René of Anjou, by Sir Thomas Montgomery (b. c. 1430, d. 1495), commissioner for Edward IV (r. 1461-1470, 1471-1483), King of England, to Louis XI (r. 1461-1483), King of France.

Dated at Rouen, 22 January 1475/6.

Attested by the notarial marks of Jehan Esterlin(?) and Guillaume Lambert, notaries of Rouen.

Endorsed: in a contemporary hand, '22 Janvier 1475. A''.15.E 4'.

Margaret had been taken by prisoner by the Yorkist army after the Lancastrian defeat at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471 and imprisoned in the Tower of London. She was subsequently placed in the custody of Alice Chaucer (b. c. 1404, d. 1475), Duchess of Suffolk, her former lady-in-waiting, where she remained until she was ransomed by Louis XI for 50000 crowns, as part of the Treaty of Picquigny, signed 29 August 1475. She lived in France for the remaining seven years of her life, as a poor relation of the French king, and died on 25 August 1482.