s
Marguerite arrived in France escorted by a brilliant embassy, and the
marriage was celebrated at Sens, on the 27th of May, 1234, amidst great
rejoicings and abundant largess to the people. As soon as he was married
and in possession of happiness at home, Louis of his own accord gave up
the worldly amusements for which he had at first displayed a taste; his
hunting establishment, his games, his magnificent furniture and dress,
gave place to simpler pleasures and more Christian occupations. The
active duties of the kingship, the fervent and scrupulous exercise of
piety, the pure and impassioned joys of conjugal life, the glorious plans
of a knight militant of the cross, were the only things which took up the
thoughts and the time of this young king, who was modestly laboring to
become a saint and a hero.

There was one heartfelt discomfort which disturbed and troubled sometimes
the sweetest moments of his life. Queen Blanche, having got her son
married, was jealous of the wife and of the happiness she had conferred
upon her; jealous as mother and as queen, a rival for affection and for
empire. This sad and hateful feeling hurried her into acts as devoid of
dignity as they were of justice and kindness. "The harshness of Queen
Blanche towards Queen Marguerite," says Joinville, "was such that Queen
Blanche would not suffer, so far as her power went, that her son should
keep his wife's company. Where it was most pleasing to the king and the
queen to live was at Pontoise, because the king's chamber was above and
the queen's below. And they had so well arranged matters that they held
their converse on a spiral staircase which led down from the one chamber
to the other. When the ushers saw the queen-mother coming into the
chamber of the king her son, they knocked upon the door with their
staves, and the king came running into his chamber, so that his mother
might find him there; and so, in turn, did the ushers of Queen
Marguerite's chamber when Queen Blanche came thither, so that she might
find Queen Marguerite there. One day the king was with the queen his
wife, and she was in great peril of death, for that she had suffered from
a child of which she had been delivered. Queen Blanche came in, and took
her son by the hand, and said to him, 'Come you away; you are doing no
good here.' When Queen Marguerite saw that the queen-mother was taking
the king away, she cried, 'Alas! neither dead nor alive will you let me
see