A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Anne of Bohemia

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4108313A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography — Anne of Bohemia

ANNE OF BOHEMIA,

Daughter of the emperor Charles the Fourth, was born about 1367, and was married to Richard the Second of England, when she was fifteen years of age. This was just after the insurrection of Wat Tyler; and the executions of the oppressed people who had taken part with him, had been bloody and barbarous beyond all precedent, even in that sanguinary age. At the young queen's earnest request, a general pardon was granted by the king; this mediation obtained for Richard's bride the title of "the good queen Anne." Never did she forfeit the appellation, or lose the love of her subjects.

She was the first of that illustrious band of princesses who were "the nursing mothers of the Reformation;" and by her influence the life of Wickliffe was saved, when in great danger at the council at Lambeth, in 1382. Anne died in 1394; she left no children; and from the time of her disease all good angels seem to have abandoned her always affectionate, but weak and unfortunate husband.