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Henry sent the Earl of Suffolk to France to represent him. Suffolk was the King’s personal choice and it was not a wise one as the Earl himself appreciated. He had been involved in Anglo-French peace feelers before and for that reason the French had specifi cally asked for him but the numerous French contacts that he had already established left him short of credibility in the eyes of Gloucester’s supporters. They suspected that he would prove a ‘soft touch’ and he was worried lest a successful mission should be seen in that light.
    It was already a concession on the English side to be discussing Margaret at all, not least because her dowry was likely to be negligible and any further concessions would seriously undermine the credibility of the whole exercise. Nevertheless, that is what happened. By 20 May it was clear that the English would be able to secure neither a full peace nor recognition of their existing position in France. Given his apprehensions of precisely such an outcome, Suffolk should probably have broken off the negotiation and come home. However, perhaps because he knew the King’s mind, he settled for a two-year general truce in order to secure the marriage. His thinking seems to have been that once Margaret was in England as Queen, it would be relatively easy to turn the truce into a full peace. In any case, there had not even been a truce since Henry V’s death, so that was an achievement of a kind. On 22 May a formal betrothal ceremony took place in St Martin’s cathedral at Tours, presided over by the papal Legate, the Bishop of Brescia, and in the presence of Charles, Renée, their wives and a large concourse of French nobility. Suffolk acted as proxy for the King of England. The Earl and his entourage returned to England immediately after the ceremony, and were greeted by Henry with extravagant enthusiasm. It was not the least of that monarch’s many misjudgements to have undervalued himself in such a fashion but Suffolk was generously rewarded and in September raised

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    herself effectually’ in the cause of peace ‘in such wise that you and all others, ought herein to be gratifi ed’.
    7 On 22 December, Henry proceeded to make the unilateral gesture that is usually attributed to Margaret’s infl uence. He renounced his claim to the duchy of Maine in favour of Renée. This was not done through formal negotiation and undermined the position that his delegates were trying to sustain; moreover it brought peace no nearer and served merely to confi rm the impression in England that the French were not interested in a settlement on any reasonable terms. Margaret was blamed for this surrender and those who had seen her arrival as symbolic of submission appeared to be justifi ed. As her arch critic, Thomas Gascoinge, wrote:
    this king of England, Henry VI, granted and gave Maine and Anjou at the request of his Queen, Margaret, daughter of the Duke of Lorraine who calls himself King of Sicily …
    and that aforesaid Queen of ours begged the King of England that [they] so be given to her father at the urging of William Pole, Duke of Suffolk and his wife who earlier had promised to re
    quest it.8
    This was written well after the event and was a slander on Suffolk but it expresses a widely held view, both at the time and later. By the end of 1445, the Queen’s traditional function as a mediatrix between her husband and her father’s kindred had turned sour indeed. The harder she tried and the more successful her efforts, the more unpopular she was likely to become. Had she fulfi lled her primary duty and started bearing Henry children the criticism might have been more muted but that did not happen. There does not appear to have been anything wrong with their relationship. Despite Henry’s later mental problems and his reputation for extreme piety, at this stage his health and his sexual interest in his wife appear to have been entirely normal. It was