Here's a hyper-specific question. I'm looking for an event that I recall reading about (but which I can find no reference to) in which a heavily pregnant Isabella knelt before Richard II to beg mercy for a group of Calais merchants who had somehow offended the Crown. Did I make this up? What's the whole story?
Thanks!
Are you sure you aren't thinking of Philippa of Hainault? She begged Edward III to spare the Burghers of Calais. Edward wanted to kill them because they had held out for longer than he would have liked when he was sieging the city. And he wanted to set an example. They story goes that after they finally surrendered the city Edward had the burghers walk out in nooses ready to be hung. But then Philippa, who was pregnant, intervened. Or that was the claim. It may have all been political theater.
There is a relatively famous series of sculptures depicting the event in Calais.