When folk in Normandy quip William I civilised England, they tend to forget the Romans did it first.

What Louis XI wanted more than anything in the world was a son. Until he got one and indeed, after he got one, his daughter Anne was the next best thing. She was, he said, ‘The Least Foolish Woman In France’.

Margaret was the only daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke Maximilian of Austria. Her mother died when she was two.

In a deal struck between her father and Louis XI, Margaret married the Dauphin Charles in the Chapel Royal in Château Amboise (Saint Blaise, now St. Hubert’s) when she was three. During this very grand royal occasion, Charles, a boy of eleven, placed a wedding ring upon her tiny finger.

In 1470, just before Christmas, two teenagers from England were married in St. Florent Church at Château Amboise. The groom was seventeen, the bride was fourteen. His father was the King of England, hers was a third rank peer.

During the late 1400s there were two queens living in the Royal Château of Amboise. Charlotte of Savoy, Queen of France and Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England.

Where are Holmes, Morse and Lewis when you need them? The magnificent bronze on the banks of the Loire in Amboise poses many riddles.

Queen Bonne of England. Really? Well. Not quite. Nearly though.

Charlotte of Savoy was Marie of Anjou’s nineteen year-old daughter-in-law, Charlotte. They were very similar. Both placid, both accepted the cards Fate dealt them, both loved their husbands and were loyal to them even though they were treated badly.