princess, Bishop Fisher says that he has often heard her say, that if the Christian princes had again to make war with the infidels, "she wolde be glad yet to go, followe the hoost, and helpe to wash theyr clothes for the love of Jhesu." Elvira of Castile, Countess of Toulouse, followed her husband to the Holy Land. The Dame de Poitiers, the Countess of Brittany, Ioland of Burgundy, Jeanne of Toulouse, Isabelle de France, Amicie of Courtenay, were in the host of St. Louis. Duke Robert, son of William the Conqueror, being wounded by a poisoned arrow on the right arm before Jerusalem, and the physicians pronouncing it incurable, the Duchess, who followed her husband, loved him so dearly, that she availed herself of the intervals of his sleep to suck the wound, "et partant de fois que le dit seigneur en fut guéri et n'en print aucun mal à ladite dame." The beautiful Countesses of Flanders and of Blois were in the crusade; Florine, daughter of the Duke of Burgundy, followed her illustrious suitor, and was slain fighting by his side; Gandechilde, wife of Baudouin, Ide Comtess de Hainaut, Batilde queen of Eric III. King of Denmark, and the Margravine of Atriche, were also with the host. The Countess of Richmond used to rise "not long after five of the clock," says Bishop Fisher, "then for the poore creatures, albeit she did not receive into her house our Savyour in his own person, as the blessed Martha dyde, she nevertheless receyved them that doth represent his person, of whom he sayth himself, quod uni ex minimis meis fecistis, mihi fecistis. Poore folkes to the nombre of twelve, she dayly and nyghtly kepte in her house, gyvyng them lodgyng, mete, and drynke, and clothynge, vysyting them as often as conveniently she myght; and in their sykeness, vysytynge them and comfortynge them, and mynystrynge unto them with her owne hands and when it pleased God to call any of them out of this wretched worlde, she wolde be present, to see them departe, and to lerne to deye, and likewyse bring them unto the erthe." Chaucer's description of Custance is re : markable. In hire is high beaute withouten pride, 1 Fisher's Funeral Sermon on the Death of Margaret Countess of Richmond. To all hire workes vertue is hire guide; Hire herte is veray chambre of holinesse, Jean Bouchet says of Gabrielle de Bourbon, first wife of the Seigneur de la Tremoille, "En public monstroit bien elle estre du royal sang, descendue par ung port assez grant et reverencial; mais au privé, entre ses gentilzhommes, damoyselles, serviteurs et gens qu'elle avoit acoustumé veoyr, estoit la plus benigne, gracieuse, et familiere qu'on eust peu trouver; consolative, confortative, et tousjours habondante en bonnes parolles sans vouloir ouyr mal parler d'auttruy." And he says, in relating her death, that " onc dame ne mourut en plus grant foy, en plus fervente charité et humilité, ne en meilleure esperance, sur la mort et passion de nostre Seigneur Jhesu Crist fondée." When Guy Earl of Warwick returns to England in the habit of a pilgrim, after an absence of seven years in the Holy Land, coming to his castle, he beholds the countess sitting at the gate, and distributing alms to a crowd of poor people, ordering them all to pray for the safe return of her lord from Palestine. A beautiful description is given by the German historians of Gisela, whose father was Herman Archduke of Suabia, and whose mother Gerberge, daughter of Conrad King of Burgundy, was descended from Charlemagne. "She was unwearied in the service of God, never ceased giving alms and praying, and did all secretly, thinking on the words of the Gospel, 'Do not your alms openly before men to be seen of them.' A woman of noble spirit and of great industry, excelling in all the duties of a wife, an enemy to dissipation, but liberal in all good things; whose beauty and great qualities so overcame King Conrad, father of Henry III., that for her he dared the threats and rage of the Emperor Henry II., and would have renounced the crown rather than her hand, if the good will of the princes had not extricated him from such an alternative." In the romance of Arthur of Little Britain, after the Emperor's defeat, Arthur, Brisebar, and Clemenson, were sent before to the Duchesse of Britaine, to shew the coming of the fair Lady Florence and the King of Orqueney. "Soo they rode forth so farre, tyl at the last, on a Saturday at nyght, they aryved at the Porte Noyre. Then they alygbted and mounted up to the palays, and there they found the duchess and all the other ladies in the chapel! hearing of even song, eche of them praying for theyr lorde, for they were in great fear of them, for they berde no manner of tydynges of them."1 The castle of Marpurg, the residence of the Landgrave of Hesse, was built on a steep rock, which the infirm and weak were not able to climb. The Margravine Elizabeth, therefore, built an hospital at the foot of the rock for their reception and entertainment; where she often fed them with her own hands. She fed 900 daily at the gate; not encouraging idleness, but giving employment to all who were able to work. These great princesses were exempted from that false tenderness which turns aside from the poor object, or from the representation of the martyr's suffering; they were not among nursing The sluggard pity's vision-weaving tribe, Who sigh for wretchedness, yet shun the wretched; Their slothful loves and dainty sympathies, Who dream away the entrusted hours On rose-leaf beds, pampering the coward heart The same humbleness of mind appeared whatever might be their rank or circumstances of life. The humble Queen Maria Clotilda of Sardinia was born at Versailles. St. Hilda, who founded the abbey at Whitby, was allied to the East Anglian and Northumbrian princes. St. Clotilda desired that her body should be buried at the feet of St. Geneviève for she was so humble, that she accounted herself happy to submit her diadem to the ashes of a poor shepherdess. The Empress Eleonora, after a life of holy virtue, would have no other inscription upon her tomb than this, Eleonora, pauvre pécheresse. Turn we now to the account which Sir John Froissart has given, "howe Quene Philip of Englande trepassed out of this mortall lyfe, and of the three gyftes that she desyred of the kynge her husbande, or she dyed. : "In the meane seasone there fell in Englande a heavey case and a comon: howbeit it was righte pyteous for the kyng, his chyldren, and all his realme; for the good Quene of Englande, that so many good dedes had done in her tyme, and so many knightes soccoured, and ladyes and damosels comforted, and had so largely departed of her goodes to ber people, and naturally loved alwayes the nacyon of Heynaulte, the countrey wher as she was borne, she fell sicke in the Castell of Wyndsore, the which sickenesse contynewed on her so longe, that there was no remedye but dethe; and the good lady whanne she knewe and parcyved that there was with her no remedye but dethe, she desyred to speke with the kynge her husbande; and when he was before her, she put out of her bedde her right hande, and take the kynge by his right hande, who was right sorrowful at his hert than she said, Sir, we have in peace, joye, and great prosperyte, used all oure tyme toguyder: Sir, nowe I pray you at our departyng that ye wyll graurt me thre desyres. The kynge right sorrowfully wepyng, sayd, Madame, desyre what ye wyll, I graunt it. Sir, sayd she, I requyre you firste of all, that all maner of people, such as I have dault with all in their merchaundyse, on this syde the see or beyond, that it may please you to pay every thynge that I owe to them or to any other and secondly, Sir, all suche ordynaunce and promys as I have made to the churches, as well of this countrey as beyonde the see, wher as I have hadde my devocyon, that it may please you to accomplysse and to fullfyll the same: thirdely, Sir, I requyre you that it may please you to take none other sepulture whensoever it shall please God to call you out of this transytorie lyfe, but besyde me in Westmynster. The kyne al wepyng sayde, Madame, I grant all your desyres. Than the good lady quene made on her the signe of the crosse, and commaunded the kyng her husbande to God, and her yongest son Thomas, who was there beside her; and anone after she yielded up the spiryte; the which I beleve surely the holy angels receyved with great joy up to heven, for in all her lyfe she dyd neyther in thought nor dede thyng wherby to lose her soule, as ferr as any creature coulde knowe. Thus the good Quene of Englande dyed in the yere of our Lord M.CCC.LXIX., in the vigyll of our lady, in the myddes of August." : 66 But in a few words the old writers will often set before us the whole character of these "meek daughters of the family of Christ." Thus the widow of Antoine de Vaudemont, Mary d'Harcourt, Countess d'Aumale, Dame d'Elbeuf Brionne, Lisle-Bonne, Mayenne, &c. died in 1476, with the further title of "Mère des pauvres." Isabella of Lorraine, Queen of René d'Anjou, was lamented by the Angevines and Provençaux car c'estoit une très charitable et vertueux dame qui, par grant humilité, secrètement visitoit les pauvres et malades, et exerçoit toutes œuvres de miséricorde," says Bourdigné. Orderic Vitalis says that Mathilda, queen of William the Conquerer, was followed to her grave by a great concourse of poor, whom, when alive, she had often assisted in the name of Christ.1 Hence, as well in consequence of charity being equally required for persons of rank, during the middle ages some degree of chirurgical and medical knowledge was considered as a necessary female accomplishment. This is an instance of primitive simplicity, of which examples are not wanting at the present day. How many gentlemen have I known (not to mention my own history) who are indebted for their lives to the consolation and unwearied kindness of women; of ladies who, as in the case of Bayard at Brescia, watched and tended them in their peril, amused and strengthened them in their recovery! Nor do I allude to their mothers, albeit in one at least of the cases which I could relate, it was the tenderest, the most devoted, and the most pitiful of the Almighty's creatures; one to whom I owe more than man should owe his fellow mortal. Parva quidem fateor pro magnis munera reddi, Sed qui, quam potuit, dat maxima, gratus abunde est, As far as these pages are concerned, my poor remembrance is not more frail and vain than the flowers of the poet, yet what spirit could despise the hand that strewed them? The His saltem adcumulem donis et fungar inani very titles of books and the heads of chapters con 1 Lib. vii. |