the people of the city call it, to this day, queen Berengaria's hous palace. The name is older than the building itself, which is of the chitecture of the fifteenth century. Berengaria's dower-palace prol stood on the site of this house.

Berengaria was interred in her own stately abbey. The follo most interesting particulars of her monument we transcribe fro noble work of the late Mr. Stothard :-"When Mr. Stothard v the abbey of Espan, near Mans, in search of the effigy of Berengar found the church converted into a barn, and the object of his in in a mutilated state, concealed under a quantity of wheat. It w excellent preservation, with the exception of the left arm. By the were lying the bones of the queen, the silent witnesses of the legious demolition of the tomb. After some search, a portion o arm belonging to the statue was recovered." Three men, who assisted in the work of destruction, stated "that the monument, the figure upon it, stood in the centre of the aisle, at the east end church; that there was no coffin within it, but a small square box, taining bones, pieces of linen, some stuff embroidered with gold, & slate, on which was found an inscription." The slate was found in session of a canon of the church of St. Julian, at Mans: upon i engraven an inscription, of which the following is a translation: ' tomb of the most serene Berengaria, queen of England, the noble for of this monastery, was restored and removed to this more sacred] In it were deposited the bones which were found in the ancient s chre, on the 27th May, in the year of our Lord 1672." The sid the tomb are ornamented with deep quatrefoils. The effigy which upon it is in high relief. It represents the queen with her hairc fined, but partly concealed by the coverchef, over which is placed elegant crown. Her mantle is fastened by a narrow band crossing breast; a large fermail, or brooch, richly set with stones, confines tunic at the neck. To an ornamental girdle, which encircles her v is attached a small aumonière, or purse. This greatly resembl modern reticule, with a chain and clasped top. "The queen hol her hands a book, singular from the circumstance of its having emb on the cover a second representation of herself, as lying on a bier, waxen torches burning in candlesticks on either side of her.”

From early youth to her grave, Berengaria manifested devoted for Richard. Uncomplaining when deserted by him, forgiving whe returned, and faithful to his memory unto death, the royal Bereng queen of England, though never in England, little deserves to be gotten by any admirer of feminine and conjugal virtue.

ISABELLA OF ANGOULÊME,

QUEEN-CONSORT OF KING JOHN.

No one would have imagined that Isabella of Angoulême was destined to become the future queen of England when king John ascended the throne, for she was then not only the engaged wife of another, but, according to the custom of the times, had been actually consigned to her betrothed for the purpose of education.

Hugh de Lusignan, surnamed Le Brun,1 was the affianced lord of Isabella. He was eldest son of Hugh IX., the reigning count de la Marche, who governed the provinces which formed the northern boundary of the Aquitanian dominions, called in that age French Poitou. He was a vassal prince of the French crown, and, by virtue of his authority as lord-marcher or guardian of the border, was a most formidable neighbour to the Aquitanian territories; for, if offended, he could at pleasure raise the ban and arrière ban, and pour thereon the whole feudal militia of a large portion of France.

The aged queen Eleanora, mother of king John, was deeply impressed with the necessity of conciliating this powerful neighbour. She had been forced, at the death of Richard to do homage at Tours,2 in person, to Philip Augustus, for Poitou, 1199; and by her wise mediation she reconciled John and Philip, negotiating an alliance between prince Louis and her grand-daughter, Blanche of Castile. She even travelled to Spain, and was present at the splendid marriage of her grand-daughter, who was wedded at Burgos to prince Louis, by procuration. Afterwards her daughter, the queen of Castile, accompanied her across the Pyrenees, with the young bride to her native territories of Guienne. Queen Eleanora intended to escort Blanche to Normandy, where prince Louis waited for them; but she fell sick with fatigue, and retreated to Fontevraud towards the close of the year 1199.

"Hugh," says G. de Nangis, "whom the people of the little town of Limoges would call the Brown,' was a noble personage, brave, powerful, and possessing great riches." He did not own the sobriquet of Le Brun, but signs himself Lusignan in his charters.

VOL. I.

In a Latin letter she urged her

2 Guillaume de Nangis. The conclusion of the life of Eleanora of Aquitaine is comprised in this biography.

son" to visit immediately his Poictevin provinces, and for the sake o their peace and preservation, she desired him to form an amicable leagu with the count de la Marche,” that celebrated Hugh de Lusignan, whose friendship for Cœur de Lion forms a remarkable feature in the history of the crusades. This epistle is dated Fontevraud, 1200, and was the occasion of king John's progress to Aquitaine, in the summer; but little did the writer suppose that, before the year was expired, the whole powerful family of Lusignan would be exasperated by king John's lawless appropriation of the bride wedded to the heir of thei house1.

Isabella was the only child and heiress of Aymer, or Americus count of Angoulême, surnamed Taillefer. By maternal descent sh shared the blood of the Capetian sovereigns, her mother, Alice d Courtenay, being the daughter of Peter de Courtenay, fifth son Louis VI., king of France. The inheritance of Isabella was the pro vince of Angoumois, situated in the very heart of the Aquitania domains, with Perigord on the south, Poitou on the north, Saintonge or the west, and La Limousin on the east. The Angoumois, watered by the clear and sparkling Charente, abounded in all the richest aliments life; altogether it was fair and desirable as its heiress. The Provença language was at that era spoken throughout the district; Isabella of Angoulême may therefore be reckoned the third of our Provençal queens. The province to which she was heiress had been governed by her an cestors ever since the reign of Charles the Bald.

Isabella had been betrothed to Hugh de Lusignan, eldest son of the count de la Marche, and was consigned to the care of her husband's family, according to the feudal custom. At the period of king John's arrival, she was residing in the castle of Lusignan, under the guardianship of the count of Eu, the uncle of her spouse. The young lady was nearly fifteen; her marriage was to take place on the return of her bridegroom from some distant feudal service connected with the accession of John as duke of Aquitaine. Meantime, the count of Eu received the English king most hospitably: the chief entertainment was hunting in the chases pertaining to the demesne of Lusignan, which were then the most cele brated for deer in France. At one of these hunting parties it is sup posed that king John first saw the beautiful fiancée of the absent Lusignan tradition says,2 ,2 "that meeting her in the glades of the chase, he carried her off, screaming with terror, to the stronghold of his sove reignty, Bordeaux." In reality the abduction was made by collusion of the parents of the bride: they sent to the count of Eu, requesting his permission that she might visit them for the purpose of being present at 1 Hugh IX., the friend and fellow-crusader Hugh X. There were thirteen counts of this

of king Richard, was alive long after his son's betrothment to Isabella. The bereft lover of Isabella succeeded his father by the title of

house, successively, of the name of Hugh; a fact which makes their identity difficult with out close investigation.

2 Vatout.

1200.]

Forsakes a count for a king.

227

a day of high ceremonial, on which they paid their homage to king John for the province of Angoumois;1 the young lady herself, as their sole heir, was required to acknowledge her lord-paramount as duke of Aquitaine. The count of Eu has been accused of betraying the interests of his nephew, but wholly without foundation.

The parents of Isabella, when they perceived that their sovereign was captivated with the budding charms of their daughter, dishonourably encouraged his passion, and by deceitful excuses to the count of Eu, prevented the return of Isabella to the castle of Lusignan; a proceeding the more infamous, since subsequent events plainly showed that the heart of the maiden secretly preferred her betrothed. Had John Plantagenet remained in the same state of poverty as when his father surnamed him Lackland, the fierce Hugh de Lusignan might have retained his beautiful bride; but at the time his fancy was captivated by Isabella, her parents saw him universally recognised as the possessor of the first empire in Europe. They had just done homage to him as the monarch of the south of France, and they knew the English people had acknowledged him as king, in preference to his nephew Arthur; that he had been actually crowned king of England, and that his brow had been circled with the chaplet of golden roses which formed the ducal coronet of Normandy.

John was already married to a lady, who had neither been crowned with him, nor acknowledged queen of England; yet she appears to have been the bride of his fickle choice. The son of his great uncle, Robert earl of Gloucester, had left three daughters, co-heiresses of his vast possessions. The youth and beauty of Avisa, the youngest of the sisters, induced prince John to woo her as his wife. The wedding took place at Richard's coronation, but the church forbade the pair to live together.2 The pope, who had previously commanded the divorce of Avisa from John, because the empress Matilda and Robert earl of Gloucester had been half brother and sister, now murmured at the broken contract between Isabella and the heir of Lusignan; but his opposition was vain, for the lady Isabella, as much dazzled as her parents by the splendour of the triple crowns of England, Normandy, and Aquitaine, would not acknowledge that she had consented to any marriage contract with count Hugh. As Isabella preferred marrying a king to giving her hand to the man she really loved, no one could right the wrongs of the illtreated Lusignan. Moreover, the mysterious chain of feudality interwove its inextricable links and meshes, even round the sacrament of marriage. King John, as lord-paramount of Aquitaine, could have rendered invalid any wedlock that the heiress of the Angoumois might

1 William le Breton.-Guizot's French Collection. Dr. Henry asserts the same, and gives Roger Hoveden and M. Paris as au

thorities.

2 It must be noticed that the church forbade the wedlock of cousins of illegitimate descent as strictly as those by marriage.

:

contract without his consent; he could have forbidden his fair vassal to marry the subject of king Philip, and if she had remained firmly true to her first love, he could have declared her fief forfeited for dis obedience to her immediate lord.1 King John and Isabella were mar ried at Bordeaux, August 24th, 1200. Their hands were united the archbishop of Bordeaux, who had previously held a synod, assisted by the bishop of Poitou, and solemnly declared that no impediment existe to the marriage. There was, however, a considerable disparity of aga John was thirty-two, while Isabella had scarcely seen fifteen years. The abduction of his bride threw count Hugh of Lusignan int despair he did not, however, quietly submit to the destruction of hi hopes, but challenged to mortal combat the royal interloper between him and his betrothed.2 John received the cartel with remarkable cool ness, saying that if count Hugh wished for combat, he would appoint champion to fight with him; but the count declared that John's cham pions were hired bravoes and vile mercenaries, unfit for the encounter a wronged lover and true knight. Thus unable to obtain satisfaction, the valiant marcher waited his hour of revenge, while king John sailed with his bride in triumph to England. He kept his Christmas with her, 1201, at Guildford, "where," says Roger of Wendover, “he distri buted a great number of festive garments." He was desirous tha Isabella should be recognised as his wife, not only by the peers, but by the people; therefore he called “a common council of the kingdom” a Westminster. The ancient wittena-gemot seems the model of this assembly. Here the young Isabella was introduced, and acknowledged as the queen-consort of England. Her coronation was appointed for the 8th of October, and there exists a charter in the Tower, expressing "that Isabella of Angoulême was crowned queen by the common consent of the barons, clergy, and people of England.”

It was solemnized on that day by the archbishop of Canterbury. Clement FitzWilliam was paid thirty-three shillings, for strewing Westminster-hall with herbs and rushes at the coronation of lady Isabella the queen; and the chamberlains of the Norman exchequer were ordered to pay Eustace the chaplain, and Ambrose the songster, twenty-five shillings for singing the hymn Christus vicit at the unction and crowning of the said lady queen. The expenses of her dress at this time were by no means extravagant: three cloaks of fine linen, one of scarlet cloth, and one grey pelisse, costing together twelve pounds five and fourpence, were all that was afforded to the fair Provençal bride on this august occasion. The whole of the intervening months between October and Easter were spent by the king and queen in a continual round of feasting and voluptuousness. At the Easter festival of 1201, they were the guests of arch

1 See Bracton. "By the feudal law, any woman who is an heir forfeits her lands if she marries without her lord's consent."

2 Vatout, Hist. of Eu, says that Isabela and John were married at Angoulême. 3 Rog. Hov. 4 Madox.