adorned the character of Hypatia, rendered her house the general resort
of persons of learning and distinction. But it was impossible that so
much merit should not excite envy. The qualifications and attainments to
which she was indebted for her celebrity, proved in the issue the
occasion of her destruction. It happened that at this time the
patriarchal chair was occupied by Cyril, a bishop of great authority,
but of great haughtiness and violence of temper. In the vehemence of his
bigoted zeal, he had treated the Jews with severity, and at last
banished them out of Alexandria. Orestes, the prefect of the city, a man
of a liberal spirit, highly resented this expulsion, as an unpardonable
stretch of ecclesiastical power, and a cruel act of oppression and
injustice against a people who had inhabited Alexandria from the time of
its founder. He reported the affair to the emperor. The bishop, on his
part, complained to the prince of the seditious temper of the Jews, and
attempted to justify his proceedings. The emperor declined to interpose
his authority, and the affair rapidly advanced to the utmost extremity.
A body of about five hundred monks, who espoused the cause of Cyril,
came into the city with a determination to support him by force. Meeting
the prefect as he was passing through the street in his carriage, they
stopped him, and loaded him with reproaches, and one of them threw a
stone at his head and wounded him. The populace, who were by this time
assembled on the part of the prefect, routed the monks, and seized one
of their leaders. Orestes ordered him to be put to death. Cyril buried
his body in the church, and gave instructions that his name should be
registered among the sacred martyrs. Hypatia, who had always been highly
respected by the prefect, and who had at this time frequent conferences
with him, was supposed by the partisans of the bishop to have been
deeply engaged in the interest of Orestes. Their resentment at length
arose to such a height, that they formed a design against her life. As
she was one day returning home from the schools, the mob seized her,
forced her from her chair, and carried her to the Caesarian church,
where, stripping off her garments, they put her to death with extreme
barbarity, and, having torn her body limb from limb, committed it to the
flames. Cyril himself has, by some writers, been suspected of secretly
prompting this horrid act of violence; and if the haughtiness and
severity of his temper, his persecution of the Jews, his oppressive and
iniquitous treatment of the Novatian sect of Christians and their
bishop, the vehemence of his present indignation against Orestes and his
party, and, above all, the protection which he is said to have afforded
to the immediate perpetrator of the murder of Hypatia, be duly
considered, it will perhaps appear that this suspicion is not wholly
without foundation. Hypatia was murdered under the reign of the Emperor
Theodosius II., in the year 415.
THE WIFE OF MAXIMUS.
[454.]
GIBBON.
In the time of the emperor Valentinian [454], Petronius Maximus, a
wealthy senator of the Anician family, who had been twice consul, was
possessed of a beautiful wife; her obstinate resistance served only to
irritate the desires of Valentinian, and he resolved to accomplish them
either by stratagem or force. Deep gaming was one of the vices of the
court; the emperor, who by chance or contrivance had gained from Maximus
a considerable sum, uncourteously exacted his ring as a security for the
debt, and sent it by a trusty messenger to his wife, with an order, in
her husband's name, that she should immediately attend the empress
Eudoxia. The unsuspecting wife of Maximus was conveyed in her litter to
the imperial palace; the emissaries of her impatient lover conducted her
to a remote and private bed-chamber; and Valentinian violated without
remorse the laws of hospitality.
Her tears when she returned home, her deep affliction, and her bitter
reproaches against her husband, whom she considered as an accomplice of
his own shame, excited Maximus to a just revenge; the desire of revenge
was stimulated by ambition; and he might reasonably aspire, by the free
suffrage of the Roman senate, to the throne of a detested and
despicable rival. Valentinian, who supposed that every human breast was
devoid, like his own, of friendship and gratitude, had imprudently
admitted among his guards several domestics and followers of AEtius. Two
of these, of barbarian race, were persuaded to execute a sacred and
honourable duty by punishing with death the assassin of their patron;
and their intrepid courage did not long expect a favourable moment.
Whilst Valentinian amused himself in the Field of Mars, with the
spectacle of some military sports, they suddenly rushed upon him with
drawn weapons, despatched the guilty Heraclius, and stabbed the emperor
to the heart, without the least opposition from his numerous train, who
seemed to rejoice in the tyrant's death.
The injury which Maximus had received from the emperor Valentinian
appears to excuse the most bloody revenge. Yet a philosopher might have
reflected that, if the resistance of his wife had been sincere, her
chastity was still inviolate, and that it could never be restored if she
had consented to the will of the adulterer. A patriot would have
hesitated before he plunged himself and his country into the inevitable
calamities which must follow the extinction of the royal house of
Theodosius. The imprudent Maximus disregarded these salutary
considerations; he gratified his resentment and ambition; he saw the
bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his feet, and heard himself saluted
emperor by the unanimous voice of the senate and the people. But the day
of his inauguration was the last day of his happiness. He was imprisoned
in the palace; and after passing a sleepless night, he sighed that he
had attained the summit of his wishes, and aspired only to descend from
the dangerous elevation.
The reign of Maximus continued about three months. Meanwhile his wife,
the cause of these tragic events, had been seasonably removed by death;
and the widow of Valentinian was compelled to violate her decent
mourning, perhaps her real grief, and to submit to the embraces of a
presumptuous usurper, whom she suspected as the assassin of her deceased
husband.
THE LADY ROWENA.
[450.]
VERSTEGAN.
With this troop of German people, there came over to England [400-500]
the most fair Lady Rowena, whom some Saxon authors call Ronixa, who, as
our chronicles say, was the daughter of Hengist; but I find in some of
that country-writers, from whence she came, that she was his niece,
which is the likelier of both, considering that Hengist is not likely at
that time to have been old enough to have had such a daughter, and that
he was as young, when he came into Britain, as before has been said, may
appear by the many years which he lived after his coming hither.
As this lady was very beautiful, so was she of a very comely deportment;
and Hengist, having invited King Vortiger to a supper at his new-builded
castle in Kent, caused that after supper she came forth of her chamber
in the king's presence with a cup of gold, filled with wine, in her
hand, and, making in very seemly manner a low reverence unto the king,
said, with a pleasing grace and countenance, in our ancient language,
"_Wacs heal hlaford kining_," which is, being rightly expounded,
according to our present speech, "Be of health, Lord King." For as _was_
is our verb of the preterimperfect tense or preterperfect tense,
signifying _have been_, so _wacs_, being the same verb in the imperative
mood, and now pronounced _wax_, is as much as to say _grow_, _be_ or
_become_, and _wacs-heal_, by corruption of pronunciation, afterwards
became to be _wassaile_. The king, not understanding what she said,
demanded it of his chamberlain, who was her interpreter; and when he
knew what it was, he asked him how he might again answer her in her own
language. Whereof being informed, he said unto her, _Drink heal_, that
is to say, _drink health_.
Of the beauty of this lady, the king took so great liking that he became
exceedingly enamoured with her, and desired to have her in marriage;
which Hengist agreed unto, upon condition that the king should give unto
him the whole county of Kent; whereunto he willingly condescended, and,
divorcing himself from his former married wife, he married with the
Saxon Lady Rowena. She was the first Saxon queen of England.
OLGA.
[500.]
GIBBON.
A female, perhaps of the basest origin, who could avenge the death and
assume the sceptre of her husband Igor, must have been endowed with
those active virtues which command the fear and obedience of barbarians.
In a moment of foreign and domestic peace, she sailed from Kiow to
Constantinople; and the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus has
described with minute diligence the ceremonial of her reception in his
capital and palace. The steps, the titles, the salutations, the banquet,
the presents, were exquisitely adjusted, to gratify the vanity of the
stranger, with due reverence to the superior majesty of the purple. In
the sacrament of baptism she received the venerable name of the empress
Helena, and her conversion might be preceded or followed by her uncle,
two interpreters, sixteen damsels of a higher, and eighteen of a lower
rank, twenty-two domestics or ministers, and forty-four Russian
merchants, who composed the retinue of the great princess Olga.
After her return to Kiow and Novogorod, she firmly persisted in her new
religion; but her labours in the propagation of the gospel were not
crowned with success, and both her family and nation adhered with
obstinacy or indifference to the gods of their fathers. Her son
Swatoslaus was apprehensive of the scorn and ridicule of his companions;
and her grandson Wolodomir devoted his youthful zeal to multiply and
decorate the monuments of ancient worship. The savage deities of the
north were still propitiated with human sacrifices: in the choice of the
victim, a citizen was preferred to a stranger, a Christian to an
idolater, and the father, who defended his son from the sacerdotal
knife, was involved in the same doom by the rage of a fanatic tumult.
Yet the lessons and example of the pious Olga had made a deep though
secret impression on the minds of the prince and people; the Greek
missionaries continued to preach, to dispute, and to baptise; and the
ambassadors or merchants of Russia compared the idolatry of the woods
with the elegant superstition of Constantinople. They had gazed with
admiration on the domes of St Sophia, the lively pictures of saints and
martyrs, the riches of the altar, the number and vestments of the
priests, the pomp and order of the ceremonies; they were edified by the
alternate succession of devout silence and harmonious song; nor was it
difficult to dissuade them that a choir of angels descended each day
from heaven to join in the devotion of the Christians.
But the conversion of Wolodomir was determined or hastened by his desire
of a Roman bride. At the same time, and in the city of Cherson, the
rites of baptism and marriage were celebrated by the Christian pontiff;
the city he restored to the emperor Basil, the brother of his spouse;
but the brazen gates were transported, as it is said, to Novogorod, and
erected before the first church as a trophy of his victory and faith. At
his despotic command, Peroun, the god of thunder, whom he had so long
adored, was dragged through the streets of Kiow; and twelve sturdy
barbarians battered with clubs the misshapen image, which was
indignantly cast into the waters of the Borysthenes. The edict of
Wolodomir had proclaimed that all who should refuse the rites of baptism
should be treated as the enemies of God and their prince; and the rivers
were instantly filled by many thousands of obedient Russians, who
acquiesced in the truth and excellence of a doctrine which had been
embraced by the great duke and his boyars. In the next generation, the
relics of paganism were finally extirpated [and all this resulted from
the baptism of Olga, which may be fixed as the era of Russian
Christianity].
THE LADY ELFRIDA.
[950.]
HUME.
Was the daughter and heir of Olgar, Earl of Devonshire; and though she
had been educated in the country, and had never appeared at court, she
had filled all England with the reputation of her beauty. King Edgar
himself, who was indifferent to no accounts of this nature, found his
curiosity excited by the frequent panegyrics which he heard of Elfrida;
and, reflecting on her noble birth, he resolved, if he found her charms
answerable to their fame, to obtain possession of her on honourable
terms. He communicated his intention to Earl Athelwold, his favourite;
but used the precaution, before he made any advances to her parents, to
order that nobleman, on some pretence, to pay them a visit, and to bring
him a certain account of the beauty of their daughter.
Athelwold, when introduced to the lady, found general report to have
fallen short of the truth; and being actuated by the most vehement love,
he determined to sacrifice to this new passion his fidelity to his
master, and to the trust reposed in him. He returned to Edgar, and told
him that the riches alone and the high quality of Elfrida had been the
ground of the admiration paid her, and that her charms far from being in
any way extraordinary, would have been overlooked in a woman of
inferior station. When he had by this deceit diverted the king from his
purpose, he took an opportunity, after some interval, of turning again
the conversation on Elfrida. He remarked that though the parentage and
fortune of the lady had not produced on him, as on others, any illusion
with regard to her beauty, he could not forbear reflecting that she
would, on the whole, be an advantageous match for him (Athelwold), and
might, by her birth and riches, make him sufficient compensation for the
homeliness of her person. If the king, therefore, gave him his
approbation, he was determined to make proposals in his own behalf to
the Earl of Devonshire, and doubted not to obtain his, as well as the
young lady's, consent to the marriage. Edgar, pleased with the expedient
for establishing his favourite's fortune, not only exhorted him to
execute his purpose, but forwarded his success by his recommendations to
the parents of Elfrida; and Athelwold was soon made happy in the
possession of his mistress. Dreading, however, the detection of the
artifice, he employed every pretence for detaining Elfrida in the
country, and for keeping her at a distance from Edgar.
The violent passion of Athelwold had rendered him blind to the necessary
consequences which must attend his conduct, and the advantages which the
numerous enemies that always pursue a royal favourite would, by its
means, be able to make against him. Edgar was soon informed of the
truth; but before he would execute vengeance on Athelwold's treachery,
he resolved to satisfy himself with his own eyes of the certainty and
full extent of his guilt. He told him that he intended to pay him a
visit in his castle, and be introduced to the acquaintance of his new
married wife; and Athelwold, as he could not refuse the honour, only
craved leave to go before him a few hours, that he might the better
prepare everything for his reception. He then discovered the whole
matter to Elfrida, and begged her, if she had any regard either to her
own honour or his life, to conceal from Edgar, by every circumstance of
dress and behaviour, that fatal beauty that had seduced him from
fidelity to his friend, and had betrayed him into so many falsehoods.
Elfrida promised compliance, though nothing was further from her
intentions. She deemed herself little beholden to Athelwold for a
passion which had deprived her of a crown; and, knowing the force of her
own charms, she did not despair even yet of reaching that dignity of
which her husband's artifice had bereaved her. She appeared before the
king with all the advantages which the richest attire and the most
engaging airs could bestow upon her, and she excited at once in his
bosom the highest love towards herself, and the most furious desire of
revenge against her husband. He, however, had to dissemble these
passions; and, seducing Athelwold into a forest on pretence of hunting,
he stabbed him with his own hand, and soon after publicly espoused
Elfrida.
THE COUNTESS OF TRIPOLI.
[1150.]
SISMONDI.
The knights who had returned from the Holy Land spoke with enthusiasm of
a countess of Tripoli, who had extended to them the most generous
hospitality, and whose grace and beauty equalled her virtue. Geoffrey
Rudel, a gentleman of Blieux, in Provence, and one of those who were
presented to Frederick Barbarossa in 1154, hearing this account, fell
deeply in love with her without having seen her, and prevailed upon one
of his friends, Bertrand d'Allaman, a troubadour like himself, to
accompany him to the Levant. In 1162 he quitted the court of England,
whither he had been conducted by Geoffrey, the brother of Richard I.,
and embarked for the Holy Land. On his voyage he was attacked by a
severe illness, and had lost the power of speech when he arrived at the
port of Tripoli. The countess, being informed that a celebrated poet was
dying of love for her on board a vessel which was entering the roads,
visited him on shipboard, took him by the hand, and attempted to cheer
his spirits. Rudel, we are assured, recovered his speech sufficiently to
thank the countess for her humanity, and to declare his passion, when
his expressions of gratitude were silenced by the convulsions of death.
He was buried at Tripoli, beneath a tomb of porphyry, which the
countess raised to his memory, with an Arabic inscription.
I have transcribed his verses, "On Distant Love," which he composed
previous to his voyage. They began thus:--
"Angry and sad shall be my way,
If I behold not her afar;
And yet I know not when that day
Shall rise, for still she dwells afar.
God, who has formed this fair array
Of worlds, and placed my love afar,
Strengthen my heart with hope, I pray,
Of seeing her I love afar."
JANE, COUNTESS OF MOUNTFORT.
[1350.]
HUME.
In the time of Edward III. of England and Philip of France, a contest
arose for the principality of Brittany between the Count of Mountfort,
the half-brother of the last duke, and Charles of Blois, the husband of
his niece. Mountfort was besieged in Nantz. This event seemed to put an
end to the pretensions of Mountfort; but his affairs were immediately
retrieved by an unexpected incident, which inspired new life and vigour
into his party. Jane of Flanders, Countess of Mountfort, the most
extraordinary woman of the age, was roused, by the captivity of her
husband, from those domestic cares to which she had hitherto limited her
genius, and she courageously undertook to support the falling fortunes
of her family.
No sooner did she receive the fatal intelligence, than she assembled the
inhabitants of Rennes, where she then resided; and, carrying her infant
son in her arms, deplored to them the calamity of their sovereign. She
recommended to their care the illustrious orphan, the sole male
remaining of their ancient princes, who had governed them with such
indulgence and lenity, and to whom they had ever professed the most
zealous attachment. She declared herself willing to run all hazards with
them in so just a cause; discovered the resources which still remained
in the alliance of England; and entreated them to make one effort
against an usurper, who, being imposed on them by the arms of France,
would in return make a sacrifice to his protector of the ancient
liberties of Brittany. The audience, moved by the affecting appearance,
and inspirited by the noble conduct of the princess, vowed to live and
die with her in defending the rights of her family.
All the other fortresses in Brittany embraced the same resolution. The
countess went from place to place, encouraging the garrisons, providing
them with everything necessary for subsistence, and concerting the
proper plans of defence; and after she had put the whole province in a
good posture, she shut herself up in Hennebonne, where she waited with
impatience the arrival of those succours which Edward had promised her.
Meanwhile, she sent over her son to England, that she might both put him
in a place of safety, and engage the king more strongly, by such a
pledge, to embrace with zeal the interests of her family.
Charles of Blois, anxious to make himself master of so important a
fortress as Hennebonne, and still more to take the countess prisoner,
sat down before it. Frequent sallies were made with success by the
garrison; and the countess herself, being the most forward in all
military operations, every one was ashamed not to exert himself to the
utmost in this desperate situation. One day she perceived that the
besiegers, entirely occupied in an attack, had neglected a distant
quarter of their camp, and she immediately sallied forth at the head of
a body of two hundred cavalry, threw them into confusion, did great
execution upon them, and set fire to their tents, baggage, and
magazines; but when she was preparing to return, she found that she was
intercepted, and that a considerable body of the enemy had thrown
themselves between her and the gates. She instantly took her resolution.
She ordered her men to disband, and to make the best of their way, by
flight, to Brest. She met them at the appointed place of rendezvous,
collected another body of five hundred horse, returned to Hennebonne,
broke unexpectedly the enemy's camp, and was received with shouts and
acclamations by the garrison, who, encouraged by the reinforcement, and
by so rare an example of female valour, determined to defend themselves
to the last extremity.
It became necessary, however, to treat for a capitulation, and the
Bishop of Leon was already engaged for that purpose in a conference with
Charles of Blois, when the countess, who had mounted to a high tower,
and was looking towards the sea with great impatience, descried some
sails at a distance. She immediately exclaimed, "Behold the
succours--the English succours--no capitulation!" This fleet had on
board a body of heavy-armed cavalry, and six thousand archers, whom
Edward had prepared for the relief of Hennebonne, but who had been long
detained by contrary winds. They entered the harbour under the command
of Sir Walter Manny, one of the bravest captains of England; and, having
inspired fresh courage into the garrison, immediately sallied forth,
beat the besiegers from all their posts, and obliged them to decamp.
But notwithstanding this success, the Countess of Mountfort found that
her party, overpowered by numbers, was declining in every quarter, and
she went over to solicit more effectual succour from the king of
England. Edward granted her a considerable reinforcement, under Robert
of Artois, who embarked with a fleet of forty-five ships, and sailed to
Brittany. He was met in his passage by the enemy; an action ensued,
where the countess behaved with her wonted valour, and charged the enemy
sword in hand; but the hostile fleets, after a sharp action, were
separated by a storm, and the English arrived safely in Brittany. A long
and bloody war thenceforth ensued between England and France.
LAURA DE SADE.
[BORN 1310. DIED 1348.]
SISMONDI.
Petrarch reproached himself with fostering a passion which had exerted
so powerful an influence over his life, which he had nourished with such
unsubdued constancy for one-and-twenty years, and which still remained
sacred to his heart so long after the loss of its object. This remorse
was groundless. Never did passion burn more purely than in the love of
Petrarch for Laura. Of all the erotic poets, he alone never expresses a
single hope offensive to the purity of a heart which had been pledged to
another. When Petrarch first beheld her, on the 6th of April 1327, Laura
was in the church of Avignon. She was the daughter of Audibert de Noves,
and wife of Hugues de Sade, both of Avignon. When she died of the
plague, on the 6th of April 1348, she had been the mother of eleven
children. Petrarch has celebrated, in upwards of three hundred sonnets,
all the little circumstances of their attachment; those precious favours
which, after an acquaintance of fifteen or twenty years, consisted at
most of a kind word, a glance not altogether severe, a momentary
expression of regret or tenderness at his departure, or a deeper
paleness at the idea of losing her beloved and constant friend.
Yet these marks of an attachment so pure and unobtrusive, and which he
had so often struggled to subdue, were repressed by the coldness of
Laura, who, to preserve her lover, cautiously abstained from giving the
least encouragement to his love. She avoided his presence, except at
church, in the brilliant levees of the papal court, or in the country,
where, surrounded by her friends, she is described by Petrarch as
exhibiting the semblance of a queen, prominent amongst them all in the
grace of her figure and the brilliancy of her beauty. It does not appear
that, in the whole course of these twenty years, the poet ever addressed
her unless in the presence of witnesses. An interview with her alone
would surely have been celebrated in a thousand verses; and as he has
left us four sonnets on the good fortune he enjoyed in having an
opportunity of picking up her glove, we may fairly presume that he would
not have passed over in silence so happy a circumstance as a private
interview.