Heroines of the Crusades Part 38

NOTES.

NOTE A.--PAGE 19.

"_The Lady Matilda._"--Hlafdige, or lady, means the giver of bread. Few of the Queens of England can claim a more ill.u.s.trious descent than this princess. Her father, Baldwin V., was surnamed the gentle Earl of Flanders: her mother Adelais, was daughter of Robert, King of France, and sister to Henry, reigning sovereign of that country, and she was nearly related to the Emperor of Germany, and most of the royal houses in Europe.--_Queens of England_, p. 24.

NOTE B.--PAGE 19.

"_Woden and Thor._"--Two of the most powerful deities in northern mythology. The ancient Saxons honored Woden as the G.o.d of War, and the Germans represented Thor as the G.o.d of Thunder.

NOTE C.--PAGE 20.

"_The Royal Children._"--The sons of Matilda and William the Conqueror, were Robert, afterwards Duke of Normandy, Richard, who died young, William and Henry, afterwards kings of England, Cicely, Agatha, Adela, Constance, Adeliza and Gundred. No two writers agree as to the order of their ages, except that Robert was the eldest and Henry the youngest son, Cicely the eldest and Gundred the youngest daughter.--Vide _Queens of England_, p.

33-82.

NOTE D.--PAGE 20.

"_The Mora._"--While the fleet destined to invade the Island waited in the port for a favorable wind, William was agreeably surprised by the arrival of his d.u.c.h.ess at the port, in a splendid vessel of war called the Mora, which she had caused to be built, unknown to him, and adorned in the most royal style of magnificence for his acceptance. The effigy of their youngest son, William, in gilded bronze, most writers say of gold, was placed at the prow of this vessel, with his face turned towards England, holding a trumpet to his lips with one hand, and bearing in the other a bow with the arrow aimed towards England.--_Queens of England_, p. 40.

NOTE E.--PAGE 21.

"_William the Conqueror_" was of low origin on the mother's side. He was not ashamed of his birth, and drew around him his mother's other sons. At first he had much difficulty in bringing his barons, who despised him, to their allegiance. He was a large, bald-headed man, very brave, very greedy, and very sage, according to the notions of the times, that is very treacherous.--_Michelet's History of France_, p. 193.

NOTE F.--PAGE 21.

"_Edgar Atheling._"--Edward, the son of Edmund Ironside, being sent to Hungary to escape the cruelty of Canute, was there married to Agatha, daughter of the Emperor Henry II. She bore him Edgar Atheling, Margaret, afterwards Queen of Scotland, and Christina, who afterwards retired to a convent.--_Hume_, p. 115.

NOTE G.--PAGE 22.

"_The one keeping strict lenten fast._"--By a mixture of vigor and lenity, he had so soothed the mind of the English, that he thought he might safely revisit his native country, and enjoy the triumph and congratulation of his ancient subjects. He left the administration in the hands of his uterine brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and of William Fitz Osberne. That their authority might be exposed to less danger, he carried over with him all the most considerable n.o.bility of England, who, while they served to grace his court by their presence and magnificent retinues, were in reality hostages for the fidelity of the nation. Among these, were Edgar Atheling, Stigand the primate, the Earls Edwin and Morcar, Waltheof the son of the brave Earl Siward, with others eminent for the greatness of their fortunes and families, or for their ecclesiastical and civil dignities. He was visited at the Abbey of Fescamp, where he resided during some time, by Rodulph, uncle to the King of France, and by many powerful princes and n.o.bles, who having contributed to his enterprise, were desirous of partic.i.p.ating in the joy and advantages of its success. His English courtiers, willing to ingratiate themselves with their new sovereign, outvied each other in equipages and entertainments; and made a display of riches which struck the foreigners with astonishment. William of Poictiers, a Norman historian, who was present, speaks with admiration of the beauty of their persons, the size and workmans.h.i.+p of their silver plate, the costliness of their embroideries, an art in which the English then excelled, and he expresses himself in such terms as tend much to exalt our idea of the opulence and cultivation of the people. But though everything bore the face of joy and festivity, and William himself treated his new courtiers with great appearance of kindness, it was impossible altogether to prevent the insolence of the Normans; and the English n.o.bles derived little satisfaction from those entertainments, where they considered themselves as led in triumph by their ostentatious conqueror.--_Hume_, vol. 1, p. 184.

NOTE H.--PAGE 22.

The celebrated Bayeaux tapestry, distinguished by the name of the _Duke of Normandy's toilette_, is a piece of canva.s.s about nineteen inches in breadth, but upwards of sixty-seven yards in length, on which is embroidered the history of the conquest of England by William of Normandy, commencing with the visit of Harold to the Norman court, and ending with his death at the battle of Hastings, 1066. The leading transactions of these eventful years, the death of Edward the Confessor, and the coronation of Harold in the chamber of the royal dead, are represented in the clearest and most regular order in this piece of needle-work, which contains many hundred figures of men, horses, birds, beasts, trees, houses, castles, and churches, all executed their proper colors, with names and inscriptions over them to elucidate the story. It appears to have been designed by Turold, a dwarf artist, who illuminated the canvas with the proper outlines and colors.--_Queens of England_, vol. 1, p. 54.

NOTE I.--PAGE 23.

"_Cicely, the betrothed of Harold._"--William also complained of the affront that had been offered to his daughter by the faithless Saxon, who, regardless of his contract to the little Norman princess, just before King Edward's death, strengthened his interest with the English n.o.bles by marrying Algitha, sister to the powerful Earls Morcar and Edwin, and widow to Griffith, Prince of Wales. This circ.u.mstance is mentioned with great bitterness in all William's proclamations and reproachful messages to Harold, and appears to have been considered by the incensed duke to the full as great a villany as the a.s.sumption of the crown of England.--_Queens of England_, vol. 1, p. 35.

NOTE J.--PAGE 24.

"_Condemned her former lover._"--Brithric, the son of Algar, a Saxon Thane, is stated in Domesday, to have held this manor in the reign of Edward the Confessor; but having given offence to Maud, the daughter of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, previous to her marriage with William, Duke of Normandy, by refusing to marry her himself, his property was seized by that monarch on the conquest, and bestowed seemingly in revenge upon the queen.--_Ellis's History of Thornbury Castle._

NOTE K.--PAGE 25.

"_The terrible Vikings._"--Sea kings among the Danes or Normans; leaders of piratical squadrons who pa.s.sed their lives in roving the seas in search of spoil and adventures. The younger sons of the Scandinavian kings and jarls, having no inheritance but the ocean, naturally collected around their standards the youth of inferior order, who were equally dest.i.tute with themselves. These were the same who, in England and Scotland, under the name of Danes, and on the continent under the name of Normans, at first desolated the maritime coasts, and afterwards penetrated into the interior of countries, and formed permanent settlements in their conquests.--_See Encyclopedia._

NOTE L.--PAGE 27.

"_The Danes confided much in the Fylga or Guardian Spirit._"--They have certain Priestesses named Morthwyrtha, or wors.h.i.+ppers of the dead.

NOTE M.--PAGE 29.

Edgar Atheling, dreading the insidious caresses of William, escaped into Scotland, and carried thither his two sisters, Margaret and Christina.

They were well received by Malcolm, who soon after espoused Margaret, the elder.--_Hume's History of England_, vol. 1.

NOTE N.--PAGE 29.

"_The laying waste of Hamps.h.i.+re._"--There was one pleasure to which William, as well as all the Normans and ancient Saxons, were extremely addicted, and that was hunting; but this pleasure he indulged more at the expense of his unhappy subjects, whose interests he always disregarded, than to the loss or diminution of his own revenue. Not content with those large forests which former kings possessed in all parts of England, he resolved to make a new forest near Winchester, the usual place of his residence; and for that purpose he laid waste the country in Hamps.h.i.+re for an extent of thirty miles, expelled the inhabitants from their houses, seized their property even, demolished churches and convents, and made the sufferers no compensation for the injury. At the same time he enacted new laws, by which he prohibited all his subjects from hunting in any of his forests, and rendered the penalties more severe than ever had been inflicted for such offences. The killing of a deer or bear, or even a hare, was punished with the loss of a delinquent's eyes; and that, at a time, when the killing of a man could be atoned for by paying a moderate fine.--_History of England_, vol. 1, p. 214.

NOTE O.--PAGE 29.

"_Odious Danegelt, and still more odious Couvrefeu._"--William, to prevent the people of the land from confederating together in nocturnal a.s.semblies, for the purpose of discussing their grievances, and stimulating each other to revolt, compelled them to couvrefeu, or extinguish the lights and fires in their dwellings at eight o'clock every evening, at the tolling of a bell, called from that circ.u.mstance, the curfew or couvrefeu.--_Queens of England_, vol. 1, p. 57.

NOTE P.--PAGE 30.

"_Lanfranc will absolve thee from thy oath._"--Lanfranc exchanged his priory for the Abbey of St. Stephen, at Caen, in Normandy, and when William, the sovereign of that duchy, acquired the English throne by conquest, the interest of that prince procured his election, in 1070, to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, then become vacant by the deposition of Stigand.--_See Encyclopedia._

NOTE Q.--PAGE 41.

"_Adela stood again in the old Abbey of Fescamp._"--In the year 1075, William and Matilda, with their family, kept the festival of Easter with great pomp at Fescamp, and attended in person the profession of their eldest daughter Cicely, who was there veiled a nun, by the Archbishop John.--_Queens of England_, vol. 1, p. 63.

NOTE R.--PAGE 36.

"_A maiden's needle wounds less deeply than a warrior's sword._"--It was on the field of Archembraye, where Robert, unconscious who the doughty champion was, against whom he tilted, ran his father through the arm with his lance, and unhorsed him.--_Queens of England_, vol. 1, p. 71.

NOTE S.--PAGE 37.

"_Accolade._"--The more distinguished the rank of the aspirant, the more distinguished were those who put themselves forward to arm him. The romances often state that the s.h.i.+eld was given to a knight by the King of Spain, the sword by a King of England, the helmet from a French sovereign.