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ADELICIA OF LOUVAINE,

Second Queen of Benry the First.

CHAPTER I.

Henry's grief for the loss of Matilda-Protects his continental possessions from the French-Concludes a peace with France-His daughter Matilda crowned Empress of Germany, and his son William invested with the ducal crown of NormandyHenry embarks for England-Wreck of the Blanche Neuf, and loss of Henry's children-His grief-He is advised to marry-Proposes for Adelicia-Marries with great pomp at Windsor-Henry and Adelicia crowned at WestminsterHigh genealogy of Adelicia-Her beauty and elegant accomplishments-She becomes a favourite with the people-Upholds morality and religion, and affords munificent encouragement to learning-Her court becomes the court of the greatest scholars and minstrels of the times-She is praised by Henry of Huntingdon-The first menagerie erected in England.

LTHOUGH Henry the preceding year, been advantageously the First had bit- contracted to the illustrious Alice, daugh terly bewailed the ter of Fulk, the powerful Earl of Anjou. loss of his queen, Ma- This marriage was solemnized at Litilda the Good, he sieux, in Burgundy county, and the was for a period too feasts and pageants with which it was actively engaged in celebrated only ceased in November, protecting his conti- 1120, when the king, Prince William, nental possessions from the ambitious and the English nobles repaired to Bargrasp of the French King, Louis the fleur, whither they embarked for EngSixth, to seek consolation in a second land, on the twenty-fifth day of the marriage. But fierce and protracted as month, a day rendered memorable by this contest was, victory at length de- the fatal wreck of the Blanche Neuf, or clared in favour of the energetic Beau- white ship, in which Prince William, clerc, who now ruled in undisturbed pos- two of the king's natural children, two session the powerful dominions of Eng- of his nephews, and a host of youthful land and Normandy. The year 1120, nobles found a watery grave. saw Henry at the summit of his greatness. With France he had just concluded a honourable peace; his daughter Matilda had been crowned Empress of Germany, and his son, Prince William, whom he had invested with the ducal crown of Normandy, had, in the June of

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The royal fleet, which had sailed with the king and his train, but a few hours before the white ship commenced its voyage of death, reached Southampton in safety, and for three weary days did the monarch, in anxious expectation, await the arrival of his son. The sad

tidings of the wreck reached the court, | successor of Anselm, whom death had but none dared communicate it to the snatched away in 1109-and other of his king. At length, however, a youthful peers and prelates, advised Henry to espage, at the request of Theobald de Blois, pouse the far-famed beautiful Adelicia, fell on his knees, and whispered to the daughter of Godfrey Barbatus, Duke of impatient Henry, how the angry waters Louvaine. had, at one stroke, destroyed all on board In 1120, the king, with a numerous the ill-fated vessel, deprived him of his train, proceeded to Louvaine. The duke beloved heir, and blighted all his long-received him with great joy, and was so cherished plans. "You must not grieve, Sire," continued the page, "for the catastrophe is not the work of man, but the doing of the great Ruler of all destinies."

"Grieve, forsooth!" exclaimed the king, who, during the recital, had become greatly excited. "By the devil's damnation, have you been cramming romances of hell into my ears, that I should become a raving maniac. The hope of my heart-the prop of my crown my poor William, dead! drowned! Oh, my heart will burst! Yet, say quick, whence comes this tale of woe

As the tears of compassion moistened the cheeks of the little page, he replied, "Sire, believe me, it is all true as gospel; every word that I have recited, you would have had from the lips of Theobald de Blois, had he have dared to salute the cars of royalty with such unwelcome intelligence."

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Oh, St. Mary, St. Mary! that I should have lived to hear this," exclaimed the king, who, overcome by the shock, fell senseless on the floor.

On recovering consciousness, his attendants removed him to his chamber, where, overwhelmed with sorrow, he lay for weeks on the bed of sickness, refusing food till life had almost given way. His heart was broken; and although convalescence returned, never once, even to the day of his death, was his grief-furrowed countenance again brightened by the smile of gladness. Melancholy had firmly grasped his constitution, and his temper had become so soured and hasty, that his nobles, whom he frequently abused with unkingly oaths, could scarcely endure his presence.

It was evident that the throne being without a male heir, was the worm that corroded the king's heart; therefore, Ralph, Archbishop of Canterbury--the

well pleased with the munificent dower he fixed on the fair Adelicia, that, after the betrothment, which was celebrated on the sixteenth of April, he willingly consigned England's future queen to her affianced lord. The royal pair, after a prosperous voyage, arrived in England, at the close of the year; and the nuptials were publicly solemnized, with great pomp, at Windsor, on the feast of Candlemas, January the twenty-fourth, 1121.

It was at this marriage, that an important prerogative of the see of Canterbury was established. King Henry desired the solemn offices to be performed by his favourite short-sermon preacher, Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, but the aged Ralph, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was a great stickler for the prerogatives of his sce, claimed the right as his, which he enforced by calling a council of the clergy, who solemnly pronounced, that in whatever part of the kingdom the king and queen might be, they were the sole parishioners of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This dispute delayed the celebration of the royal nuptials; but, as the chagrined Beauclere found it expedient to bow to the decision of the clergy, the learned primate performed the ceremony in triumph.

Thwarted in the performance of his marriage ceremonials, the king resolved that on this occasion, himself and his bride should receive the insignia of royalty from the hands of his favourite prelate. The coronation took place at Westminster, on the day following the marriage. But the old paralytic Ralph was not so easily to be deprived of the important right of crowning the king and queen. Tottering into the church, just as Roger le Poer had hastily placed the crown on the brow of his royal master, he stopped the ceremony, smote the royal circlet from the offending monarch's

head, and then recommencing the coro- | of her court, and the conduct of the nonation with due form, crowned and bles again influenced their vassals, so anointed Henry and his fair young bride. Adelicia, not unfrequently styled "the fair maid of Brabant," was most nobly allied. Her father was the lawful representative of Charlemagne; her mother was the daughter of the Emperor Henry the Fourth, to whose son, Beauclerc had espoused his only legitimate daughter, Matilda, and her father's brother filled the pontifical chair as Pope Calixtus.

Like many of her illustrious ancestors, Adelicia was remarkable for her exquisite beauty, and her elegant accomplishments. Her skill and taste in embroidery appear to have been remarkable, as she embroidered a standard in silk and gold for her father, which became greatly celebrated for its beauty of design and exquisite finish. History has forgotten to record the date of her birth, and the events of her early years, but the circumstances of her after-life render it probable that she had not seen twenty summers at the period of her marriage with Beauclerc.

The young and beautiful Adelicia soon became a favourite with the people, and, in imitation of the bright deeds of her predecessor, Matilda the Good, she, with queenly influence, upheld religion, morality, and good order, and afforded munificent encouragement to learning and refinement. Her court was graced by the presence of the most gifted and erudite scholars and minstrels of the times, and the rudely extemporised rhymes that had so charmed the ears of Matilda the Good, were, by her exalted taste, made to give place to the more elaborated productions of the graduates of Oxford or Paris, who could read Latin, and whose works were penned with giossy ink, and emblazoned with gold and vermilion, on milk white parchment. The example of the queen excited a spirit of emulation amongst the nobles

that at this period nothing was so fashionable as the pursuit or patronage of letters; indeed, the love of literature, and the exalted taste of Beauclerc and his consort, scattered the seeds of refinement and intellectual advancement so abundantly throughout the nation, that the civil wars of the succeeding reigns did but retard the future harvest.

With a remarkable wisdom and grace, the youthful queen endeavoured to conform herself to the tastes of her royal lord. Henry loved magnificence, and above all, delighted to see his beautiful bride richly attired; and Adelicia, who preferred a poem to a jewel, the quiet praises of the learned to the huzzas of the multitude, so gratified his desire, that Henry of Huntingdon thus addressed her in his celebrated Latin verses.

"Your crown and jewels, when compared to

you,

How poor your crown, how pale your jewels show;

Take off your robe, your rich attire remove,
Such pomp may load you, but can ne'er im-
prove.

In vain your costly ornaments are worn,
You they obscure, whilst others they adorn;
Ah, what new lustres can these trifles give,
Which all their beauty from your charins
receive?"

The king's taste for animals had induced him to enclose a park at Woodstock, and form what was probably the first menagerie erected in England; and as the youthful Adelicia was no zoologist, the learned ecclesiastic, Philip de Thou, by her request, translated into Norman French a popular Latin work on the nature of animals, and the properties of precious stones. This treatise Adelicia studied with such especial care, that, says a chronicler, “she could afterwards discourse about lions, bears, and unicorns, even more learnedly than Beauclerc himself."

CHAPTER II.

Incursion of the Welsh into Chester-Henry marches against the invaders, but is repulsed-Concludes a peace with the Welsh-Joins his consort at WinchesterRevolt in Normandy-Henry returns to England, accompanied by Adelicia and the Empress Matilda-Mystery attending the death of Matilda's husband-Henry despairs of issue by Adelicia-Matilda acknowledged heiress presumptive to the crown-She marries Geoffrey Plantagenet-Death of William Clito-Death of Henry-Character of Henry-Adelicia re-marries, and retires from public lifeHer children.

HORTLY after the Henry was absent from England uproyal marriage had wards of three years, and before the exbeen solemnized, the piration of that period, the queen appears incursion of the to have joined him, as the Saxon chroWelsh into Chester, nicle saith, that Adelicia, accompanied by where they commit- King Henry and his heiress, the Empress ted great ravages, Matilda, then a widow, embarked from forced the reluctant the continent, and landed in England, in Henry from the home of his new-made September, 1126. bride to the field of war. At the head of a powerful army, he met the invaders. His first efforts were successful, but afterwards the crafty foe beguiled him into an ambush, where a part of his men were mercilessly slaughtered, and he himself was forcibly struck on the breastplate by an arrow, aimed from the heights above, which bruised his mail, but fortunately did him no personal injury. This untoward event induced the king to negociate a peace, which was concluded by the Welsh prince receiving hostages, and a thousand head of cattle, to defray the expenses of the war.

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Henry now hastened to his lonely consort at Winchester, who joyfully welcomed his return; but the royal pair enjoyed the happiness of domestic intercourse for only a brief period. Normandy was in arms, the Earls of Millent, and other Norman barons, aided by the powerful Fulk, Earl of Anjou, had raised the standard of revolt in favour of the youthful William Clito, son of Robert, their lawful duke; and Beauclerc, however unwilling, was compelled to name Adelicia regent during his absence, and in April, 1123, embarked with all speed for his continental possessions.

There is a mystery in connection with the death of Matilda's imperial lord, which, but for its verification by high contemporary autnorities, would certainly find no place in the sober pages of history, so much does it resemble a tale of fiction. Immediately after the pompous solemnization of the emperor's obsequies, which took place on the twenty-second of May, 1125, in the cathedral of Spires, it was whispered abroad that the funeral was a sham-in fact, that the emperor still lived, and that conscience-smitten at the wicked life he had led, he, one dark night, crept from the bed of the slumbering empress, wandered forth with bare feet, and a covering of only coarse cloth, and went no one knew whither. By other accounts, it appears that he retired to a monastery in England, or, as some authors assert, in Anjou, where he ended his days, and that before he expired he sent for Matilda, who instantly recognized her dying lord. Whatever reliance is to be placed in this romantic incident, certain it is, that after his funeral at Spires, Henry the Fifth never again wore the diadem of the Caesars, which, indeed, the empress Matilda

brought with her to England, together | youthful step-mother, with both of whom with that inestimable relic, the hand of she was on terms of affectionate intiSt. James the Apostle. macy. Having passed the spring months at Woodstock, the royal family removed at Whitsuntide to Winchester; where King Henry was gratified by receiving from that most troublesome of his enemies, Fulk, Earl of Anjou, a proposition to unite his son, Geoffrey Plantagenet, in marriage with the Empress Matilda. The King, however, soon discovered that his nobles disapproved of the match, and more, that his haughty daughter, who, with the diadem of the Cæsars on her brow, had again and again received the homage of the mightiest of the barons

of becoming a simple countess; besides the disparity of years between herself and Geoffrey was great, she being in her twenty-fifth year, whilst his age was but fifteen years; and what further aggravated the matter, was, that Matilda, by all accounts, entertained a secret, but most tender penchant for her handsome married cousin, Stephen, Earl of Mortagne.

Matilda quitted Germany by the express command of her sire, and with great regret; for England, which she had left in her early childhood, she viewed only as the home of foreigners, with whom she had no sympathies in common. However, as queen Adelicia had for six years proved childless, Henry now despaired of issue by his second marriage, and therefore viewed his daughter Matilda as heiress presumptive of England and Normandy. Accordingly, after .celebrating the Christmas festival with unusual pomp at Windsor, where Matil-in Christendom, now spurned the idea da's uncle, David, King of Scotland, was a guest, Beauclerc called a great council of his nobles and barons, and after eloquently deploring the loss of his son, and pointing out to them the blessings likely to accrue to the nation from the undisputed succession of the widowed empress, should he die without male issue, he demanded their oaths of fealty to Matilda, as his heiress presumptive. Moved by the eloquence and truthfulness of this appeal, the proud barons, although they had never before been called upon to acknowledge one of the softer sex for their sovereign, eagerly did the bidding of their king. The king's favourite nephew, Stephen, Earl of Mortagne-son of the Conqueror's daughter, Adela, Countess of Blois was the first to bend his knee, and kiss the hand of the heiress, Matilda; and King David, it would appear, greatly influenced the council, as Wyntowni, the Chronicler, says,—

"A thousand a hundred and twenty-seven,
Since Mary bare the King of Heaven,
Davy, the King of Scotland,
And all the state of England,
At London town assembled were.
The King of Scotland, Davy, there,
Compelled the states all bound to be,
To the fair empress in fealty.
His sister's daughter, Dame Mand,
By name, that time, she was called,
On the Circumcision day,

This oath of fealty there sware they." During her sojourn in England on this occasion, the Empress Matilda constantly resided with her father and her

Alike regardless of the tears and entreaties of his daughter, and the frowns and murmurs of his nobles, Henry, who had set his heart on this marriage, caused the betrothal to be celebrated on Whitsunday, 1127; after which, Matilda was escorted to Normandy by Robert, Earl of Gloucester, and other nobles. In the succeeding August, the king followed her thither, and, after the young bridegroom had been ceremoniously knighted at Rouen, by his future father-in-law, the nuptials were solemnized on the twentysixth of October, by Turgisius, Bishop of Avranches, in the cathedral of St. Julian's, at Mons, in Anjou. As may be supposed, the marriage was fatal to the domestic happiness of Matilda and her lord. Both were proud and haughty, and they both claimed the ascendancy-the one as husband and ruler, the other as an empress, and her lord's senior in years; in fact, neither knew domestic quiet until 1133, when Matilda gave birth to her first child, which overjoyed herself and her husband, and so delighted Beauclere, that the boy, who had been christened after him "Henry," he called "Fitz

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