either. It is only by reading both, and carefully weighing and collating facts, that the truth is to be elicited.

In the last act of his life, William Atheling manifested a spirit so noble, so tenderly compassionate, and forgetful of selfish considerations, that we can only say it was worthy of the son of Matilda, the good queen.

The young wife of Prince William was left a widow at the early age of twelve years. She was not among the devoted company who sailed in the white ship. Henry I. was much attached to her, but she returned to her father, the Earl of Anjou, and remaining constant to the memory of her princely consort, she was veiled a nun at Fontevraude. The body of Prince William was never found.

Queen Matilda's only surviving child, the Empress Matilda, thus became King Henry's heiress presumptive. She was the first female who claimed the royal office in England. The events of her life are so closely interwoven with those of the two succeeding queens, Adelicia and Matilda of Boulogne, her cotemporaries, that to avoid the tedium of repetition, and also to preserve the chronological stream of history in unbroken unity, which is an important object, we must refer our readers to the lives and times of those queens for the personal history of this princess, from whom her present majesty Queen Victoria derives her title to the crown of England.

She was with King Henry in his ship.

212

CHAPTER VI.

ADELICIA OF LOUVAINE,

SURNAMED THE FAIR MAID OF BRABANT;

SECOND QUEEN OF HENRY I.

Adelicia's beauty-Imperial descent from Charlemagne-ParentageHer father's vow-His patriotism-Standard embroidered by Adelicia -Captured-Preserved at Church of Liege as a trophy-Adelicia sought in marriage by Henry I. Richly dowered-Embarks for England with Henry-Marriage delayed-Disputes of ecclesiastics as to the right of performing ceremony-Decided-King and Queen parishioners of Archbishop of Canterbury-Violence of ArchbishopHe crowns Adelicia-Her beauty eulogised by poetic chroniclersHer prudence-Encouragement of literature-Empress Matilda-Adelicia childless-Empress Matilda heiress of England-Kept in Adelicia's chamber-Difficult position of the Queen with her stepdaughter -Great friendship between them-Dissensions between Henry and his daughter-Second marriage of the Empress-Irascibility of Henry— Adelicia's conjugal virtues-Death of her uncle, Pope Calixtus-Matilda quits her husband-Returns to England-Remains with the QueenReconciled to her husband-Birth of Prince Henry-Death of King Henry His obsequies-Adelicia's respect for his memory-Offerings -Her troubadour writes King Henry's life-Her widowhood-Her second marriage-William Albini-Her dowry-Palace-Arundel Castle-Receives Empress Matilda-Message to King Stephen-Maguanimity-Departure of Empress-Conjugal happiness of Adelicia-Remembrance of King Henry-Charters-Her children-Respect of her second husband-Charitable foundations at Arundel-Her younger brother abbot of Affligham-Retires to nunnery of Affligham in Flanders

-Dies there-Record of her death in that abbey-Buried therePrayers for her soul-Her issue by Albini-Her brother Joceline of Louvaine-Adelicia ancestor of two of our Queens.

THIS princess, to whom cotemporary chroniclers have given the name of "the fair maid of Brabant," is one of the most obscure characters in the illustrious catalogue of English queens. Tradition, and her handmaid Poetry, have, however, spoken bright things of her; and the surviving historical records of her life, though brief, are all of a nature tending to confirm the good report which the verses of the Provençals have preserved of her virtues and accomplishments.

Descended, through both her parents, from the imperial Carlovingian line,1 Adelicia boasted the most illustrious blood in Christendom. She was the eldest daughter of Godfrey of Louvaine, Duke of Brabant and Lotheir, (or Lower Lorraine,) and Ida Countess of Namur. Her father, as the great-grandson of Charles, brother to Lothaire of France, was the lawful representative of Charlemagne. The male posterity of the unfortunate Charles having been cut off by Hugh Capet, the rights of his house became vested in the descendants of his eldest daughter, Gerberga. Lambert, the son of this princess by her marriage with Robert of Louvaine, was the father of Godfrey. Ermengarde, the second daughter of Charles, married Albert, the third Count of Namur, and their sole daughter and heiress, Ida, (the mother of

1 Howard Memorials.

2 Betham's Genealogical Tables. Buknet's Trophies of Brabant. Howard's Memorials of the Howard Family.

3 Ibid.

Adelicia,) became the wife of her cousin Godfrey of Louvaine, surnamed Barbatus, or the Bearded, because he had made a vow never to shave his beard till he had recovered Lower Lorraine, the patrimony of his ancestors. In this he succeeded in the year 1107, after which he triumphantly displayed a smooth chin, in token that he had fulfilled his obligation, and finally obtained from his subjects and cotemporaries the more honourable appellation of Godfrey the Great. The dominions of this prince were somewhat more extensive than the modern kingdom of Belgium, and were governed by him with the greatest wisdom and ability.

From this illustrious lineage Adelicia appears to have inherited the distinguished beauty and fine talents for which the Lorraine branch of the House of Charlemagne has ever been celebrated. She was also remarkable for her proficiency in feminine acquirements, and a standard which she embroidered in silk and gold for her father, during the memorable contest in which he was engaged for the recovery of his patrimony, was celebrated throughout Europe for the exquisite taste and skill displayed by the royal Adelicia in the design and execution of her patriotic achievement. This standard was unfortunately captured at a battle near the castle of Duras, in the year 1129, by the Bishop of Liege and the Earl of Limbourg, the old competitor of Godfrey for Lower Lorraine, and was by them placed as a memorial of their triumph in the great church of St. Lambert at Liege, and was for centuries carried in procession on

1 Buknet's Trophies. Howard Memorials.

2 Memorials of the Howard Family. Buknet's Trophies of Brabant.

Rogation days through the streets of that city. The church of St. Lambert was destroyed during the French revolution, yet the learned editor of the Howard Memorials fondly indulges in the hope that this interesting relic of his royal ancestress' feminine skill and patriotic feelings may be still in existence, and destined perhaps, hereafter, to be brought to light, like the long-forgotten Bayeux tapestry. The plain where this memorable trophy was taken, is still called the field of the Standard.1

The fame of the fair maid of Brabant's charms and accomplishments, it is said, induced the confidential advisers of Henry I. of England to recommend their sorrow-stricken lord to wed her, by way of antidote to the corroding melancholy which, since the loss of his children in the fatal white ship, had become constitutional to him. The temper of this monarch had, in fact, grown so irascible, that his greatest nobles feared to enter his presence, and it is said that, in his causeless transports of rage, he indulged himself in the use of the most unkingly terms of vituperation to all who approached him ; which made his peers the more earnest in their counsels for him to take a second wife. Adelicia of Louvaine was the object of his choice. Henry's ostensible motive in contracting this marriage was the hope of male posterity to inherit the united realms of England and Normandy. He had been a widower two years when he entered into a treaty with Godfrey of Louvaine for the hand of his beautiful daughter.

1 Brutsholme.

Speed. Rapin.