V.

Libyssa and Valasca, Queens of Bohemia—Wanda, Queen of Poland—Moors in Spain—Women of Tudmir—Female Knights of Tortosa—Alleged Origin of the word "Infantry"—Queen Carcas—Elfrida, Daughter of Alfred the Great—Igor, Grand Duchess of Russia—Richilda, Countess of Hainault.

EUROPE, during the two or three centuries after the downfall of the Roman Empire, bears a strong resemblance to Greece during the heroic age. In the Nibelungen, the Iliad of those days, we read of godlike heroes, Herculean warriors, giant princes, and Amazon queens. That was an age when might constituted right, when rulers led their own armies in the field, where the lead was given to the strongest or the most daring.

The Salique law seems in those days to have been very generally disregarded—if indeed it had beenintroduced as yet; for we read of more than one queen who ruled alone over the more or less barbarous kingdoms of Europe. Æneas Sylvius narrates how a warlike queen named Libyssa ascended the throne of Bohemia on the death of her father, King Crocus. Her husband, Przemislas, whom she espoused in 632, being originally only a peasant, was probably a humble, weak-minded individual, ruled by his wife; for the queen proceeded to enrol the greater number of her female subjects into a species of militia. They were trained, like the Amazons, to the use of arms and to ride on horseback. After the death of Libyssa, the narrator further says that the principal favourite of the queen, Valasca, with the assistance of the female troops, seized the throne, and held it until her death, which occurred seven years later. Resolved to form a nation of Amazons, Valasca passed a law that all male children should have their right eyes put out and their thumbs cut off, to keep them from using bow and arrows. And this barbarous order was rigorously enforced while Valasca lived, the men not daring to raise any complaint. The demise of this Amazon-queen soon restored everything to its natural order.

Wanda, the first Queen-Regnant of Poland, was unanimously elected by the people on the death of her father, Cracus, about the year 700. She was atalented woman, and esteemed herself fully capable of conducting the government without the assistance of a husband. To the numerous offers of marriage she received, a refusal was the invariable answer. At last Rudiger, a German prince, hoping to bring about a happy union by force of arms, invaded Poland with a great army.

Wanda raised troops, and advanced to meet the invaders. When the opposing armies came in sight, Rudiger, believing that his warlike preparations must needs have terrified the queen, besought her to accept him, and thus save the lives of their soldiers. Wanda answered that no man should ever share her throne, because he would love her kingdom better than herself. When this spirited answer was spread amongst Rudiger's officers, they refused to fight against so heroic a queen. Surrounding the prince, they endeavoured to dissuade him from risking a battle; but finding their remonstrances vain, they refused to second his efforts, and Rudiger, in despair, flung himself on his sword.

Wanda returned in triumph to Cracow. She never received another proposal of marriage.

In the year 711 the Moors, commanded by Tarik, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and invaded Spain. Even after the defeat and death of their king, the Goths disputed every foot of ground before givingway to the Infidels. The latter, impeded at every step, were glad to grant peace on almost any terms. One of the principal Gothic leaders was Theodomir, or Tudmir Ben Gobdas, a Spanish noble belonging to one of the most honourable families in the land. He possessed large estates in the South, and his authority over them was so great that not only was the district named after him, the Land of Tudmir, but he was styled King. Having been totally routed in a battle, when the greater number of his soldiers were slain, he escaped to the fortified citadel of Tudmir, where he was soon besieged by the Moors.

Finding his position grow daily more and more untenable, Theodomir resorted to an expedient, already practised by the people of Yemaumah when besieged by Khaled. He commanded all the women to put on male attire, to tie their hair under their chin (to imitate long beards), and to appear, armed with bows and arrows, lances, swords, and shields, on the towers and battlements, in sight of the Moors. He himself, with his few remaining soldiers, stood in front, to conceal as much as possible these feminine guards.

The Moors, overrating the strength of the garrison, offered Theodomir advantageous terms, which he accepted. Although they afterwards discovered the fraud, the Infidels scrupulously observed the treaty.

The women of Tortosa distinguished themselvesso highly in some skirmishes with the Moors, that a military Order of Knighthood was conferred upon them.

The word "Infantry" is said to owe its origin to one of the Spanish Infantas, who, hearing that her father had been defeated by the Moors, raised a body of foot-soldiers, and placing herself at their head, defeated the infidels. In memory of her bravery, foot-soldiers were henceforth styled Infantry.

The Moors never could obtain a footing north of the Pyrenees; yet, despite the invariable want of success attending their attempts, they made constant incursions into France, besieging towns, burning villages, and ravaging the open country. Amongst other cities besieged by them was Carcassonne, situated on the banks of the river Aude, governed in those days by queen Carcas, famous for her military prowess. When Charlemagne, a few years previously, besieged the city, it was defended so courageously that he permitted the queen to retain the sovereignty.

The Saracens, ridiculing the notion of a female warrior, declared that, in place of fighting, she ought to be spinning. This contemptuous speech, spoken immediately under the city walls, was overheard by queen Carcas. Arming herself with a lance, to which, as if it had been a distaff, she attached aquantity of hemp, she set the hemp on fire, and rushed into the midst of the Saracens, who fled, terrified, in all directions.

The shield and lance of queen Carcas may yet be seen at Carcassonne. Over the city gate there is an effigy of the royal heroine, with the inscription "Carcas sum."

While the South of Europe was overrun by the Saracens, England, Ireland, and Scotland were harassed by the terrible Danes, who for several centuries kept these islands in constant terror. The most powerful opponent of the Danes in England was, as everyone knows, King Alfred the Great. During the latter years of his reign, the land was tolerably secure from invasion; but after his death the Vikings and their wild followers came swarming over the country again, burning, plundering, massacring, just as they had done before Alfred drove them away. Elfrida, the eldest daughter of King Alfred, inherited all her father's courage and warlike spirit, and, like him, proved an implacable foe to the Danes. She was married early to Ethelred, Earl of Mercia; and on his death the government of the province devolved upon the widow. And nobly did she fulfil her trust. Mercia was greatly harassed by the Danes—as, indeed, was the entire country in those days. The Welsh joined in alliancewith the invaders, and would have marched to their aid but for the promptitude of Elfrida, who entered Wales, 916, at the head of an army, and took Brecknock by storm, capturing therein Queen Anghared and many of her attendants. The "Lady of Mercia" had another motive in this invasion, which rendered Wales tributary to the Saxons; and this motive was the desire to avenge the death of the good Abbot Egbert, whom the Welsh had slain.

King Owen fled to Derby, where he was kindly received by the Danes. When Elfrida learned this she marched thither, and captured the city "before Lammas," 918. So reckless was she of her own safety on this memorable day, that it had almost proved to be her last. Pressing at the head of her troops through the narrow gateway where a vast multitude of Danes barred the way, many of her principal officers were struck down, and four of her guards were slain by the hand of the Welsh king. Gwynne, lord of Ely, and steward of Elfrida, perceiving the danger of the princess, set the gates on fire, and rushed furiously upon the Welsh and Danes, who gave way before his onslaught.

Owen, unable to escape, preferred to fall by his own hand than yield himself prisoner to a woman.

Two years later, in 920, Elfrida recaptured Leicester and York from the Danes; and besidesrepairing the fortifications of the former city, encompassed it with a massive wall of such strength that Matthew Paris styles itindissoluble.

Shortly after this, and before the war was over, Elfrida died at Tamworth, in Staffordshire, leaving an unmarried daughter named Elswina. She was buried at Gloucester, in the porch of St. Peter's monastery, a building erected at her own expense.

This heroine has been praised by all the old historians for her prudence, courage, and talent for governing. Ingulphus says that considering the great actions of her life, the cities she built, the castles she fortified, and the armies she raised, Elfrida "might have been thought a man." She was generally styled queen by the Mercians, who regarded themselves as her subjects.

According to tradition it was the same wild Vikings, the terror of our land, who founded the mighty Russian empire; and their successors, the Grand Dukes and Czars, have ever since retained that thirst for conquest which distinguished the roving Normans. The Grand Duke Igor was one of the first among the successors of Rurik who caused the Russian standard to be feared by surrounding states. After subduing most of the neighbouring towns, his victorious career was suddenly brought to a close in 945, during an expeditionagainst the Drevlians, by whom he was surrounded, and put to the sword with all his troops.

Igor was succeeded by his son Sviatoslaf, the first Christian sovereign of Russia. The prince being too young to conduct the government, his mother, Olga, undertook the regency. The Drevlians, fancying the royal widow would be easily intimidated, sent to demand her in marriage for their prince. But Olga, after causing their ambassadors to be slain (by various quaint stratagems which Nestor has preserved) called out her troops, placed herself at their head, and marched against the Drevlians, taking her son with her to teach him the art of war. After destroying all the towns and villages of the enemy, she laid siege to Karosten, their capital, which was built entirely of wood—the very name signifying "wall of bark." Finding the city too strong and too well defended, she made proposals of peace to the inhabitants, declaring that she would be satisfied with three sparrows and a pigeon from each house, as tribute. The people joyfully complied, and sent the birds to the Russian camp. Olga caused the birds to be let loose, with lighted torches tied to their tails; they, of course, flew back to their nests in the house-eaves of Karosten. The town was soon in a blaze from end to end. The terrified inhabitants, flying to escape the flames, were met by the swords and lances of the Russians. TheDrevlian prince and his court perished in the massacre, as indeed, did nearly every one in the city, save the dregs of the population.

Having glutted her thirst for revenge, Olga made a progress through Russia, taking Sviatoslaf with her. Towns and villages arose at her command, taxation was regulated on a better footing; and by various measures highly beneficial to the prosperity of the country, the Grand Duchess proved herself a most able ruler. In 955 she went to Constantinople to be baptised a Christian, and in the course of a few years the Greek faith spread through the land, and paganism was abolished.

When Sviatoslaf grew old enough to rule his own dominions, Olga resigned the reins of government. She lived in retirement for several years, and died in 968 at an advanced age.

In the Middle Ages, chemistry and mathematics were things known to few people except the monks; any man who studied the sciences was styled an alchemist, and suspected of being in league with the Evil One. When it was a woman who gave herself up to learned studies, the people could scarcely be withheld from tearing "the sorceress" to pieces. Occasionally, however, despite what the world said, noble ladies, especially on the Continent, did apply their minds to what in thosedays went by the name of the Black Art. Amongst these was Richilda, Countess of Hainault, who married Baldwin the Good, eldest son of Baldwin, Marquis of Flanders, one of whose daughters, Matilda, became the wife of William the Conqueror, and another of Tosti Godwinsson, son of the powerful Earl Godwin. The fame of Richilda as a wicked sorceress caused her to be anything but a favourite in the country; and when her husband died, Robert le Frison, Count of Friesland, and brother of the deceased, endeavoured to wrest Flanders from her young son Arnulf, or Arnoul, who was little more than a boy. William the Conqueror espoused the cause of Richilda, and sent over Fitz-Osbern, Earl of Hereford, the tyrant of the Welsh, to her aid. The Countess also implored the assistance of her liege lord, the king of France.

A battle took place on St. Peter's Day, 1071, at Bavinchorum, near Cassel; Richilda and Fitz-Osbern commanded their troops in person. The left wing of the foe was routed, and Robert le Frison made prisoner and sent to St. Omer. But this success was counterbalanced by the death of Fitz-Osbern and young Arnoul. Richilda's forces fled in confusion, and the heroine was made prisoner.

An exchange was effected, by which Richilda and the Frison regained their liberty. The countess immediately set about raising fresh troops to avengethe death of her boy. The contending armies met again; this time at Broqueroi, near Mons, where the troops of Richilda were routed with so terrible a slaughter that the scene of the conflict was afterwards known under the name of "the Hedges of Death." All hope now fled the breast of Richilda. Escaping from the field, she took refuge in a convent, where the rest of her days were passed under the severest penances—to atone, as folks said, for her past dealings with the Prince of Darkness.

The Crusades—French, German, and Genoese Amazons—Eleonora of Aquitaine—Matilda of Boulogne—Empress Maud—Aldrude, Countess of Bertinoro—Empress Constantia—Nichola de Camville (Barons' Wars)—Blanche of Castille, Queen-Regent of France—Women of Culm—Blanche de Rossi—Black Agnes, Countess of March—Countess de Montfort—Julia du Guesclin—Jane de Belleville, Lady of Clisson—Marzia—Margaret, Queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the Semiramis of the North—Fair Maiden Lilliard (Chevy Chase)—Lady Pelham—Philippa, Queen of Denmark.

IT would be difficult at the present day to appreciate the wild enthusiasm spread throughout Europe by the preaching of Peter the Hermit. Thousands from all classes—kings, princes, nobles, priests, peasants, beggars, all alike impelled by the same blind impulse, many amongst them scarcely knowing where they were going or for what they went to fight,—hastened to take up arms against the Infidel.The enthusiasm was not, as it would probably in our days, confined to one, nor even to three or four nations. "There were men," says Robert of Gloucester:—

"Of Normandy, of Denmark, of Norway, of Bretagne,Of Wales, and of Ireland, of Gascony, of Spain,Of Provence, of Saxony, and of Allemayne,Of Scotland, and of Greece, of Rome and Aquitaine."

Ay, and women too. The first Crusading armies which set out in the spring of 1096, commanded by Peter the Hermit, Gaultier-sans-Avoir, and other leaders of less reputation, comprised nearly as many women as men. Even where they did not contend hand to hand with the Saracens, these heroines cheered the warriors by marching with them in the ranks, by carrying food and ammunition to the battle-field, by speaking with enthusiasm of the cause for which they had armed. It was, indeed, owing as much to the courage and endurance of the women, who suffered without a murmur the miseries of cold, hunger, and want of clothing, as to their own indomitable bravery that the Templars owed the capture of Antioch. William of Tyre, speaking of the grand review held before Nice in 1099, says that exclusive of the cavalry, who, to the number of one hundred thousand were well armed in helmets and mail, there were found six hundred thousand Crusaders of both sexes, many of them little children.

When the second Crusade was preached, many ladies, especially in France and Germany, formed themselves into squadrons and regiments of Amazons, and assumed the arms and armour of the Templars. The commander of the German Amazons, who, says Michaud, was more admired for her dress than her courage, received the title of the "Golden Footed Dame," or the "Lady with the Golden Legs," on account of her magnificent gilded buskins and spurs. She enrolled her troop under the banner of the emperor Conrad, who started for the East 1147. The French Amazons were commanded by their queen, Eleonora of Aquitaine (afterwards wife of Henry II. of England). Forming themselves into a squadron of light cavalry, they went through a regular course of military training, and, by constant exercise, they acquired tolerable proficiency in the use of arms.

Mezerai, speaking of these "squadrons of females," declares that by their valour they "rendered credible all that has been said of the prowess of the Amazons;" but, certes, those who followed King Louis to the Holy Land rendered themselves more notable for rashness and folly than manly courage. They set out in the year 1147, with the bold determination to share all the fatigues and brave all the dangers incident to a crusade; but their first essay in the presence of the enemy proved sufficient to put anend to their gallant resolutions and cover their leader with ridicule. The corps of Amazons, escorted by a band of sterner warriors commanded by a distinguished knight, had been sent on in advance, with strict orders from the king to encamp on the heights of Laodicea, and there await his arrival. They reached the spot as the sun was setting, and the black, dreary rocks appeared to the romantic, but inexperienced eye of Eleonora, an exceedingly uninviting situation for a resting place. With the haughty imperiousness of her nature, she insisted on turning aside to a beautiful valley watered by cool streams, and overshadowed by lofty palms, where, despite the warnings and expostulations of the brave captain who led her escort, she encamped.

In this charming but unprotected dale they were soon attacked by a party of Saracens. King Louis arrived barely in time to save the corps of Amazons from capture. Compelled to hazard an engagement under peculiarly disadvantageous circumstances against an enemy who received reinforcements from moment to moment, Louis was so near being made prisoner as to be obliged to seek refuge in a tree. The Christians were victorious, but it was with heavy losses. Eleonora and her followers retired to the court of her cousin Raymond, Prince of Antioch, and there passed the rest of the season.

While the Crusades lasted, ladies continued toaccompany husbands and lovers to the East. In the arsenal of the palace at Genoa there are, or were some few years since, several light cuirasses, made for a band of Genoese ladies, who, towards the close of the thirteenth century, wished to join in a crusade against the Turks. However, by the entreaties of Pope Boniface VIII., who wrote an autograph letter for the purpose, they were persuaded to relinquish their design.

Pierre Gentien, an old French poet, who flourished at the latter end of the thirteenth century, has left a species of epic in rhyme, wherein he describes a tournament held by certain noble dames who were about departing with the knights beyond the seas. In this poem the author, describing how the combatants, to acquire proficiency in the use of arms, disputed the prize of valour with all the courage and enthusiasm of the knights of those days, takes the opportunity to name forty or fifty, the most beautiful ladies of their time. His poem has been therefore admired rather as being a memoir of the old French families than for the excellence of the poetry.

The somewhat ridiculous termination to her first essay in presence of the foe did not entirely quench the military ardour of Eleonora of Aquitaine. After she had been for some years the wife of king HenryII., she stirred up her sons, Richard and John, to rebellion against their father; and went so far as to appear in masculine attire, at the head of their forces in Aquitaine. And thus clad, she was made prisoner.

When Prince Arthur was prosecuting his claims on the English crown, Philip Augustus, the French king, sent him with a military retinue into Normandy, then in the hands of the English. The French barons laid siege to Mirebeau, a fortified town near Poitiers. It was defended for King John by Eleonora, who, though she had then attained the age of four-score, was as active as ever, and had only just returned from a journey into Spain—a matter of some difficulty in those days. When the French had captured the town, the veteran Amazon threw herself into a strong tower which served as a sort of citadel; and here she held out bravely till the arrival of John with reinforcements, on the night between July 31st and August 1, 1202; when the besiegers were compelled to surrender.

During the wars between the Empress Maud and Stephen, the latter was ably seconded by his queen, Matilda of Boulogne. For the first five years of his usurpation, the king was disturbed only by the revolt of Baldwin, Earl of Exeter, and the invasion of David, King of Scotland. Matilda showed herself tobe an able politician and a brave soldier. In June, 1137, she laid siege to Dover Castle, which had been seized by the rebels, and, at the same time, sent orders to her Boulogne subjects to blockade the fortress by sea.

In July, 1139, the empress, escorted by her brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, landed in England. After several battles, of which little is known, she defeated and captured King Stephen near Lincoln, 1141. The empress was at once proclaimed queen of England, and after sending Stephen in irons to Bristol, she entered London. Matilda made humble suit for the liberty of her lord, and offered, in his name, to resign all claim to the crown; but the empress refused, save on the petitioner also surrendering her inheritance of Boulogne. The queen refused; and with the assistance of William of Ypres, Stephen's talented but unpopular minister, she raised the standard of the king in Surrey and Kent, where a large party were in favour of the royal captive.

"In the pages of superficially-written histories," remarks Miss Strickland, "much is said of the prowess and military skill displayed by Prince Eustace at this period; but Eustace was scarcely seven years old at the time when these efforts were made for the deliverance of his royal sire; therefore it is plain to those who reflect on the evidence ofdates, that it was the high-minded and prudent queen, his mother, who avoided all Amazonian display by acting under the name of her son."

The empress, being warned that the Londoners, weary of her insolence, had a mind to serve her as she had served Stephen, fled from the city by night, and laid siege to Winchester Castle. The men of London and Kent, headed by Matilda, Eustace, and William of Ypres, were soon at the city gates, and Maud was closely invested for several days in her palace. To escape the horrors of a city in flames, the empress feigned herself dead, and her body was conveyed to Gloucester. Robert, her brother, was made prisoner, and his liberty was purchased by the release of Stephen.

From this time the fortunes of the empress rapidly declined. She was so closely invested in Oxford during the inclement weather of 1142, that she was compelled to dress herself and her attendants in white, which, as the ground was covered with snow, more readily escaped observation, and so steal away from the town. The war continued to rage with the utmost fury for the next five years; but Maud, weary at last of the miserable struggle, returned to Normandy in 1147.

Queen Matilda died at Henningham Castle, in Essex, on May 3rd, 1151, a little more than three years before her husband. The empress outlivedboth her rivals, and died abroad, September 10th, 1167.

The famous contest between the Guelfs and the Ghibelines, which for nearly three hundred years devastated Italy, broke out early in the twelfth century. The struggle was at first hardly more than a feud between two powerful families; but it soon developed into an obstinate war between two political parties—the Guelfs, who formed the papal and Italian party, and the Ghibelines, who favoured the German Emperors.

One of the leading events of this war was the siege of Ancona, in 1172, by the Archbishop of Mentz, Frederic Barbarossa's deputy in Italy, backed by all the power of Ghibeline Tuscany. The citizens, reduced to the direst extremities, applied for aid to William degli Adelardi, a noble and influential citizen of Ferrara, and to the Countess de Bertinoro. Aldrude, the countess, who belonged to the illustrious house of Frangipani, has been immortalized by the Italian writers of those days, on account of her personal beauty, her generosity, and the magnificence of her court, which was the favourite resort of Italian chivalry, poetry, and art. She was married young to the Count de Bertinoro, who died, and left her a widow in the bloom of youth.

The Countess and Adelardi, with their combinedforces, hastened to the relief of the beleaguered city, near which they arrived at sunset. Having pitched their camp on a hill overlooking the Ghibeline tents, the soldiers were assembled, and harangued with exciting speeches, which they received with loud applause, mingled with the clashing of arms. However, they gained a bloodless victory. The besiegers, alarmed at the strength of the foe, struck their tents, and retired under cover of night.

The famished Anconians, relieved from the presence of the imperial army, received a fresh stock of provisions. They came out to thank the countess and her ally, and offered them magnificent presents.

On her homeward march, the countess fell in with a party of retreating Ghibelines. Numerous skirmishes took place, in which the troops of Aldrude were uniformly victorious.

The date of this heroine's death is unknown.

The designs of the Hohenstaufen on the throne of Sicily drew their attention for a time from Lombardy. Henry VI., who ascended the imperial throne of Germany on the death of his father, Frederick Barbarossa, established a claim on the crown of the Two Sicilies in right of his wife, the daughter of King Roger. Constantia became the rightful queen of Sicily on the death of William theGood in 1189; but the throne was usurped by Tancred, her natural brother. Henry invaded the Neapolitan states in 1191; but though successful at first, a terrible mortality in his camp compelled him to raise the siege of Naples and retire from the country.

After the death of Tancred, his widow resigned all claim to the crown; stipulating that her infant son, William, should be left in possession of Tarentum. But the cruel and perfidious emperor, who had failed in all his attempts on Naples and Sicily during the life-time of the king, cast the boy into prison, after putting out his eyes, imprisoned the queen and the princesses in a convent, and carried the royal treasures to Germany.

When the emperor returned to his own land, Naples and Sicily rose against his tyranny. Hastening back with a mighty army, Henry defeated the rebels, and commanded that the leaders should suffer the most excruciating tortures. Constantia, shocked at his barbarity, quarrelled with her husband, cast off her allegiance, and stirred up the Sicilians to a fresh rebellion. Thousands flocked to her standard, and the empress, at this time fifty years old, led them against the German troops. Henry, who had sent away most of his soldiers to the Holy Land, was defeated, and compelled to submit to the terms dictated by Constantia.

The emperor died at Messina in 1197, shortly after the conclusion of the treaty, and his wife has been accused of administering poison, to rid her people of a cruel and vindictive tyrant. After his death, Constantia lived peacefully in Sicily as regent of the island and guardian of her infant son, the Emperor Frederick II. She died three years later, in the year 1200.

Returning to England, we find Dame Nichola de Camville, a noted heroine of those days, personally engaged on the royal side during the Barons' wars. Nichola de Hara, widow of Gerard, Lord Camville was co-sheriff for the county of Lincolnshire. She held the Castle of Lincoln for King John against Gilbert de Gaunt, who had captured the city; and after the death of John she defended it for his son, Henry III. Shortly after the death of King John, the Count de la Perche, a French knight commanding the Confederate Barons, marched to Lincoln at the head of six hundred knights and twenty thousand soldiers, and besieged the castle. It was defended by Dame Nichola till the arrival of the Earl of Pembroke in May, 1217, when the battle, afterwards known as "Lincoln Fair," quelled for a time the rebellion of the English barons, and established Henry III. on the throne.

Turn which way we will, we see nothing but civil wars and struggles for supremacy between crowned heads and nobles. Crossing to France, some nine or ten years later, we find the great vassals of the throne conspiring to deprive Queen Blanche of the regency. However, Blanche of Castille was not a woman easily intimidated. At the head of a large army, she went with the young king (her son) to Brittany, the seat of the conspiracy. The malcontent nobles, not being prepared to meet the royal forces in the field, submitted for a time.

In the following year, 1227, the royal troops defeated and captured Raymond, Count of Toulouse, leader of the Albigeois, and the queen treated her noble captive so harshly that the French lords again took up arms, led by the Duke of Brittany. Despite the severity of the winter, the queen-regent and her son marched into Brittany; and after surmounting terrible obstacles from the cold, and from the snow and ice, which stopped both roads and rivers, laid siege to the stronghold of Bellesme. This fortress which from the thickness of its walls, was supposed to be impregnable, had a garrison of Bretons, supported by a body of English auxiliaries. The besieged were in hopes that the royal army, horribly decimated by the severe weather, would be compelled soon to retire. But the queen was not the one to yield when she had once resolved on anything. Topreserve her soldiers, hundreds of whom perished from the bitter cold, she caused immense fires to be kept constantly blazing, and offered high rewards to all who brought wood into camp. To encourage the men she slept in the open air by the bivouac fires, conversed with the troops, and encouraged officers and privates alike by her affability and condescension.

Queen Blanche pressed the siege with unyielding determination. After two assaults had been made the great tower was dismantled, and the garrison surrendered. The Duke of Brittany was made prisoner, though, through motives of policy, he was speedily set at liberty. The queen next took Nantes and Acenis; and the revolt was brought to a close in 1230 by the surrender of the Count de Marche.

From the courage and military tact displayed by the queen during the siege of Bellesmes, she received the complimentary title of "the Great Captain."

The regency of Blanche ended in 1235, and Louis IX. took the government into his own hands; but she again took up the regency in 1248, when her son set forth on his crusade. She died in 1252, before St. Louis came home from his ill-starred expedition.

So deep was the respect entertained for thememory of Blanche of Castille, that many of the queen-dowagers of France assumed the surname of Blanche, as the Roman emperors took the title of Augustus.

Until the thirteenth century, Prussia was inhabited by heathen barbarians. In 1226, Conrad of Masovia gave the Teutonic Knights a strip of land on the Vistula, that they might protect Poland from the Prussian savages. For more than half a century the knights carried on a war of extermination against the natives; again and again were the Prussian tribes vanquished, again and again they rebelled. In 1240 a general insurrection of greater magnitude burst forth, and nearly all the knights were massacred. Those who escaped—principally the Knights of the Cross—took refuge in the castles of Thorn, Reden, and Culm, where they were soon beleaguered by the Prussians. The knights in Culm were induced by a stratagem to come out, when they fell into an ambuscade, and were all slain. The city would have fallen had not the women closed the gates, clad themselves in mail, and mounted the walls with spears in their hands. The Prussians, deceived by this stratagem, withdrew their forces, believing that Culm was still strongly garrisoned by sturdy knights.

Prussia was at last converted to Christianity, and adopted the manners and customs of Germany, of which it is now the leading State.

The contests between the Guelfs and Ghibelines proved fatal to Italian liberty. Might became right, tyrants arose on every side, and either by open force or by fraud, possessed themselves of the sovereign power in some one of the Lombardian cities and the adjacent territories. The various military leaders, whether Italians or Germans, were mere freebooters, accountable to no one for their acts, permitting the utmost license to themselves and their followers. One of the most infamous of these mercenaries was Acciolin, who was not a brutal and rapacious robber, but a man of refined cruelty. His favourite mode of torture was to fasten his prisoners to half-putrified corpses, and leave the living and the dead to rot away together.

In 1253, this fiend in human shape captured Bassano by storm, after a tiresome siege. The garrison was commanded by John Baptista de Porta, who was either governor or lord of the place. Blanche de Rossi, his wife, a native of Padua, put on armour, mounted the ramparts, and fought by the side of her husband. When the town fell the governor was slain, and Blanche, after making a desperate resistance, was made prisoner and led in triumph before Acciolin. Directly the villain set eyes upon his beautiful captive, he was seized with a violent passion for her; and to escape him, she sprang, clad as she was in armour, througha window. But in place of death, she only met with a sprained shoulder. Directly she recovered from her swoon the tyrant sent for her again, and finding his renewed protestations were repulsed with loathing, he obtained by force what was denied to his prayers. Blanche then withdrew to the place where her husband's body had been thrown, and flinging herself into the open grave, was crushed to death by the falling earth and stones.

In the year 1333, King Edward III., espousing the cause of Edward Baliol, invaded Scotland. The battle of Hallidon Hill, July 29th, in which the Regent Douglas was defeated, placed Baliol on the throne; and Edward, carried away by his ambitious designs upon the French throne, left his army in charge of the Earls of Arundel and Salisbury, and returned to England. Montague, Earl of Salisbury, laid siege to the castle of Dunbar, a place of great importance, esteemed as the key of Scotland, on the south-east border. It had been fortified very recently; and in the absence of the Earl of March, was defended by the countess, who, from the dark colour of her complexion, was popularly styled "Black Agnes." She was the daughter of Randolph, Earl of Moray, and inherited from her father a fierce, intrepid spirit. During the five months' siege she performed all the duties of a bold and skilful commander, and the garrison had the utmostconfidence in her abilities. Constantly on the ramparts, she derided the English with biting sarcasms. When the battering-engines hurled stones against the walls, she scornfully told one of her female attendants to wipe off the dust with her handkerchief.

The Earl of Salisbury knew well the kind of foe he had to deal with. One day he was superintending the siege operations, when an arrow from the castle whizzed past and struck a knight who stood by, piercing through his chain-mail haubergeon, and killing him on the spot.

"There comes one of my lady's tire-pins," exclaimed the Earl. "Agnes's love-shafts go straight to the heart!"

A monster called the "sow," a huge engine covered with hides, somewhat resembling the testudo of the Romans, was at last rolled to the foot of the walls. When the countess saw this ponderous machine coming, she cried in a loud, mocking voice:—

"Montague, beware! your sow shall soon cast her pigs!"

She quickly verified her words by hurling an immense piece of rock upon the "sow," crushing both it and its occupants to pieces.

Salisbury finding he could not succeed by fair means, bribed the gate-keeper to leave the gatesopen on the following night. The porter disclosed this to the countess, who directed him to keep to his bargain and say nothing about it. The Earl, who commanded the party that were to seize the castle, rode through the darkness at the head of his soldiers, found the gates open according to agreement, and was about to enter, when one of his men, John Copeland, passed in front of him. The portcullis was suddenly dropped; Copeland, mistaken for his master, remained a prisoner. The Earl was saved by his men, who dragged him back just in time. Agnes, from a high turret, saw that the general had escaped.

"Farewell, Montague!" she cried. "I intended that you should have supped with us to-night, and assisted in defending the fortress against the English."

Salisbury, despairing of being able to take the place, either by treachery or by storm, turned the siege into a blockade, closely investing the castle by sea and land, and tried to starve the garrison out into a surrender. Alexander Ramsay, hearing of the extremities to which Black Agnes was reduced, embarked with a party of forty resolute men, eluded the vigilance of the English, and entered the castle, under cover of night, by a postern next the sea. Sallying out again, they attacked and dispersed the advanced guard of the besiegers. Salisbury, disheartenedby so many reverses, withdrew his forces, after having remained before Dunbar for nineteen weeks.

About this time the duchy of Brittany was the subject of contention between two rivals, John, Count de Montfort, son of the late duke, and Charles of Blois, who had married the duke's granddaughter. Philip de Valois, King of France, decided the dispute in favour of Charles, and despatched a large army to establish him in the capital. Edward III., of England, at once declared for the Count de Montfort, as an enemy to the house of Valois, which he—King Edward—wished to drive from the throne of France.

The count was betrayed into the hands of his rival by some malcontent nobles. But Jane, the brave countess, sustained his sinking fortunes "with the courage of a man and the heart of a lion." Directly the news of her husband's capture arrived at Rennes, where she resided, the countess assembled the citizens, showed them her infant son, and entreated them not to desert the last male heir of their ancient dukes. Her eloquence, beauty, and courage produced a magical effect. The people swore to defend her and her son to the last extremity.

The countess next visited all the strongholds throughout Brittany, and excited the people to resistthe French, and to adopt the requisite measures of defence. Then, sending her boy to England, she shut herself up in Hennebonne, and there awaited the reinforcements promised by King Edward.

Charles of Blois entered Brittany, captured Rennes, and despatched a force, commanded by Prince Louis of Spain, to besiege Hennebonne. The garrison, animated by the presence of the valiant countess, made a resolute defence. Jane herself performed prodigies of valour. Clad in armour from head to foot, she stood foremost in the breach, sustaining every attack of the foe with the utmostsang froid, or ran from post to post, according as the troops required encouragement or reinforcement.

One day the besiegers, engaged in an attack on the town, left their camp totally unprotected. The countess, perceiving their neglect, sallied forth by a postern-gate at the head of five hundred picked men, set fire to the enemy's baggage and magazines, and created such universal alarm that the besiegers gave over their assault on the town to intercept her return. Jane, seeing that her retreat was cut off that way, galloped towards Arrai, where she arrived in safety. In five days she returned, cut her way through the camp of Charles, and re-entered the town. By this time, however, the breaches in the walls had grown so numerous that the place wasdeemed untenable. The bishop of Léon, despite the entreaties, the prayers of Jane, resolved to capitulate, and opened negotiations with the enemy. Jane mounted the highest turret and turned her eyes towards the sea, with a last hope of seeing her deliverers. She descried some small specks far away in the distance. Rushing down into the street, she cried, with transports of joy:—

"Succours! Succours! The English succours! No capitulation!"

The English fleet soon entered the harbour, and a small but valiant body of English, headed by the chivalrous Sir Walter Manny, cast themselves into the town. The negotiations were at once broken off, and the besiegers, balked of their prey, renewed the attack with more determined vigour than ever.

Sir Walter and his companions were at dinner with the countess when a huge mass of stone crashed through the roof of an adjoining house, terrifying the ladies assembled in the castle hall. Starting from his seat, Sir Walter vowed to destroy the terrible engine which had thrown this missile. In a few moments the English sallied forth, hewed the monster catapult in pieces, burned the sow, and threw the enemy's camp into confusion. The foe, recovering from their first astonishment, tried to surround the returning warriors; but the English knights stood their ground till the archers and men-at-armshad re-crossed the ditch. Then driving back their assailants they crossed the draw-bridge, and were received with acclamations by the townspeople, while the countess herself "came down from the castle to meet them, and with a most cheerful countenance kissed Sir Walter and all his companions, one after another, like a noble and valiant dame."

Prince Louis abandoned his camp the same evening, and retired to that of Prince Charles before the Castle of Arrai.

Charles, though unsuccessful in his attack on Hennebonne, soon became master of nearly the whole of Brittany. During the truce between England and France, the Countess de Montfort came to London, and asked King Edward to grant her further assistance. He commanded Robert of Artois to return with her, accompanied by a strong force, to Brittany. They encountered the French fleet near Guernsey; and during the engagement Jane displayed her accustomed bravery. The contending fleets were at last separated by a storm, and the English sailed to Brittany, took Vannes by storm, and massacred, not only the garrison, but even the townspeople. The French soon recaptured the town, when Robert of Artois was slain.

Edward III. landed in Brittany in 1345, withtwelve thousand men, but was not at first very successful. In June he was obliged to conclude a short truce with France, during which the Count de Montfort was set at liberty; but he died of a fever on Sept. 20th, when his son John was proclaimed duke. At the end of July, 1346, the English invaded Normandy. The Countess de Montfort, assisted by an English force under Sir Thomas Dagworth, defeated Charles of Blois, who was made prisoner.

Charles was set free in May, 1360, when peace was concluded between France and England. The treaty, though it did not interfere with Brittany, brought about an arrangement some months later, by which the duchy was divided between the rival claimants.

But Charles broke faith, and renewed hostilities with the assistance of France. The struggle was at last decided in favour of the Count de Montfort, by the death of Charles and his son John, both of whom were slain in the battle of Arrai, gained by the English, September 20th, 1364, the same day of the month on which his rival died.

The French heroine of this war was Julia du Guesclin, sister of the great Constable. When the English invaded Brittany to support the Count de Montfort, Julia, who was living with her sisters in a convent, was obliged to take refuge in the fortress of Pontsorel, which was soon besieged by the English.The garrison was small and the besiegers were many, but Julia, with a courage worthy of her brother Bertrand, persuaded the French not to surrender. Clad in a coat of mail (one of her brother's) she stood on the ramparts and hurled back all who attempted to scale the walls. Animated by her courage, the French made so sturdy a defence that the English were compelled to retire, discomfited. Julia then commanded the garrison to throw open the gates and pursue the foe. The retreating army, confronted unexpectedly by a strong force commanded by the Constable himself, who was returning to Pontsorel, and surrounded on all sides, were nearly all slain, while their commander was made prisoner.

When the war was over, Julia returned to her convent, where she passed the rest of her days.

Another heroine of this war was Jane de Belleville. Her husband, Oliver, Lord of Clisson, was accused of holding secret intelligence with the English; and in 1343 Philip de Valois, without waiting till the evidence should be well substantiated, caused him to be decapitated. The widow, burning for revenge, sold her jewels, and with the proceeds equipped three vessels. After sending her son, a lad of twelve, to England, to ensure his safety, Jane cruised about the coast of Normandy, attacking every French shipwhich came in her way, and ravaging the country for a mile or so inland. This female corsair was frequently seen, with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other, amidst the smoking ruins of a castle, or the smouldering heaps of a destroyed village, directing with inhuman exultation the ferocious cruelties suggested by her thirst for vengeance.

While King Edward and Philip de Valois were devastating France in their contests for the crown, the Romagna was the scene of a fierce struggle between the Pope, the Visconti, and the various nobles and cities of Italy. After having lost a great part of his territories, Innocent II. reconquered the States of the Church by means of the Cardinal Legate Egidius Albornez. But the Papal governors were so tyrannical that the nobles of the Romagna, with few exceptions, fought desperately to maintain their independence. Francesco d'Ordelaffi, lord of Forli, was the last to give way. He was ably seconded in his brave resistance by Marzia, his wife, a member of the house of Ubaldini. While he was defending Forli he entrusted the town of Cesena to his wife; and in the beginning of 1357 the husband and wife separated. Marzia took up her station in Cesena, with a garrison of two hundred knights and an equal number of common soldiers. She wasaccompanied by her son and daughter, and by Sgariglino de Petragudula, the wise counsellor of the Ordelaffi family.

The town was soon invested by a force ten times as numerous as the garrison. At the end of April some terrified burgesses opened the gates of the lower town. But Marzia, recollecting the words of her husband, who declared that unless the Pope offered him honourable terms he would sustain a siege in every one of his castles, that when they were all taken he would defend Forli, the walls, the streets, his own palace, even to the last tower of his palace, before surrendering his rights, retreated to the upper town with those soldiers and townspeople who remained faithful. Sgariglino having proved to be a traitor, she caused him to be executed; his reeking head was flung from the battlements amongst the besiegers.

Marzia took upon herself all the duties of governor and military commander. She wore her helmet and cuirass day and night, and scarcely closed her eyes at all. At last she was compelled to retire into the citadel with four hundred soldiers and citizens who swore to stand by her to the death. But the citadel, undermined by the Papal engineers, almost hung in the air. Marzia's father, permitted by the legate, entered Cesena and besought her to surrender. Her answer was firm and simple. Her husband gaveher a duty to perform, and she must obey implicitly.

At last the people began to murmur. Marzia was compelled to surrender. She conducted the negotiations herself; and so skilfully did she manage, that the Legate, afraid of driving her to despair, consented that her soldiers should return home unmolested, with their arms and accoutrements. On the 21st of June she opened the gate of the citadel.

She had disdained to make terms for herself, so the legate cast Marzia and her children into prison.

It is curious to note that there are now no remains of Cesena to commemorate the heroic valour of Marzia.

The illustrious northern heroine, Margaret, whose military achievements gained for her the title of "Semiramis of the North," was daughter of Waldemar, King of Denmark, and was born at Copenhagen in 1353. On the death of her father, Margaret, through her exceeding popularity with the people, succeeded in placing Olaus, her son, on the throne. Haquin, King of Norway, Margaret's husband, died in 1380, and Olaus in 1387. The election of a female sovereign was not yet authorised by custom; but Margaret's superior talents, her beauty, and her profuse liberality prevailed, and she was chosenQueen of Denmark, and, soon after, she was elected Queen of Norway.

By taking advantage of the internal dissensions in the kingdom of Sweden, Margaret gained over a faction of the nobility, who offered her the crown. She marched into Sweden with a large army, and after a war of seven years defeated and captured King Albert at Falkœping. She kept him a prisoner seven years longer, at the expiration of which he resigned all claim to the Swedish crown.

To effect a permanent union of the three Scandinavian crowns, Queen Margaret concluded the famous Union of Calmar, 1397. She restored tranquillity at home, and was successful against all her enemies abroad; but her latter years were disturbed by the ingratitude of Eric, whom she had chosen as her successor. She died in 1412.

According to Border tradition, a Scottish maiden named Lilliard fought at the battle of Otterburn ("Chevy Chase") on the 19th of August, 1388, and displayed the same style of valour attributed to the gallant Witherington, who fell in the same battle. It is said that the following inscription was, till within a few years ago, to be seen on her tombstone:—

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