University of Virginia Library

III.12. CHAPTER XII

THE DEATH OF QUEEN BLANCHE — STORIES OF THE QUEEN AND THE QUEEN MOTHER — THE KING PREPARES TO RETURN HOME.

AT Sajetta the King got the news that his mother was dead. He made such mourning over it, that for two days one could not get a word with him. At the end of that time, he sent a groom of his chamber to fetch me. When I came before him in his chamber where he was quite alone, as soon as he saw me, he stretched out his arms, and said to me: " Oh! Seneschal! I have lost my mother! " " Sir," said I, " I am not surprised at that; for she was bound to die; but I am surprised that a wise man like you, should make such great mourning. For you know, the sage says: that whatever trouble a man may have at heart, it should not show in his face; for thereby he rejoices his foes and grieves his friends."

Many fine masses he had performed for her

over-seas; and afterwards he sent into France a pack-horse laden with letters to the churches, begging them to pray for her.

Lady Mary of Vertus, a very good lady, and a very holy woman, came and told me that the Queen was making great mourning, and begged that I would go to her and comfort her. When I got there, I found her in tears; and I said to her, that he spoke truly, who said, that one should never trust a woman. " For she was the woman you hated above all others, and now you are making this mourning for her." And she said to me, that it was not for her that she was weeping, but for the King's distress at losing her, and for her daughter, (afterwards Queen of Navarre) who was left in the keeping of men.

The harshness that Queen Blanche showed to Queen Margaret was such, that Queen Blanche would never, if she could help it, suffer her son to be in his wife's company, unless at night, when he went to bed with her. The apartments which she liked best to occupy were at Pontoise, between the King and the Queen, for the King's rooms were above hers, and the Queen's below. But

they had so arranged it that they could talk together on a spiral staircase which led down from one floor to the other; and had so laid their plans, that when the door-keepers saw the Queen coming to the apartments of her son, the King, they would rap on the doors with their rods; and the King would come running into his rooms, so that his mother might not catch him; and the ushers of Queen Margaret's apartments did the same when Queen Blanche was on her way thither, so that she might find Queen Margaret in them.

Once the King was beside the Queen his wife, and she was in passing great danger of death, for she was injured by a child that she had had. Thither came Queen Blanche, and took her son by the hand, and said to him: " Come away, you have no business here!" When Margaret saw his mother leading the King away she cried out: "Alas! neither dead nor alive will you let me see my lord!" There-upon she fainted, and they thought that she was dead; and the King, who thought that she was dying, came back; and with great difficulty they brought her round.

Now that the city of Sajetta was all but completely

fortified, the King caused several processions to be made in the army; and at the close of the processions, he made the Legate offer prayers that God would order the King's affairs according to His will; so that the King might do whichever was most pleasing to God, either by returning to France, or by remaining there.

After the processions were over, the King called me, where I was sitting among the rich men of the country, away into a meadow, and made me turn my back on them. Then the Legate said to me: "Seneschal, the King is much pleased with your services; and would gladly advance your interests and your credit; and to set your heart, he says, at ease, he bids me tell you that he has made his plans to go to France this coming Easter." And I replied: " God grant that he may accomplish his purpose! " Then the Legate bade me escort him to his lodging; and then he shut himself up in his closet he and I alone together and took both my hands between his, and began to weep very bitterly; and when he could speak, he said to me: " Seneschal, I am very glad, and truly give thanks to God, that the King and all you other pilgrims are escaping

from the great peril in which you have been in this country. But I am grieved at heart, that I must leave your holy companionship, and go to the Court of Rome, among those ungodly people there; but I will tell you what I think of doing: I mean to stay on for another year after you, and I intend to spend all my money in fortifying the town of Acre; so that I may show them plainly that I am bringing away no money, and then they will not fawn upon me."

I once related to the Legate two sins of which a priest of mine had told me; and he made me the following reply: ' No one knows, so well as I, how many heathenish sins are committed in Acre. Whence it must needs be that God will take vengeance for them, in such wise that the city of Acre shall be washed with the blood of its inhabitants, and that another race shall come after that shall inhabit it." The excellent man's prophecy is in part come true; for the city has truly been washed with the blood of its inhabitants; but as yet those have not come that are to inhabit it; and may God send them fitted to His will.

After these events, the King sent me word, that

I must go and arm myself and my knights. I asked him: What for? and he replied: In order to escort the Queen and his children to Tyr, a distance of seven leagues. I never disputed the order, and yet the consign was very dangerous, inasmuch as we had at that time no truce nor peace, neither with the men of Egypt nor with those of Damascus. By God's grace, we reached Tyr in peace, without any obstacle, at nightfall; though we were obliged to alight twice in the enemy's country, to light a fire and cook food, in order to feed and suckle the children.

When the King left the city of Sajetta which he had secured with high walls and great towers, and with great moats puddled inside and out the Patriarch and the barons of the country came to him and addressed him as follows: " Sir, you have fortified the cities of Sajetta and of Cesarea, and the town of Jaffa, very greatly to the benefit of the Holy Land; moreover you have greatly strengthened the city of Acre by the walls and the towers that you have built there. Sir, we have considered among ourselves, and perceive that your longer stay can be of no benefit to the kingdom of Jerusalem;

wherefore we approve and advise that you go to Acre, this coming Lent, and make ready for your voyage, so that you may cross over to France after this Easter next."

Following the advice of the Patriarch and the barons, the King left Sajetta, and came to Tyr, where the Queen was; and thence we came on to Acre, at the beginning of Lent.

NOTES TO CHAPTER XII

Queen Margaret had some reason for jealousy if the King said, as is reported, on hearing of his mother's death, " I have lost the person whom I loved best of all the world." G. de Nangis and the King's confessor, unlike Joinville, regard the King's behaviour on the occasion as much tending to edification, and report the scene at full length.

The Legate had the first news of Queen Blanche's death, and took with him the Archbishop of Tyr (the Chancellor) and the King's confessor (Geoffrey of Beaulieu) to tell the King. The King, seeing from their faces that something serious had occurred, led the way into the chapel (which opened out of his bedroom) and sat down on the altar steps while the Legate broke the news to him. He spent the rest of the day in his oratory alone with

the confessor; and ever after, the mass for the dead was daily celebrated before him.

Queen Blanche died on December Ist, 1252, and was buried at Maubuisson (near Pontoise), where she had founded a nunnery of Cistercians. She had assumed their habit about a week before.

G. de Nangis says, that the King, on his departure, left a considerable number of knights behind, at his own expense, to assist the Legate, and also the "Paladin" Geoffrey of Sergines, as Captain of Acre.