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vages. These tales may not be wholly true, yet | that they were considered probable, shows the awful condition of society in those dark ages.

EUSTACHIUM,

DAUGHTER of Paula, a Roman lady of ancient family, was learned in Greek and Hebrew, as well as in the Latin language, so that she could read Hebrew psalms fluently, and comment ably upon them. She was many years a disciple of St. Jerome, and followed him in his journeys to different places. He speaks of her in high terms in his epistles, and in the life of St. Paula. She lived in a monastery at Bethlehem, till she was forced from it by a kind of persecution said to have been excited by the Pelagians. She died about 419.

She was as gentle as magnanimous, and fell a victim to the unremitting tenderness with which she watched over a young vestal, Junia, who had been entrusted to her care, when ill, by the high priest.

FATIMEH,

THE only daughter of Mahomet, and mother of all Mahommedan dynasties, was born at Mecca. In the year 623, she married her cousin Ali, who afterwards became Caliph. Turkish writers assert that the archangels Michael and Gabriel acted as guardians to the bride, and that 70,000 angels joined the procession. One of her descendants founded the dynasty known by the name of the Fathemir Caliphs who reigned in Africa and Syria. Fatimeh died a few months after her father.

F.

FALCONBERG,

MARY, Countess of, the third daughter of Oliver Cromwell, was a lady of great beauty, and greater spirit; she was the second wife of Thomas, lord viscount Falconberg. Bishop Burnet, who calls her a wise and worthy woman, says, that "she was more likely to have maintained the post of protector than either of her brothers." There was a common saying about her, "that those who wore breeches deserved petticoats better; but if those in petticoats had been in breeches, they would have held faster." After her brother, Richard Cromwell, was deposed, who, as she well knew, was never formed to reign, she exerted herself in behalf of Charles II., and is said to have had a great and successful hand in his restoration. It is certain that her husband was sent to the Tower by the commission of safety a little while before that event took place, and that he stood very high in the king's favour. She died March 14th, 1712, much respected for her munificence and charity.

FALCONIA,

PROBA, a Roman poetess, flourished in the reign of Theodosius; she was a native of Horta, or Hortanum, in Etruria. There is still extant by her, a cento from Virgil, giving the sacred history from the creation to the deluge; and "The History of Christ," in verses selected from that poet, introduced by a few lines of her own. She has sometimes been confounded with Anicia Faltonia Proba, the mother of three consuls, and with Valeria Proba, wife of Adelsius, the proconsul. She lived about 438.

FANNIA,

DAUGHTER of Pætus Thrasea, and grand-daughter of Arria, was the wife of Helvidius, who was twice banished by Domitian, emperor of Rome, in 81, and who was accompanied each time into exile by his devoted wife. Fannia being accused of having furnished Senecio with materials for writing the life of Helvidius, boldly avowed the fact, but used the greatest precaution to prevent her mother from being involved in the transaction.

FAUSTINA,

ANNIA GALERIA, called the elder Faustina, was the daughter of Annius Verus, prefect of Rome, and wife of the emperor Titus Antoninus Pius. Her beauty and wit were of the highest order, but her conduct has been represented as dissolute in the extreme. Still the emperor built temples and struck coins to her honour; yet it is reported even when he discovered her debaucheries he favoured without resenting them. Such a course of conduct in a man represented as the wisest of sovereigns, and a model of private and domestic virtues, is hardly credible. That he loved her with constancy and confidence during her life, and raised temples to her virtues, and altars to her divinity after her death, are matters of history. There is a beautiful medal of his reign still extant, representing Antoninus Pius on one side, and on the reverse Faustina ascending to heaven, with a lighted torch, under the figure of Diana. Surely Antoninus must himself have had faith in the virtues of his wife. But she was beautiful and witty: such women will be envied and slandered, as well as loved and praised. She died in 141, at the age of about thirty-seven.

FAUSTINA, ANNIA,

DAUGHTER of the former, and wife of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, surpassed her mother in

the dissoluteness of her manners.

Without being as regularly handsome, she was attractive, lively, and witty; daughter of a prince, who, though he deeply regretted crimes, was very unwilling to punish them, and wife to a philosopher who held it a duty to pardon all offences, she met with no restraints to her inclinations: yet even she had her temples and her priests. Marcus, in his Meditations, thanks the gods for a wife so tractable, so loving, and so unaffected. She attended him into Asia, where he went to suppress the revolt of Cassius, and there died, near mount Laurus, in 175. There was a third Faustina, grand-daughter of this one, who was the third wife of Heliogabalus, but was soon neglected by him. She was very unlike her female ancestors, except in beauty.

FAUSTINA,

FLAVIA MAXIMIANA, was the second wife of Constantine the Great. She was the daughter of Maximian Hercules, and sister to Maxentius. Her father having received the title of Augustus in 306, took her into Gaul, where he gave her in marriage to the emperor Constantine. She was

for a long time a most exemplary wife and mother, and a strenuous advocate with the emperor for all acts of indulgence and liberality to the people. She even sacrificed her father's life to her husband, by discovering to Constantine a plot for his destruction. She has been accused of staining the last years of her life by the commission of many crimes; among others, that of causing the death of Crispus, the son of Constantine by a former wife, by false accusations; and, it is said, that the emperor revenged his honour, and his son's death, by causing her to be suffocated in a warm bath, in 327. The truth of these latter circumstances has been much doubted.

FELICITAS,

AN illustrious Roman lady, who lived in 162, during the persecution carried on against the Christians by the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a devout Christian. She had also brought up her seven sons in the same faith. They were seized, and Felicitas was threatened with her own death and that of all her family, if she did not give up her religion; but she was inflexible, and the sons also remaining steadfast, they all suffered cruel deaths, the mother being executed last.

FIDELIS, CASSANDRA,

A VENETIAN lady, died in 1558, aged 100. Descended from ancestors who had changed their residence from Milan to Venice, and had uniformly added to the respectability of their rank by their uncommon learning, she began at an early age to prosecute her studies with great diligence, and acquired such a knowledge of the learned languages, that she may with justice be enumerated among the first scholars of the age. The letters which occasionally passed between Cassandra and Politian, demonstrate their mutual esteem, if indeed such an expression be sufficient to characterize the feelings of Politian, who expresses, in

language unusually florid, his high admiration of her extraordinary acquirements, and his expectation of the benefits which the cause of letters would derive from her labours and example. In the year 1491, the Florentine scholar made a visit to Venice, when the favourable opinion he had formed of her writings was confirmed by a personal interview.

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Yesterday," says he, writing to his great patron, Lorenzo de Medicis, "I paid a visit to the celebrated Cassandra, to whom I presented your respects. She is, indeed, Lorenzo, a surprising woman, as well from her acquirements in her own language, as in the Latin; and, in my opinion, she may be called handsome. I left her, astonished at her talents. She is much devoted to your interests, and speaks of you with great esteem. She even avows her intention of visiting you at Florence, so that you may prepare yourself to give her a proper reception."

From a letter written by this lady, many years afterwards, to Leo X., we learn that an epistolary correspondence had subsisted between her and Lorenzo de Medicis; and it is with concern we find, that the remembrance of this intercourse was revived, in order to induce the pontiff to bestow upon her some pecuniary assistance, she being then a widow, with a numerous train of dependants. She lived, however, to a more advanced period, and her literary acquirements, and the reputation of her early associates, threw a lustre upon her declining years; and, as her memory remained unimpaired to the last, she was resorted to from all parts of Italy as a living monument of those happier days, to which the Italians never reverted without regret. The letters and orations of this lady were published at Pavia, in 1636, with some account of her life. She wrote a volume of Latin poems also, on various subjects.

She is thus spoken of by M. Thomas, in his "Essay on Women." "One of the learned women in Italy, who wrote equally well in the three languages of Homer, Virgil, and Dante, in verse and in prose, who possessed all the philosophy of her own and the preceding ages, who, by her graces, embellished even theology; sustained theses with eclat, and many times gave public lessons at Padua; who joined to her various knowledge, agreeable talents, particularly music, and exalted her talents by her virtue. She received homage from sovereign pontiffs and kings; and, that everything relating to her might be singular, lived more than a century."

FLORE DE ROSE, WAS a French poetess of the 13th century. Very few of her writings are now extant.

FLORINE,

DAUGHTER of the duke of Burgundy, was betrothed to Suenon, king of Denmark, and accompanied this prince to the first crusade, in 1097. She was to have married him immediately after the conquest of Jerusalem. But they were both killed in a battle, with all their companions. Not one was left to bury the slain.

FREDEGONDE,

A WOMAN of low birth, but of great beauty, in the service of the queen Andowere, wife of Chilperic, king of Normandy, resolved to make herself a favourite of the king. To effect this, she induced Andowere, who had just given birth, in the absence of Chilperic, to her fourth child, a daughter, to have it baptized before its father's return, and to officiate herself as godmother. The queen did so, not aware that by placing herself in that relation to her child, she, by the laws of the Roman Catholic church, contracted a spiritual relationship with the child's father that was incompatible with marriage; and the bishop, probably bribed by Fredegonde, did not make the least objection. On Chilperic's return, Fredegonde apprised him of this inconsiderate act of his wife, and the king, struck by her beauty, willingly consented to place Andowere in a convent, giving her an estate near Mans, and took Fredegonde for a mistress.

which attacked the other two. In great terror, Fredegonde induced Chilperic to relieve the people from the heavy taxation to which he had subjected them, hoping to avert the wrath of God; but her two sons died, and Fredegonde became more ferocious than ever. Clovis, Andowere's youngest son, was still living; and the idea that it was for him, and not for her own children, that she had struggled, caused her transports of rage. She exposed him to the plague; but he recovered, and denounced Fredegonde with so much bitterness, that, alarmed, she had him assassinated, under pretext that he had caused the death of his brothers. She implicated Andowere in the same crime, and made her suffer a cruel death; and the only daughter of the unhappy queen was shut up in a convent.

In 584, another child of Fredegonde died, and Chilperic was assassinated on his return from hunting. This act was said to have been committed by orders of Fredegonde, because the king had discovered an intrigue she was carrying on Chilperic, not long after, married Galswintha, with Landerick, one of the most powerful nobleeldest sister of Brunehaut, queen of Austrasia, men in Normandy. She then took refuge in Paris, and Fredegonde was dismissed. But the gentle with an infant son, Clotaire, the only one of five Galswintha soon died, strangled, it is said, in her children that remained to her, and placed herself bed, by order of the king, who was instigated by under the protection of Gonthramn, king of BurFredegonde. Fredegonde then persuaded Chil-gundy, who sent her to Rueil, a royal domain near peric to marry her, and from that time her ascend- | Rouen, retaining her son under his protection. ency over him ceased only with his life.

Brunehaut urged her husband, Siegbert, who was the brother of Chilperic, to avenge her sister's murder, and a war ensued, closed by a treaty, by which Chilperic gave up five important cities, in order to preserve his kingdom. This treaty wounded the pride of Fredegonde, and at her instigation, Chilperic again took up arms, but was unsuccessful; and the Normans, alarmed by the threats of Siegbert, who was approaching Paris, offered to renounce their allegiance to Chilperic, and recognise him as their king. This announcement plunged Chilperic into a stupor, from which nothing could arouse him; but Fredegonde, whom danger only stimulated to greater activity, sent two emissaries, devoted to her service, to Siegbert's camp, armed with poisoned daggers, with orders to approach him, and while saluting him as king, to kill him. She promised them great wealth and honours, if they escaped, and if they died, to obtain their everlasting salvation. They succeeded in killing Siegbert, while, carried on a buckler, he was receiving the homage of the people as king of Normandy; but in the struggle that ensued, they were slain.

The murder of Siegbert, and the dispersion of his army, restored the kingdom to Chilperic and Fredegonde. No sooner was the queen firmly seated on her throne, than she resumed her plans which had been interrupted by these disturbances. These were to accomplish the destruction of the two remaining sons of Andowere and Chilperic, Merovæus and Clovis; and she had Merovæus, who had married Brunehaut, assassinated. But these projects were interrupted for a short time by a plague, which ravaged France in 580, of which one of the three sons of Chilperic died, and

Furious at this exile, and the loss of her power, which she attributed to Brunehaut, she sent an emissary to Austrasia to assassinate her; but his design was discovered, and Brunehaut sent him back with contempt. Fredegonde was so exasperated at his failure, that she had his hands and feet cut off. She also sent two men to assassinate Brunehaut's son, Childebert, who had succeeded his father, Siegbert, in the kingdom, and another one to murder Gonthramn; but both attempts were discovered and frustrated.

Gonthramn died in 595, and Fredegonde, freed from a yoke which she had long worn with impatience, raised an army in the south of Normandy, and invaded the Soissonnais, assisted by Landerick. She put to flight the young Theobert, son of Childebert, whom his father had made king of Soissons, and the ancient capital of the kingdom of Chilperic was restored to his son. An army of Austrasians, Burgundians, and Franks, came to dispossess her; but the queen, hearing of their approach, raised an army, and at their head, with her son Clotaire in her arms, she rode all night, and arriving at daybreak at the enemy's camp, she awoke the Austrasians with her trumpets, and attacking them so suddenly, put them to flight. They rallied, however, and a bloody battle ensued, in which the Normans were victorious; but so many on both sides were slain, that the people compelled Brunehaut and Fredegonde to make peace.

Childebert died in 596, and Fredegonde, with her usual activity, seized the favourable moment to recover Paris from Brunehaut, left regent on her son's death. This caused another battle between the rival queens, in which Fredegonde was again victorious; but while she was preparing to

profit by her victory, she died suddenly in 597, leaving her son Clotaire, then only thirteen, under the care of Landerick, mayor of the palace. She was buried in the monastery of St. Vincent, since St. Germain-des-Pres. Half of the cruelties committed by this woman, whose ambition and intellect seem to have been equalled only by her crimes, have not been related. She tortured and murdered without the slightest remorse all who opposed her will. The only womanly affection she exhibited was her love for her children; but this, corrupted by her wicked heart, was the cause of many of her crimes.

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FRITIGILA,

QUEEN of the Marcomans, lived in 396. Being instructed in Christianity by the writings of Ambrose, she embraced it herself, and induced her husband and the whole nation to do the same. By her persuasion, they entered into a durable alliance with the Romans; so that, in the various irruptions of the barbarians on the empire, the Marcomans are never mentioned by historians, though only separated by the Danube.

G.

GABRIELLE DE BOURBON, DAUGHTER of Count de Montpensier, married, in 1485, Louis de la Tremouille, a man who filled with honour the highest offices of the state. He was killed at the battle of Pavia in 1525. Her son Charles, count of Talmond, was also killed at the battle of Marignan in 1515; and she died in 1516. Her virtues were very great; and some published treatises remain as proofs of her devoted piety. She passed her time chiefly in solitude; for she had formed a resolution to withdraw from the court, whenever her husband's duties, as an officer in the king's army, compelled him to be absent. Charitable, as well as magnificent in her tastes, no person in want ever left her unsatisfied. She employed an hour or two daily with her needle; the rest of her time was spent in reading, writing, in her devotional duties, or in instructing the young girls by whom she liked to surround herself. She also took great care of the education of her son, who amply repaid all her trouble. She died of grief at his loss. Her works are a "Contemplation of the Nativity and Passion of Jesus Christ;""The Instruction of Young Girls ;" and two other religious works.

GALERIA,

WIFE of Vitellius, emperor of Rome in 69, distinguished herself in a vicious age, by exemplary wisdom and modesty. After the tragical death of her husband, she passed her days in retirement.

GAMBARA,

VERONICA, an Italian lady, born at Brescia. She married the lord of Correggio, and after his death devoted herself to literature and the education of her two sons. She died in 1550, aged sixty

five. The best edition of her poems and her letters is that of Brescia, in 1759. She was born in 1485; her father, count Gian Francesco Gambara, was of one of the most distinguished Italian families. Very early she manifested a particular love for poetry, and her parents took pleasure in cultivating her literary taste. Her marriage with the lord Correggio was one of strong mutual attachment. Her husband, who was devoted to her, delighted in the homage everywhere paid to her talents and charms. In 1515, she accompanied him to Bologna, where a court was held by the pope, Leo X., to do honour to Francis I., of France. That gallant monarch was frequently heard to repeat that he had never known a lady so every way accomplished as Veronica. Her domestic happiness was of short duration; death snatched away Correggio from the enjoyment of all that this world could afford. The grief of Veronica was excessive. She had her whole house hung with black; and though very young at the time of her widowhood, never wore anything but black during the remainder of her life. On the door of her palace she caused to be inscribed the following lines from Virgil:

Ille meos primus qui me sibi junxit amores Abstulit: ille habeat secum, servet que sepulchro. All this has an air of ostentation which seldom accompanies real sensibility; but the subsequent conduct of the lady was entirely consistent with her first demonstrations. She turned a deaf ear to many suitors who sought her hand, and devoted herself to the education of her two sons, and the administration of their property. Her labours were crowned with remarkable success; the one becoming a distinguished general, highly valued by his sovereign; the other a cardinal, eminent for piety and learning. Her leisure, in the meantime, was employed in the study, not only of elegant literature, but of theology and philosophy. Her brother Uberto, being made governor of Bologna, in 1528, by Clement VII., she removed her residence to that city, where she frequently entertained at her house the eminent literati of the day; among whom may be mentioned Bembo,

Capello, Mauri, and Molza. She enjoyed the highest esteem among her contemporaries; and appears to have been as remarkable for her virtues as for her knowledge.

Her works consist of a collection of elegant letters, and many poems, some of which are on religious subjects.

GENEVIEVE, ST.,

THE patroness of the city of Paris, was born in 423, at Manterre, and died January 3, 501. Five years after her death, Clovis erected the church of St. Genevieve, where her relics were preserved with great care.

St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre, observing her disposition to sanctity, when she was quite young, advised her to take the vow of perpetual virginity, which she did. After the death of her parents, Genevieve went to Paris; and when the city was about to be deserted, in consequence of the approach of the Huns under Attila, she assured the inhabitants of entire safety if they would seek it by prayers. Attila went to Orleans and returned without touching Paris; and this event established Genevieve's reputation. In a time of famine, she went along the Seine, and returned with twelve large vessels loaded with grain, which she distributed gratuitously among the sufferers. This increased her authority, so that Merovæus and Chilperic, kings of France, paid her the highest respect. From her fifteenth to her fiftieth year, she ate nothing but barley-bread, excepting now and then a few beans; after her fiftieth year, she allowed herself milk and fish.

GENEVIEVE,

DUCHESS of Brabant, was born in the year 700. She was married to Siegfreid, and shortly after her marriage (732) her husband was called to the field by his sovereign, Charles Martel, whom he joined with his soldiers. He left his wife in the care of Golo, the captain in his castle. When Golo, who loved Genevieve, saw that she repulsed him, he wrote to the duke that Genevieve had been unfaithful, and would shortly become the mother of an illegitimate child. Siegfried, who put full confidence in Golo, ordered him to have the mother and child killed. But the servants to whose hands the wicked man confided that deed had compassion upon the poor innocent woman, and left her in the woods, where a doe supplied her with milk for the child. The animal accompanied her for five years, till one day, on the 6th of January, 757, pursued by Siegfried, she fled to the cave, where the husband found both his wife and child. An explanation took place, and she became again the cherished wife of his bosom.

GERBERGE,

WIFE of Louis IV., of France, was the daughter of Henry, who became king of Germany in 918. She married first Gislebert, duke of Lorraine, who was drowned in the Rhine. In 940, Gerberge married Louis IV. Five years after, her husband was taken prisoner by the Normans. Hugh the Great, duke of the Franks, wished to obtain pos

session of him; but the duke of Normandy consented to give him up only on condition that Louis' two sons should become hostages for their father. Hugh sent to demand them of Gerberge, but she refused, well knowing that the race of Charlemagne would be entirely destroyed, if the father and children were all prisoners. She only sent the youngest son with a bishop; so Louis not being set free, Gerberge sent to demand aid from her brother Otho, king of Germany. Louis was at length liberated by Otho's assistance, and he confided to Gerberge the defence of the town of Rheims, in which she shut herself up with her troops. In 954, Louis died, and Gerberge exerted herself effectually to have her eldest son, Lothaire, although hardly twelve, placed on his father's throne. She, together with her brother, Bruno, duke of Lorraine, were appointed regents. She marched, with her young son, at the head of an army, and besieged Poictiers; and, in 960, she retook the city and fortress of Dijon, which had been treacherously given up to Robert of Treves, and had the traitor beheaded in the presence of the whole army.

GISELLE,

SISTER of Charlemagne, emperor of France, sympathized with that great monarch and his eldest daughter, Rotrude, in the protection and encouragement they afforded to learned and scientific men. She induced the celebrated Alcuin to compose several works; Alcuin dedicated to Giselle and Rotrude his Commentary on St. John. Giselle died about the year 810. She was abbess of Chelles at her death.

GODIVA,

THE name of a beautiful lady, sister of Therald de Burgenhall, sheriff of Lincolnshire, and wife of Leofric, earl of Leicester, who was the eldest son of Algar, the great earl of Mercia. This lady, having an extraordinary affection for Coventry, solicited her husband to release the inhabitants of that city from a grievous tax laid on them. He consented, on condition that she would ride naked through the streets of Coventry in noon-day. This she did, first enjoining every one to keep within their houses, the doors and windows of which were to be closely shut. She then partially veiled herself with her flowing hair, mounted her palfrey, and made the circuit of the city. Leofric kept his promise, and the city of Coventry was relieved from the oppression. This adventure was painted in one of the windows of Trinity-church, in Coventry, with these lines,

"I, Luric, for the love of thee,
Do make Coventry toll-free."

GONZAGA,

BARBA VON, duchess of Wurtemburg, was the daughter of Louis III., duke of Mantua. She married the duke of Wurtemburg, Eberhard with the beard, in the year 1474. A devoted student herself, she became the patroness of learning and literary men in her husband's domain. Through her influence was the university of Zuliengen es

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