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remarkable only for the correctness and propriety of the language. She also wrote her own language with ease, and her works show a cultivation of mind uncommon in those days.

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EANFLED,

DAUGHTER of Edwin, king of Northumbria and Ethelburga, was the first individual who received the sacrament of baptism in that kingdom. She afterwards married Osmy, king of Mercia.

EBBA,

ABBESS of the monastery of Coldingham in Ireland, is celebrated for her resolution and courage. The Danes having ravaged the country with fire and sword, were approaching Coldingham, when Ebba persuaded her nuns to disfigure themselves by cutting off their noses and upper lips, that they might be preserved from the brutality of the soldiery. Her example was followed by all the sisterhood. The barbarians, enraged at finding them in this state, set fire to the monastery, and consumed the inmates in the flames.

EDESIA

Or Alexandria, wife of the philosopher Hermias. She lived in the beginning of the fifth century. Though at an early period of her life a convert to Christianity, she escaped persecution on account of her faith, in consequence of the high respect she commanded for her virtuous and exemplary life. After the death of her husband, she removed to Athens to her relations.

The Fathers of the church mention her in their writings as having been instrumental, by her exemplary conduct, in doing away many prejudices entertained against the followers of Christ, and in causing numbers to join the church.

EDITHA,

DAUGHTER of Earl Godwin, and wife of Edward the Confessor, was an amiable and very learned lady. Ingulphus, the Saxon historian, affirms that the queen frequently interrupted him and his school-fellows in her walks, and questioned them, with much closeness, on their progress in Latin. Ingulphus was then a scholar at Westminster monastery, near Edith's palace. She was also skilful in needle-work, and kind to the poor. Her character is very interesting, and her hearttrials must have been severe.

ELEANOR

OF Aquitaine, succeeded her father, William X., in 1137, at the age of fifteen, in the fine duchy which at that time comprised Gascony, Saintonge, and the Comte de Poitou. She married the same year Louis VII., king of France, and went with him to the Holy Land. She soon gave him cause for jealousy, from her intimacy with her uncle, Raymond count of Poitiers, and with Saladin;

and after many bitter quarrels, they were divorced under pretence of consanguinity, in 1152.

Six weeks afterwards, Eleanor married Henry II., duke of Normandy, afterwards king of England, to whom she brought in dowry Poitou and Guienne. Thence arose those wars that ravaged France for three hundred years, in which more than three millions of Frenchmen lost their lives. Eleanor had four sons and a daughter by her second husband. In 1162, she gave Guienne to her second son, Richard Coeur de Lion, who did homage for it to the king of France. She died in 1204. She was very jealous of her second husband, and showed the greatest animosity to all whom she regarded as rivals. She is accused of having compelled one of his mistresses, Rosamond Clifford, generally called the Fair Rosamond, to drink poison; but the story has been shown to be untrue by later researches. She incited her sons to rebel against their father, and was in consequence thrown into prison, where she was kept for sixteen years. She was in her youth remarkably beautiful; and, in the later years of her varied life, showed evidences of a naturally noble disposition. As soon as she was liberated from her prison, which was done by order of her son Richard on his accession to the throne, he placed her at the head of the government. No doubt she bitterly felt the utter neglect she had suffered during her imprisonment; yet she did not, when she had obtained power, use it to punish her enemies, but rather devoted herself to deeds of mercy and piety, going from city to city, setting free all persons confined for violating the game-laws, which, in the latter part of king Henry's life, were cruelly enforced; and when she released these prisoners, it was on condition that they prayed for the soul of her late husband. Miss Strickland thus closes her interesting biography of this beautiful but unfortunate queen of England:-"Eleanor of Aquitaine is among the very few women who have atoned for an ill-spent youth by a wise and benevolent old age. As a sovereign she ranks among the greatest of female rulers."

ELEANOR

OF England, surnamed the Saint, was the daughter of Berenger, the fifth count of Provence. In the year 1236, she became the wife of king Henry III. of England, and afterward the mother of Edward I. After the death of her husband she entered the nunnery at Ambresbury, and lived there in the odour of sanctity. Her prayers were reputed to have the power of producing miracles.

ELGIVA,

A BEAUTIFUL English princess, who married Edwy, king of England, soon after he ascended the throne, in 955. She was within the degree of kindred prohibited by the canon law; and the savage Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, excited a disaffection against the king in consequence. This party seized the queen, and by the order of archbishop Odo, branded her in the face with a red-hot iron, hoping to destroy her beauty, and carried her into Ireland to remain there in

exile; while Edwy consented to a divorce. Elgiva, having completely recovered from her wounds, was hastening to the arms of her husband, when she fell into the hands of her enemies, and was barbarously murdered.

ELISABETH,

WIFE of Zacharias, and the mother of John the Baptist. St. Luke says that she was of the daughters of Aaron, of the race of priests. Her ready faith, and rejoicing acknowledgment of the "Lord," show the warm soul of a pious woman. "Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost;" that is, inspired to understand that her young cousin, Mary the virgin, would become the mother of the Messiah. Thus was the Saviour foretold, welcomed and adored by a woman, before he had taken the form of humanity. This tender sensibility to divine truth, when mysteriously manifested, has never been thus fully understood, and fondly cherished, by any man. Do not these examples show, conclusively, that the nature of woman is most in harmony with heavenly things? See St. Luke, chap. i.

ELISABETH

Or York, daughter of Edward IV. of England and Elisabeth Woodville, was born February 11th, 1466. When about ten years old, she was betrothed to Charles, eldest son of Louis XI. of France; but when the time for the marriage approached, the contract was broken by Louis XI. demanding the heiress of Burgundy in marriage for the dauphin. This so enraged her father, that the agitation is said to have caused his death. After the decease of Edward, Elisabeth shared her mother's trials, and her grief and resentment at the murder of her two young brothers by Richard III. She remained with her mother for some time in sanctuary, to escape the cruelty of the king, her uncle; and while there, was betrothed to Henry of Richmond. But in March, 1483, they were obliged to surrender themselves; Elisabeth was separated from her mother, and forced to acknowledge herself the illegitimate child of Edward IV. On the death of Anne, the queen of Richard III., it was rumoured that he intended to marry his niece, Elisabeth, which caused so much excitement in the public mind, that Richard was obliged to disavow the report. Elisabeth herself showed such an aversion to her uncle, that she was confined in the castle of Sheriff Hatton, in Yorkshire. After the battle of Bosworth, August 22, 1485, in which Richard III. was slain, Henry of Richmond was declared king, under the title of Henry VII. of England; and on January 18, 1486, he was married to the princess Elisabeth,-thus uniting the houses of York and Lancaster. Elisabeth was the mother of several children; the eldest of whom, Arthur, prince of Wales, married, in 1501, Katharine of Arragon, afterwards the wife of his younger brother, Henry VIII., Arthur dying five months after his marriage. Elisabeth died, February 11, 1503, a few days after the birth of a daughter. She was a gentle, pious, and well-beloved princess, and deeply lamented by her husband, al

though his natural reserve led him often to be accused of coldness towards her. She was very beautiful.

ELPIS,

A LADY of one of the most considerable families of Messina, was the first wife of the celebrated Boethius, and was born in the latter part of the fifth century. Like her husband, she was devoted to science, and shared his literary labours with him. She united all the accomplishments of the head and the heart. Her two sons, Patritius and Hypatius, were raised to the consular dignity, which Boethius had also several times enjoyed. Elpis died before the misfortunes of her husband fell upon him.

EMMA,

WIFE of Lothaire, king of France, was the daughter of Otho, emperor of Germany, and of his wife Adelaide. In 984, Lothaire having taken Verdun, left his wife there to guard it, who, the next year, was attacked by a large army. She repulsed them at first, and gave her husband time to come to her aid. Lothaire died in 986. Some writers have accused Emma and the bishop Aldeberon of having poisoned him, that they might continue their guilty intercourse; but the charge has never been proved.

EMMA,

DAUGHTER of Richard II., duke of Normandy, married Ethelred, king of England, with whom she fled, on the invasion of the Danes. She afterwards married Canute; and when her son Edward, called the Confessor, ascended the throne, she reigned conjointly with him. Her enemy, the earl of Kent, opposed her; and when she appealed for assistance to her relation, the bishop of Winchester, she was accused of criminal intercourse with that prelate; a charge from which she extricated herself by walking barefoot and unhurt over nine red-hot ploughshares, after the manner of the times. She passed the night previous to her trial in prayer, before the tomb of St. Swithin; and the next day, she appeared plainly dressed, her feet and legs bare to the knee, and underwent the ordeal, in the presence of the king, her son, Edward the Confessor, the nobility, clergy, and people, in the cathedral church at Winchester. Her innocence proved so miraculous a preservation that, walking with her eyes raised to heaven, she did not even perceive the least reflection from the heated irons, (if the old chronicle be true,) but inquired, after having passed over them, when they designed to bring her to the test.

The king, struck with the miracle, fell on his knees before his mother, and implored her pardon; while, to expiate the injury done to her and her relation, the reverend prelate, he devoutly laid bare his shoulders before the bishop, whom he ordered to inflict on him the discipline of the scourge.

Emma, however, stripped by Edward of the immense treasures she had amassed, spent the last ten years of her life in misery, in a kind of prison or convent at Winchester, where she died in 1502.

ERMENGARDE, or HERMENGARDE.

THE life of this queen is but a relation of her misfortunes. She is not the only woman to whom misery has been a monument-to whom the tranquillity of private life would have been oblivionand to whom the gifts of fortune have brought sorrow and celebrity. The precise date of her birth is not known. She was the daughter of Desiderio or Didier, as he is generally named by English writers, king of the Lombards, and his queen Ansa. Desiderio was born at Brescia of noble race, and had succeeded to the throne of Lombardy by the testament of Astolfo, the last monarch of the dynasty of Alboinus. Desiderio was a renowned general, and also a zealous defender of the Christian church, which at that time was not so firmly established as to need no support from the temporal powers.

Charlemagne ascended the throne of France in 768; two years after, his mother Bertrade, making a journey into Italy, was struck by the flourishing state of Desiderio's kingdom, as well as by the beauty and attractive charms of his daughter Ermengarde. She then formed the plan of a double marriage with this family, allotting Ermengarde to Charlemagne, and her own Ciola to Adelchi son of Desiderio. This scheme was opposed by the existing Pope, Stephen III., who used many arguments to dissuade France from the connection. The influence of Bertrade, however, prevailed, and she had the satisfaction of taking home with her the young princess, for whom she cherished so warm an affection.

At first everything was done to bring pleasure and happiness to the young queen; the particular friendship subsisting between her and her motherin-law has been commemorated by Manzoni in beautiful and touching poetry. A terrible reverse, however, awaited her. Charlemagne, from causes impossible now to ascertain, repudiated her, and sent her ignominiously back to her family. His mother and his nearest kinsmen remonstrated, and entreated him to revoke this cruel mandate, but in vain. After a year of deceptive happiness, Hermengarde returned to the court of Lombardy.

Her father and brother received her with the utmost tenderness. Unfortunately their just indignation at the unmerited disgrace of the young princess, induced them to attempt a fruitless vengeance against one too decidedly superior in power for any petty sovereign to cope with. A plan was set on foot to bring forward another claimant to the throne of France, to the succession of which, in modern days of direct inheritance, Charlemagne would not be considered wholly eligible. For this purpose armies were raised and secret alliances courted.

In the mean time Ermengarde received intelligence that her faithless husband had just united himself to the young and lovely Ildegarde. This was to her a death-blow. She retired to a monastery founded by her parents, and of which her sister Anoperge was abbess. Here her existence was soon terminated. She died in 773. The chroniclers of that day recount that Adelard, a cousin of Charlemagne, was so disgusted with the unlawful marriage of his sovereign that he became a monk, by way of expiation, and carried to such a degree his devotion and austere piety that he obtained the honours of canonization. Desiderio, and his son Adelchi, after much ineffectual valour, were obliged to succumb to the genius and armies of Charlemagne, who, taking possession of their states, obliged them to retire into a monastery for the rest of their lives.

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EPONINA,

WIFE of Julius Sabinus, a Roman general native of Langres, has been called the heroine of conjugal affection. During the struggles of Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian, for the sovereignty of Rome, Sabinus, who pretended to trace his lineage to Julius Cæsar by casting an imputation on the chastity of his grandmother, put in his claim to the throne. Being defeated, and an immense reward offered for his head, he assembled his few faithful friends, and acknowledging his gratitude towards them, he expressed his resolution of not surviving his misfortunes, but of setting his house on fire and perishing in the flames. They remonstrated in vain, and at length were obliged to leave him, in order to preserve their own lives. To a freedman of the name of Martial, he alone imparted his real intention, which was to conceal himself in a subterranean cavern, which had communication with his house. The superb mansion of Sabinus was then set on fire, and the report of his death, with the attendant circumstances, was sent immediately to Vespasian, and soon reached Eponina's ears. Frantic with grief, she resolved to put an end to her life also. For three days she refused every kind of nourishment, when Martial, hearing of her violent sorrow, contrived to disclose to her the truth, but advised her to continue the semblance of grief lest suspicions should arise; but at night he conducted her to the cavern, which she left before daybreak.

Frequent were the excuses which Eponina made to her friends for her absences from Rome; and after a time, she not only visited her husband in the evening, but passed whole days with him in

the cavern. At length her apprehensions were excited by her situation; but by rubbing a poisonous ointment upon herself, she produced a swelling in her legs and arms, so that her complaint was thought to be a dropsy; she then retired to the cave, and without any medical assistance, she gave birth to a boy. For nearly nine years she continued to visit her husband in his solitude, and during that period twice became a mother. At length her frequent absences were noticed, she was watched, and her secret discovered.

Loaded with chains, Sabinus was brought before Vespasian, and condemned to die. Eponina threw herself at the feet of the emperor, and implored him to spare her husband; and, at the same time, she presented her two children to him, who joined in the solicitation, with tears and entreaties. Vespasian, however, remained inflexible, and Eponina, rising with an air of dignity, said, "Be assured that I know how to contemn life; with Sabinus I have existed nine years in the bowels of the earth, and with him I am resolved to die." She perished with her husband about seventyeight years after the Christian era.

ESTHER,

A JEWESS, mistress to Casimir III., king of Poland in the fourteenth century, from whom she obtained great privileges for her nation.

ETHELBURGA,

DAUGHTER of Ethelbert, king of Kent, married Edwin, king of Northumbria. He was a very brave and warlike prince, but a pagan when she married him. However, she won him to the Christian faith, as her mother Bertha had won her father Ethelbert. Thus was Christianity planted in England by the faith and influence of woman.

ETHELDREDA, ST.,

WAS a daughter of Auna, king of the East Angles, and Hereswitha his queen, and was born about 630, at Ixming, a small village in Suffolk. In 673, she founded the church and convent of Ely. Of this monastery she was constituted abbess. The convent, with its inhabitants, was destroyed by the Danes in 870.

ETHELFLEDA, or ELFLEDA, ELDEST daughter of Alfred the Great, and sister of Edward I., king of the West-Saxons, was wife to Etheldred, earl of Mercia. After the birth of her first child, having suffered severely in childbirth, she made a vow of chastity, and devoted herself to arms. She retained a cordial friendship for her husband, with whom she united in acts of munificence and valour. They assisted Alfred in his wars against the Danes, whom they prevented the Welsh from succouring. Not less pious than valiant, they restored cities, founded abbeys, and protected the bones of departed saints.

After the death of her husband, in 912, Ethelfleda assumed the government of Mercia; and, | emulating her father and brother, commanded armies, fortified towns, and prevented the Danes

from re-settling in Mercia. Then carrying her victorious arms into Wales, she compelled the Welsh, after several victories, to become her tributaries. In 918, she took Derby from the Danes; and in 920, Leicester, York, &c. Having become famed for her spirit and courage, the titles of lady and queen were judged inadequate to her merit; to these she received, in addition, those of lord and king.

Her courage and activity were employed in the service of her country till her death, in 922, at Tamworth, in Staffordshire, where she was carrying on a war with the Danes. She left one daughter, Elswina.

Ethelfleda was deeply regretted by the whole kingdom, especially by her brother Edward, to whom she proved equally serviceable in the cabinet and the field. Ingulphus, the historian, speaks of the courage and masculine virtues of this prin

cess.

EUDOCIA,

WHOSE name was originally Athenais, was the daughter of Leontius, an Athenian sophist and philosopher. She was born about 393, and very carefully educated by her father. Her progress in every branch of learning was uncommon and rapid. Her father, proud of her great beauty and attainments, persuaded himself that the merit of Athenais would be a sufficient dowry. With this conviction, he divided, on his death-bed, his estate between his two sons, bequeathing his daughter only one hundred pieces of gold.

Less sanguine in the power of her charms, Athenais appealed at first to the equity and affection of her brothers; finding this in vain, she took refuge with an aunt of hers, and commenced a legal process against her brothers. In the progress of the suit, Athenais was carried, by her aunts, to Constantinople. Theodosius II. at this time divided with his sister Pulcheria the care of the empire; and to Pulcheria the aunts of Athenais appealed for justice. The beauty and intellect of the young Greek interested Pulcheria, who contrived that her brother should see her and hear her converse, without being himself seen. Her slender and graceful figure, the regularity of her features, her fair complexion, golden hair, large blue eyes, and musical voice, completely enraptured the young king. He had her instructed in the principles of the Greek church, which she embraced, and was baptized, in 421, by the name of Eudocia. She was then married to the emperor amid the acclamations of the capital, and after the birth of a daughter, received the surname of Augusta.

Amidst the luxuries of a court, the empress continued to preserve her studious habits. She composed a poetical paraphrase of the first eight books of the New Testament; also of the prophecies of Daniel and Zachariah; to these she added a canto of the verses of Homer, applied to the life and miracles of Christ; the legend of St. Cyprian; and a panegyric on the Persian victories of Theodosius.

"Her writings," says Gibbon, "which were ap

plauded by a servile and superstitious age, have not been disdained by the candour of impartial criticism."

After the birth of her daughter, Eudocia requested permission to discharge her grateful vows, by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In her progress through the East, she pronounced, from a throne of gold and gems, an eloquent oration to the Senate of Antioch, to whom she declared her intention of enlarging the walls of the city, and assisting in the restoration of the public baths. For this purpose she allotted two hundred pounds of gold. Her alms and munificence in the Holy Land exceeded that of the great Helena. She returned to Constantinople, covered with honours and laden with pious relics.

Ambition now awoke in the heart of Eudocia; aspiring to the government of the empire, she contended for power with the princess, her benefactress, whom she sought to supplant in the confidence of the emperor. But, in 445, an unlucky accident exposed her to the emperor's jealousy. He had given her an apple of extraordinary size, which she sent to Paulinus, whom she esteemed on account of his learning. Paulinus, not knowing whence it came, presented it to the emperor, who soon after asked the empress what she had done with it. She, fearing his anger, told him she had eaten it. This made the emperor suspect that there was too great an intimacy between her and Paulinus, and, producing the apple, he convicted her of falsehood.

The influence of Pulcheria triumphed over that of the empress, who found herself unable to protect her most faithful adherents: she witnessed the disgrace of Cyrus, the prætorian prefect, which was followed by the execution of Paulinus, whose great personal beauty and intimacy with the empress, had excited the jealousy of Theodosius.

Perceiving that her husband's affections were irretrievably alienated, Eudocia requested permission to retire to Jerusalem, and consecrate the rest of her life to solitude and religion; but the vengeance of Pulcheria, or the jealousy of Theodosius, pursued her even in her retreat. Stripped of the honours due to her rank, the empress was disgraced in the eyes of the surrounding nations. This treatment irritated and exasperated her, and led her to commit acts unworthy her profession as a Christian or a philosopher. But the death of the emperor, the misfortunes of her daughter, and the approach of age, gradually calmed her passions, and she passed the latter part of her life in building churches, and relieving the poor.

Some writers assert that she was reconciled to Theodosius, and returned to Constantinople during his life; others, that she was not recalled till after his death. However this may be, she died at Jerusalem, about 460, at the age of sixty-six, solemnly protesting her innocence with her dying breath. In her last moments, she displayed great composure and piety.

During her power, magnanimously forgetting the barbarity of her brothers, she promoted them to the rank of consuls and prefects: observing

their confusion on being summoned to the imperial presence, she said, "Had you not compelled me to visit Constantinople, I should never have had it in my power to bestow on you these marks of sisterly affection."

EUDOCIA, or EUDOXIA,

SURNAMED Macrembolitissa, widow of Constantine Ducas, caused herself to be proclaimed empress with her three sons, on the death of her husband, in 1067. Romanus Diogenes, one of the greatest generals of the empire, attempted to deprive her of the crown; and Eudoxia had him condemned to death, but happening to see him, she was so charmed by his beauty, that she pardoned him, and made him commander of the troops of the East. He there effaced by his valour his former delinquency, and she resolved to marry him. But it was necessary to obtain a deed, then in the hands of the Patriarch Xiphilinus, by which she had promised Constantine Ducas never to marry again. She did this by pretending that she wished to espouse a brother of the Patriarch, and gave her hand to Romanus in 1068. Three years after, her son Michael caused himself to be proclaimed emperor, and shut her up in a convent.

She had displayed the qualities of a great sovereign on the throne; in a convent, she manifested the devotion of a recluse. She cultivated literature successfully. There was a manuscript in her writing in the French king's library, on the genealogies of the gods, and of the heroes and heroines of antiquity, showing a vast extent of reading.

EUPHEMIA,

FLAVIA ELIA MARCIA, was married to the emperor Justin I. in 518. She was originally a slave, of what country is not known; but she was mistress to Justin before he married her. She died before the emperor, about the year 523, without children. She owed her elevation to her fidelity, and the sweetness of her disposition.

EUSEBIA,

AURELIA, the wife of Constantius, emperor of the East, was a woman of genius and erudition, but strongly addicted to the Arian heresy; in support of which she exerted her influence over her husband, which was considerable. Few of the empresses had been so beautiful or so chaste. She prevailed on Constantius to give his sister Helena to Julian, and to name him Cæsar. Many virtues are allowed her by historians; among others, those of compassion and humanity. She left no children, and died in 360, much regretted by her husband.

EUSEBIA,

ABBESS of St. Cyr, or St. Saviour, at Marseilles, is said by French writers to have cut off her nose, like the abbess of Coldingham in England, to secure herself from ravishers, and her nuns are said to have followed her example. This took place in 731, when the Saracens invaded Provence. The catastrophe of the tale in both countries is, that the ladies were murdered by the disappointed sa

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