Page:The Queens of England.djvu/78

64 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. In 1 199, King Richard died, in consequence of an arrow which was shot at him by Bertrand de Gourdon, at the siege of the castle of Chaluz ; and his noble forgiveness of this man on his death-bed is not only well known, but is worthy of all admiration, as one of the noblest incidents in the life of this Achilles of the middle ages. The grief of his mother for his loss was intense ; and while her heart was yet bleeding from this wound, occurred the death of her beloved daughter Jo- anna, the favorite sister of Richard. They were laid side by side, in the presence of the aged and afflicted queen, in the abbey-church of Fontevraud, where slept the remains of King Henry, their father. Eleanor, who was now verging on fourscore, did not again return to England ; and John, as if inspired by the example of his illustrious brother, and now the last remaining of her six sons, confirmed to his "most beloved and venerable mother," as he styled her, the whole of Poitou, and all pertaining thereto, to have and to hold for all the days of her life. One of her last journeys was to negotiate a marriage between Blanche of, Castile and Louis, the heir of the French crown. This she accomplished, and afterward conveyed the young bride to Bourdeaux — that Bourdeaux which had witnessed so many eventful periods of her life, from the young days of her folly and beauty to the present time, when, full of years and wis- dom, she became the ambassador of kings. Once more she was harassed by war between her remaining descendants, John and his nephew, Prince Arthur. Truly had Geoffrey, the father of this unfortunate young prince, said that hatred was the inheritance of his family. From the tumults and miseries of war the aged queen retired to her favorite Fontevraud, and there, in March, 1204, closed her long and eventful life. Her remains were laid near those of her husband and of her beloved son and daughter ; and, until within half a century, her effigy might still be seen, bearing unquestionable evidence of the combined beauty of her youth and" the intellectual grandeur of her mature age. Eleanor of Aquitaine stands pre-eminent among the great women of her age ; and if her early life was darkened by follies and even by crimes, the nobility of her character in after life, her commanding talents, her legislative wisdom, and her deep sorrows made ample atonement, and demand from us admiration rather than blame.