Page:The Queens of England.djvu/88

72 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. dower ; and Berengaria, who seems to have considered the office of pope as by no means a sinecure, invariably summoned him to act as her advocate. We have seen how, when she was in distress at Rome, she obtained assistance from Celestine, the pope of that day ; nor does she seem to have been less pre- vailing in subsequent time's ; for his holiness, like a good preux chevalier, always stepped effectively forward to her succor. She died at some period between 1230 — the year in which she completed her noble Abbey of L'Espan, to which she then finally and fully retired — and 1240. She was buried in her own abbey, where her tomb still remains, bearing a fine effigy. An existing writer thus concludes a memoir of her : "From early youth to her grave, Berengaria manifested devoted love for Richard ; uncomplaining when deserted by him, forgiving when he returned, and faithful to his memory unto death."