A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Bersala, Ann
BERSALA, ANN,
Daughter and principal heiress of Wolfard de Borselle, and of Chariotte de Bourbon-Montpensier, who was married June the 17th., 1468; she was wife of Philip of Burgundy, son of Anthony of Burgundy, Lord of Bevres, of the illegitimate sons of the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good. She brought to him, for her dowry, the lordship of Vere, that of Flushing, and some others, and had by him one son and two daughters.
Erasmus had a peculiar esteem for her. He thus writes to a friend:—"We came to Anne, Princess of Vere. Why should I say anything to you of this lady's complaisance, benignity, or liberality? I know the embellishments of rhetoricians are suspected, especially by those who are not unskilled in those arts. But, believe me, I am so far here from enlarging, that it is above the reach of our art. Never did nature produce anything more modest, more wise, or more obliging. She was so generous to me—she loaded me with so many benefits, without my seeking them! It has happened to me, my Battus, with regard to her, as it often used to happen with regard to you, that I begin to love and admire most when I am absent. Good God, what candour, what complaisance in the largest fortune, what evenness of mind in the greatest injuries, what cheerfulness in such great cares, what constancy of mind, what innocence of life, what encouragement of learned men, what affability to all!"