BERTRADE,
Laughter or the Count of Montfort, married the Count of Anjon, from whom she was divorced to unite herself to Philip the First, King of France, 1092. This union was opposed by the clergy, but the love of the monarch triumphed over his respect for religion. Bertrade was ambitious, and not always faithful to her husband. After the king's death she pretended sanctity, and was buried in a convent which she herself founded.
BETHMANN, FREDERICA,
One of the first ornaments of the Berlin National Theatre, was born in 1760, at Gotha, where her father, whose name was Flittner, had an income by. a respectable office. After his death, her mother married the well-known director Grossmann. He visited, with his family, the cities on the Rhine, Cologne, Bonn, Mentis, etc., where Frederica was married to Mr. Unselmann, who enjoyed great popularity for his rich comic talent, and she then made her first appearance on the stage. Her agreeable voice induced her to appear at the opera. She soon acquired by her singing and acting, in naïf as well as in sentimental parts the undivided approbation of the public; and was called, with her husband, to Berlin, where she became one of the first actresses that Germany has produced, both in tragedy and comedy. In 1803 she was divorced from her husband, to marry the renowned Mr. Bethmann. She died in 1814. A truly creative fancy, deep and tender feeling, and an acute understanding, were united in her with a graceful, slender figure, an expressive countenance, and a voice, which, from its flexibility and melodiousness, was fit to touch the deepest chords of the heart, and to mark with rare perfection the nicest shades of thought and feeling.
BIBI JAND,
Queen of Dekan in Hindostan, in the sixteenth century, was a wise and able princess. She maintained her dominions in peace and prosperity, and repulsed with success the attacks of the Moguls, who wished to subjugate her.
BIGNE.
Grace de la, a French poetess of Bayeaux, accompanied King John to England, after the battle of Poictiers, and died in 1374.
BILDERJIK, KATHARINE WILHELMINA,
Wife of the celebrated poet of Holland, died at Haarlaem, in 1831. She was herself distinguished for her poetic abilities; and, in 1816, obtained a prize offered at Ghent for the best poem on the battle of Waterloo.
BILLINGTON, ELIZABETH,
The most celebrated English singer of her day, was born in 1770. She was the daughter of Mr. Weichsell, a German. At the age of fourteen she made her first appearance as a singer, at Oxford; and two years afterwards married Mr. Billington, whom she accompanied to Dublin. Here she made her début in the opera of "Orpheus and
