Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/269

This page has been validated.
DOM.
247

panied her brother Sherry, surnamed the Valiant, to the coronation of Conrad, Emperor of Germany, at Mayence, where she was much admired for her wit and beauty. She attracted the notice of the Emperor, but he found her virtue invincible. She wrote poetry with ease and grace.

DOMEIR, ESTHER, BORN GAD,

Was a woman of great genius and masculine powers of mind. She was born at Breslau, 1770, of Jewish parents. Already in her early youth, she busied herself with improving the condition and education of her sex, and wrote several essays on the subject. When twenty years old, she went to Berlin, where she became acquainted with Madame de Gentis, who contributed much to model her mind. In 1791, she embraced Christianity; and in 1792, married Dr. W. F. Domeir. With him she travelled through southern Europe, and spent several years in Portugal. The result of her observations was published in the year 1803, in Hamburg, under the title "Letters during my residence in Portugal and England." She wrote also several smaller works, and translated a number of French books into English. She died in 1802, lamented by all her friends. Her writings are distinguished for vivid description, strong sense, and beauty of thought, without much polish of sentiment or style.

DOMNIVA, or DOMPNEVA.

This appears to be a contraction of the Latin name Domina Eva, or the Lady Eva. The historical personage who bore it is sometimes referred to as Ermenburger; she was the daughter of Ermenred Clito, King of Kent, and was married to Merowald, King of the West Hicanas, or Hertfordshire, notwithstanding which marriage, however, she appears to have assumed the religious veil, by the consent of her husband; and the occasion of her retirement from the world is said to have been grief for the violent death of her two brothers, who were murdered by their cousin Egbert, who had ascended the Kentish throne, and who regarded them as dangerous rivals to his power. It is said that a miraculous light falling on the spot where the murdered princes were interred, led to the discovery of the crime. Egbert professed great repentance, and offered to pay the usual were gild, or compensation for blood, to their sister Domniva. This she refused to receive, but pardoned her cousin, and requested that he would grant her a place on Tenet, or the Isle of Thanet, as it is now called, "where she might build a monastery in memory of her brothers, with a sufficient maintenance, in which she might, with the virgins devoted to God, pray to the Lord to pardon and forgive the king for their murder." To this Egbert assented, and agreed to bestow as much land upon the religious foundation as Domniva's tame deer could run over at one course. The animal was let loose, and notwithstanding the efforts made by some to arrest its course, passed without stopping from one side of the island to the other, having run over forty-eight ploughed lands, or ten thousand acres, which the king, returning thanks to Jesus Christ, forthwith "surrendered to his illustrious cousin and her ecclesiastical posterity for ever"

And thus was founded the new minster, dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, and the memory of the murdered brethren, which