In the semi-barbarous stage of society, any kind of personal blemish seems to have been considered as disqualifying a prince from the succession, like the law of the Nazarenes. Yorwerth, the son of Owen Gwynedh, was set aside in Wales because of his broken nose; Count Oliba, in Barcelona, because he could never speak till he had stamped with his foot three times like a goat. _Aquest Oliba frare del Conte en Grifa no era a dret de sos membras. Car lo dit Oliba james no podia parlar, si primer no donas colps ab lo peu en terra quart o sinc vegades, axi comsi fos cabra; e per aquesta raho li fou imposat lo nom, dient li Olibra Cabreta, e per aquest accident lo dit Oliba perde la successio del frare en lo Comtat de Barcelona, e fou donat lo dit Comtat o en Borrell, Comte de Urgell, qui era son cosin germa._—Père Tomich, c. xxviii. ff. 20. In the treaty between our Henry V. and Charles VI. of France, by which Henry was appointed King of France after Charles’s decease, it was decreed that the French should “swear to become liege men and vassals to our said son King Henry, and obey him as the true King of France, and without any opposition or dispute shall receive him as such, and never pay obedience to any other as king or regent of France, but to our said son King Henry, unless our said son should lose life or _limb_, or be attacked by a _mortal disease_, or suffer diminution in person, state, honour[9], or goods.” Lope de Vega alludes to the blindness of Theodofred in his Jerusalem Conquistada:— _Criavase con otras bellas damas Florinda bella,—— Esta miro Rodrigo desdichado, Ay si como su padre fuera ciego! Saco sus ojos Witisa ayrado, Fuera mejor los de Rodrigo luego: Gozara España el timbre coronado De sus castillos en mayor sossiego Que le dio Leovigildo, y no se viera Estampa de Africano en su ribera._ L. vi. ff. 131. A remarkable instance of the inconvenient manner in which the _b_ and the _v_ are indiscriminately used by the Spaniards, occurs here in the original edition. The _w_ not being used in that language, it would naturally be represented by _vv_; and here, the printer, using most unluckily his typographical licence, has made the word _Vbitisa_.