Queen Jeanne the Unquiet was one of the most obstinate women that ever
lived. The only way to influence her was to put her in prison and her
experience of prisons was large. At one time she was disposed to hand
over Provence, or some part of it, to the King of France or other
neighbouring potentate. To stop this recklessness she was arrested by
the barons of Les Baux and of adjacent Provençal towns and locked up.
Having promised never to alienate Provence or any part of it, she was
let out of jail; but she had not long been free before she sold Avignon,
the chief town of Provence, to the Pope for 80,000 gold florins. As an
excuse she said, with a smile, that she was rather short of money.
The obstinacy of this irrepressible lady led to her dramatic ending. She
took a very decided part in the controversy known as the Great Schism of
the West. Her determined attitude led to many and varied troubles.
Finally she was besieged in Castel Nuovo and there had to surrender to
her kinsman and one time friend, Charles of Durazzo. He attempted to
make her renounce the errors—or reputed errors—to which she clung. He
failed, and “finding that nothing could bend her indomitable spirit, he
strangled her in prison on May 12th, 1382.”[20]
* * * * *
Louise de Cabris.—On a certain day, in the year 1769, there was great
commotion in and around the mansion of the Marquis de Cabris in the Rue
du Cours. The young marquis was bringing home his bride. The de Cabris
represented the pinnacle of society in Grasse. They were the great
people of the town. To know them was in itself a distinction. The bride
belonged to a family even more eminent, for she was the daughter of the
Marquis de Mirabeau, of Mirabeau, near Aix en Provence. She was a mere
girl, being only seventeen years of age.
The nice, worthy people of Grasse received her with effusive kindness.
They were sorry for her, because they knew the husband. He was young,
weak and vicious and came from a stock deeply tainted with insanity.
They took the gentle little marquise under their motherly wing. They
petted her, made much of her and comforted her in a warm, caressing way.
They knew as little what kind of innocent they were fussing over as does
a hen who fosters a pretty ball of yellow down that turns into a
duckling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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