Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/149

Rh Blanche of Castile." This extraordinary woman, who, to unrivalled beauty, to wit, eloquence, and address, joined the undaunted spirit of a hero, and the foresight and prudence of the most enlightened politician, soon gave a form to the government, and confided the education of her son to the constable de Montmorenci, the greatest statesman and warrior in France. All those she placed about the prince, and her other children, were remarkable for their knowledge and piety.

Blanche had given much of her confidence to one, who, though wise, was, like herself, a foreigner, the cardinal Romain Bonaventura, legate in France, whom she might almost be said to associate in the government. The uncivilized nobility, believing themselves degraded by the dominion of a woman and a priest, believed a pretence was now given them to reassume their power and their tyranny, which Lewis the Fat, and Philip Augustus, had humbled. They assembled together, took up arms, and the princes of the blood, discontented at being excluded from the regency, joined with them. It was a common opinion amongst the vulgar, that they owed no duty to the king till he was crowned; and, knowing the influence of these prejudices on the minds of the people, Blanche was anxious to expedite the ceremony. She summoned all the nobility of the kingdom to Rheims: she was informed of the bad intentions of many, particularly of the duke of Brittany; but this did not delay her design; she went to Rheims well guarded. The young king was crowned in that city: and though it was now December, the rigour of the season did not deter the regent from taking her son into Brittany, to make his first essay in war against the rebels. Among the