Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/294

280 de Valois, king of France, having caused her husband to be beheaded, in 1343, on an unauthenticated suspicion of intelligence with England, Jane, burning with revenge, sent her son, but twelve years of age, secretly to London; and, having no more to fear for him, sold her jewels, armed three vessels, and with them assailed all the French that she met with. The new corsair made descents in Normandy, took their castles; and the inhabitants of the villages saw frequently one of the most beautiful women in Europe with a sword in one hand, and a flambeau in the other, enforce, with inhuman pleasure, the horrors of her cruel and misplaced revenge.

1739, she married a gentleman in the law, brother to lord Clive, from whom she was separated soon after. In 1769, she quitted the stage, and lived a retired life at Twickenham, where she died, 1785. Her character wag regular and exemplary.

of Gondebald, king of the Burgundians, a woman of extraordinary beauty, sense, and virtue. Her fame