Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/378

364 364 ST. HEDWIG carried to Trebnicz, where his sister Agnes was already abbess, although the building was not finished. She had been very fond of him in his life, and she buried him in the chapter. They feared to tell Hedwig of her son's death, so they first announced his accident, and asked her to come and see him; but she divined the truth at once, and went with her usual com- posure to see him buried.. While Silesia was extending her borders and improving her internal condition, the rest of Poland was in a very unsettled state. Several kings abdicated and were restored, every change giving opportunities of plunder to the enemies of the public peace. Lesko v., the White, had succeeded, for the second time, to the throne of Poland in 1206. He fell a victim to the malice and ambition of one of the twenty-four crowned vassals, who paid him a doubt- ful allegiance, and arranged a conspiracy to massacre the king and all the party of order assembled in council. Lesko was murdered, and Henry, duke of Silesia, was severely wounded, and only escaped death through the devotion of his servant, who threw himself over his fallen master, and received the mortal stab intended for him. Lesko the White was succeeded by his infant son, Boleslaus Y., the Chaste, who afterwards married St. Cunkound (4). He, his mother, Grzymislawa, and his sister, St. Salome, afterwards queen of G«licia, fell at once into captivity to Conrad, duke of Masovia, brother of the late king. Grzymislawa appealed for protection for herself, her children, and their inheritance to Henry, duke of Silesia. The saintly Duchess Hedwig responded to the confidence and sym- pathy of the young queen, and Henry wanted little persuasion to fulfil the chivalrous duty of befriending the widow and orphans of his kinsman and suzerain — a duty of which he was not insensible to the worldly advantages. The struggle between the two dukes for the care of Boleslaus and his kingdom lasted as long as Henry lived. He quickly took Cracow, and thenceforth called himself Duke of Cracow. He twice beat Conrad in open battle, hot was soon afterwards, 1228, taken prisoner while hearing mass in the church of Spytkowicz, and carried captive to Plock, or Czyrsko. His son, Henry the Pious, prepared to rescue him with an armed force; but Hedwig resolved that there should be no more bloodshed if she could help it, BO she went in person to Conrad to negotiate her huslumd's liberation. Con- rad was charmed with his visitor and with her appeal to him. He said be could refuse nothing to an angel. A ransom was given, and the captive duke was delivered up to his wife. In 1233, or soon afterwards, the people of Cracow and Sandomir revolted against the tyranny of Conrad of Masovia, and their young duke, Boleslaus V., incited by his mother and the clergy and nobles of Cracow, appealed again to Henry to interfere. Conrad imprisoned Grzymis- lawa and her children in the monastery of Sieciechow. They bribed the abbot to favour their escape, fled to Broalan, and threw themselves on the protection of the Duke and Duchess of Silesia. In 1237, to the joy of the Cracovians, Henry took possession of the city and province of Cracow, and held it until his death. He was virtually king of Poland. He styled himself Duke of Poland and Cracow, and is called by Dlugosz prince and monarch of Poland. In the same year, Hedwig and her family derived new lustre from the canonization of her niece, St. Elizabeth OF Hungary. Poland had a short interval of peace and prosperity under Henry's rule. Among other efforts at progress, he established a colony of Germans at Cracow, and their descendants are there to this day. In 1238, Henry fell ill at Erosno, on the borders of Bohemia, and sent mes- sengers in haste to his wife, who was living in her favourite monastery of Trebnicz. She would not come lest any human affection ^ould revive in her heart at the sight of his sufferings. No syllable of blame is bestowed upon her by her historians. When he was carried a corpse to Trebnicz, she alone did not