Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/81

Rh After a reign of seventeen years, Henry, now sixty years old, was seized with his last illness at the palace at Membleben. Calling the queen to him as he felt his death approaching, he spoke with her a long time in private, and then said aloud: "O, most faithful and beloved, I thank Christ that you survive me. No one ever had a better wife." He thanked her for all her help in restraining his anger, in leading him to justice and mercy in his governing, and in always admonishing him to take the part of the oppressed. He commended her and her children and his parting soul to God, Saturday, July 2, 936. Ever after, the widowed queen observed Saturday as a day of works of mercy. After hearing the king's last words, she went into the church to pray, and was kneeling there when the news of his death was brought to her. It is recorded as one of her miracles that she immediately struck off a pair of curious gold bracelets that she wore, although it had always been believed that they could not be removed without the help of a goldsmith; she gave them to a priest for the first mass for her husband's soul.

Henry was buried at Quedlinburg, which he and his wife had founded. His grave is still to be seen there in the crypt now called the "Old Minster." Great and universal was the mourning for the king. Widukind of Corvei says, "he was the greatest king of his time in Europe, inferior to none in mental and bodily gifts, but he left behind him a son [Otho] greater than himself."

Matilda had for her widow's portion, all Henry's property in Quedlinburg, Pohlde, Nordhausen, Grona and Duderstadt.

The land was once more distracted by wars and the struggle between the brothers for the crown. Most of the nobles agreed with the late king's wish for the election of Otho; but many were resolved to stand by Henry, duke of Bavaria, Matilda's favourite.

All the Frankish and Saxon nobles who favoured Otho met at Aix-la-Chapelle, where he was crowned and anointed king.

Henry remembered that his having been born when his father was on the throne, gave him, in the opinion of some of his countrymen, an advantage over his elder brother, and presuming on his mother's preference for him, he continued for five years to push his claim. At length, under their mother's influence, the brothers made a lasting peace.

One of the first things they did was to join in persecuting their mother. Influenced by mischief-makers, they accused her of robbing the Crown of its revenue and spending it on the poor. To stop her almsgiving, they sent out spies who heaped ignominy on her almoners. She bore all their misdoings with patient humility, and actually gave up most of her possessions that her sons might be spared the sin of taking them away. Meanwhile, nothing prospered with the undutiful brothers, until Queen Edith persuaded the king to bring his saintly mother into honour again. Peace and prosperity were restored.

Matilda, once more at Court, gave larger alms than ever. She visited the poor and the hospitals, and had large fires lighted in winter in the public places for the comfort of the poor. Otho rejoiced his mother's heart by his zeal for religion, being, like his father, passionately fond of relics. During Queen Edith's life, although he was generous in endowing her foundations and those of his mother, their zeal and liberality seemed to him excessive; but after the death of his wife, he found comfort in these works, and allowed himself to be entirely led in them by Matilda.

In 951 Otho married and became virtually king of Italy.

In 955 Matilda suffered the heaviest sorrow that had ever fallen upon her in the last illness and death of her son Henry. This seems almost to have broken her heart. He was in the prime of life, not yet forty. He had great virtues and great defects, so that his contemporaries did not know whether to praise or blame him most. He had something of his father's beauty and charm, but he was imperious and had the defect—more unpopular than any vice—of being shy and reserved, so that he did not win hearts as Otho did. Few loved him, but, for this reason, his