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 is great—so great, that it is felt and lamented in every comer of the land; but to the poor it is irreparable."

ADELAIS, , second queen of Henry the First of England, was the eldest daughter of Godfrey, Duke of Brabant, and Ida, Countess of Neimur. Her designation among the troubadours was "The Fair Maid of Brabant," and her reputation for beauty and accomplishments, was spread widely throughout Europe; a standard wrought by her hand of silk and gold for her father's army, was captured by the Bishop of Leige and Count of Lunberg, and deposited in the cathedral of St. Lambert, at Leige, whence it was taken once a year to be carried in triumphal procession through the streets of the city. Her marriage with King Henry took place at Windsor, on the 24th. of January, 1121, she being then but eighteen years of age In the English court, she took no part in political affairs, but was the great patroness of literature, in its then representatives, the minstrels or troubadours. In 1135, King Henry died, and after three years of widowhood, during which she founded several religious endowments, she married the famous nobleman William de Albini, called "of the strong arm," by whom she had seven children. She died in 1151. From her is descended the noble family of Howard, still possessors of Arundel Castle, in Sussex, which was part of the portion which she received on her marriage with the English King.

ADELASIA. , Queen of Sardinia, in the earlier half of the thirteenth century, was the daughter of Mariano, who held one of the four lord or judgeships into which the Island was divided. About the year 1219, one Ubaldo, a patrician of Pisa, possessed himself by violent means of the judgeship of Gallura, and some other lands; and Mariano of Torres, was called upon by the Papal see, which claimed paramount authority over Sardinia, to resist the usurper; instead of doing which, he entered into an alliance with him, and gave him his daughter in marriage. In 1236, however, both himself and his son were killed in a rebellion, and the sovereignty of Torres, according to the forms of election then and there customary, passed to Adelasia, who, with her husband deemed it prudent to make submission to the Roman pontiff, by whom, on certain conditions, the legality of her title was formerly acknowledged in 1237. The year after Ubaldo died, and Pope Gregory and the Emperor Frederick were each desirous of providing her with a second husband, who would be likely to favour their respective views and interests. The Emperor's illegitimate son, Euseus, celebrated for his manly beauty, was the successful candidate for the hand of the widow, whom he married in 1238. He immediately assumed the title of King of Torres and Gallura, and soon after that of Sardinia, and then from some undiscovered cause evinced the bitterest hatred towards his wife, depriving her of all share of the government, and shutting her up in the castle of Goceuno, where she appears to have died.

ADORNI, CATHARINE FIESCHI, , married a dissipated young man, Julian Adorni,