Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/61

 crimes of his kindred’ (Norm. Conq. v. 300). But there seems to have been no connection between the two.

Walter de Beauchamp, who married Urse's daughter Emmeline, obtained from Henry I a confirmation of the lands given him by Adelisa, Urse's widow, together with the shrievalty of Worcestershire and the office of constable. These grants, which are recorded in the Warwick cartulary, founded the greatness of the Beauchamps, whose descendants, it is said, preserved the memory of Urse in the well-known ‘bear’ cognisance of the earls of Warwick.

It is well ascertained that Robert the Despencer, another tenant-in-chief, was brother to Urse (, Cartulary, p. 253;, p. 314), and his office of despencer was obtained by Walter de Beauchamp. It is usually stated that the Marmions were the heirs of Robert, but it is certain that much of his property passed to the Beauchamps (Ancient Charters, p. 2;, pp. 313–15; Feudal England, pp. 170–76, 179–80, 194–5).

[Domesday Book; Will. Malmesbury's Evesham Chronicle and Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Ser.); Heming's Cartulary, ed. Hearne; Dugdale's Baronage; Hale's Cartulary of St. Mary's, Worcester (Camd. Soc.); Flor. Wig. (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Monasticon Anglicanum; Stubbs's Select Charters; Round's Ancient Charters (Pipe Roll Soc.), Geoffrey de Mandeville, and Feudal England; Warwick Cartulary (Addit. MS. 28024).] 

URSULA, reputed saint and martyr of Cologne, whose date of death is variously given as 238, 283, and 451, was, according to the earliest form of the developed legend, a British maiden, the only daughter of the pious Christian king Deonotus. She was christened Ursula (a diminutive of ‘Ursa,’ a she bear), because she was to slay ‘the bear’—i.e. the devil. She resolved to become a nun, but was sought in marriage by the heathen son of a ‘certain most ferocious tyrant,’ who threatened to waste the land with fire and sword if she refused. As the result of a vision, in which was revealed her future martyrdom, Ursula consented on condition that she was allowed as companions ten noble virgins who, like Ursula, were to have each a thousand attendant virgins and a ship. The prince was, moreover, to become a Christian. The eleven ships, with Pinnosa, Ursula's chief companion, as admiral, after cruising for three years round the British coasts, sailed up the Rhine to Cologne and to Basel, whence Ursula and her companions went on foot to Rome. Returning to Cologne, which had meanwhile been seized by the Huns, they were massacred in 238, Ursula being slain by an arrow. The inhabitants after the withdrawal of the Huns buried them with more than mortal honours, and built a church outside the walls, which was rebuilt on a grander scale long afterwards at the bidding of one Clematius, a wise man from the east.

From an early period traces of this legend are found at Cologne. There existed in late Roman times a church outside the walls dedicated to some unknown virgin martyrs, which, on the authority of a fourth or fifth century inscription walled up in the modern church of St. Ursula, was restored by Clematius on the scene of their martyrdom. A charter of Lothair II (d. 869) and other charters dated 922, 927, and 941 refer to the ‘monastery of the eleven thousand virgins’ at Cologne. The earliest details of the story of these martyrs occur in a ‘Sermo in Natali SS. Virginum XI Millium,’ dating from between 751 and 839, which declares that few names of these martyrs are known, and that they were driven from Britain by the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian. Soon afterwards allusions to the virgin martyrs became common (see, Die Sage von der heiligen Ursula, pp. 11 sqq.). The metrical martyrology of Wandelbert of Prüm, written about 850, already mentions ‘thousands’ of virgin-martyrs. After this, numerous references to the number eleven thousand and the names of individual virgins begin to appear. An Essen calendar of the ninth or tenth century, however, gives eleven virgins and mentions their names. Another litany of the same century gives the same names in a different order, Martha and Saula heading the list, as they do in the martyrology of Usuardus (d. 877).

The prominence of Ursula's name in connection with the story dates from the twelfth century. At Cologne, where Cathari and others had expressed some scepticism, the legend received fresh impetus by a series of discoveries beginning in 1106, when a large number of bones were found during the excavation required by the new walls for the city. These bones were given out to be the relics of the virgin martyrs, and the locality became known as the ‘Ager Ursulinus.’ St. Norbert of Prémontré came to search for them, but the most enthusiastic investigator was the archbishop of Cologne, Rainald of Dassel, Barbarossa's chief minister, whose principal agent was Gerlach, abbot of Deutz. Gerlach discovered a body labelled ‘Ursula Regina,’ and bones were found with inscriptions attached declaring them to be the bones of bishops, cardinals, and even