Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/238

 230 DATE OF EMPEROR HENRY VIVS BIRTH AprQ fifteen. If it be held, however, that Luxemburg, being a fief of the empire, would look to it rather than to France for guidance in this matter, and if imperial practices are examined, it will be found that they in the main agree with the French. Ribuarischem Recht das fiinfzehnte Lebensjahr.' ^ Waitz gives as examples to support his statement Otto III and Henry IV. In English history there is the example of Edward I. Born in 1239,^ he went in 1254 to Spain to marry Eleanor of Castile. He was dubbed to knighthood by Alfonso of Castile in the May of that year.^ In 1288, at the battle of Woeringen, not only did Henry VI of Luxemburg perish, but also all his brothers fell on the same day. The country was, therefore, left in the hands of a child and a woman. A council of regency was formed which soon made itself very unpopular. This led at one moment to open rebellion. In short, everything pointed to the expediency of declaring Henry of age at as early a date as possible. This would be when he was fourteen or fifteen. In 1294 Henry formed an offensive and defensive alliance with Philip the Fair of France, and was knighted by him. In one sense Henry can be said to have come of age when he ceased to be called damoisel in September 1293 ; in another when he was knighted by Philip in 1294. In 1293 Henry was, then, either fourteen or fifteen, and in this case he was born either in 1278 or 1279. This conclusion is borne out by a statement made by a contemporary chronicler, Jean de Wamant, or Jean le Pretre, as he was sometimes called. As has been shown above, Henry's parents were married in 1275. Jean de Wamant says that Beatrice remained childless after her marriage, and that she caused prayers to be offered that she might have offspring. In the following year her son Henry was born.* This fact proves that some considerable interval must have elapsed between her marriage and the birth of her eldest child. It is not, then, extrava- gant to conclude that Henry was not born till 1278 or 1279. An objection might be made to putting too much trust in a single statement of an isolated chronicler, but, though no other writer supports Jean de Wamant, none contradicts him. This lack of cor- roboration arises from the fact that the chronicle of Gilles d'Orval and the ' Gesta abbreviata ' stop in 1247, after which there are singularly few notices. If it appear strange that such a significant statement should, apparently, have been unknown to M. van Werveke, it must be remembered that in 1892, when he wrote, Jean de Wamant 's writings were very inaccessible. Scattered » Waitz, DeiUsche Verfassungsgeschichte (Kiel, 1875), vi 216. " Matth. Paris, Chron. Mai. iii. 539. » Ibid. v. 460.
 * Als Termin der Miindigkeit gait ohne Zweifel nach altem
 * Chroniquea Liigeoiaes (Brussels, 1913), p. 61.