Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/80

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. xn. JULY 2*. 1915.

is a story of a gentleman who told his gardener to bring out the orange plants from the hothouses, and still insisted, though the gardener objected that it would be more prudent to wait till St. Servatius should be over. The plants were caught by the frost in the open, and all died. M. D. H.

' L' INTERMEDIATE ' : COMTE AXEL VON

SCHWERING (US. xi. 504). Would it be of interest to point out that there is, or was, a Count Ax3l von Schwerin ? The paragraph concerning him in the ' Graf. Taschenbuch,' 1912, is as follows :

"2. Axel Rudiger, b. Weilburg 24 Sept., 1879, Fkherr. auf Schwerinsburg mit Wusseken, Sarnow und Wendfeld, Kr. Anklam, Erbkiichenm . von Altvorpommern, Kgl. preuss. Referendar a D. und Lt. der Res. des Kiir.-Rgts. Nr. 2 [Schwerinsburg]."

Another with the Christian name Axel is Hans Axel Tammo, born Berlin 19 May, 1847, Hon. Dr. Phil.

Both were living when the 1912 'Taschen- buch ' was being prepared. LEO C.

AGNES, DAUGHTER OF Louis VII. (11 S. xii. 29). Louis VII., by his third wife, Alix de Champagne, fifth daughter of Thibaud IV., called le Grand, comte palatin de Cham- pagne, had three children, viz., Philip, who succeeded him as King of France, and two daughters, Alix and Agnes. When only 8 years old Agnes was (1179) betrothed to Alexis Comnenus, called the Young, son of the Emperor Manuel. She was sent to Constantinople, where the marriage was celebrated on Sunday, 2 March, 1180. After the death of Alexis [II.], Andronicus Com- nenus married her, he having had Alexis strangled and having usurped the empire. After his violent death in 1185 Agnes, a widow for the second time at the age of 14 (or possibly 15), remained at the Court of Constantinople. There were no children by this marriage, nor, of course, were there any by the first. After the taking of Constanti- nople, Theodorus Branas, a great Greek lord, entitled Lord of Adrianople and of Didymotique (i.e., Didymoteichos, now Demotica), married her. Alberic relates in his chronicle of the year 1204 and 1205 that, after having maintained her (probably entretenu should be translated by another word) for some time, Theodorus married her, and had by her one daughter, who was given in marriage to Nargeau de Tocy, Guardian (Bail=? Baile) or Regent of the empire of Constantinople. See ' Histoire Genealogique et Chronologique de la Maison Royale de France,' &c., by le Pere Anselme, &c., third edition, Paris, 1726-33, i. 77. This Nargeau

(or Nargeaud) de Tocy became the [first of the Seigneurs de la Terza. See ibid., vii. 737. There appears to have been some uncer- tainty as to the name of this daughter of Louis VII., and as to her offspring. Betham, in his * Genealogical Tables,' 1795, Table 139, calls her Ann, and credits her with a son, John, by Andronicus. In Table 254 he calls her Anne or Agnes, recording her first and third marriages only, and naming her third husband (therein given as hersecond) Theodoric, Lord of Adrianople. Lavoisne, in his 'Complete Genealogical. .. .Atlas,' third edition, 1822, map No. 39, calls her Agnes only, and gives the three marriages, but erroneously calls the second husband An- dronicus II., whereas he was Andronicus I. ; while Gibbon writes : " He [Andronicus] had contracted an indecent marriage with Alice, or Agnes, daughter of Lewis VII of France, and relict of the unfortunate Alexius." See- ' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire/ chap, xlviii., near the end, 1820 edition, vol. ix. p. 108. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

At the age of 7 Agnes became the child- bride of the Emperor Alexius II., Comnenus, aged 10. ' See Finlay, ' Hist, of Greece,' iii. 196. Finlay gives references to Nicetas and to William of Tyre, who saw the ceremony at Constantinople, March, 1178. After Alexius's murder in 1183, his child-widow was compelled to marry Andronicus I. In Meyer's ' Conversations - Lexicon ' (1840), under Agnes (2), it is said that after An- dronicus' s death she remained in Constanti- nople, and at the end of a widowhood of twenty years married the Governor of Adrianople, Theodore Branas. No authority is quoted for this statement.

EDWARD BENSLY.

[MR. A. R. BAYLEY and ST. S WITHIN thanked for replies.]

PARISH REGISTERS (11 S. xi. 397, 501). Mr. Henry Thomas Wake came to Fritchley, near Crich, some fifteen years ago or so, I think from Cockermouth. His death took place at Fritchley not long ago, but I cannot be exact as to the date. He was a book- dealer and antiquary, and issued many neatly written catalogues illustrated by pen cuts, which he sent out to customers aiter they had been lithographically printed by Bemrose of Derby, and one such, " No. 40O (31 N.S.) 7th mo. 07," is now before me. At the corner of the last page 8 is a rural sketch showing a church, probably that of Crich, with a tree above a slab on which is-

H T WAKE FRITCHLEY. DERBY. He