MAHAUT, COUNTfeSS D'f 



Blanche exchanged her castle prison-house for a 

 convent one, where she died a year after she had 

 taken the vows. There is no reason for suppos- 

 ing that Mahaut was at the wedding of Blanche's 

 successor save in the imagination of the artist ; 

 but for him the inclusion of such a tragic figure 

 would add a dramatic touch to the representation 

 of an otherwise conventional ceremony. 



It almost takes us aback to read that in 

 Mahaut's domain of Artois there were at least 

 eighty hospitals and thirty lazar-houses, without 

 counting those attached to the monasteries. But 

 these numbers will not surprise us so much 

 when we remember that almost every small 

 community had its little hospital, used not only 

 for the sick and as a lying-in hospital, but also 

 as a shelter for the poor and the pilgrim. In 

 the towns they were often built and supported 

 by the Corporations or by rich merchants. 

 Evidently some were in the nature of hospitals 

 for incurables, for there were special clauses 

 in the deeds of gift providing that a certain 

 specified number of beds were to be kept for 

 the sick until they were either cured or released 

 by death. Besides building two hospitals in 

 the County of Burgundy in fulfilment of the 

 dying wishes of her husband, Mahaut built and 

 maintained two in her own County of Artois. 

 The one at Hesdin was the more important, 

 and we can get some idea of it from the docu- 

 ments of the time. The deed relating to it 

 tells that over the large entrance gate there was 



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