OF SIX MEDIAEVAL WOMEN 



and thus proclaim their confession of faith. 

 Among these Orders one was styled " L'Escu 

 vert a la dame blanche," another, " L'Ordre de la 

 Rose," and so on, suggestive of their purport. 

 The first-named was founded by the brave 

 soldier Jean le Meingre, Marechal de Boucicaut, 

 whose portrait may be seen in his superb Book of 

 Hours, painted between 1399 and 1407, now 

 in the Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Paris. 1 Its 

 membership was restricted to thirteen knights, 

 who swore to defend the honour of women 

 against all detractors. To distinguish them 

 from others less gallantly disposed, they wore 

 on the sleeve an ornament in the shape of a 

 small shield, enamelled green on the outside, 

 and with the representation, on the underside, 

 of a woman, enamelled in white. 



. . . Vous portez la dame en verde targe 

 Pour demonstrer que de hardi visage 

 Vous vous voulez pour les dames tenir 

 Contre ceulz qui leur porteront dommage ! 



Of the Order of the Rose and its foundation, 

 Christine, in one of her poems, gives most 

 picturesque and interesting particulars, interest- 

 ing because they are evidently taken from an 

 actual scene, though Christine, in her role as 

 poetess, feels it necessary to add touches 

 suggestive of fairyland rather than of real life. 

 A numerous assembly, with goodwill at heart, 

 has met together in the magnificent dwelling 



1 "Le Mus6e Jacquemart-Andre," Gazette des Beaux -Arts, 

 August 1912. 



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