OF SIX MEDLEVAL WOMEN 



Though the date is uncertain, it was at the 

 Court of Lorraine that Agnes became maid-of- 

 honour to the Duchess Isabelle, wife of Rene, 

 Duke of Anjou and Lorraine, and Count of 

 Provence, a prince distinguished for chivalry 

 and learning. This intellectual and chivalrous 

 atmosphere must have been peculiarly congenial 

 to the sympathetic and versatile nature of Agnes 

 Sorel. We can picture her listening to the 

 Duke Rene reading his latest poem to one or 

 two of his brother-poets in the castle pleasaunce, 

 or discoursing on philosophy or statecraft, or 

 attending some brilliant pageant or sumptuous 

 fete. Chivalry, though dead as an institution, 

 still survived as a recreation, and as an appeal 

 from the past to the cultured imagination, and 

 Rene, mediaeval knight that he was in sentiment, 

 dearly loved the gorgeous spectacle of a tourna- 

 ment, with the knight jousting in honour of his 

 chosen lady. At this Court Agnes also came 

 under the influence of Yolande of Aragon, 

 widow of Louis, King of Naples and Sicily, 

 great-granddaughter of King John of France, 

 mother of the Duke Rene, and mother-in-law 

 of King Charles the Seventh, a woman renowned 

 for her extraordinary political capacity. All 

 these ties, and the remembrance of the French 

 blood in her veins, emphasised Yolande's domi- 

 nant passion the love of France, and it may 

 well be that in this patriotic atmosphere Agnes 

 Sorel became imbued with a like passion, which 

 later she was to develop in all its perfection, 



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