OF SIX MEDIEVAL WOMEN 



Isabelle, his wife, to act as his substitute, and, 

 as lieutenante generate^ she set forth to establish 

 his claim. History is silent on the point as to 

 whether Agnes accompanied her or not. It 

 may be, as some seem to think, that she 

 remained in Anjou with Isabelle's eldest 

 daughter, Marguerite, afterwards Queen of 

 England. We should like to think that it 

 was during this time that she attracted the 

 notice of Charles, for this would lend additional 

 interest to the exquisite miniature in the 

 Musee du Louvre (at one time in the Book of 

 Hours of Etienne Chevalier, now for the most 

 part at Chantilly), which it seems probable 

 represents Agnes Sorel as a youthful shepherdess, 

 with the Castle of Loches in the background 

 and Charles the Seventh riding towards her. 

 As we have already suggested elsewhere, 1 this 

 may have been a poetical rendering of their 

 first meeting. However this may be, it seems 

 probable that it was soon after the year I435 2 

 that she first attracted the notice of Charles, 

 and that, later, she took up her residence in 

 Touraine, no doubt gaining her influence over 

 the king at first by her beauty, which all her 

 contemporaries proclaim, and afterwards by that 

 mysterious combination of ability and grace, of 

 intelligence and physical vitality, which held 

 him captive for many years. During this time 

 she, like a true woman, and no ordinary place- 



1 Athenteum, June 25, 1904. 

 2 Du Fresne de Beaucourt, Hist, de Charles VII, t. iii. p. 286. 



