BERENGARIA OF NAVARRE,

QUEEN OF RICHARD I.

BERENGARIA, the beautiful daughter of Sancho the Wise, king of Na varre, was first seen by Richard Coeur de Lion, when count of Poitou, at a grand tournament given by her gallant brother at Pampeluna, her native city. Richard was then captivated by the beauty of Berengaria, but his engagement to the fair and frail Alice of France prevented him from offering her his hand.

No one can marvel that the love of the ardent Richard should be strengthened, when he met the beautiful, the cultivated, and virtuous Berengaria, in the familiar intercourse which sprung from his friendship with her gallant brother but a long and secret engagement, replete with "hope deferred," was the fate of Richard the Lion-hearted and the fair flower of Navarre.

Soon after Richard ascended the English throne, he sent his mother, queen Eleanora, to the court of her friend, Sancho the Wise, to demand the princess Berengaria in marriage; "for," says Vinisauf, "he had long loved the elegant girl." Sancho the Wise not only received the proposition with joy, but intrusted Berengaria to the care of queen Eleanora. The royal ladies travelled from the court of Navarre together, across Italy, to Naples, where they found the ships belonging to Eleanora had arrived in the bay. But etiquette forbade Berengaria to approach her lover till he was free from the claims of Alice; therefore she sojourned

with queen Eleanora, at Brindisi, in the spring of 1191, waiting the message from king Richard, announcing that he was free to receive the hand of the princess of Navarre.

It was at Messina that the question of the engagemeut between the princess Alice and the king of England was debated with Philip Augustus. her brother; and more than once, the potentates assembled for the crusade expected that the forces of France and England would be called into action, to decide the right of king Richard to give his hand to another lady than the sister of the king of France.

King Philip contended that Richard held in his hand his sister's dower, the good city of Gisors. Upon this, the king of England brought the matter to a conclusion, in these words:

"Now,' said king Richard,

"That menace may not be,

For thou shalt have ward

Of Gisors thy citée,

And treasure ilk a deal,'

Richard yielded him his right,

His treasure and his town,

Before witness at sight,

(Of clerk and eke baron,)

His sister he might marry,
Wherever God might like,
And, to make certainty,
Richard a quittance took."

Richard then embarked in his favorite galley, named by him Trencthe-mere. He had previously, in honor of his betrothment, instituted an order of twenty-four knights, who pledged themselves in a fraternity with the king, to scale the walls of Acre; and that they might be known in the storming of that city, the king appointed them to wear a blue band of leather on the left leg, from which they were called Knights of the Blue Thong.

The season of Lent prevented the immediate marriage of Richard and his betrothed; and, as etiquette did not permit the unwedded maiden, Berengaria, to embark in the Trenc-the-mere under the immediate

protection of her lover, she sailed, in company with queen Joanna, in one of the strongest ships, under the care of a brave knight, called Stephen de Turnham.

After these arrangements, Richard led the van of the fleet, in Trencthe-mere, bearing a huge lantern at her poop, to rally the fleet in the darkness of night. Thus, with a hundred and fifty ships and fifty galleys, and accompanied by his bride and his sister, did Lion-hearted Richard hoist sail for Palestine, where Philip Augustus had already indolently commenced the siege of Acre.

Preparations were made at Limoussa, for the nuptials and coronation of king Richard and Berengaria. We are able to describe the appearance made by these royal personages, at this high solemr ty. King Richard's costume, we may suppose, varied little from that in which he gave audience to the despot Isaac, a day after the marriage had taken place.

"A satin tunic of rose-color was belted round his waist; his mantle was of striped silver tissue, brocaded with silver half-moons; his sword, of fine Damascus steel, had a hilt of gold, and a silver-scaled sheath: on his head he wore a scarlet bonnet, brocaded in gold, with figures of animals. He bore a truncheon in his hand. His Spanish steed was led before him, saddled and bitted with gold, and the saddle was inlaid with precious stones: two little golden lions were fixed on it, in the place of a crupper: they were figured with their paws raised, in act to strike each other." In this attire, Vinisauf adds, "that Richard, who had yellow curls, a bright complexion, and a figure like Mars himself, appeared a perfect model of military and manly grace."

The effigy of queen Berengaria, at Espan, certainly presents her as a bride a circumstance which is ascertained by the flowing tresses, royal matrons always wearing their hair covered, or else closely braided.

Her hair is parted, à la vierge, on the brow; a transparent veil, open on each side, like the Spanish mantillas, hangs behind, and covers the rich tresses at their length; the veil is confined by a regal diadem, of peculiar splendor, studded with several bands of gems, and surmounted by fleurs-de-lis, to which so much foliage is added, as to give it the appearance of a double crown; perhaps because she was crowned queen of Cyprus as well as England. Our antiquaries affirm that the peculiar

character of Berengaria's elegant but singular style of beauty, brings conviction to every one that looks on her effigy, that it is a carefully finished portrait.

At his marriage, king Richard proclaimed a grand feast.

"To Limoussa the lady was led,

His feast the king did cry,

Berengere will be wed,

And sojourn thereby.

The third day of the feast

Bishop Bernard of Bayonne

Newed oft the geste

To the queen he gave the crown."

"And there in the joyous month of May, 1191," says an ancient writer, "in the flourishing and spacious isle of Cyprus, celebrated as the very abode of the goddess of love, did king Richard solemnly take to wife his beloved lady Berengaria.”

After the conclusion of the nuptials, and coronation of Berengaria, her royal bridegroom once more hoisted his flag on his good galley Trenc-the-mere, and set sail, in beautiful summer weather, for Palestine. Berengaria and her sister-in-law again sailed, under the protection of sir Stephen de Turnham; such being safer than companionship with the warlike Richard. Their galley made the port of Acre before the Trencthe-mere.

There is not a more pleasant spot in history, than the tender friendship of Berengaria and Joanna, who formed an attachment, amidst the perils and terrors of storm and siege, ending only with their lives. How quaintly, yet expressively, is their gentle and feminine love for each other marked, by the sweet simplicity of the words:

"They held each other dear,

And lived as doves in cage!"

noting, at the same time, the harem-like seclusion in which the royal ladies dwelt, while sharing the crusade campaign.

The autumn of 1192 had commenced, when king Richard concluded