heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

378 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
But now to notice the individuals represented by
these shields :
ELEANOR OF
PROVENCE,
who is indicated by the shield containing the arms of Aragon, which
were also the arras of Provence, for in 1137 Raymond Berenger, Conde
de Barcelona, received from Ramiro, second King of Aragon, on his
abdication of the throne, his daughter Petronilla as his affianced bride,
and he governed the kingdom under the title Principe de Aragon. In
due time the marriage was consummated, and their son, Alphonzo II.,
having two children, the elder in 1196 succeeded to the kingdom of
Aragon, the younger to the county of Provence, which had " become
" a possession of the House of Aragon in the beginning of the twelfth
" century by the union of the Provencal heiress with the Pyrannean
"king,"* and the honourable distinction assigned to Geoffry became thus
the arms of the Count of Provence as well as of the kings of Aragon.
His grandson, Berenger, had only daughters Eleanor, who married
Henry III. of England Senchia, who married his brother Richard, Earl
;
of Cornwall and King of the Romans ;
Marguerite, who married Louis IX.
(St. Louis) King of France and
; Beatrice, who married his brother Charles,
Count of Anjou, who thus became Count of Provence. This shield, therefore,
evidently
indicates the mother of Edward I. But it also indicates an
alliance with a country whose condition seems rather like
Fairyland than a page of sober history.
"In the far
south, where clustering vines are hung;
Where first the old chivalric lays were sung,
Where earliest smiled that gracious child of France,
an incident from
Angel and knight and fairy, called Romance." t
"The Land of Song" part of the langue d'oc (as distinguished from
the dialect spoken north of the Loire, where the affirmative being expressed
by out, was called the langue d'oui), free from the contentions of the Norman
Princes which harassed the north, and the apprehensions of the Moors
which disturbed the west and south, enjoyed in the i2th century an exceptional
prosperity. How could it be otherwise ?
Snugly sheltered amidst
the towering Alps from any wind but the mistral with vine-clad
;
slopes and
terraces of olives and gardens and orchards, where the pomegranate, citron,
orange, and almond ripen to perfection ; the native place of the parent of
the fairest, sweetest flower that blows the rose of Provence ;
where the
rivers are full of trout, eel, shad, and barbel, and the sea-coast yields sardine
and anchovy. Of course the inhabitants quarrelled amongst themselves.
All prosperous people do. But under the soft influence of that dreamy
climate, yielding to many temptations which they ought to have conquered,
* The Troubadours, Rutherford. \ Leguid of Provence, Adelaide Procter.