heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

388 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
and, on his return to his country, to have been cast into the sea by the
sailors of the ship, and saved from a watery grave by a dolphin, which,
captivated by his music, bore him safely to Tsenarus. Such a tradition,
if Arion were associated with Vienne, would be sufficient to obtain for
the country the name of Dauphin6,
and for its ruler to assume the title
of Dauphin.
In course of time Charles VIII., Dauphin of Vienne, had by his
wife Margaret, daughter of Stephen Earl of Burgundy,
a son and two
daughters. The former succeeded as Guy IX. One of the latter, Beatrix,
married the Count d'Auvergne, a tract of country on the opposite (i.e.
western) bank of the Rhone. They had a son, who assumed the title of
Dauphin through his mother, and from his time his successors holding
the same petty canton of Auvergne, styled themselves Dauphins of
Auvergne, and bore a dolphin in their arms. Henceforth there were two
Dauphins, viz., of Vienne and of Auvergne. The latter territory being
within the borders of Aquitaine, the Dauphin of Auvergne would simply
hold his territory in fief from the Duke thereof.
In the year 1200 a treaty was concluded between John King ot
England and Philip King of France, in which it was agreed that Prince
Louis, his eldest son, should marry Blanche, daughter of Alonzo King of
Castile, and Eleanor, daughter of Henry II. of England
and Eleanor the
heiress of Aquitaine. John stipulating to give to his niece the province
of Auvergne, which had long been contested between the crowns, together
with a portion of 30,000 marks of silver. The Queen Dowager of England,
Eleanor, heiress of Aquitaine, who, on resigning the vice-regency of England
into the hands of King John, had retired to pass the close of her long life
now eighty years of age in Aquitaine, journeyed from Mirabel in Poitou,
to Valladolid, the palace of the Kings of Castile, and accompanied the
French ambassadors with her granddaughter from thence to Normandy,
where the wedding took place and thus by her presence indicated her
;
sanction of the cession of part of her patrimony for this purpose. * The
be the castle of
armorial bearings of the bride would, therefore, naturally
Castile and the dolphin of Auvergne but the title of Dauphin would
;
become absorbed in her titles as Queen of France. Her husband,
Louis VIII., died in 1226, leaving her with one son, who succeeded as
Louis IX. Owing to the sterling good sense, courage, tact, and piety
of his mother, he found, on attaining his majority, his kingdom uninjured
by the intestine intrigues, plots, and insurrections of his minority, and,
through her training and influence, acquired, by his life amongst his
people, the sobriquet of " St. Louis."
* Green's Lives of J'n/uvssa, vol. i., p. 28.