Women of the Romance Countries | Page 8

of the document that the pope's claims were in the main
allowed, and many of her lands were given over to his temporal sway.
After the death of Henry IV. (1106), she continued to rule without
opposition in Italy, though recognizing the suzerainty of his successor,
Henry V. In 1110, this emperor came to visit her at Bibbianello, where

he was filled with admiration for her attainments, her great wisdom,
and her many virtues. During this visit, Henry treated her with the
greatest respect, addressing her as mother; before his departure, he
made her regent of Italy. She was then old and feeble, physically, but
her mind and will were still vigorous. A few years later, during the
Lenten season in 1115, she caught cold while attempting to follow out
the exacting requirements of Holy Week, and it soon became apparent
that her end was near. Realizing this fact herself she directed that her
serfs should be freed, confirmed her general donation to the pope, made
a few small bequests to the neighboring churches, and then died as she
had lived, calmly and bravely. Her death occurred at Bendano, and her
body was interred at Saint Benoît de Ponderone. Five centuries later,
under the pontificate of Urban VIII., it was taken to Rome and buried
with great ceremony in the Vatican.
As to Matilda's character, some few historians have cast reflections
upon the nature of her relations with Pope Gregory, their stay together
at Canossa, at the time of Henry's humiliation, being particularly
mentioned as an instance of their too great intimacy. Such aspersions
have still to be proved, and there is nothing in all contemporary
writings to show that there was anything reprehensible in all the course
of this firm friendship. Gregory was twice the age of the great countess,
and was more her father than her lover. During her whole lifetime, she
had been of a mystic temperament, and it is too much to ask us to
believe that her great and holy ardor for the Church was tainted by
anything like vice or sensuality. By reason of her great sagacity and
worldly wisdom she was the most powerful and most able personage in
Italy at the time of her death. If her broad domains could have been
kept together by some able successor, Italian unity might not have been
deferred for so many centuries; but there was no one to take up her
work and Italy was soon divided again, and this time the real partition
was made rather by the growing republics than by the feudal lords.
A consideration of the life of the Countess Matilda points to the fact
that there was but this one woman in all Italy at this time who knew
enough to take advantage of her opportunities and play a great rôle
upon the active stage of life. Many years were to pass before it could

enter the popular conception that all women were to be given their
chance at a fuller life, and even yet in sunny Italy, there is much to do
for womankind. Then, as now, the skies were blue, and the sun was
bright and warm; then, as now, did the peasants dance and sing all the
way from water-ribbed Venice to fair and squalid Naples, but with a
difference. Now, there is a measure of freedom to each and all--then,
justice was not only blind but went on crutches, and women were made
to suffer because they were women and because they could not defend,
by force, their own. Still, there is comfort in the fact that from this dead
level of mediocrity and impotence, one woman, the great Countess of
Tuscany, was able to rise up and show herself possessed of a great
heart, a great mind, and a great soul; and in her fullness of achievement,
there was rich promise for the future.
Chapter II
The Neapolitan Court in the Time of Queen Joanna
If you drive along the beautiful shore of the Mergellina to-day, beneath
the high promontory of Pausilipo, to the southwest of Naples, you will
see there in ruins the tumbling rocks and stones of an unfinished palace,
with the blue sea breaking over its foundations; and that is still called
the palace of Queen Joanna. In the church of Saint Chiara at Naples,
this Queen Joanna was buried, and there her tomb may be seen to-day.
Still is she held in memory dear, and still is her name familiar to the
lips of the people. On every hand are to be seen the monuments of her
munificence, and if you ask a Neapolitan in the street who built this
palace or that church, the answer is almost always the same--"Our
Queen Joanna."
Who was this well-beloved queen, when did she live, and