Agnes of France, sister to Philip Augustus
GORDON M FISHER
With regard to Agnes of France, daughter of Louis VII by his
third wife Adele of Champagne, and sister to Philip II Augustus,
we have:
"The third queen of Louis VII of France had brought him a daughter of
exquisite beauty, whose fortunes it may be permitted us briefly to mention.
The emperor of Constantinople dying, left, as successor to the throne,
a son of tender age, who was entrusted to the care of his uncle. This
prince was brought up in all the delicacy suited to his age; while, in
the meantime, his guardian Andronicus managed the kingdom. It seemed
advisable to the Greek nobility that the daughter of the king of France
should be sought in marriage for this distinguished youth, and this was
done accordingly. Ambassadors of rank were sent into France, who, on
receiving the princess, not yet marriageable, from the hand of her father,
conducted her with much pomp to Constantinople; but when he had arrived at
manhood, and she had become of marriageable age, and the imperial union
was in preparation, that abandoned and powerful man Andronicus, as regent
of the kingdom, enticing and corrupting the servants of the palace,
murdered the youthful emperor, who was his own nephew, after clandestinely
conveying him from the palace, without the knowledge of the people,
into a certain island (as it is said) to be secretly put to death by
some of his accomplices. Immediately afterwards, assuming the imperial
purple, he took possession of the empire; and in order that nothing
might be wanting to comnplete his most impious designs, he took to wife
the destined bride of his nephew, being captivated by her beauty. After
he had most insolently abused the power he had usurped, he excited a
conspiracy against himself of such persons as execrated his wickedness or
disdained his contro. This conspiracy, at length, gained such a height
that a vast number of the party suddenly burst furiously into the palace,
and, hurling the fierce usurper from the throne, loaded him most justly
with chains; and that the empire might not suffer from the vacancy, they
forthwith elected a new prince, at whose command the abandoned Andronicus
was tortured to death. By these means the daughter of the king of France
was defrauded of her wished-for and expected marriage in Greece, and
defiled by a connexion with an infamous wretch; neither did she obtain
her expected dignity."
--- *The History of William of Newburgh* (c 1136-1208; this book,
c 1197], tr Joseph Stevenson, in *The Church Historians of England*,
vol iv part ii, London (Seeleys) 1856, p 516-517
Faris
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