Life of Joanna, Queen of Naples.

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traction, maintains that her beauty far exceeded that of Petrarch's 401 Laura. "Her portrait, which is still to be seen, shews," says he, "that she was more angelic than human. I saw it at Naples, in a number of places, where it is treasured with the greatest care. have seen it also in France, in the cabinets of our kings and queens, and of many of our noble ladies. Certainly this was a beautiful prin cess, whose countenance displayed great sweetness, with a beautiful majesty. She is painted in a magnificent robe of crimson velvet, loaded with gold and silver lace, and embroidery. This robe is almost in the exact fashion our ladies wear now on days of great solemnity, which is called a Boulonnaise, with a great quantity of large tags of gold; on her head she wears a bonnet on a cushion. In brief, this fine portrait of this lady represents her as all beauty, sweetness, and true majesty, so well, that one becomes enamoured of her mere image." Vol. I. pp. 188, 9.

In the mean time, Andrew grew up in torpid indolence, despised by the learned for his ignorance, and by the valiant for his indolence. Every instance of his weakness increased the regrets of Robert, and the licentiousness of the nobles, who, seeing the life of the king near its termination, waged continual war upon each other. Perceiving his end approaching, Robert dictated his testament, leaving to Joanna not only Naples, but the counties of Provence and Piedmont. great deal of matter, which our Author, who seems to have We pass over a set out with a strong resolution to spin out his materials to two volumes, has lengthened to the wire-drawn extent of Guicciardini himself. Friar Robert possesses himself of the government,-'his tyranny and insolence;-the duke of Durazzo carries off the princess Maria;'-these are topics which occupy nearly an entire chapter. In 1343, Joanna received from the pope's legate the investiture of the kingdom, Andrew appearing only as a spectator in the ceremony. Friar Robert's insolence became intolerable to the young queen, and the cardinal sent by the pope to superintend the council of regency during her minority, was wholly ignorant of affairs; but her earnest application at the papal court, to govern herself without the intervention of tutors and guardians, was ineffectual. In the mean while, the partisans of Andrew applied to the court of Avignon for a bull authorizing his coronation in right of Charles Martel, his grandfather. The pope hesitated; but, it is said, that a bribe of 100,000 florins decided the matter; the bull was procured, and the 20th September, 1345, appointed for the ceremony. The bishop of Chartres, the internuncio who was to have performed it, had already arrived at Molo di Gaeta on his way to Naples, when a shocking event overthrew the whole project.

VOL. XXIII. N.S.

Much unnecessary description is lavished by the Author, evidently, we think, to please his fair readers, upon the beautiful gardens of the Celestine monastery at Aversa, whither the king and queen had repaired to avoid the autumnal heats of Naples. A great deal follows about the song of the minstrel, the dance of the young maiden, the tale of the poet enjoyed by the side of the fresh fountain or silver stream, orange-groves, trellissed alleys, the gentle Andrew lying stretched under the tall cedar, or the olive, fondly dreaming of the crown, turning his eyes on his beautiful queen, and thinking of his little child not yet born, which was so soon to unite the jarring pretensions to the crown ;—this too of a being, who, if we are to believe all historians, even the Author himself, never thought of any thing in his life, and seldom turned his eyes to the queen, with whom he lived in discord! After by much too much of this intoxicated prose, we arrive at the circumstances of the murder.

« On the night of the eighteenth they retired to rest as usual, intending to return at an early hour the next day to Naples, preparatory to the ceremonies and fatigues of the morrow. The Hungarian attendants of Andrew were sunk in sleep and wine, the monks of the convent were enjoying their short repose previous to their customary hour of chaunting matins, when Mabrice, the sister of Jacobuzio di Pace, Andrew's chamberlain, who was one of the ladies of the queen's bed-chamber, entered in laste, and told Andrew that a courier from Friar Robert had just arrived, and waited to confer with him on affairs of moment. Unsuspicious of any evil design, the prince got up and dressed himself, in order to proceed to an apartment at the end of a neighbouring gallery, where, not the supposed courier, but some of the conspirators were assembled. Immediately on his leaving the queen, the door of her apartment was secured by the conspirators, we must suppose to prevent his return, or her egress. When he got about the middle of the gallery, some persons, but who they were was never positively known, surrounded him; one stopped his mouth with an iron gauntlet or glove, so as to prevent his cries; others threw round his neck a cord with a running kpot, a towel, or a handkerchief—for the circumstances are differently related, and all dragged him forward to the balcony of the open gal. lery, from which he was hung over the garden, and some of the con. spirators stationed there, strangled him by pulling him by the feet. Having accomplished their horrible purpose, they would have proceeded to bury the body in the garden, with the intention of saying he had left the kingdom for Hungary, by the advice of his counsellors; but the execution of this imbecile contrivance was stopped by the unexpected appearance of an Hungarian maid (by some said to have been the nurse of Andrew, but not so called by Villani) who slept near, probably in one of the apartments under the balcony, and who was disturbed by the fall of the body, when the cord which suspended it was cut or broken. Her cries assembled the inhabitants of the convent to the spot, and dispersed the conspirators, who fled in all directions; and the body of the unfortunate prince was immediately carried into the church of the couvent. Of this horrible transaction little is certainly known, except the atrocious catastrophe, Historians disagree as to the circumstances, the instigators, and the perpetrators of the murder, and abound in directly contradictory assertions ; some say that Andrew was sleeping with the queen when he was called

up; and as Boccaccio on the one side, who was at Naples at the time, and Villani on the other, who had been informed by Nicholas, the Hungarian, his governor, agree in this, it was most probably the case; others, however, say he was in the anti-chamber, undressing, and others that he was in a different apartment altogether, with the ladies of the queen’s bed-chamber, laughing and talking with childish mirth. The queen, immediately on the murder, fled to Naples, in a dreadful state of agitation and fear; and calling round her the most esteemed friends of king Robert, commanded their counsels in this fearful emergency. Messengers were immediately despatched to inform the pope and the king of Hungary of the dreadful event; and Joanna is said to have written to the latter a most pathetic letter, imploring his protection for her and her unborn child. No authentic account remains of how or when she became acquainted, or showed acquaintance, with the murder of Andrew. Villani only says, she returned to Naples next morning, and did not shew the grief she ought to have done. Her contemporary friends, who have not had recourse to invention in her defence, are also silent on the subject.' Vol. I. pp. 225, 8.

The various speculations as to the perpetrators of this murder have left the question in complete doubt. The Abbé de Sade, Petrarch's biographer, produces a sort of Irish defence of Joanna. He attributes it to the Empress of Constantinople, who, by making the queen a widow, hoped to procure her hand for Louis of Tarento, for whom she had already inspired her with a criminal passion, having previously persuaded her to consent to the sacrifice of Andrew, as a measure of state-policy necessary to her own security. Philippa, a governess near the person of Joanna, and her grand-daughter Sancha, were executed because they knew of the plot; but no evidence to shew their privity has ever been adduced. Our Author hazards a solution of the problem as probable as can be obtained, although there are strong circumstances of suspicion, which have not yet been cleared from the memory of the queen.

• The plot,' he says, ' was evidently never of female devising. The vengeance of women, though not less deadly, is more timidly fraudulent in execution, and more cunning in concealment. It

appears have been a sudden burst of desperate ferocity in a set of miscreants who feared the loss of their fortunes and lives under the sway of the implacable and equally unprincipled friar. The time and the manner

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of Andrew's death strongly confirm this supposition; it took place within twenty-four hours of his coronation, without any precautions whatever for concealment. The shallow artifice of burying him in the garden, shews the perturbation of hastily-concerted crime; the fresh-turned earth must have betrayed his grave to the most careless observer, and none could for a moment have believed, that he had voluntarily set out for Hungary in this secret and sudden manner, without the knowledge or assistance of any of his friends, on the eve of his long.desired coronation.' Vol. I. pp. 245, 6.

What authoritative proof, sufficient to silence all doubt or cavil, can be expected at this time of day, seeing that the evidence of the Villani, both of whom are in other respects of irreproachable faith, and who were contemporary writers, is absolutely set at nought? To be sure, the testimony of Petrarch and Boccaccio have great weight; but they were both zealous partisans of the queen, and had received considerable favours at her hands; and as for the poet, he never speaks upon the subject, nor indeed upon any other, in a calm, historical tone, but with that hyperbolical and exaggerated rhetoric which wholly unfits him to be a grave, impartial, or credible witness. In the total absence, therefore, of positive evidence, we must resort to probable testimonies; and among these, we are inclined to rely chiefly upon the unequivocal assertion of her innocence by Clement VI., and the strong, the almost irresistible circumstance, that, when the king of Hungary invaded her dominions expressly to revenge the murder of Andrew, he omitted all mention of the accusation, and insinuated nothing against Joanna in his manifestoes to the pope and the other princes of Europe on that occasion. We should have acquiesced with greater satisfaction in our inferences of her innocence, had we found on our side Muratori, confessedly, the writer of modern times, the best acquainted with Italian history. But he declares, we know not upon what grounds, that it were as easy to wash a blackamoor white, as to clear Joanna of the charge.'

Her marriage with Louis of Taranto, a union recommended by motives of policy, took place in 1347; and the most eventfül and troubled period of her life now approached. The king of Hungary invaded the Neapolitan territories with a great army, which marched towards Naples by the way of Benevento; and the duke of Durazzo treacherously deserted Joanna in her utmost need. She yielded to the storm, and retired to Provence, having first pathetically addressed her council, and absolved her nobles and people from their allegiance.

• The inexpressible grace and touching eloquence of Joanna, moved the assembly to tears. Calm and magnanimous, she alone was suf

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ficiently composed at this affecting moment to speak ; and animated by the unequivocal sympathy she exeited, she bid them "cast away despondency, and share with her the cheerful hope she felt in the justice of God, who, she could not doubt, would display her innocence to the world, and restore her to her kingdom and her fair fame."

• To one convinced of the innocence of the persecuted Joanna, nothing can be imagined more affecting than this young and lovely woman thus commanding herself, and melting the stern warrior and rough burgher into tears at her feet. “ If there be any thing touching in nature, it is the tears of proud man; if there be any thing sublime, it is the mild fortitude of weak woman.” The profound silence which had reigned in the assembly on the first address of the queen, was now broken by clamorous exclamations, imploring her to remain, and dare every hazard, the nobles vowing to maintain her on the throne at the risk of their own and their children's lives.

• It is not to be supposed that one of the most captivating women the world ever saw, could appeal in vain to the sympathy of man in this age of chivalry, when devotion to beauty was carried to a degree of enthusiasm often bordering on madness. Even those, in whom age and experience had chilled the ardent enthusiasm of manhood in its prime, were not less profoundly affected by her address, and whilst they applauded and confirmed her sage resolution, as the most effectual method of ultimately securing the success of her cause, they vowed never to remain at rest till they had procured her return, and to devote their lives and fortunes to her service. The 15th of January was accordingly fixed for Joanna's embarkation for Provence, and three galleys were provided to convey her and her household, with her most precious effects and attached friends. The people of Naples had hitherto been divided between horror of the crime attributed to her, and early affection formed in her happy childhood, when she had been the delight of every eye, grows up familiarly amongst them from her cradle.” The latter sentiment now alone prevailed, heightened by pity for the misfortunes which, under any point of view, had been drawn down on her by the evil agency of others, and by “ admiration of that wisdom which began to display itself in all her actions, and gave promise of what she one day proved.”. Their regrets were unanimous and vehement, and when she bade adieu to the mansion of her father, every man and woman in the city repaired to the scene of embarkation to kiss her hand, or catch a last sight of her beautiful form as she stood on the deck of the galley, which every moment lessened to their view. Both sexes wept bitterly as she left the shore; and as long as the galleys could be seen, even as a small speck on the ocean, they were watched by the anxious crowd; and when they could no longer discern the frail bark which was to bear their young queen, in the depth of winter, through a voyage which the nautical ignorance of the age rendered dangerous, they repaired to the churches, and surrounding the altars, invoked every saint to grant her a prosperous voyage:' Vol. II. pp. 283-5.

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