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MARGARET OF NORWAY. 93
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
-A*«-> • It Was Now The Year 1396, And T...
Grieved , offended , wounded in her pride , her ambition , and her affectionsthe Queenwhose tenderness for this ingrate seems to
have known , no limit , , forgave him once again , and only strove to repair the mischief he had caused . She founded masses for the
repose of the victim ' s soul ; procured a suspension of hostilities ; and opened negotiations with the enemy at Colding , in Jutland .
She exerted herself to regain those partisans "whom Eric ' s insolence had offended . She even travelled in person to Flensburgto preside
, at the council , and promote the conclusion of peace . Whether her efforts were or were not successfulit is impossible to determine ; for
on this point historians disagree , . One thing alone remains certain—that the end of all her greatness was at hand .
It "was now the year 1412 , and a great plague was ravaging the North . It had not yet reached Flensburg ; but as the autumn
advanced , it travelled faster , and waged a deadlier war . At last , when the month of October arrived and the corn was all gathered
in , there came that " reaper whose name is Death " and a human harvest fell . The Queen , who was preparing to return to Denmark ,
hastened on board a vessel then lying at anchor in the harbour , thinking to the infectionand sail immediately . But her
precautions came escape too late . She , had already breathed the tainted airand had no sooner arrived on board than she fell ill and died ,
being , at that time in the sixtieth year of her age . This event , so fatal to the interests of her kingdomand so welcome to her
succes-, sor , took place on the twenty-eighth of October , a . d . 1412 . Buried first at the monastery of Sora , her remains were
afterwards removed to Roeskilde , an ancient city which was then the ital of Denmarkand the residence of the Kings . The cathedral
is cap of great antiquit , y , and stands upon a slight elevation in the midst of the lain of Zealand . The traveller who journeys thither
from Copenhagen p , sees its two lofty towers long before the city comes in viewand the sailor coasting along the western shores of
the Issefiord takes , them for his landmarks . It is a plain brick building of Gothic architecture , remarkable only for its historical
associations , and its age . At the back of the high altar lies the dust of Margaret of Norway . The monument is of granite , painted
black , and surmounted by a full length recumbent statue of the Queen in alabaster . A spacious balustrade protects it from defacing
hands—a lamp burns before it on St . Margaret ' s day—and an inscription running along the front relates that it was erected in the
year 1423 by Eric of Pomerania , " in memory of a Princess whom posterity could never honour to the full extent of her deserts . "
Of the justice of this epitaph there can be no question—it has onlcome too true ; but of the sincerity of King Erie ' s admiration
one y may reasonably doubt . He neither valued her while she lived nor strove to profit by her precepts after she was dead . He scorned
her wisdom , estranged her allies , squandered her treasures , and wronged those whom she liad protected , " His name sounded in i
Margaret Of Norway. 93
MARGARET OF NORWAY . 93
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1859, page 93, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041859/page/21/
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