Note 223 — GAMMER GURTON'S NEEDLE.
Reading edition
Our dear Lady of Boulogne is no other than the image of the Virgin Mary at Boulogne, which was formerly held in so much reverence, that it was one of those to which Pilgrimages used to be made. In Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," Prol. 1. 465, describing the "Wife of Bath," he says—
"And thries hadde sche ben at Jerusalem. Sche hadde passed many a straunge streem. At Rome sche hadde ben, and at Boloyne. In Galice at seynt Jame, and at Coloyne."
The Virgin Mary was the patroness of the town of Boulogne in a very singular manner, it being holden immediately of her: "For when King Lewis II., after the decease of Charles of Burgundy, had taken in Boulogne, anno 1477, as new Lord of the town (thus John de Serres relateth it), he did homage without sword or spurs bareheaded, and on his knee, before the Virgin Mary, offering unto her image an heart of massie gold, weighing 2000 crowns. He added also this, that he and his successors, kings after him, should hold the county of Boulogne of the said Virgin, and do homage unto her image in the great church of the higher town dedicated to her name, paying at every change of a vassal an heart of pure gold of the same weight."—Heylin's "Survey of France," 1656, p. 193.