Note 1234 — Chapter VIII

There is, however, one very remarkable old law, in the form of a canon enacted by the third Council of Saragossa, which orders that the royal widows ‘seront obligées à prendre l'habit de religieuses, et à s'enfermer dans un monastère pour le reste de leur vie.’ Fleury, Histoire Ecclésiastique, vol. ix. p. 104. In 1065 Ferdinand I. died; and, says the biographer of the Spanish Queens, ‘La Reyna sobrevivió: y parece, que muerto su marido, entró en algun Monasterio; lo que expressamos no tanto por la costumbre antigua, quanto por constar en la Memoria referida de la Iglesia de Leon, el dictado de ‘Consagrada á Dios,’ frasse que denota estado Religioso.’ Florez, Memorias de las Reynas Catholicas, Madrid, 1761, 4to, vol. i. p. 148. In 1667 it was a settled principle that ‘les reines d'Espagne n'en sortent point. Le couvent de las Señoras descalças reales est fondé afin que les reines veuves s'y enferment.’ Discours du Comte de Castrillo à la Reine d'Espagne, in Mignet's Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne, vol. ii. p. 604, Paris, 1835, 4to. This valuable work consists for the most part of documents previously unpublished, many of which are taken from the archives at Simancas. To the critical historian, it would have been more useful if the original Spanish had been given.