Note 643 — Chapter III

Orderic has two pictures of her. In the second (834 B), drawn a few years later than our present time, when Count William “natura senioque aliquantum hebescebat,” we read, “Uxor ejus totum consulatum regebat, quæ in sua sagacitate plus quam oporteret confidebat. Pulcra quidem et facunda erat, et magnitudine corporis pene omnes feminas in comitatu Ebroarum consistentes excellebat, et eximia nobilitate, utpote illustris Guillelmi Nivernensis comitis filia, satis pollebat. Hæc nimirum consilio baronum mariti sui relicto, æstimationem suam præferebat, et ardua nimis secularibus in rebus plerumque arripiebat atque immoderata temptare properabat.” Elsewhere (688 A), he says, “Ambæ mulieres quæ talia bella ciebant, loquaces et animosæ, ac forma elegantes erant, suisque maritis imperabant, subditos homines premebant, variisque modis terrebant.” When Orderic (576 C), recording Isabel’s widowhood and religious profession, speaks of her as “letalis lasciviæ cui nimis in juventute servierat pœnitens,” the word need not be taken in the worst sense. He uses (864 A) the same kind of language of Juliana daughter of Henry the First, who, whatever she was as a daughter, seems to have been a very good wife and mother.