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Lives of the queens of England before the Norman conquest
Lives of the queens of England before the Norman conquest Author:Matthew Hall Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: GWENISSA THE FAIR. Political influence of Women—A Deputation sent to Rome to fetch Gwenissa as the bride of Arviragus—Customs of Roman betrothals—Gweuissa's f... more »amily—She ia supposed to be illegitimate — Lines of Harding on the Marriage of Arviragus nud Gwenissa—The äowery mead—Gloucester built in honour of the event — Crowns of gold—The Emperor Claudius returns to Rome—Festivities in his honour—Beauty of Gwenissa—The love of her Husband for her—Its transient duration—He breaks with Rome — Gwenissa as Winner of Peace—Vespasian remains in Britain — Asserted visit to Britain of Joseph of Arimuthea — The Twelve Hides of Glaston—Change in the fortunes of Gwenissa—Arviragus forsakes her for Boadicea—She dies of grief in giving birth to her son Murius. Here is a father now Will truck bis daughter for a foreign venture, Make her the stop-gap to some canker'd feud, Or fling her o'er, like Jonah, to the fishes, To appease the sea at highest.—Sir Walter Scott (Old Play). Was never king more highly magnifide, Nor dredd of Romans, than was Arvirage.—Spenser. There are few histories which do not present instances of the political influence of woman. The wife, the daughter, the mother, or the friend, lia.s, in innumerable cases, become' the arbitrées of the destiny of an empire ; ¡md frequently has it happened, that her happiness, sometimes eveu her life has been offered up as a sacrifice to her country's welfare. Such wa the case with Gwenissa, one of the most interesting queens of Roman Britain. The circumstances of the divorce of Arviragus from Boadicea have been already recounted, and how he assented to the proposals of Claudius. to receive his daughter G-wenissa in marriage, after having made a formal declaration of his submission to the Roman empire. A deputation was th...« less