622492239. Agnes d'Aquitaine (de Pitou)
After the death of Henry III, Empress Agnes served as regent for her minor son, Henry IV. However, just as her motehr had done before her, she refused to relinquish the throne when her son came of age. She ruled until 1062, when she was ousted by two German bishops. She lived in Rome, a staunch supporter of Pope Gregory VII until her death.
[see TEMA, p. 17]
622492403. Irene Ducaena
"She stood upright like some young sapling, erect and evergreen, all her limbs and the other parts of her body absolutely symmetrical and in harmony with one another. With her lovely appearance and charming voice she never ceased to fascinate all who saw and heard her. Her face shone with the soft light of the moon; it was not the completely round face of an Assyrian woman, nor long, like the face of a Scyth, but just slightly oval in shape. There were rose blossoms on her cheecks, visible a long way off. Her light blue eyes were both gay and stern: their charm and beauty attracted, but the fear they caused so dazzled the bystander that he could neither look nor turn away. Whether there really was an Athena in olden times, the Athena celebrated by poets and writers, I do not know, but I often hear the myth repeated and satirized. However, if someone in those times had said of this empress that she was Athena made manifest to the human race, or that she had descended suddenly from the sky in some heavenly glory and unapproachable splendor, his description would not have been so very inappropriate."
[Anna Comnena, The Alexiad, op. cit., 110]
© 1995-2001, Saul M. Montes-Bradley