Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1874-01-09
nistoriral.
AGNES SOREI.
From London Society

This celebrated flvorite of Charles
VII, Of France-one who has inherit
ed from her own time to ours, after a
lapse of more than four centuries, the
distinctive sobriquet of 1.-THE beautiful
Agnes was the daughter of NJ. Soreau
(vulgarly called Sorel, according to De
Mezerai,) the Seigneur de st. Geran, a
noble gentleman of Touraine.
She was born in 1409, and in 1881,
when in her two-and- twentieth year,
received the appointment of attendant
or lady of honor to Isabella, Queen Of
Naples and Sicily, from whose Court
she passed into that of Mary, daughter
of Louis II, Duke of Aniou afterwards
Queen of Charles VII, where her rank,
education, and, more than these, her
marvellous beauty, all conspired to win
her the perilous attention OF a King
who was younger than herself. Agnes
was not seventeen, as the fair author
ess of the ''Histoire des Favorites' as
serts she was, at this time: but had at
tanned the more mature age Of at least
twenty-eight-perhaps thirty, as Oil
yer de la Marche, a contemporary,
when recording some event which took
place in 1444, tells us that 1.-The King
had just elevated poor lady, pretty
woman, called Agnes Sorel, and placed
her in such triumph and power that
her state was comparable to that of
the great Princesses Of the realm"
Her features were beautiful and ex-
pressive of extreme gentleness; her skin
has been described as being of the hue
of alabaster, and her hair was marvel
ously golden in its brightness. She
was then in the full bloom and beauty
of womanhood, and possessed a vivaci-
ty of manner which "spread an air full
of charms on the least Of her actions,
80 that the most insensible souls could
not resist her" (sHistoire des Favor
ites.'O Heaven" says the authoress,
''had not only endowed Agnes with
the charms of face; she had an air full
of grace, an admirable figure, more
wit than any other woman in the world,
and the most delicate and finely turn
ed, with certain greatness of soul
which led her naturally to generosity;
all her 'inclinations were noble; she
was attentive, compassionate, ardent in
friendship, discreet, sincere, and, in
short, altogether fitted to make herself
beloved to distraction"
De Mezerai writes Of her as a every
agreeable and generous lady, who, by
setting herself up lis the equal of the
greatest Princesses, became the envy
of the Court and the scandal of France"
With all her errors, Agnes was admit
ted to be lavish to the poor, to be pious,
generally humble, and always patriotic
and full of public spirit. The major
ity of historians have written most fav-
orably of her, and never did the mis-
tress of a King,,especiallya King who
was her junior, make so wise a use Of
her perilous power, which she ever
employed only for the good of others.
Pride and an extreme love of dress are
the chief errors alleged against her.
but to her influence Of Charles VII
must be attributed all the good that
ever appeared in him, and the effort to
which he was roused-that essay by
which, at last, the invading English
were driven from the SOL of France:
for he had been lover Of pleasure,
s'and of the fair sex, which never can
be vice." adds Voltaire, "save when
it leads to vicious actions.''
Charles WAS neither war-like nor a
high-spirited King. The influence of
England in France after the death of
its conqueror, Henry V, was so nobIy
sustained by his brother, the Duke Of
Bedford, that after the demise of
Charles VI, his successor had been
crowned at Poictiers, Rheims being
then in possession of the foe; and he
was but the monarch Of nominal
Kingdom, France having greatly aided
the English invaders, as she was rent
by two rival factions, one led by the
Duke of Burgundy and the other by
the Duke of Orleans. Charles VI had
been alternately the prisoner of each,
and the Dauphin was the scoff Of both
often fugitive, and always in dan
ger of destruction.
When the latter become Charles
VII, aided by an alliance with Scot
land-the usual ''cat's-paw'' of the
French in their English wars-and a
body of Scottish troops under the Earl
Of Buchan, who was Constable of