The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-07
Black First Worn as Mourning By French
 Queen 417 Years Ago

The proposal recently made in Ensland that white instead of black be worn in memory of it's soldier dead appeals to the modern mind as a startling innovation, yet as mat ter of fact it is but a revival of an old custom White was the accepted
 mourning color of the greater part of Europe, as 1t has always been Of China, until the latter part of the fifteenth century.
 The distinction of having first worn black to express grief belongs to Queen Anne of Brittany the spouse of two successive monarchs of France. It was AIT years ago today on Apr1l T. 14sSi that her first husband, King Charles VIII. of France Joined the great majority. and his widow set all the tongues of France a-Wagging by appearing in public olad entirely in black Instead of the conventional white usually worn by bereayed
 widows After the first excitement had died down, however, it was gem eraIly agreed that Queen Anne had shown good taste, inasmuch as black is more sedate and melancholy and so
 more expressive of grief, than white The innovation of Queen Anne was taken up by all the court, and soon spread among the people. and from
 France to other lands, until in the course of a century black had sup planted white as the color expressive 1 of mourning throughout the civilized
 world About the only exception is
 Turk key-s9hich may or may not be called civilizedAwh violet is the
 mo turning color.
 Besides being the inventor of the modern mourning costumes Anne or I Brittany had the distinction of being
 the wife of two kings, Charles VIII,
 the Affable, and Louis XII, called
 the Father of His Reop1e.
 Queen Anne's grief for her first l husband, which she expressed by wearing black could not have been very deep, for she was an intelligent I and charnaing woman, while her hus- band, although he rnerited the title of s.the Affab1e,ss had little else to | commend him. He was feeble in
 mind as well as body. and, inheriting ] the French throne when child of l thirteen, was dominated by his | shrewd elder sister, Anne of Beau Brittany, the Duke of Orleans and I the Arehduke Maxi1nilian, who had l entered into an alliance against her, | in what was called the ssmad war 2 | In order to insure peace with the 1 fornn1 dable lief Of Brittany, the re- | gent married her weakling brother l to Anne, the heiress to the throne of Brittany, and thus paved the way for a union with France.
 l Charles WILL st last resented the \ l wife, and, entering upon several mad l ventures, lost territory on three from | tiers which was recovered for France I only after the lapse Of nearly two 1 centuries. In Rome Charles had himself crowned King of Naples l Emperor of the East. and King ot 1 Jerusalem. but was soon defeated and ! driven from Italy. His death on l April T, 149S, was hailed with re- lief by his subjects. He was sue
 ceeded by his cousin as Louis XII.
 and the new King soon persuaded I Queen Anne to discard her mourning
 costume of black and don nuptial 1 robes. Louis married the widow oi | his predecessor principally to con tinue the alliance with Brittany and
 to prevent her from carrying hel
 country to another house. Louis XII. by his domestic administration, the
 estab1ishment Of parlianents, the en-
 couragernent of agriculture and
 trade. and the prohibition of pillags ,i and rapine by tha soldiery, won the little of Father of His Country