IV. De laude dominae Blanchae piissimae matris ejus

IV. De laude dominae Blanchae piissimae matris ejus

Moreover, the name of Josiah's mother should not be overlooked; she was called Ydida, which means "Beloved of the Lord." This rightly belongs to the most illustrious mother of our king, namely, Lady Blanche, who truly was beloved of the Lord and pleasing to God and useful and accepted by men. Under the holy nurturing and life-giving teaching of such a pious mother, our Louis began to grow as a boy of remarkable character and great hope, and day by day he grew into a perfect man, seeking the Lord and doing what was right and pleasing in the sight of the Lord, truly turning to the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and all his strength, like the good fruit of a good tree. Indeed, when he began to reign and was only about twelve years old, how diligently, how industriously, how justly, and how powerfully his mother managed, protected, and defended the rights of the kingdom, those who were present at that time around the king can testify; although at that time the king had many and very strong adversaries at the beginning of his reign. But the innocence of his mind, along with the wise foresight of his mother (who was always a strong woman and continually infused a masculine spirit into her feminine thoughts and actions), caused the disruptors of the kingdom to be always confused and to succumb, and the king's justice triumphed. It's also worth mentioning a certain religious man who had heard from false informants that the lord king had concubines before his marriage, with whom he sometimes sinned, whether his mother was aware of it or not. When this religious man, with much admiration, had almost accused the queen, she humbly excused herself and her son regarding this falsehood, adding a commendable remark: that if her son the king, whom he loved above all mortal creatures, were to fall ill and it were said to him that he could be healed by sinning once with a woman not his own, he would rather allow her to die than to offend his Creator by sinning even once mortally. I heard this from the very mouth of the lord king.