A letter from Ingeborg of Denmark, queen of France (1196)

Translated letter:

To lord Celestine pope, Ingeborg, queen of the French. One must keep taking recourse to the seat of mercy until mercy looks from heaven and God carries out the wishes of those who hope in him. So it is, most beloved Father, that I, whose heart is pierced by the stings of sorrow day and night, can scarcely desist from calling out first to God, then to the clemency of the apostolic see, so that perhaps God might look upon the prayer of his humble handmaid and remove his arrows from me which battle against me — the indignation they cause exhausts/drinks up my spirit — and so that the benign successor of the apostle Peter may pour the dew of his benediction into the dryness of my heart and confer the remedy of consolation in my tribulation for the injuries imposed on me. For who, father, would not commiserate with the sighs of his daughter? Who would be little distressed by her sorrows? Let it not be you! Thrown down from the throne of glory prostrate on earth, I seek and do not find a consoler; I weep for the damage to my former prestige, while there is none to redeem me nor to make me safe. I am ashamed of my misery, my spirit is distressed for me, my heart is disturbed against me. There is one thing, my father, which warms and caresses me in the anguish of my tribulation with the benefit of hoped-for consolation and apart from that there is nothing. If one asked what that might be, I have no response except what I am about to say, the clemency of the apostolic see. I ask you, therefore, most clement father that you press him through whom I am afflicted so that I be reconciled with him, bringing your daughter back into the appropriate fullness of glory, that I may ascribe the joys of reconciliation to God and to the grace of your paternity. Indeed, it is to the honor of God and the salvation of men that in making judgments truth be always brought to light. To this also you, fathers and lord cardinals. [letter from Knut] Knut, by the grace of God king of the Danes and Slavs, to his venerable friends and lords, bishops, priests, deacons, cardinals of the holy Roman church, in the fullness of days and joys. As much as the apostolic see is preeminent in position over others, the more fully it is believed to abound in the organs of piety, the more diligently to preserve equity in making judgments. Far be it that men should wish the judgment of mercy to turn elsewhere and go beyond the way of truth, when the cry of the poor and the sigh of the afflicted is directed at them whom the Lord established as defenders of orphans and judges of widows. Happy those to whom truth is not hateful, falseness not flattering, so that they would exceed or allow to be exceeded the limits set in the church by the holiness of the ancient fathers. We pray, therefore, that our messengers for your grace’s help be received benignly, and heard, and once heard that they be followed in the completion of all our business with benign favor, so that we may call forth the milk of consolation from the breast of compassion. This is the full extent of our business: The king of the French, Philip, married our sister one year ago [1193], and having raised her to the royal throne and known her carnally, dismissed her destitute of virtually all comfort, with the sons of iniquity, the friends of falsehood, manufacturing the word of error on the anvil of lies. They swore that there was a line of consanguinty between them, which is as far from truth as falsehood is far from truth, as will be made clear to you by our messengers making a pledge/oath. We ask therefore that your holiness and the justice of holiness not grow numb with sloth in the business of piety, so what divine law demands and what was done against the stipulations of the holy fathers with the intervention of your opinion is not doubted nor made altogether void. Be well.

Original letter:

Ad dominum Coelestinum Papam Regina Francorum. Ad sedem misericordiae totiens est recurrendum quoad usque misericordia de coelo respiciat et sperantium in se Deus vota perficiat. Inde est, amantissime Pater, quod et ego, cujus cor doloris aculeis diebus ac noctibus perforatur, ad Deum primo, deinde ad sedis apostolicae clementiam, minime clamare desisto, si forte respiciat Dominus in orationem humilis ancillae suae, et amoveat a me sagittas suas quae militant adversum me, quarum indignatio ebibit spiritum meum, et apostoli Petri successor benedictionis suae rorem ariditati cordis mei benignus infundat, et de illata mihi injuria conferat consolationis in mea tribulatione remedium. Quis enim, Pater, qui gemitibus filia suae nulla miseratione compatitur, minime doloribus anxiatur? absit ut vos! De solio gloriae dejecta et in terra prostrata, consolatorem inquiro, et non invenio; excellentiae pristinae defleo detrimentum, dum non est qui redimat, neque qui salvam faciat. Pudet me miseriae meae, et anxiatur super me spiritus meus, in me turbatum est cor meum. Unum est, Pater mi, quod me inter tribulationum mearum angustias beneficio consolationis speratae refovet et demulcet, et praeter illud non est aliud. Quid sit illud si quaeritur, nil in responsis habeo praeter hoc quod dictura sum, sedis apostolicae clementia. Rogo igitur te, clementissime Pater, ut filiam redigens in mensuram plenitudinis gloriae, tua justitia mediante, deprimas illum per quem affligor, ut iterum reconcilier illi, et reconciliationis gaudia Deo et gratiae vestrae paternitatis adscribam: siquidem ad Dei spectat honorem hominumque salutem, ut in faciendis judiciis semper veritas producatur in lucem. Ad hoc etiam vos, patres et domini cardinales, etc. K., Dei gratia Danorum Rex atque Slavorum, venerabilibus amicis suis et dominis, episcopis, presbyteris, diaconis, sanctae Romanae ecclesiae cardinalibus, in plenitudinem dierum et gaudiorum. Apostolica sedes quanto caeteris praeeminet dignitate, tanto amplioris creditur pietatis visceribus abundare, in faciendis judiciis servata diligentius aequitate. Absit enim ut viri misericordiae judicium velint in partem alteram declinare et tramitem veritatis excedere, cum ad eos et clamor dirigitur pauperum et gemitus afflictorum, quos constituit Dominus et defensores pupillorum et judices viduarum! Felices quibus nec veritas venit in odium, nec falsitas ita blanditur, ut excedant terminos vel patiantur excedi, quos in ecclesia posuit antiquorum sanctitas patrum! Ad auxilium igitur gratiae vestrae praesentes nuncios nostros a vobis benigne suscipi et audiri, auditosque in completione totius negotii nostri benigno favore prosequi deprecamus, ut ex ubere compassionis lac eliciamus consolationis. Summa vero negotii nostri haec est. Rex Francorum Philippus sororem nostram, anno jam exacto, duxit in uxorem, et regali solio sublimatam et carnaliter cognitam, iniquitatis filiis, falsitatis amicis, in incude mendacii verbum fallaciae fabricantibus, a se dimisit omni fere solatio destitutam. Juraverunt siquidem inter eos consanguinitatis lineam interesse: quod ita longe est a veritate sicut falsitas a veritate; quod vobis manifeste patebit, nunciis nostris fidem facientibus vobis. Rogamus igitur ut in negotio pietatis non torpeat otio sanctitas vestra et justitia sanctitatis, ut quod divina lex exigit, et contra sanctorum patrum instituta factum esse non dubitatur, vestris studiis intervenientibus totum in irritum deducatur. Valete.

Historical context:

Ingeborg complains of her continued suffering and repeats that her only hope for relief and justice is in the papacy. The last part of the letter is the same text as her brother’s letter to the college of cardinals (ep.6) from two years earlier.

Printed source:

HGF19, Epistolae Sancti Guillelmi Abbatis S. Thomae de Paracleto 20, p.321-22, and 6, 313-14.

Date:

1196