ABSTRACT
On August 21, 1165, “at the beginning of the time of autumn, at night indeed, and at that hour of the night when all was still and persons were in their first sleep,” a young student in Paris, Gerald of Wales (1146-c. 1223), was suddenly aroused from his slumber. For “such a noise and clang of all the bells burst forth, and so great a number of wax-lights were blazing through all the streets, that those who were ignorant of the cause of so great and unusual a sound and tumult, and of so immense a nocturnal illumination, began to think that a conflagration of the city was at hand.” Gerald immediately leapt to the window from the couch upon which he had stretched himself and looked out. Below, he saw two very poor old women, bearing torches of wax, dancing in the street. On inquiring about the reason for their rejoicing, one of the old women looked up and said: “We have now a king given to us by God, and God has given us a very powerful heir to the kingdom, by whom disgrace and loss, punishment and grievous shame, at the same time abundant confusion and sorrow, shall increase to your king.”1 As Gerald goes on to explain, the old woman was triumphantly issuing a prophetic warning. The long-awaited birth of a male heir to the French kingdom, Philip Augustus (r. 11801223), heralded the curtailment of King Henry II of England’s power and domains in France. Moreover, the old woman’s forewarning was addressed directly toward the English living in the city of Paris:
For the woman knew that he [Gerald] to whom she was speaking, and his companions, were sprung from the kingdom of England; and therefore, against themselves and their king the old woman bitterly uttered this speech, which was as if poured forth by a prophetic spirit, and which in reality was fulfilled, within a short time, with too much truth.2
