Excerpt from The Works of Voltaire, Vol. 26 of 43: A Contemporary Version With Notes; A Critique and Biography Queen Blanche had at least the imprudence to enter into too close connection with the faction of the bastards, her husband's enemies. Can we then be surprised that the king left her in a castle, and consoled himself with other amours? Don Pedro, therefore, had, at the same time, the king of Aragon and his rebellious brothers 'to encounter. Victory however still followed him, and it must be confessed, he made a cruel use of it. He seldom forgave, and his relatives, who were found in arms against him, were sacrificed to his resentment. In short, he ordered the grand master of St. Jago to be put to death. This action pro cured him the name of Cruel, while John, king of France, who had assassinated his constable and four Norman lords, was called John the Good. During these troubles, his wife, Blanche, died. She had been judged culpable, and, of course, it was said she died by poison. But let me once more Observe that we should be cautious how we give credit to a charge of this nature, without sufficient proof. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.