32967-0001-0011

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Mary youngest daughter of Stephen

destined by her parents for the cloister.
After being a nun several years through
the unscrupulous policy of Henry 2nd
Mary was induced to give her hand
to Mathew Earl of Alsace ... youngest son
of Theodric Earl of Flanders ... Forced to
give her hand to one she had never seen
and to utter the nuptial altar vows
which could not be breathed by a veiled
nun, without a fearful violation of oaths
previously sworn. Mary soon found
herself the innocent object of exe-
cration to the whole Catholic world.
Mary appears to have been a resigned and
[crossed out] (happy) submissive, though it is very
doubtful whether she was ever a hap-
py wife ... The Thunders of the Violence [?], were
were [sic] not easily repelled. All the church-
es in Boulogne were shut up; the usu-
al offices of religion suspended except
the baptism of infants , and the last
rites to the dying; marriages, if so-
lemnized at all, were to take place
in the churchyard, and the dead to be
buried like brutes, without pray-
ers or funeral service. At last Mathew
with many penetential [sic] expression[s],
asked forgiveness from his wife
and gave her full permission to return
to the cloister. Of this permission the
Countess gladly availed herself.
Mary had two daughters ... [crossed out] (Margaret
the direct ancestors [?] )