Page:A cyclopaedia of female biography.djvu/343

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GAL. GAM.
821

made amends for her personal defects; she governed Mary de Medicis so completely, that she was virtually queen, and afterwards regent of France. Her excessive insolence so disgusted Louis the Thirteenth, the son of her protectress, that he gave her up to the envy and hatred of the court. Her husband was assassinated by the king's order, and she was brought to a trial, in which, for want of other crimes, she was accused of sorcery. Being asked by what magic she had so fascinated the queen, she replied, "By the power which strong minds naturally possess over the weak." She was condemned in May, and executed in July, 1617. She left a son and a daughter. The latter died soon after her mother; the son, though he lost his nobility, retired to Italy, with an ample fortune, which had been accumulated by the avarice of his parents.

GALLTTZIN, AMALIA, PRINCESS,

A lady distinguished for talents, and a strong propensity to mysticism, was the daughter of Count Schmettan, and lived during part of her youth at the court of Prince Ferdinand, brother of Frederic the Great of Prussia. She married Prince Gallitzin, of Russia; and, as much of his time was passed in travelling, she chose Munster, in the centre of Germany, for her permanent residence. Here she assembled around her many of the most distinguished men of Germany, of whom Hamann and Hemsterhuis were her most intimate friends. She was an ardent Catholic, and extremely zealous in making proselytes; her children were educated according to Rousseau's system. The princess is the Diotama to whom Hemsterhuis, under the name of Dioklas, addressed his work on Atheism. She died in 1806, near Munster. Her only son was a missionary in America.

GAMBARA, VERONICA,

An Italian lady, born at Brescia in 1485. She married the Lord of Correggio, and after his death devoted herself to literature and the education of her two sons. She died in 1550, aged sixty-five. The best edition of her poems and letters is that of Brescia, in 1759. This lady belonged to one of the most distinguished Italian families; she very early manifested a particular love for poetry, and her parents took pleasure in cultivating her literary taste. Her marriage with the Lord Correggio was one of strong mutual attachment. Her husband, who was devoted to her, delighted in the homage everywhere paid to her talents and charms. In 1515, she accompanied him to Bologna, where a court was held by the Pope, Leo the Tenth, to do honour to Francis the First of France. That gallant monarch was frequently heard to repeat that he had never known a lady so accomplished as Veronica. Her domestic happiness was of short duration; death snatched away Correggio from the enjoyment of all that this world could afford. The grief of Veronica was excessive. She had her whole house hung with black; and though very young at the time of her widowhood, never wore anything but black during the remainder of her life. On the door of her palace she caused to be inscribed the following lines from Virgil:—

Ille meos primus qui me sibi junxit amores
Abstulit: ille habeat secum, servet que sepulchre.