forced Agnes to marry him, and ascended the throne. In 1185, Andronicus was deposed and killed. Being thus left a second time a widow, before she was sixteen, Agnes sought for a protector among the Greek nobility, and her choice fell on Theodore Branas, who defended her cause so well, that when the crusaders took Constantinople, they gave him the city of Napoli, and that of Adrianople, his country, and of Didyraoticus. He soon after married Agnes, and the rest of her life, so stormy in its commencement, was passed very tranquilly.
AGNES OF HUNGARY,
Wife of Andrew the Third, last king of Hungary, was the daughter of Albert the First, emperor of Germany. She distinguished herself by her address and political abilities; but appears to have had more Machiavellian policy than true greatness of mind. After the death of her father, she resided in Switzerland, where her finesse was of great service to her brother, Albert the Second, with whom the Swiss were at war. She died in 1559, having spent the last fifty years of her life in the convent of Kimysfelden, built by herself and mother, on the spot where the Emperor Albert was murdered, by a conspiracy headed by his nephew, in 1308. During this long period she never ceased to lament the death of her father, and to subject herself to the most ascetic discipline.
AGNES, SAINT,
A Christian martyr at Rome during the persecutions of Dioclesian, whose bloody edicts appeared in March, A. D. 303. She was but thirteen at the time of her glorious death. Her riches and beauty excited many of the young noblemen of Rome to seek her in marriage; but Agnes answered them all, that she had consecrated herself to a heavenly spouse. Her suitors accused her to the governor as a Christian, not doubting that threats and torments would overcome her resolution. The judge at first employed the mildest persuasions and most inviting promises, to which Agnes paid no attention; he then displayed before her the instruments of torture, with threats of immediate execution, and dragged her before idols, to which she was commanded to sacrifice; but Agnes moved her hand only to make the sign of the cross. The governor, highly exasperated, ordered her to be immediately beheaded; and Agnes went cheerfully to the place of execution. Her body was buried at a small distance from Rome, near the Nonietan road. A church was built on the spot in the time of Constantine the Great. The old Latin martyrologies assign to St. Agnes the 21st. and 28th. of January; the Greek the 14th. and 21st. of that month; which latter date is now called her day in the Roman church.
AGNES SOREL,
A native of Fromenteau, in Lorraine, was maid of honour to Isabella of Lorraine, sister-in-law of the queen of Charles the Seventh of France. The king became enamoured of her, and at last abandoned the cares of government for her society. But Agnes roused him from enervating repose, and induced him to attack the English, who were ravaging France. She maintained her influence over him till her death, 1450, at the age of thirty-nine.
