46 Dtffertation on the Life and Writings of

earldom of Flanders ; it was only in 1246 that Ihe came into its pofleffion, and then her hufband William was dead[f]. He there- fore never acquired the title of Earl : his fon Guy de Dampierre was not aflbciated to the government of Flanders before 1551, and did not become an earl till 1280 [/]. Convinced, as I am, that Mary did not compofe her fables in France, but in England, it is in this latter kingdom that the earl William is to be fought for ; and luckily, the encomium Ihe has left upon him is of fuch a nature as to excite an opinion that he was William Longfword, natural fon of Henry II, and created earl of Salifbury and Romare by Richard Coeur de Lion. She calls him thejlower of chivalry, the mojl valiant man in the kingdom, and thefe features perfectly characterize William Longfword, fo renowned for his prowefs [#]. The praife me beftows on him exprefles, with great fidelity, the fentiments that were entertained of this prince by his contemporaries, and which were become fo general, that, for the purpofe of making his epitaph, it fhould feem that the fimple clogy of Mary would have fumced. Flos comitum, Willelmus obit, ftirps regia, longus Enfis vaginam capit habere brevem [;]. This earl died in is&6[x f fo that Mary muft have written her fables before that time. The brilliant reputation fhe had acquired by her Lays had, no doubt, determined William to folicit a fimilar tranflation of JE/bpian Fables, which then exifted in the Englifh language. She, who in her Lays had painted the manners of her age with fo much nature and fidelity, would find no difficulty in [j] Art de verifier les dates, chap, des Contes de Flandres. [*] Ibid. [] Sandford's Genealogical Hiftory of the Kings of England, p. 1 14. [w] Ibid, p 116, and M. Paris, p. 317. [#] Sandford, Ibid. fucceeding