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GIRLS’ NAMES
What They Mean-Famous People That Bore the Name-The Name in History, Literature, Etc.
By Henry W. Fischer
AGNES
[Welland Telegraph, 16 January 1912]
Agnes should cultivate a gentle and retiring disposition, lest she belies her name, which, literally translated means “lamb.”
As in ancient Rome the lamb was consecrated to sacred purposes, it is not surprising that the name was applied to the gentle girl famed in the history of the church as one of the early Christian martyrs, “Agnes, the representative , the triumph of Innocence.” The Church of St. Agnes in the Eternal City stands on the very spot where the lamb-like creature is said to have suffered.
St. Agnes’ name day is Jan. 20, and on its eve a girl is supposed to see the face of her future husband through certain forms of divination, as told in Keats’ poem, “The Eve of St. Agnes.”
The white violet is Agnes’ emblem: modesty her sentiment.
Agnes de Poitou was the Empress of Henry III of Germany and mother of Henry IV.
By his marriage with Agnes of Meran, King Philip Augustus of France brought down the papal interdict upon his land and subjects and was forced to take back his first wife, Ingeborg, whom he had divorced.
Agnes, Countess of Orlamunda, killed her two children in a mistaken idea that her lover demanded this sacrifice. She was a relative of the Hohenzollerns, and, according to the legend, haunts them as the “White Lady of the Berlin Schloss.”
Queen Agnes of Hungary was the daughter of the murdered German Emperor Albrecht I. She took bloody revenge on the murderers of her sire.
Nor was the royal favorite Ines more fortunate. The beloved of Pedro of Castro, she was murdered by Alphonse of Portugal because Castro had secretly married her.
There is a suggestive Agnes in Moliere’s “School of Women,” on which “The Country Wife” by Wycherley is founded. The Agnes of Lille’s play, “Fatal Curiosity,” is as unfortunate as many of the royal women bearing the name.
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