Death
At the age of 53, like her mother, Philippa fell mortally ill with the plague. She moved from Lisbon to Sacavém and called her sons to her bedside so that she could give them her blessing. Philippa presented her three eldest sons with jewel-encrusted swords, which they would use in their impending knighthoods, and gave each a portion of the True Cross, “enjoining them to preserve their faith and to fulfill the duties of their rank”.
Though he had been reluctant to marry her, the king had grown quite fond of his wife, and it is said that he was “so grieved by mortal illness… that he could neither eat nor sleep”.
In her final hours, Philippa was said to be lucid and without pain. A story tells that she was roused by a wind which blew strongly against the house and asked what wind it was. She was delighted to hear that it was the north wind, and thought that this would be quite beneficial for her son’s and husband’s voyage to Africa, which she had coordinated. Philippa’s end was as pious, harmonious, and peaceful as her life: she prayed with several priests and, “without any toil or suffering, gave her soul into the hands of Him who created her, a smile appearing on her mouth as though she disdained the life of this world”.
Read more about this topic: Philippa Of Lancaster
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“for it is not so much to know the self
as to know it as it is known
by galaxy and cedar cone,
as if birth had never found it
and death could never end it:”
—Archie Randolph Ammons (b. 1926)
“Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their parents; only for their own crimes may persons be put to death.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 24:16.
“To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death freely chosen, death at the right time, brightly and cheerfully accomplished amid children and witnesses: then a real farewell is still possible, as the one who is taking leave is still there; also a real estimate of what one has wished, drawing the sum of one’s life—all in opposition to the wretched and revolting comedy that Christianity has made of the hour of death.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)