name alone appeared on royal decrees and
on treaties. It was not until twenty-two years had passed, in 1248, that
Louis, on starting for the crusade, officially delegated to his mother
the kingly authority, and that Blanche, during her son's absence, really
governed with the title of regent, up to the 1st of December, 1252, the
day of his death.

During the first period of his government, and so long as her son's
minority lasted, Queen Blanche had to grapple with intrigues, plots,
insurrections, and open war, and, what was still worse for her, with the
insults and calumnies of the crown's great vassals, burning to seize once
more, under a woman's government, the independence and power which had
been effectually disputed with them by Philip Augustus. Blanche resisted
their attempts, at one time with open and persevering energy, at another
dexterously with all the tact, address, and allurements of a woman.
Though she was now forty years of age, she was beautiful, elegant,
attractive, full of resources, and of grace in her conversation as well
as her administration, endowed with all the means of pleasing, and
skilful in availing herself of them with a coquetry which was
occasionally more telling than discreet. The malcontents spread the
most odious scandals about her. It so happened that one of the most
considerable amongst the great vassals of France, Theobald IV., Count of
Champagne, a brilliant and gay knight, an ingenious and prolific poet,
had conceived a passion for her; and it was affirmed not only that she
had yielded to his desires, in order to keep him bound to her service,
but that she had, a while ago, in concert with him, murdered her husband,
King Louis VIII. In 1230, some of the greatest barons of the kingdom,
the Count of Brittany, the Count of Boulogne, and the Count of St. Pol
formed a coalition for an attack upon Count Theobald, and invaded
Champagne. Blanche, taking with her the young king her son, went to
the aid of Count Theobald, and, on arriving near Troyes, she had orders
given, in the king's name, for the barons to withdraw: "If you have
plaint to make," said she, "against the Count of Champagne, present
before me your claim, and I will do you justice." "We will not plead
before you," they answered, "for the custom of women is to fix their
choice upon him, in preference to other men, who has slain their
husband." But in spite of this insulting defiance, the barons did
withdraw. Five years