ggio, in Lombardy. From this lady, then,
and from her husband, was born the doughty Countess Matilda. But the
father of the lady aforesaid, that is to say the emperor of
Constantinople, who had no other daughter, caused great searching to
be made, if by any means he might find her; and found she was, by them
that were seeking, in the said place; and when they begged of her that
she would return to her father, who would marry her again to any
prince she might choose, she gave answer that she had chosen to have
him she now had above all other, and it were a thing impossible to
abandon him and ever be united to another man. And when all this was
told again to the emperor, straightway he sent letters and confirmed
the marriage, and money without end, with orders to buy fortresses and
villages at any price and erect new castles. And they bought in the
said place three fortresses, very nigh together, and because of this
close neighbourhood, they are commonly called the Tre Castella at
Reggio. And not far from the said three fortresses the lady had such a
castle built upon a mountain as might never be taken, the which castle
was called Canossa, and there the countess afterward founded and
endowed a noble convent of nuns. This was in the mountains; but on the
plain she built Guastalla and Sulzariani, and she bought land along
the Po and built divers monasteries, and divers noble bridges did she
make across the rivers of Lombardy. And moreover Garfagnana and the
greater part of the Erignano, and parts of the see of Modena, are said
to have been her possessions, and in the Bolognese district the great
and spacious towns of Arzellata and Medicina were of her patrimony;
and she had many others in Lombardy. And in Tuscany she established
fortresses and the turret at Polugiana, within her jurisdiction, and
she liberally endowed many noblemen, under fee, and made them her
vassals. In divers places she built many monasteries, and endowed many
cathedral churches and others. And in the end, when the Countess
Matilda's father and mother were dead, and she was their heir, she
thought to marry, and having heard of the fame and the person and the
other qualities of a native of Suabia, whose name was Guelf, she sent
formal messages to him and authorised agents who should establish a
contract of marriage between him and her, albeit they were not present
in person together, and who should arrange the place where the
wedding should take place. Th