of Agnes).  She was the daughter of Berthold, Marquis of Istria, whom, about 1180, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa had made Duke of Moravia.  According to all contemporary chronicles, Agnes was not only beautiful, but charming; she made a great impression at the court of France; and Philip Augustus, after his marriage with her in June, 1196, became infatuated with her.  But a pope more stern and bold than Celestine iii., Innocent iii., had just been raised to the Holy See, and was exerting himself, in court as well as monastery, to effect a reformation of morals.  Immediately after his accession, he concerned himself with the conjugal irregularity in which the King of France was living.  “My predecessor, Celestine,” he wrote to the Bishop of Paris, “would fain have put a stop to this scandal, but he was unsuccessful; as for me, I am quite resolved to prosecute his work, and obtain by all and any means fulfilment of God’s law.  Be instant in speaking thereof to the king on my behalf; and tell him that his obstinate refusals may probably bring upon him both the wrath of God and the thunders of the Church.”  And indeed Philip’s refusals were very obstinate; for the pride of the king and the feelings of the man were equally wounded.  “I had rather lose half my domains,” said he, “than separate from Agnes.”  The pope threatened him with the interdict,—­that is, the suspension of all religious ceremonies, festivals, and forms in the Church of France.  Philip resisted not only the threat, but also the sentence of the interdict, which was actually pronounced, first in the churches of the royal domain, and afterwards in those of the whole kingdom.  “So wroth was the king,” says the chronicle of St. Denis, “that he thrust from their sees all the prelates of his kingdom, because they had assented to the interdict.”  “I had rather turn Mussulman,” said Philip; “Saladin was a happy man, for he had no pope.”  But Innocent iii. was inflexible; he claimed respect for laws divine and human, for the domestic hearth and public order.  The conscience of the nation was troubled.  Agnes herself applied to the pope, urging her youth, her ignorance of the world, the sincerity and purity of her love for her husband.  Innocent iii. was touched, and before long gave indisputable evidence that he was, but without budging from his duty and his right as a Christian.  For four years the struggle went on.  At last Philip yielded to the injunction of the pope and the feeling of his people; he sent away Agnes, and recalled Ingeburga.  The pope, in his hour of victory, showed his sense of equity and his moral appreciation; taking into consideration the good faith of Agnes in respect of her marriage, and Philip’s possible mistake as to his right to marry her, he declared the legitimacy of the two children born of their union.  Agnes retired to Poissy, where, a few months afterwards, she died.  Ingeburga resumed her title and rights as queen, but without really enjoying them.  Philip, incensed as well as beaten, banished her far from him and his court, to Etampes, where she lived eleven years in profound retirement.  It was only in 1212 that, to fully satisfy the pope, Philip, more persevering in his political wisdom than his domestic prejudices, restored the Danish princess to all her royal station at his side.  She was destined to survive him.