Another lovely APOD Jupiter and Venus picture … The Astronomy Picture Of the Day website has a new glorious picture of Jupiter and Venus together in the sky, along with a telescope, and children being shown this wonder.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230315.html

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I got to thinking about Andrew II of Hungary, again. He seemed to be the key to understanding the relationships of the saints in my previous post. His daughter was a saint. One of his granddaughters was a saint (and two more are venerated, in their little corner of the world). One of his great granddaughters was a saint. And one of his great, great, great, great, great granddaughters was a saint. But he came to the throne by pushing his brother, King Emeric, off the throne, and being unhelpful about Emeric’s son Ladislaus. (Though he didn’t kill the son.) Who would have looked at him and thought … lots of saints on the way …

**On the other hand, his wife Gertrude was the sister of Saint Hedwig, Duchess of Silesia. I didn’t originally pay enough attention to her because she was so annoying that the Hungarian nobility murdered her. **

Also in response to the previous post, the question came up. How did all these cross-European marriage partners communicate? The current guess is Latin.

I looked up the Portuguese language and some website claimed that King Denis, married to Queen Saint Elizabeth, was the first to insist that the Galician/Latin combo spoken in his neck of the woods be used on official documents. That would make him the Father of Portuguese. Not sure about that…

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Dante, the Father of Italian, had rude remarks about King Denis of Portugal along with a great many other rulers in Canto 19, Paradiso. Cary, who called Denis Dionysius, thought Dante’s condemnation was unwarranted. I’m not so sure. Denis is all the way down.

What will the Persians to your rulers say,

when lying open they shall see the Book,

wherein all their dispraises are inscribed?

There follows a long list of people who are going to be shocked when they see their bad deeds written in the Book. This doesn’t mean that Dante has condemned all these people to Hell. Several are shown to be in Purgatory already.

…

There will be seen the woe, which on the Seine

he who shall perish by a boar skin’s blow,

bringeth about by falsifying coin.

(Philip IV of France, who despoiled the Pope at Agnani, is here accused of debasing his currency, not quite by counterfeiting. He died when a boar knocked his horse down. )

…

One will see there, marked with a single I,

the virtues of Jerusalem’s lame king,

whereas an M will mark the contrary.

(This is Charles II of Naples and Jerusalem, who was married to Mary of Hungary. Their son is Charles Martel. The I stands for one and the M stands for a thousand. One good deed and one thousand bad ones…)

…

One will see there the greed and cowardice

of him who ruleth o’er the isle of fire,

where once Anchises ended his long life.

(one of the many Fredericks in a long line of back and forth fighting over who would rule Sicily.)

And finally …

And he of Portugal, and he of Norway,

will there be known, as also Rascia’s prince,

who in an ill hour saw Venetia’s coin.

(Cary says quite plainly “who has counterfeited ill the coin of Venice.” More forgery by someone!)

King Denis had either seven or nine illegitimate children. Elizabeth brought them up and taught them at his request. But her own son was annoyed enough to start a war with his father. By galloping between the lines of soldiers to beg for peace, Saint Elizabeth earned the title, the Peacemaker.