ery one one, whom she liked best, and take him for her husband, without
any more ado. This act of his was much approved in those times. But in this
iron age of ours, we respect riches alone, (for a maid must buy her husband
now with a great dowry, if she will have him) covetousness and filthy lucre
mars all good matches, or some such by-respects. Crales, a Servian prince
(as Nicephorus Gregoras _Rom. hist. lib. 6._ relates it,) was an earnest
suitor to Eudocia, the emperor's sister; though her brother much desired
it, yet she could not [5893]abide him, for he had three former wives, all
basely abused; but the emperor still, _Cralis amicitiam magni faciens_,
because he was a great prince, and a troublesome neighbour, much desired
his affinity, and to that end betrothed his own daughter Simonida to him, a
little girl five years of age (he being forty-five,) and five [5894]years
older than the emperor himself: such disproportionable and unlikely matches
can wealth and a fair fortune make. And yet not that alone, it is not only
money, but sometimes vainglory, pride, ambition, do as much harm as
wretched covetousness itself in another extreme. If a yeoman have one sole
daughter, he must overmatch her, above her birth and calling, to a
gentleman forsooth, because of her great portion, too good for one of her
own rank, as he supposeth: a gentleman's daughter and heir must be married
to a knight baronet's eldest son at least; and a knight's only daughter to
a baron himself, or an earl, and so upwards, her great dower deserves it.
And thus striving for more honour to their wealth, they undo their
children, many discontents follow, and oftentimes they ruinate their
families. [5895]Paulus Jovius gives instance in Galeatius the Second, that
heroical Duke of Milan, _externas affinitates, decoras quidem regio fastu,
sed sibi et posteris damnosas et fere exitiales quaesivit_; he married his
eldest son John Galeatius to Isabella the King of France his sister, but
she was _socero tam gravis, ut ducentis millibus aureorum constiterit_, her
entertainment at Milan was so costly that it almost undid him. His daughter
Violanta was married to Lionel Duke of Clarence, the youngest son to Edward
the Third, King of England, but, _ad ejus adventum tantae opes tam
admirabili liberalitate profusae sunt, ut opulentissimorum regum splendorem
superasse videretur_, he was welcomed with such incredible magnificence,
that a king's purse was scarce able to be