This is one of the best known Portuguese legends that extols the goodness of Queen Isabel to all her subjects, to whom she took alms and words of comfort . The story goes that a spiteful noble informed King Dinis that the Queen was spending too much on the work of churches , convents grants , donations and other charitable work and convinced him to put an end to these excesses . The King decided to surprise the Queen in the morning when she was on her way to the works of Santa Clara for the usual distribution of alms and noticed she disguised her lap. Questioned by D. Dinis , the Queen said that were ornaments for the altars in the monastery, but the King insisted for he had been informed that the queen was disobeying his prohibitions. Suddenly and more confident Isabel replied ” Deceive you Royal Lord for I carry it in my lap roses … ” The angry king accused her of being a lier : how could she have roses in January? And before the astonished eyes of all Queen Isabel showed the beautiful bunch of roses she kept under cover . The King was speechless, was convinced by the a supernatural phenomenon and eventually apologize to the Queen who continued her intention to go take alms . The news of the miracle ran the city of Coimbra and the people proclaimed holy Queen Isabel of Portugal
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