Far from the Madding Crowd Boldwood, not realising the valentine was a jest, becomes obsessed with Bathsheba and soon proposes marriage. Although she does not love him, she toys with the idea of accepting his offer; he is, after all, the most eligible bachelor in the district. However, she postpones giving him a definite answer. When Gabriel rebukes her for her thoughtlessness regarding Boldwood, she dismisses him. When Bathsheba's sheep begin dying from bloat, she discovers to her chagrin that Gabriel is the only man who knows how to cure them. Her pride delays the inevitable, but finally she is forced to beg him for
Solomon, King of Hungary including coinage. His mother and wife left him and followed Henry IV to Germany. According to Berthold of Reichenau's "Chronicle": Solomon attempted to convince Pope Gregory VII to support him against Géza. However, the pope condemned him for having accepted his kingdom "as a fief from the king of the Germans" and claimed suzerainty over Hungary. Thereafter it was Henry IV's support which enabled Solomon to resist Géza's all attempts at taking Moson and Pressburg. The German monarch even sent one of his main opponents, Bishop Burchard II of Halberstadt, into exile to Solomon in June 1076. Solomon's wife, Queen