The Impoverished Noblewoman is the mother of Bertrand’s love interest in Neifile’s third tale (III, 9). Although she has fallen on hard times, she recognizes Gilette’s inherent nobility of spirit and the unfairness of her situation as a repudiated wife, so she risks her daughter’s reputation to help Gilette win her husband over. Along with Gilette, she shows that nobility has nothing to do with accidents of fortune such as birth or wealth, but rather with one’s character.