Eleanor of Provence
Eleanor of Provence | |
---|---|
Queen consort of England | |
Tenure | 14 January 1236 – 16 November 1272 |
Coronation | 20 January 1236 |
Born | c. 1223 Aix-en-Provence, France |
Died | 24/25 June 1291 (aged 67–68) Amesbury, Wiltshire, England |
Burial | |
Spouse | |
Issue |
|
House | Barcelona |
Father | Ramon Berenguer V, Count of Provence |
Mother | Beatrice of Savoy |
Eleanor of Provence (c. 1223 – 24/25 June 1291) was a Provençal noblewoman who became Queen of England as the wife of King Henry III from 1236 until his death in 1272. She served as regent of England during the absence of her spouse in France in 1253.
Although she was completely devoted to her husband and staunchly defended him against the rebel Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, she was very much hated by the Londoners. This was because she had brought many relatives with her to England in her retinue; these were known as "the Savoyards", and they were given influential positions in the government and realm. On one occasion, Eleanor's barge was attacked by angry Londoners who pelted her with stones, mud, pieces of paving, rotten eggs and vegetables.
Eleanor had five children, including the future King Edward I of England. She also was renowned for her cleverness, skill at writing poetry, and as a leader of fashion.
Early life
Born in the city of
Like her mother, grandmother, and sisters, Eleanor was renowned for her beauty. She was a dark-haired brunette with fine eyes.
Queen consort
Eleanor was married to King Henry III of England on 14 January 1236.
Unpopularity
Eleanor was a loyal and faithful consort to Henry, but she brought in her retinue a large number of uncles and cousins, "the Savoyards", and her influence with the King and her unpopularity with the English barons created friction during Henry's reign.[9] Her uncle William of Savoy became a close advisor of her husband, displacing and displeasing English barons.[10]
Though Eleanor and Henry supported different factions at times, she was made regent of England when her husband left for Gascony in 1253.[11] (During this time she exercised the functions of Lord Chancellor, the only woman to do so until Liz Truss was appointed to the office in 2016.)[12] Eleanor was devoted to her husband's cause, stoutly contested Simon de Montfort, and raised troops in France for Henry.
On 13 July 1263, she was sailing down the
Queen dowager and death
Expulsion of the Jews from Dower lands
Eleanor was noted for her hostility to Jews and Judaism. On 16 January 1275, she received permission from Edward I to expel the Jews from all of her lands.[15] Jews were expelled from Marlborough, Gloucester, Worcester and Cambridge. The Jews of Cambridge were instructed to flee to Norwich, and those of Marlborough to Devizes. The Jews of Gloucester were ordered to move to Bristol, but were worried because of anti-Jewish violence that had occurred there, and instead mostly chose to move to Hereford along with those forced to leave nearby Worcester.[16]
Last years and death
In 1272, Henry died, and her son Edward, who was 33 years old, became king of England. She remained in England as queen dowager and raised several of her grandchildren: Two of Edward's children, Henry and Eleanor, as well as Beatrice's son John of Brittany. When her grandson Henry died in her care in 1274, Eleanor went into mourning and gave orders for his heart to be buried at the priory at Guildford, which she founded in his memory. Eleanor's two remaining daughters died in 1275, Margaret on 26 February and Beatrice on 24 March.
She retired in 1286 to Amesbury Priory in Wiltshire, eight miles north of Salisbury, where she was visited by her son, King Edward. Two of her granddaughters – Mary of Woodstock (daughter of Edward) and Eleanor of Brittany – were already nuns there, each having entered the priory on reaching the age of seven.[17]
Eleanor died on 24/25 June 1291 at the priory and was buried there.[17] The site of her grave is unknown, making her the only English queen without a marked grave. Her heart was taken to London where it was buried at the Franciscan priory of Greyfriars.[18]
Cultural legacy
Eleanor was renowned for her learning, cleverness, and skill at writing poetry,[19] as well as her beauty; she was also known as a leader of fashion, continually importing clothes from France.[4] She favoured red silk damask and often wore parti-coloured cottes (a type of tunic), gold or silver girdles into which a dagger was casually thrust, and decorations of gilt quatrefoil. To cover her dark hair, she wore jaunty pillbox caps. Eleanor introduced a new type of wimple to England, which was high, "into which the head receded until the face seemed like a flower in an enveloping spathe".[4]
She had developed a love for the songs of the troubadours as a child and continued this interest into adulthood. She bought many romantic and historical books that included stories from ancient times to contemporary romances written in the period (13th century).[a]
Eleanor is the protagonist of The Queen From Provence, a historical romance by British novelist
Issue
Eleanor and Henry had five children together. Eleanor seems to have been especially devoted to her eldest son, Edward; when he was deathly ill in 1246, she stayed with him at the abbey at Beaulieu in Hampshire for three weeks, long past the time allowed by monastic rules.[20] She personally supervised Edward's upbringing and education.[21] It was because of her influence that King Henry granted the duchy of Gascony to Edward in 1249.[citation needed] Her youngest child, Katherine, seems to have had a degenerative disease that rendered her deaf. When the little girl died at the age of three, both her royal parents suffered overwhelming grief.[22] Eleanor possibly had four other sons who also died in childhood, but their existence is in doubt as there is no contemporary record of them.[b]
- Edward II. His second wife was Margaret of France, by whom he had issue.[23]
- Margaret (1240–1275), married King Alexander III of Scotland, by whom she had issue.[23]
- Beatrice (1242–1275), married John II, Duke of Brittany, by whom she had issue.[23]
- Aveline de Forz in 1269, who died four years later without issue; married Blanche of Artoisin 1276, by whom he had issue.
- Katherine (25 November 1253 – 3 May 1257)[23]
Notes
- ^ Prestwich states she owned romances written in French.[20]
- ^ Until the late 20th century, historians also accepted the existence of four other children, Richard (d. 29 August 1250), John (b. 1250 – d. 31 August 1252), William (d. c. 1256) and Henry (b. May 1260 – d. 10 October 1260).[23] Subsequent historical analysis has shown that it is improbable that these children existed, and historians such as Huw Ridgeway and Margaret Howell conclude that Henry and Eleanor had only five children.[24] These five—Edward, Margaret, Beatrice, Edmund and Katherine—are well documented in multiple chronicler and financial accounts from Henry's reign.[25] The only record for Richard, John, William and Henry is in the Flores Historiarum manuscript, but the details appear to have been added to the original 13th document in the next century, albeit possibly in good faith.[26] It is impossible to completely rule out the possibility that the children existed but that the other evidence of their existence was suppressed, perhaps because they were handicapped, or they were miscarriages or still births.[27][24]
References
- ^ Howell 1997, p. xiv.
- ^ Cox 1974, p. 463.
- ^ Costain 1959, pp. 125–126.
- ^ a b c Costain 1959, p. 140.
- ^ Sadler 2008, p. 32.
- ^ a b Howell 1997, p. 1.
- ^ Costain 1959, p. 129.
- ^ Costain 1959, pp. 129–130.
- ^ Costain 1959, pp. 130–140.
- ^ Cox 1974, p. 50.
- ^ Carpenter 2020, p. 570.
- ^ Thomas 2016.
- ^ Costain 1959, pp. 253–254.
- ^ Costain 1959, pp. 206–207.
- ^ Hillaby 1990, pp. 112–3, Taylor 1999, p. 82
- ^ Hillaby & Hillaby 2013, pp. 141–43.
- ^ a b Pugh & Crittall 1956, pp. 242–259.
- ^ Howell 2004.
- ^ Costain 1959, p. 127.
- ^ a b Prestwich 1988, p. 6.
- ^ Ridgeway 1986, p. 91.
- ^ Costain 1959, p. 167.
- ^ a b c d e f Howell 1992, p. 57
- ^ a b Howell 2004, p. 45.
- ^ Howell 1992, pp. 58, 65.
- ^ Howell 1992, pp. 59–60.
- ^ Howell 1992, pp. 70–72.
- ^ Carpenter 2020, p. xxii.
Bibliography
- Carpenter, David (2020). Henry III: The Rise to Power and Personal Rule, 1207-1258. Vol. 1. Yale University Press.
- Costain, Thomas B. (1959). The Magnificent Century. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company.
- Cox, Eugene L. (1974). The Eagles of Savoy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691052166.
- Hillaby, Joe (1990). "The Worcester Jewry 1158-1290". Transactions of the Worcester Archaeological Society. 12: 73–122.
- Hillaby, Joe; Hillaby, Caroline (2013). The Palgrave Dictionary of Medieval Anglo-Jewish History. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. OL 28086241M.
- Howell, Margaret (1992). "The Children of King Henry III and Eleanor of Provence". In Coss, Peter R.; Lloyd, Simon D. (eds.). Thirteenth Century England: Proceedings of the Newcastle upon Tyne Conference, 1991. Vol. 4. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. pp. 57–72. ISBN 0-85115-325-9.
- Howell, Margaret (1997). Eleanor of Provence: Queenship in Thirteenth-century England. Blackwell Publishers.
- Howell, Margaret (2004). "Eleanor (Eleanor of Provence) (c.1223–1291), queen of England". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8620. Retrieved 14 December 2010. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Prestwich, Michael (1988). Edward I. Yale University Press.
- Pugh, R.B.; Crittall, Elizabeth, eds. (1956). "Houses of Benedictine nuns: Abbey, later priory, of Amesbury". A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 3. Victoria County History. University of London. pp. 242–259. Retrieved 8 June 2021 – via British History Online.
- Ridgeway, Huw (1986). "The Lord Edward and the Provisions of Oxford (1258): a Study in Faction". In Coss, P.R.; Lloyd, S.D. (eds.). Proceedings of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Conference, 1985. The Boydell Press. pp. 89–99.
- Sadler, John (2008). The Second Barons' War: Simon de Montfort and the Battles of Lewes and Evesham. Casemate Publishers. ISBN 978-1-84415-831-7.
- Thomas, John (21 July 2016). "Swearing In of the Lord Chancellor" (PDF). The Right Hon. The Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
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: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - Taylor, Alison (1999). Cambridge, the hidden history. Tempus. ISBN 0752414364.