| Eleanor of Provence | |
|---|---|
 Detail of Eleanor from theChronica Majora byMatthew Paris | |
| Queen consort of England | |
| Tenure | 14 January 1236 – 16 November 1272 |
| Coronation | 20 January 1236 |
| Born | c. 1223 Aix-en-Provence,County of Provence |
| 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 aProvençal noblewoman who becameQueen of England as the wife of KingHenry 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 Eleanor was completely devoted to her husband and staunchly defended him against the rebelSimon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, she was very unpopular among the Londoners. This was because she had brought many relatives with her to England in her retinue; these were known as "the Savoyards" (her mother was fromSavoy), and, as Londoners saw it, these foreigners were given influential positions in the government and realm to lord over them. 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 KingEdward I of England. She also was renowned for her cleverness, skill at writing poetry, and as a leader of fashion.
Born in the city ofAix-en-Provence in southern France, she was the second daughter ofRamon Berenguer V, Count of Provence (1198–1245) andBeatrice of Savoy (1198–1267), the second of four daughters ofThomas I of Savoy and his wifeMargaret of Geneva.[1] Two sons were born before the daughters, but they died very young.[1] Eleanor was probably born latest in 1223;Matthew Paris describes her as being "jamque duodennem" (already twelve) when she arrived in theKingdom of England for her marriage.
She was well educated as a child and developed a strong love of reading, partly due to the influence of her tutorRomée de Villeneuve. Her three sisters also married kings.[2] Like her mother, grandmother, and sisters, Eleanor was renowned for her beauty. She was a dark-haired brunette with fine eyes.[3]Piers Langtoft speaks of her as "The erle's daughter, the fairest may of life".[4]
Her elder sisterMargaret marriedLouis, King of France, and of her younger sistersSanchia was to marryRichard of Cornwall, Henry's brother who was to becomeKing of the Romans, andBeatrice was to marry Louis' brotherCharles of Anjou, theKing of Sicily.[1] She was especially close to Margaret, to whom she was close in age, and with whom she sustained friendly relationships until they grew old.[5]
Henry investigated a range of potential marriage partners in his youth, but they all proved unsuitable for reasons of European and domestic politics.[6][a]
After her elder sisterMargaret marriedLouis IX of France, their uncleWilliam corresponded withHenry III of England to persuade him to marry Eleanor. Henry sought a dowry of up to twenty thousand silver marks to help offset the dowry he had just paid for his sisterIsabella, but Eleanor's father was able to negotiate this down to no dowry, just a promise to leave her ten thousand marks when he died.
On 22 June 1235, the marriage contract was confirmed;[8] Eleanor was betrothed to King Henry III (1207–1272).
Eleanor was married to King Henry III of England on 14 January 1236.[9] At the time, she was either 12 or 13 years old, while he was 28. She had never seen Henry prior to the wedding atCanterbury Cathedral and had never set foot in his kingdom.[10]Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated.[10] She was dressed in a shimmering golden dress that fitted tightly at the waist and flared out to wide pleats at her feet. The sleeves were long and lined with ermine.[11] After riding to London the same day where a procession of citizens greeted the bridal pair, Eleanor was crowned queen consort of England in a ceremony atWestminster Abbey planned by Henry[12] which was followed by a magnificent banquet with the entire nobility in full attendance.[13] Her love for her husband grew significantly from 1236 onward.
Through her marriage with Henry she acquired at her coronation the titles ofQueen of England,Lady of Ireland andDuchess of Aquitaine.[1] She also acquired the titles ofDuchess of Normandy andCountess of Anjou although these already symbolic claims were dropped as part of the 1259Treaty of Paris.[1]
Despite the substantial age gap the historian Margaret Howell observes that the King "was generous and warm-hearted and prepared to lavish care and affection on his wife".[14] Henry gave Eleanor extensive gifts and paid personal attention to establishing and equipping her household.[15] He also brought her fully into his religious life, including involving her in his devotion to Edward the Confessor.[16]
Though Eleanor and Henry supported different factions at times, she was a loyal and faithful consort and was made regent of England when her husband went to suppress arebellion in Gascony in 1253,[17] although this was after a quarrel about the Gascon revolt that had lasted a year.[18] (During this time she exercised the functions ofLord Chancellor, the only woman to do so untilLiz Truss was appointed to the office in 2016.)[19]
Eleanor was devoted to her husband's cause. Although originally supportive of theSimon de Montfort when he was an ally of Henry,[20] she was a strong opponent when de Montfort led the English Barons against Henry, raising mercenary troops in France for her husband.[21] Her influence with her sister Margaret,Louis IX's wife meant that Henry had some support from France.[22]
The primary reason Eleanor was chosen was the chance to create a valuable set of alliances with the rulers of the south and south-east of France[23] which meant Eleanor brought in her retinue a large number of often relatedSavoyards[24] many of whom become prominent thanks to Henry's patronage which caused friction with the English barons.[25] Her unclePeter was particularly influential as her early advisor[1] before he inherited the County of Savoy.
The Savoyards would later be opposed to theLusignan faction of Henry'sPoitevin half brothers. Many Savoyards, probably including Eleanor, backed a 1258 coup d'état by a coalition of English barons who expelled the Poitevins from England,[26][27] reforming the royal government through a process called theProvisions of Oxford.
During her early years as queen, her religious formation was under the guidance of the royal physician and confessorNicholas Farnham, laterBishop of Durham.[1][28] She was also friendly with the FranciscanAdam Marsh and the reforming bishopsRichard of Chichester andRobert Grosseteste,Bishop of London.[1] Eleanor shared her husband's devotion to faith.
Eleanor stoutly hated the Londoners, who returned her hatred; in revenge for their dislike, Eleanor had demanded from the city all the back payments due on the monetary tribute known asqueen-gold, by which she received a tenth of all fines which came to the Crown. In addition to thequeen-gold, other such fines were levied on the citizens by the Queen on the thinnest of pretexts.[29]
During theSecond Barons War in 1263, London had risen in revolt. Henry and Eleanor were trapped in theTower of London. On 13 July 1263, she attempted to escape by sailing down theThames to Edward's army[30] when her barge was attacked by citizens of London.[31] In fear for her life as she was pelted with stones, loose pieces of paving, dried mud, rotten eggs and vegetables, Eleanor was rescued byThomas Fitzthomas, theMayor of London, and took refuge at the bishop of London's home. This meant that she and her husband were in effect prisoners of De Montfort.[32]
In 1272, Henry died, and her son Edward, who was 33 years old, became king of England. She remained in England asqueen dowager and raised several of her grandchildren: two of Edward's children,Henry andEleanor, as well asBeatrice's sonJohn of Brittany.
In 1273, after an earlier dispute over its control, Queen Eleanor granted a new charter and additional endowment[1] to thehospital of St Katharine by the Tower in memory of Henry, reserving the foundation's patronage to the queens of England.[33]
When her grandson Henry died in her care in 1274, Eleanor went into mourning and gave orders for his heart to be buried at theDominican priory at Guildford, which she founded in his memory.[1] Eleanor's two remaining daughters died in 1275,Margaret on 26 February and Beatrice on 24 March.
Eleanor was noted for her hostility to Jews and Judaism. On 16 January 1275, she received permission from Edward I toexpel the Jews from all of her lands.[34] Jews were expelled fromMarlborough,Gloucester,Worcester andCambridge. The Jews of Cambridge were instructed to flee toNorwich, and those of Marlborough toDevizes. The Jews of Gloucester were ordered to move toBristol, but were worried because of anti-Jewish violence that had occurred there, and instead mostly chose to move toHereford along with those forced to leave nearby Worcester.[35]
She became a nun[36] and retired in 1286 toAmesbury Priory in Wiltshire, eight miles north ofSalisbury, asHenry II's widow,Eleanor of Aquitaine, had taken up residence at the mother abbey,Fontevraud. She was visited there by her son, King Edward. Two of her granddaughters –Mary of Woodstock (daughter of Edward) andEleanor of Brittany – were already nuns there, each having entered the priory on reaching the age of seven.[37]
Eleanor died on 24/25 June 1291 at the priory and was buried there.[37] 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 ofGreyfriars.[1]
Eleanor was renowned for her learning, cleverness, and skill at writing poetry,[38] as well as her beauty and antisemitism; she was also known as a leader of fashion, continually importing clothes from France.[4] She favoured red silkdamask and often wore parti-colouredcottes (a type of tunic), gold or silvergirdles 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 ofwimple 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 thetroubadours 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).[b]
Eleanor is the protagonist ofThe Queen From Provence, a historical romance by British novelistJean Plaidy which was published in 1979. Eleanor is a main character in the novelFour Sisters, All Queens by author Sherry Jones, as well as the novelsThe Sister Queens by Sophie Perinot,Falls The Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman, and "My Fair Lady: A Story of Henry III's Lost Queen" by J. P. Reedman. She is also the subject of Norwegian Symphonic metal band Leave's Eyes in their song "Eleonore De Provence" from their albumSymphonies of the Night.
Despite initial concerns that the Queen might be barren, 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 theabbey at Beaulieu inHampshire for three weeks, long past the time allowed by monastic rules.[39] She personally supervised Edward's upbringing and education.[40] 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.[41] 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.[c]
The children spent most of their childhood at Windsor Castle and Henry appears to have been extremely attached to them, rarely spending extended periods of time apart from his family.[48]
Some historians have regarded her as the most unpopular queen in England.[49]Historians Margaret Howell and David Carpenter describe her as being "more combative" and "far tougher and more determined" than her husband.[50]
Eleanor of Provence Cadet branch of theBellonids Born: c. 1223 Died: 24/25 June 1291 | ||
| English royalty | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vacant Title last held by Isabella of Angoulême | Queen consort of England 14 January 1236 – 16 November 1272 | Vacant Title next held by Eleanor of Castile |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Keeper of the Great Seal 1253 – 1254 | Succeeded by |
