Daughters of Chivalry

by Kelcey Wilson-Lee

  7 Letters related to Eleanor of Provence’s building works at Amesbury can be found in Calendar of Close Rolls, 1279–88, pp. 14, 96.

  8 In 1222, the Council of Oxford specifically prohibited nuns from wearing silken wimples and belts embroidered with gold and silver thread, and declared the only jewellery they should wear was the ring that symbolized their vows. Throughout the following centuries, repeated injunctions were issued against the wearing of, among others, laced shoes, red dresses, expensive furs, long trains, ribboned headdresses, and open tunics fastened with brooches, as well as filed fingernails, fashionably plucked high foreheads, and locks of hair shaped with curling irons: Power, Medieval English Nunneries, pp. 303–5, 585–7. For Eleanora’s sickness and the efforts made to comfort her, see Byerly and Byerly, Wardrobe and Household, i, nos 123, 163, 298, 332.

  9 For the efforts made to enforce the enclosure of nuns in the late thirteenth century, see Power, Medieval English Nunneries, p. 348. The royal family’s travelling, and Eleanora’s purchase of a horse, can be found in Byerly and Byerly, Wardrobe and Household, i, nos 273, 300; Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, pp. 293–5. Eleanor’s supplementary payments to Mary, twenty-five marks paid twice yearly, at Easter and Michaelmas, are printed in Byerly and Byerly, Wardrobe and Household, ii, nos 3111, 3124, 3128, 3141, 3149, 3165, 3177, 3192.

  10 For a description of the rings, see Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, pp. 409–10.

  11 More on the court case in which Mary helped convince her father to side with the Abbess of Fontevrault over her fellow nuns of Amesbury can be found in Calendar of Close Rolls, 1288–96, p. 317; History of Wiltshire, iii, p. 248.

  12 A manuscript from the convent of Nuneaton (Cambridge Fitzwilliam MS McClean 123) includes the Chasteau d’Amours, as well as a bestiary, apocryphal gospel, and apocalypse. On the popularity of the text in the late thirteenth century, see C. William Marx, The Devil’s Rights and the Redemption in the Literature of Medieval England (Cambridge, 1995), Chapter 4.

  V. GROWING UP

  1 For the requests that Edward arbitrate on the rightful succession of Sicily, see Fœdera, i, pp. 626–7. For the papal injunction forbidding Edward’s children from marrying into the royal house of Aragon, see ibid, p. 665.

  2 For a description of the medieval palace, see David Neal, ‘Excavations at the Palace of Kings Langley, Hertfordshire 1974–1976’, Medieval Archaeology (1977), pp. 124–65 (125); Anthony Emery, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500 (Cambridge, 1996–2000) 2 vols, ii, p. 257; Hilda Johnstone, Edward of Carnarvon, 1284–1307 (Manchester 1946), pp. 29–30.

  3 On the military guard assigned to the children at Langley, see Johnstone, ‘Household of Henry’, p. 392.

  4 Marie of Brittany had a governess while at Langley named Lady Marquessa, see Byerly and Byerly, Wardrobe and Household, ii, e.g. no. 1861. In 1292, Marie married the Count of Saint-Pol, a small province abutting Ponthieu. Her lasting affection for her English relatives is apparent: in 1297, though her father and husband were then at war with Edward, Marie joined the English king and three of his daughters for Christmas at Ghent. One of her own daughters, Marie of Châtillon, married the Earl of Pembroke, Aymer de Valence, and was a bosom-friend of Joanna’s daughter Elizabeth de Burgh. Together, the two women founded Pembroke and Clare Colleges at Cambridge respectively, which survive today. Two rolls survive that shed light on Christmas festivities at King’s Langley during the years Edward and Eleanor were in Gascony: the Roll of Expenses for the King’s Children (National Archives E 101/352/8), which offers a summation of all expenses from the household for 1286–9, and the Roll of the Great Wardrobe Expenses of the King’s Children (National Archives E 101/352/16), which only survives for 1288–9. I have used the more detailed description of expenses in the latter document to flesh out the sparer account for Christmas in 1286 provided in the former. See Byerly and Byerly, Wardrobe and Household, ii, pp. 414–22.

  5 See records of dresses being made for the eldest three princesses in 1289, Byerly and Byerly, ii, Roll of Necessary Expenses (which is National Archives E 101/352/14), passim. For foods consumed at the palace, see Neal, ‘Excavations at the Palace of Kings Langley’, p. 161.

  6 Sir Eustace remained within the children’s personal guard throughout their parents’ time in Gascony: Byerly and Byerly, Wardrobe and Household, ii, nos 3400, 3411, 3423; Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, pp. 298–9.

  7 The king’s order to restore to Eleanor of St Paul her estate is summarised in Calendar of Close Rolls, 1288–96, p. 27.

  8 Edward’s letter detailing his plans to move forward with Eleanora’s marriage can be found in Fœdera, i, p. 678.

  9 Legal separations, such as the one Gilbert and Alice de Lusignan experienced, were comparatively accessible in the later medieval period, with adultery and violence often given as the reason. Property including dowries might even be returned in these cases, but critically neither party was normally able to remarry. On marriage in the Middle Ages, see D. L. d’Avray, Medieval Marriage: Symbolism and Society (Oxford, 2005). For the terms of their divorce, see Fœdera, i, pp. 628, 654. For Gilbert’s gift-giving to Joanna, see Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, p. 328.

  10 Ibid, p. 327.

  11 On the way that the resistance practised by female saints might impact a medieval female reader, see Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, ‘Saints’ lives and the female reader’, Forum for Modern Language Studies, 27 (1991), pp. 314–32.

  12 See, for the purchase of silks for Margaret’s use, Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, p. 395. For a description of berceletts, see Boucher’s glossary of archaic and provincial words: a supplement to the dictionaries of the English language, particularly those of Dr. Johnson and Dr. Webster, ed. Joseph Hunter and Joseph Stevenson (London, 1832–3).

  13 For a description of Jan’s seal, see Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, pp. 378–9.

  14 The terms agreeing Elizabeth’s marriage to the son of the Count of Holland can be found in Fœdera, i, pp. 652, 658.

  15 The preparations for the children’s welcome party are listed in Johnstone, Edward of Carnarvon, p. 23 n1.

  VI. UNION

  1 See a description of this episode in Parsons, Eleanor of Castile, p. 40.

  2 The letter confirming Joanna’s permission to marry Gilbert is given in full in Fœdera, i, p. 721.

  3 For the charters detailing the resettlement of the Clare estate, see Calendar of Fine Rolls, 1272–1307, pp. 274–5; Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1281–92, pp. 350–1, 359. See also K.B. McFarlane’s consideration of the settlement of Joanna’s marriage, and its differences with Elizabeth’s subsequent union to the Earl of Hereford and Essex, in his ‘Had Edward I a “Policy” towards the Earls?’, The Nobility of Later Medieval England: The Ford Lectures for 1953 and related studies (Oxford, 1973), pp. 248–67 (especially pp. 260–1). The royal family had visited Amesbury the previous autumn, after their arrival back from Gascony. At that time, the prioress appealed to them for financial assistance, pressing that the welfare of their child was tied to that of the priory; the king responded with his grant in perpetuity of the manor of Melksham, a gift worth twenty-seven pounds per year: see above, Chapter 4, p. 58. Eleanor’s gift to her eldest daughter is recorded in Parsons, Court and Household, p. 134.

  4 For the 1290 Winchester tournament and its probable association with the surviving Round Table, see Martin Biddle, King Arthur’s Round Table: An Archaeological Investigation (Woodbridge, 2000), Chapter 10.

  5 For a description of the ritual blessing attending a second marriage – as was Gilbert’s to Joanna – taken from the Sarum rite, dominant in late-medieval England, see d’Avray, Medieval marriage, pp. 152–5.

  6 A description of Joanna’s wedding feast appears in Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, p. 330. The minstrels’ presence is discussed in E.K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage (Oxford, 1903), ii, Appendix D.

  7 For the status of Marcher lords and the quotation pertaining to the Clare lordship in Gla
morgan, see R.R. Davies, Lordship and Society in the March of Wales 1282–1400 (Oxford, 1978), especially p. 90. For Edward and Eleanor’s anger on Joanna’s early departure from London, see Parsons, Court and Household, p. 135. Gilbert’s raid in Brecon is mentioned in Michael Altschul, A Baronial Family in Medieval England: The Clares, 1217–1314 (Baltimore, 1965), pp. 148–9.

  8 For a clear and thorough explanation of the theories of ‘wife-giving’ and the ‘exchange of women’, and also how these are problematized in a medieval context, see Susan Crane, The Performance of Self: Ritual, Clothing, and Identity During the Hundred Years War (Philadelphia, 2002), pp. 28–32.

  9 The king’s instruction to his keeper at the Exchange is recorded in Calendar of Close Rolls, 1288–96, p. 89. Joanna’s trousseau is described by Green in Lives of the Princesses, ii, pp. 334–5.

  10 The queen’s preparations for Margaret’s wedding are detailed in Parsons, Court and Household, p. 109.

  11 Joanna’s presence at Clerkenwell is attested by a feast her husband hosted in her honour at their house there on 3 July. See Clive H. Knowles, ‘Gilbert de Clare, seventh earl of Gloucester and sixth earl of Hereford’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. For attendance at Margaret’s wedding, see Bartholomew Cotton, Historia Anglia, ed. H.R. Luard (London, 1859), pp. 176–7; and Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, 371–2.

  12 Later regretting his violence, Edward paid the unnamed squire more than thirteen pounds in compensation, a significant sum: see Michael Prestwich, Edward I (London, 1988), p. 111.

  13 Cotton, Historia Anglia, p. 174.

  VII. THREE DEATHS

  1 Edward’s disappointment that Margaret was missing Mass is discussed in Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, p. 373. The letter which Margaret sealed using her mother’s seal can be read in Fœdera, i, p. 739.

  2 The king’s house at Clipstone was largely dismantled in the early modern period, most of its stone carted away for building projects elsewhere in Nottinghamshire, and its scant remains were long ago worn to ruin. For a description, see History of the King’s Works, ed. Colvin, ii, pp. 918–21.

  3 For the queen’s final journey north and the commemorative programme that followed her death, see J. Hunter, ‘On the Death of Eleanor of Castile, Consort of King Edward the First, and the Honours paid to her Memory’, Archaeologia 29 (1842), pp. 167–91. Sara Cockerill offers a clear illustration of the queen’s last year and decline in 1290; painstakingly reconstructing Eleanor’s final journey northwards and demonstrating clearly the association between the itinerary north – and subsequent cortège south – with estates held by the queen, in her Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen (Stroud, 2014), Chapter 16.

  4 As so often, frustratingly little can be gleaned from historical sources about how Edward’s daughters perceived his expulsion of the Jewish population, but a few small glimmers hint at the potential that some of his children may have felt a greater sympathy than their father. Eleanora’s intercession on behalf of the convert Eleanor of Saint Paul demonstrates at least an openness to using her influence to represent an ethnically Jewish woman. And in the decade that followed, Margaret’s husband, Jan, once defended with arms the Jewish merchant population of Brussels from a mob of zealous locals intent on massacring them in the name of Christ.

  5 Joanna and Gilbert’s pledge to join the Crusade was noted by Bartholomew Cotton in his Historia Anglia, p. 177.

  6 Eleanor of Provence’s anxieties over the late-autumn travel of her young grandchildren are quoted in Johnstone, Edward of Carnarvon, p. 24; and listed in List of ancient correspondence of the Chancery and Exchequer, xvi, no. 170.

  7 For Matthew Paris’s shock at the use of carpets on the floor, see Matthæi Parisiensis, monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica Majora, ed. H.R. Luard, 7 vols, (Kraus reprint, Wiesbaden, 1964), v, pp. 513–4. The queen’s wardrobe accounts record that she dispersed personal items to her children, but the list of these effects does not survive. The memory that the queen’s crown was passed to her youngest daughter on this date is recorded in a catalogue of items owned by the princess following her own death: Parsons, Court and Household, p. 27.

  8 On the process of embalming in thirteenth-century England, see Danielle Westerhof, Death and the Noble Body in Medieval England (Woodbridge, 2008), Chapter 4.

  9 The crosses at Geddington, Hardingstone, and Waltham survive, with some restor-ations. The most famous, at Charing Cross near Trafalgar Square in London, is a Victorian reconstruction of the original, destroyed during the Civil War.

  10 Edward’s gift on learning the news of his first grandson is recorded in Calendar of Close Rolls, 1288–96, pp. 169–70. Gilbert’s joy is noted in Wykes, Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, iv, p. 328.

  VIII. ALLIANCE

  1 The king’s summons to Eleanora’s wedding are discussed in Samuel Lyons, ‘Copies of Writs Preserved among His Majesty’s Records in the Tower . . .’, Archaeologia, xv (1806), pp. 347–9.

  2 See Cotton, Historia Anglicana, pp. 232–3.

  3 For Eleanora’s enlarged household in the aftermath of her mother’s death, see Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, 304.

  4 See the order issued by Edward instructing his men to ensure the dower estate promised to Eleanora actually produced the expected income: Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1292–1301, p. 67.

  5 For the travel of her youngest siblings to Eleanora’s wedding, and of Mary and Jan’s visits to Kennington, see Johnstone, Edward of Carvarvon, pp. 26, 28. Joanna’s visit to Mortlake is discussed in Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, p. 339. For Edward’s letter confirming Mary’s enlarged allowance, see Fœdera, i, p. 799.

  6 Gilbert’s anxiety over his child’s health is noted in List of ancient correspondence, xxii, no. 156. For the children’s household at Usk, see National Archives Special Collections 6/1247/25.

  7 For the 1292 seizure and restoration of Glamorgan, see John E. Morris, The Welsh Wars of Edward I: a contribution to mediaeval military history, based on original documents (Oxford, 1901), p. 236.

  8 Further details on the party that sailed for Ireland can be found in Altschul, A Baronial Family, p. 154; Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1292–1301, pp. 11, 19–28.

  9 The king’s order to the Keeper of the Forest of Dean is summarised in Calendar of Close Rolls, 1288–96, p. 302.

  10 Surviving wardrobe entries record some of Eleanora’s preparations for her move abroad. For example, an entry recording how her tailor Peter was reimbursed one hundred shillings in January for expenses he had incurred in making new robes for the princess, probably intended as part of her trousseau: Book of Prests, ed. Fryde, p. 133. For a list of those assigned to accompany Eleanora to Bar, see Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1292–1301, pp. 65–70. For the presentation of an English benefice to Theobald of Bar, see ibid, p. 66. For a letter describing the illnesses of Margaret and Prince Edward, see Green, Lives of the Princesses, ii, Appendix xvi.

  11 For an account of the tournament and death of Duke John that follows Thielrode, see: Alphonse Wauters, Le duc Jean Ier et le Brabant sous le règne de ce prince (1267–1294) (Brussels, 1862), pp. 217–8. See also F. Christophe Butkens, Trophées sacrés et profanes du Duche de Brabant, 4 vols (The Hague, 1724), i, p. 331.

  12 Ralph de Athelee is described as acting as chaplain to Margaret and Elizabeth in March 1295, suggesting that when Elizabeth visited court she joined the household of her older sister: Book of Prests, ed. Fryde, p. 36. Preparations for Margaret’s departure can be found in ibid, pp. 92, 100, 111, 117, 134. For Jan’s voyage to Brabant, see Fœdera, i, p. 802.

  13 For the quotation, see Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan, ed. A.T. Hatto (London, 2004), pp. 193–4.

  14 The Life of St Edward which may have belonged to Eleanor is Cambridge University Library MS Ee.3.59. It has been fully digitized and is freely available to view on the library’s website. The poem dedicated to Margaret was translated from the Middle Dutch by Green: Lives of the Princesses, ii, pp. 376–7.

  15 The spokeswoman who approac
hed Eleanor at St Albans was either struck dumb through nerves on meeting the queen or could not speak sufficient French; the letter the petitioners sent instead survives as National Archives Special Collections 1/11/90: see Parsons, Eleanor of Castile, p. 64; John Carmi Parsons, ‘The Queen’s Intercession in Thirteenth-Century England’, in Power of the Weak: Studies on Medieval Women ed. Jennifer Carpenter and Sally Beth MacLean, pp. 148–77 (pp. 151–2).

  16 The laundress Alice, who had served Eleanora, Joanna, and Margaret in 1285, was still employed as Margaret’s laundress in 1295, when she was paid four-and-a-half pence per day; Roger, the duchess’s tailor who repaired her dresses in September 1294, had held the same position in February 1286: Book of Prests, ed. Fryde, pp. 36, 92, 182; Byerly and Byerly, Wardrobe and Household, i, nos 1708, 1715. For Margaret’s promotion of Alice de Neutembre, see Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1292–1301, p. 75. For the use of French at court in Brussels, see Wauters, Le duc Jean Ier, p. 391.

  17 For examples of Margaret’s intercession at the English court after her marriage on behalf of friends and Brabant, see Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1292–1301, pp. 150, 207, 229; Calendar of Fine Rolls, 1272–1307, p. 309.

  18 On the nursery provision of Elizabeth and Prince Edward, see Johnstone, Edward of Carnarvon, Chapter 2. The poem praising the prince’s riding is quoted at p. 13. On the siblings’ interest in polyphony, see Letters of Edward Prince of Wales, ed. Johnstone, p. 133.

  IX. LADIES OF WAR

  1 For the 1294 preparations to sail to Gascony, see Prestwich, Edward I, p. 381.

  2 For the Clares’ experience of the uprising in Glamorgan, see Altschul, A Baronial Family, p. 154. For the lasting results of the uprising, see the description of the Glamorgan properties taken by the inquisition post mortem following Gilbert’s death, which describes the castles and town as ‘burnt’: Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward I, iii, no. 371. Kenfig was rebuilt early in the fourteenth century, but the castle at Llangynwyd (called an alternative name, Tyriatlh, in the inquisition) was never rebuilt after the 1294 rebellion.