Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England

by Louise J. Wilkinson

  Individual clergymen who visited the countess, like Richard the chaplain of Kemsing, one of Eleanor’s Kentish manors, also catered for the countess’s religious interests. Richard was in attendance upon his mistress at Odiham from Saturday 25 April to Saturday 9 May; upon his departure Eleanor sent him away with a gift of wine.120 It is probable that he was the ‘Richard the chaplain’ who was in the service of the countess when she took up residence at Dover Castle; he was among those men who dined with her there in June.121 Other men in religious orders who figure in Eleanor’s accounts include Brother Gregory of Coventry, Brother Walter of Coventry, Brother G. Boyon, who oversaw the production of a breviary for Eleanor’s daughter,122 and Brother J. Angeli, who received personal gifts from the countess.123 William the clerk, who was presumably in minor orders, had visited London on Eleanor’s behalf at Pentecost.124

  DOVER CASTLE

  Eleanor did not wait passively for the coming storm during the summer of 1265. In an astute political manoeuvre, she turned her flight across south-eastern England and her residence at Dover Castle into an exercise in public relations for her husband’s regime, especially among the Montfortian sympathizers of the Cinque Ports. Just before she arrived in Dover, for example, she entertained the burgesses of Winchelsea.125 Once at Dover, she entertained the burgesses of Sandwich in mid June,126 and the burgesses of both Winchelsea and Sandwich again in July.127

  En route from Portchester to Dover, Eleanor was accompanied by Montfortian supporters, such as Sir William de Munchensy, who was later captured by the royalists at Kenilworth,128 Sir Ingelram de Balliol, who had spent time as a prisoner of the royalists in 1264,129 and Sir Robert Corbet, a landholder with properties in Sussex, Hampshire and Northamptonshire.130 Although Ingelram and Robert parted company with Eleanor once she reached Wilmington Priory in Sussex, other men appeared in their places. At Dover, Sir John de Mucegros, who had served as constable of Salisbury Castle between December 1264 and 31 May 1265, dined with the countess, a little while after her arrival, in the company of Simon junior and others.131 Once lodged at Dover, Eleanor was joined, at various points between June and August 1265, by men such as Sir Robert de Brus,132 Sir J. of Snave, a Kentish landholder,133 Sir Ralph Haket,134 Sir Fulk Constable, who was with her earlier in the year,135 Sir J. de Burton,136 Sir Peter de Burton and his wife,137 Master J. of London,138 John of Dover and his wife,139 Thomas of Sandwich, a clerk whose loyalty to the Montforts was later pardoned by the Lord Edward,140 Sir Matthew of Hastings141 and Master Nicholas de Hecham.142

  In the increasingly troubled and uncertain political situation, Eleanor remained keenly appreciative of her supporters, and took care to bestow small tokens of her esteem on them. She celebrated, for example, perhaps a birthday of the son of Sir John de la Haye by purchasing gold brooches for her daughter Eleanor and her son Amaury to give to the child.143 John was a stalwart supporter of the Montforts who, before he joined the countess at Dover, had served the Earl of Leicester at the siege of Rochester and been appointed constable of Winchelsea and Rye in 1264.144 On 6 July, his wife received for her table half a ‘beast of the chase’ that had been killed during a successful hunting expedition,145 followed later in the month by another two and a half such beasts.146 Another ‘beast of the chase’ was bestowed by Eleanor upon the prior of the hospital of Dover,147 who subsequently assisted Eleanor in the days after Evesham.148 Sir Ralph d’Arcy and his wife, both of whom were frequent visitors to Dover, received other marks of favour from Countess Eleanor.149 On 28 June, for example, the countess sent Ralph’s wife, Philippa, a gift of wine.150 The countess also sent wine to the wife of Thomas Saleqin on 1 July151 and gave her part of a beast caught during a hunting expedition later that month.152 Thomas and his wife dined with the countess at Dover Castle on 20 July153 and Thomas dined there again on 26 July.154 Eleanor’s gift-giving and hospitality had a clear political edge. Significantly, it was also the Countess of Leicester who provided shelter and wine for messengers who arrived at Dover from the king of France that summer.155

  In providing hospitality for her guests and in promoting her husband’s regime, Eleanor and her officials made careful use of conspicuous consumption as a means of impressing upon those who visited her household the extent of her family’s wealth, power and prestige. The fare served at the Countess of Leicester’s table was, as Lars Kjær has recently pointed out, particularly fine when she entertained guests. Visitors to her household were often fed with venison.156 The night before the countess arrived in Dover, the burgesses of Winchelsea were treated to a feast that included oxen, mutton, capons and geese.157 When the countess paid host to the burgesses of Sandwich four days later (Wednesday 18 June 1265), they shared a meal with her that included plaice, bream, soles and a variety of other fish as well.158 On Sunday 12 July 1265, another splendid feast was held at Dover Castle, at which Eleanor showed her appreciation to the burgesses of both Sandwich and Winchelsea for their support, and which was also attended by Sir Ralph d’Arcy’s wife, Sir Peter de Burton and his wife and Master J. of London. On this occasion, Eleanor’s guests were served with half an ox, two sheep and one pig, washed down with red and white wine, and the usual ale, a staple of the medieval diet.159

  The splendid setting of the great stone keep at Dover Castle, remodelled less than a century earlier so that Henry II might impress continental visitors en route to Thomas Becket’s shrine in Canterbury, provided a visually impressive backdrop to such festivities; the castle continues to dominate the local skyline from both sea and land today. Eleanor’s brother, Henry III, invested heavily in improving the castle, spending £7,500, the largest amount spent on one castle during his reign.160 It was under Henry III that Dover’s outer curtain walls were built out as far as the edge of the cliffs, and the impressive Constable’s Gate, with its six towers, was constructed on the western side. On the eastern side of the castle complex, another entrance, Fitzwilliam Gate, was added, while a steep bank was built to the south of the Roman lighthouse and the castle church. A range of new domestic buildings were also added to the site, buildings whose facilities Eleanor and her household are likely to have utilized, including a new kitchen, a new hall (Arthur’s Hall), chambers and a chapel.161 Recent renovations to the interior of Henry II’s keep at Dover Castle give modern visitors to the castle a sense of the wealth and splendour in which Eleanor’s grandfather had entertained guests there.

  The Countess of Leicester’s clothes and those of other members of her family added to the visual spectacle at Dover. Eleanor’s accounts suggest that the countess continued to enjoy fine clothes and appreciated their value in enhancing impressions of dignity and status. While at Odiham during Pentecost, Eleanor had purchased a cloth of ‘sanguine’ scarlet from the Italian merchant, Luke de Lucca, a man previously patronized by Henry III, for the princely sum of £8 6s. 8d.162 At Easter, the countess had acquired a hood of black muslin or fine linen for 13s.163 Eleanor’s daughter, the younger Eleanor, enjoyed similarly splendid attire to that of her mother. At Easter, the countess purchased a fur of miniver for her young daughter.164 We can imagine the younger Eleanor’s delight, on another occasion, upon discovering that her mother had purchased twenty-five gilded stars with which to decorate her hood.165 In late July 1265, 12d. was spent on a dozen pairs of new gloves for the countess and her daughter.166 Earlier in the year, the younger Eleanor had also been the recipient of two pairs of boots, purchased for 2s. 4d. from one Henry Leff.167 An impression of the rich robes worn by the countess’s clerical son, Amaury, is conveyed by his mother’s decision to purchase a silk girdle for his use at a cost of 3s.168 Yet it was not just the countess and her immediate kin who dressed to impress within the Montfort household: the men and women of their domestic staff also enhanced their mistress’s and master’s reputations through their clothing. Eleanor’s accounts reveal that she purchased twenty-four and a half ells of perse, a dark-blue woollen cloth, for servants, such as Wileqin the groom of Richard de Montfort, Guillot the clerk of the ch
apel, and Roger and Peter, grooms of the chamber.169 Various named individuals within Eleanor’s accounts received new pairs of shoes from time to time.170 Yet Eleanor’s personal extravagance was not unlimited. In a prudent measure, which betrays a surprising sense of thrift, Eleanor dispatched Hicqe the tailor to London for three nights to have her woollen clothes re-shorn, a process that thereby allowed a new surface to become visible, reinvigorating shabby clothes.171

  EVESHAM

  As the war closed in upon her husband and sons during the summer months of 1265, Eleanor remained in close contact with them all. The countess was in receipt of letters from the Marches, where her husband pursued the war against the royalists.172 Similarly, Simon junior and his mother exchanged news with one another throughout late June and the following month of July.173 Eleanor’s awareness of the precariousness of her family’s fortunes at this time is suggested by a curious entry on her household roll, which records the movement of livestock by night on or about 1 August from Brabourne, presumably to augment Dover Castle’s supplies.174

  The battle of Evesham on 4 August 1265 was a personal disaster for Eleanor. It followed hot on the heels of a series of significant gains by the forces of the Lord Edward in the weeks that followed his escape from Montfortian custody. Having destroyed the bridges across the River Severn and captured Worcester and Gloucester, the Lord Edward and his supporters succeeded in trapping Earl Simon to the west of the Severn. Unable to cross the Bristol Channel and in order to counter this threat, Eleanor’s husband instructed their son, Simon junior, to leave the siege of Pevensey and make for Kenilworth Castle, in the hope that this might divert the Edwardian forces. This had worked in so far as Simon junior arrived at Kenilworth on 31 July, and the Lord Edward set out to deal with him on 1 August, finally allowing Earl Simon to leave his base at Hereford and cross the Severn on 2 August. Surprised by the Lord Edward at Kenilworth, Simon junior’s forces sustained a heavy defeat. This deprived Earl Simon, who hoped to join forces with his son, of essential reinforcements. When the Lord Edward caught up with Earl Simon at Evesham on 4 August, a bitter and brutal battle ensued. Having discussed tactics with his supporters, when he rested at Mosham, the Lord Edward apparently selected a death squad, a group of twelve knights, whose task it was to single out and kill Earl Simon. During the battle at Evesham, Earl Simon, along with Henry, Eleanor’s eldest son and almost forty Montfortian knights were killed in cold blood.175 In this bloody battle, Eleanor, Countess of Leicester, lost her husband of thirty-seven years and her eldest son as well as some of the family’s closest political allies and supporters: Hugh Despenser and Peter de Montfort numbered among the dead.176 Another son, Guy, was taken prisoner.177 To add insult to injury, Earl Simon’s dead body was mutilated and subjected to a series of indignities.178

  A family disaster of such magnitude inevitably left its mark on Eleanor’s accounts. The countess and her establishment immediately modified their dress in mourning; Eleanor’s clerks noted the purchase in London of thirty-four ells of russet, a cloth that Eleanor had worn during her first widowhood.179 On Tuesday 11 August 1265, the countess ceased dining within the great hall;180 she withdrew to her chamber, only returning to eat with her household on Friday 21 August.181 The severity of Eleanor’s personal grief was conveyed in the chronicle of Thomas Wykes, who commented upon her inconsolable misery. Eleanor abstained from eating meat and fish, and adopted the widow’s habit for her clothing.182 It was also expressed through religious commemoration. Eleanor’s household roll records two payments of alms for her dead husband’s soul: 12s. 9d. in August and 7s. on 3 September 1265.183 When Charles Bémont wrote his biography of Earl Simon, he commented, in a footnote, ‘Was this all?’184 Certainly, in view of Eleanor’s earlier close relationship with her husband, the apparent parsimony of the countess’ offerings is surprising. Had the strain of the political divisions between her natal and marital kin placed an intolerable strain on the Montforts’ personal relationship after all? Or was Eleanor at this stage simply too preoccupied with the uncertainty of her own and her offspring’s fates? The latter seems the more reasonable explanation. Earl Simon’s commemoration and religious remembrance would simply have to wait.

  The earl’s death placed Eleanor firmly in the spotlight. It was a reflection of the manifold responsibilities she had assumed during her marriage and of the strategic importance of Dover Castle that Eleanor continued to form a focal point for Montfortian resistance in the south east during August and September 1265. This point was not lost on her opponents. Her accounts reveal that she was in communication with Henry III and his eldest son soon after Evesham. Just seven days after the battle, Eleanor’s ally, the Prior of Dover, was dispatched by the countess to the king, although the purpose of his visit went unrecorded.185 Between 15 and 20 August, the countess received a messenger from the Lord Edward.186

  Eleanor, however, remained firmly entrenched within Dover Castle. Preparations for the castle’s defence are suggested by the payment of two masons and two servants for making a furnace during the latter part of August.187 She also helped her sons to discharge their obligations to their soldiers. On 15 August, Eleanor’s youngest son, Richard, received twenty-nine shillings from his mother so that he might pay the twenty-nine archers who had served the Montfortians at Pevensey.188 In the altered political climate, with the royalists closing in, Eleanor and the garrison at Dover now found it increasingly difficult to provision the household. Entries on Eleanor’s household roll for 23, 24, 25 and 26 August, for example, refer to oxen consumed there that had been obtained ‘by booty’, presumably from raids on the neighbouring countryside, rather than by purchase or from the countess’s own Kentish manors.189 Eleanor’s determination to hold out at Dover stands in stark contrast to that of another baronial widow, Hugh Despenser’s former wife, who had surrendered the Tower of London to the royalists on learning of her husband’s death at Evesham.190

  As a mother, though, Eleanor’s first priority was the safety of her surviving children in the months after Evesham. Her accounts document communications with Simon junior in mid-August.191 They also refer to a boat and around 100 mariners charged with bringing her younger son Richard from Winchelsea to Dover on 12 August.192 When Richard joined the countess’s household, he too adopted black clothing associated with mourning. Eleanor’s accounts reveal that his mother purchased ten ells of black serge for this son’s robes and saddle-cloths.193 In a similar fashion, they illuminate the preparations for his departure to Bigorre in September. Having furnished her son with two new pairs of boots, Eleanor paid for Richard’s passage to Gravelines.194 Fearing Eleanor’s own flight to France, Henry III issued instructions to the barons and bailiffs of Dover on 28 September that the countess was to be prevented from leaving the kingdom without royal permission.195 A letter of 10 October 1265, addressed by the king to his brother-in-law, Louis IX, recorded Henry III’s indignation on discovering that Eleanor had, in fact, safely dispatched two of her younger sons – Richard and Amaury – overseas, along with 11,000 marks in cash, which had formerly belonged to Simon de Montfort, ‘our enemy’.196 Eleanor had deftly outwitted her older brother. Yet Eleanor’s hold on Dover Castle was by no means impregnable. One chronicler recorded an attempt by royalist captives within the castle to bribe their guards and overwhelm the garrison from within.197 It was apparently this that encouraged the Lord Edward to begin his siege of the castle and which culminated in Eleanor’s negotiated surrender and her departure with her daughter for France on 28 October 1265.198

  9

  After Evesham

  Now has king Henry land and lordship

  And is king of his land, and of all that belongs to it:

  He goes off with victory to hold a parliament

  Straight to Northampton, sir Edward assents

  In that parliament was exiled

  The countess of Leicester, her sons have abjured:

  Earls and barons are disinherited,

  Some are to the wood, some i
mprisoned.1

  As Eleanor crossed the Channel to France on 28 October 1265, in the company of her daughter, she might have taken time to reflect upon the trials and tribulations that now beset her surviving sons and their supporters. On 26 October, the day that the Lord Edward wrote to Giffard, Henry III had formally invested his younger son, Edmund, with the earldom of Leicester and bestowed upon him all the English lands formerly held by Eleanor’s dead husband, an act that disinherited Simon junior.2 Simon junior, for his part, left Kenilworth Castle after Evesham3 and joined forces with other Montfortian sympathizers in the Isle of Axholme until a royalist army surrounded the rebels. Realizing that they were trapped, Simon junior and his supporters ‘sought peace from the king’ at Christmas.4 In January 1266, at Northampton, Simon agreed to abjure the realm and cause no further trouble for the king. In return for this undertaking, it was agreed that he might draw a yearly pension from the honour of Leicester. Still, though, the distrust between the two sides was too great. When an opportunity presented itself in London for Simon junior to escape from the Lord Edward’s guards, he seized it, whereupon he headed for the Sussex coast and for Winchelsea, whose burgesses his mother had entertained less than a year before. It was from Winchelsea, on or about 10 February 1266, that Simon junior secured a safe passage from England to France.5 His escape was followed, during the spring of 1266, by that of Eleanor’s younger son, Guy, who had been captured at Evesham and held first at Windsor Castle and then Dover.6 As the Dunstable annalist observed, both sons initially joined ‘their mother’.7 In the aftermath of the annihilation of her family’s English political fortunes, Eleanor and her surviving children were finally safe in exile by the summer of 1266. How did they and their mother fare during the final decade of the countess’s life?