Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England
Page 24
90
See, for example, Ward, English Noblewomen, pp. 96–7.
91
CPR, 1232–47, p. 208.
92
Ibid., p. 214.
93
Barbara Harris’s work on aristocratic women at the Yorkist and Tudor royal courts has offered interesting points of comparison here, albeit in a rather different political and religious context: Harris, English Aristocratic Women, pp. 224–7.
Notes on Chapter 5
1
Chronica majora, iii, pp. 470–1.
2
Ibid.; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 21.
3
Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. xxiv–xxv (figure 1).
4
Ibid., pp. 1–21.
5
Ibid., pp. 8–13.
6
Ibid., pp. 8–16.
7
Ibid., p. 19.
8
It is also worth noting that Simon was described as the Earl of Leicester in Paris’s narrative, even though he had not yet received a formal grant of the earldom itself: Chronica majora, iii, p. 338.
9
Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 17.
10
Ibid., p. 18. Joan was the daughter of Baldwin (IX), Count of Flanders. Her first husband was the son of King Sancho I of Portugal: C. Petit-Dutaillis (repr. 1966), The Feudal Monarchy in France and England from the Tenth to the Thirteenth Century. New York: Harper and Row, pp. 223–4; J. Bradbury (2004), The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare. London: Routledge, p. 36.
11
As one chronicler observed ‘God provided the sister of the king of England for him’: Chronica Albrici monachi trium fontium, pp. 940–1.
12
Richard of Cornwall’s marriage to Isabella Marshal had yet to produce a living heir, in spite of Isabella’s progeny by her first husband: N. Vincent (2004), ‘Richard, First Earl of Cornwall and King of Germany (1209–1272)’,ODNB, available online at http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23501, accessed on 1 January 2011.
13
Chronica majora, iii, p. 471.
14
Ibid.
15
The entries relating to Eleanor and Simon were recorded next to one another on the same membrane of the close roll: CR, 1234–7, p. 292.
16
Chronica majora, v, p. 235; Howell, ‘Royal Women of England and France’, pp. 163–81, at p. 169.
17
Howell, ‘Royal Women of England and France’, p. 169.
18
Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 8–9, 16.
19
The queen’s uncle, William of Savoy, accompanied his niece to England and remained there, serving as a royal counsellor, until his departure in May 1238: Howell, Eleanor of Provence, pp. 24–6.
20
Archer, ‘ “How Ladies … Who Live on their Manors” ’, p. 170.
21
Wilkinson, ‘The Imperial Marriage of Isabella of England’, pp. 20–36.
22
Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême’, pp. 206–16.
23
Chronica majora, iii, pp. 470–1, 475.
24
Ibid., iii, pp. 475–6; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 21.
25
See, for example, Howell, Eleanor of Provence, pp. 85–6.
26
‘Annales prioratus de Wigornia’, p. 430.
27
‘Annales de Waverleia’, p. 318. See also ‘Annales de Theokesberia’, p. 106, which dates the marriage to 14 January. This annalist’s confusion presumable resulted from the secrecy surrounding the union.
28
Chronica majora, iii, p. 471; v, p. 235.
29
See, for example, Chronica majora, ii, p. 563.
30
See, for example, CPR, 1232–47, p. 208.
31
Historia anglorum, ii, p. 403.
32
The Tewkesbury annalist, for example, recorded how ‘The sister of the king of England, formerly the wife of the younger Marshal, married Simon de Montfort, whereupon the Earl of Cornwall was excited to anger’: ‘Annales de Theokesberia’, p. 106. See also Chronica majora, iii, pp. 475–6.
33
For other grievances, including hostility to aliens and to papal appointees within the church: Chronica majora, iii, pp. 475–8.
34
See, for example: ‘Annales Londonienses’, p. 35. For the Clare marriage, see also CPR, 1232–47, p. 208.
35
CPR, 1232–47, p. 209.
36
Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 22.
37
CLR, 1226–40, p. 311. For other loans to Simon and Eleanor, see ibid., p. 312.
38
Chronica majora, iii, pp. 479–80.
39
CPR, 1232-47, p. 214.
40
Chronica majora, iii, p. 518.
41
Ibid., iii, pp. 474, 480.
42
Ibid., iii, p. 480.
43
The debt predated Eleanor’s marriage to Simon: CR, 1237–42, pp. 44, 45.
44
Ibid, pp. 52, 64, 83, 96, 103; CLR, 1226–40, p. 337.
45
CLR, 1226–40, p. 329.
46
CR, 1237–42, pp. 60–1.
47
CPR, 1232–47, p. 231.
48
Chronica majora, iii, p. 487.
49
‘Regesta 19: 1238–1240’, in Calendar of Papal Registers, Volume 1: 1198–1304, pp. 169–88, available online at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=96012, accessed on 27 July 2010.
50
Chronica majora, iii, p. 567.
51
Ibid., iii, p. 487.
52
Ibid.
53
Ibid. For a recent study of Peter, see P. W. Rosemann (2004), Peter Lombard. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
54
Paris’s sympathetic treatment of Simon is discussed in Vaughan, Matthew Paris, p. 149.
55
Chronica majora, iii, p. 498. Although the witness lists of charters issued in October 1238 are damaged, those for November 1238 confirm Simon’s absence from court: Royal Charter Witness Lists, i, pp. 167–8.
56
Chronica majora, iii, p. 518.
57
For this alternative date, see R. Stacey (1987), Politics, Policy and Finance under Henry III, 1216–1245. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 124 n. 168. For the almoner’s roll see TNA, PRO C 47/3/44.
58
For Henry’s presence at Joan’s deathbed, see ‘Chronicle of Melrose’, p. 181. See also Chronica majora, iii, p. 479.
59
Stacey, Politics, Policy and Finance, p. 124 n. 168. See also C. Bémont (1884), Simon de Montfort, Comte de Leicester. Paris: Alphonse Picard, Libraire, p. 9.
60
The bishop subsequently became ill and died: Chronica majora, iii, p. 518.
61
Ibid.
62
CLR, 1226–40, p. 356. For baudekyn, see L. Monnas (2008), Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings, 1300–1500. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 298–9, 301. For Isabella’s robes, see TNA: PRO C 47/3/3; Green, Lives, ii, p. 14.
63
CLR, 1226–40, p. 356.
64
Ibid.
65
Simon witnessed a royal grant to Hugh Paynel on this date: Royal Charter Witness Lists, i, p. 168.
66
CLR, 1226–40, p. 360.
67
Chronica majora, iii, p. 524; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 23.
68
The bishops of London and Carlisle, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, were also among those who fulfilled this role: Chronica majora, iii, pp. 539–40; Howell, Eleanor
of Provence, pp. 27–8.
69
Chronica majora, iii, p. 540.
70
Howell, Eleanor of Provence, pp. 24–5, 29–30.
71
Robert Stacey calculated that between February and May 1238, Henry directed ‘almost half the recorded total of the king’s receipts’ from a subsidy of a thirtieth on movables that he had been granted in 1237 towards his brother’s planned expedition. This expenditure was on top of the loans and fees which the king made or paid to those in his service overseas: Stacey, Politics, Policy and Finance, pp. 126–7.
72
The original debt was owed by Montfort to Peter of Dreux, Count of Brittany, but was transferred by Peter to Thomas of Savoy: Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 24–5; CR, 1237–42, pp. 234–5; CLR, 1226–40, p. 472; Howell, Eleanor of Provence, p. 28; Bémont, Simon de Montfort, pp. 333–4 no. xxxiv.
73
Chronica majora, iii, pp. 566–7; Howell, Eleanor of Provence, p. 28; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 25.
74
Chronica majora, iii. p. 566; Howell, Eleanor of Provence, p. 28; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 25.
75
Chronica majora, iii, p. 566.
76
Ibid.
77
Ibid., iii, p. 567.
78
Bémont, Simon de Montfort, pp. 333–4 no. xxxiv. A point made in Labarge, Simon de Montfort, p. 54.
79
Chronica majora, iii, p. 567. As Earl Simon later recalled, he escaped imprisonment thanks to Richard of Cornwall’s intervention. See also Bémont, Simon de Montfort, p. 334 no. xxxiv; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 25.
80
This line of argument is strongly promoted by Maddicott: Simon de Montfort, pp. 25–6.
81
TNA, PRO E 372/83, rot. 7; CLR, 1226–40, p. 410. See also Stacey, Politics, Policy and Finance, pp. 126–7.
82
Henry III paid 500 marks of Earl Simon’s debt to Thomas and, according to Montfort’s own account, raised the remainder from Simon’s English estates: Bémont, Simon de Montfort, p. 334 no xxxiv; Labarge, Simon de Montfort, pp. 54–5.
Notes on Chapter 6
1
The Letters of Adam Marsh, ii, pp. 390–1 no. 162.
2
Chronica majora, iv, p. 7.
3
Labarge, Simon de Montfort, p. 55.
4
Chronica majora, iv, p. 7; ‘Annales prioratus de Dunstaplia’, p. 152.
5
Paris lists those who travelled with Earl Richard and Earl Simon separately: Chronica majora, iv, p. 44 n. 6 (marginal note).
6
‘Annales prioratus de Dunstaplia’, p. 152.
7
Chronica majora, iv, p. 44 n. 6.
8
Ibid., iv, p. 44 n. 6; Labarge, Simon de Montfort, p. 57. I have not managed to trace further details of Eleanor’s stay at Brindisi in the works of chroniclers within the Holy Roman Empire.
9
Bémont, Simon de Montfort, p. 334 no. xxxiv; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 30–1.
10
Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 31–2.
11
Richard of Cornwall’s first wife, Isabella, died in childbirth in 1240: Chronica majora, iv, p. 2. For Beatrice’s visit, see ibid., iv, pp. 261, 263, 283–4.
12
For Beatrice’s assistance to the Montforts, see Bémont, Simon de Montfort, p. 335 no. xxxiv.
13
CFR, 1243–4, no. 64, available online at http://www.frh3.org.uk/content/calendar/roll_041.html, accessed on 2 August 2010. On 12 February 1244, the king issued the Earl and Countess of Leicester with a formal pardon that itemised the debts which Simon and Eleanor had each incurred to the crown: CR, 1242–7, p. 159.
14
No dowry had accompanied her marriage to Simon in January 1238: Bémont, Simon de Montfort, p. 335 no. xxxiv; Labarge, Simon de Montfort, p. 69.
15
Bémont, Simon de Montfort, p. 335 no. xxxiv.
16
Chronica majora, iv, p. 135.
17
Ibid., iv, pp. 157–8.
18
CPR, 1232–47, p. 415.
19
Ibid., p. 416.
20
Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 52. Walter made payments to Eleanor and Simon. In March 1245, a letter patent referred to 300 marks Walter Marshal had placed in the custody of the treasurer of the Temple in London for the Montforts’ use to cover the money that he owed for Michaelmas term last: CPR, 1232–47, p. 449. Walter paid another 300 marks to cover the money he owed to the earl and countess after Easter: ibid., p. 453. In July 1245, Henry III acknowledged receipt of £200 from Walter, which Walter owed Eleanor a month after Easter: ibid., p. 456.
21
CLR, 1240–45, p. 231.
22
CChR, 1226–57, p. 278.
23
See, for example, Bracton: de legibus et consuetudinibus Angliae, ed. G. Woodbine and trans. S. E. Thorne (1968–77). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 3 vols, ii, p. 77.
24
CPR, 1232–47, p. 419. See also p. 67.
25
CR, 1242–7, p. 195.
26
CPR, 1232–47, p. 433.
27
Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 33–7.
28
His presence was noted in the Chester annals: ‘The Chronicle: 1235–61’, Annales Cestrienses: Chronicle of the Abbey of S. Werburg, at Chester, ed. R. C. Christie (1887). Publications of the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. 14, pp. 60–79, available online at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=67181, accessed on 14 October 2009.
29
These manors had been granted to Mabel, Eleanor’s damsel, for her marriage: CR, 1242–7, p. 264. See also p. 60.
30
CLR, 1240–45, p. 281.
31
CR, 1242–7, p. 452. On the next day Henry exempted Eleanor from paying £30 for the fee farm of her Wiltshire manor of Wexcombe for the remainder of her life: CPR, 1232-47, p. 485. In July 1246, Henry III loaned Eleanor a tun of wine from the king’s stores at Brill: CR, 1242–7, p. 441.
32
CR, 1242–7, pp. 518, 521.
33
CR, 1247–51, p. 22. Eleanor can also be found ensuring that her household was stocked with wine: CR, 1247–51, pp. 3–4.
34
He also wrote off three years’ worth of arrears that had been allowed to accumulate: ibid., p. 22; CPR, 1247–58, p. 5.
35
Andrew secured a further exemption in 1253. The first exemption also covered exemption from suit of the king’s hundred of Kintbury Eagle in Berkshire; the second covered exemption from all suits belonging to the king’s courts: CPR, 1247–58, pp. 34, 179.
36
Ibid., pp. 293 (pardon for John son of Thomas Hykedun at the instance of William de Valence and Eleanor the king’s sister, 30 May 1254), 398 (pardon for Eudo fitz Robert of Metheringham at the instance of Eleanor, 18 February 1255), 457 (pardon for Alexander fitz Giles of Lincoln at the instance of Eleanor, 10 January 1256).
37
Bémont, Simon de Montfort, pp. 264–5 no. ii; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 107–14.
38
Chronica majora, v, p. 293; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 109–10.
39
Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 110.
40
The earl had, after all, prolonged his stay in Gascony at the end of the 1242–3 expedition: ibid., p. 32.
41
See pp. 80–2.
42
Chronica majora, iv, p. 491; Wilkinson, Women in Thirteenth-Century Lincolnshire, pp. 49, 53.
43
Wilkinson, Women in Thirteenth-Century Lincolnshire, pp. 52 fig. 3, 53. See also Figure 2.
44
Since Anselm’s death came so soon after t
hat of his older brother, before he had an opportunity to pay his relief and perform homage to the king for the earldom of Pembroke, Matilda de Bohun’s dower rights were more modest than those of Margaret de Lacy, whose claim to lands rivalled the amount claimed by Eleanor. Matilda, for her part, received the old and new vill in county Kilkenny: Wilkinson, Women in Thirteenth-Century Lincolnshire, p. 54.
45
Ibid.
46
KB 26/159, mm. 2d-3d, esp. m. 3d. See also Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 52, 131.
47
KB 26/159, m. 3d; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 131.
48
A point made by Maddicott: Simon de Montfort, p. 130. See also Figure 2.
49
CLR, 1245–51, pp. 46, 85.
50
Ibid., pp. 118, 142, 178–9, 214–15, 226, 285, 312, 349; CLR, 1251–60, pp. 4, 44, 112, 154, 167. See also CPR, 1247–58, p. 257.
51
A letter patent, issued on 14 June 1248, referred to £40 which the Earl of Gloucester and Hertford had paid to the treasurer of the New Temple for his share of the arrears for 1247–8: CPR, 1247–58, p. 19.
52
CR, 1247–51, pp. 134–5; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 130. On Henry’s policy of benevolence towards the magnates, see D. A. Carpenter (1996), ‘King, Magnates and Society: The Personal Rule of Henry III, 1234–58’, in idem, The Reign of Henry III. London: Hambledon Press, pp. 75–106.
53
For discussion, see Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 131–3. Already, in May 1250, the king had felt compelled to enter into an undertaking that he would answer for the £400 a year due for Eleanor’s Irish dower for the term of Eleanor’s life, should Simon predecease her: CPR, 1247–51, p. 67.
54
CLR, 1251–60, p. 180. Maddicott noted that the memoranda roll suggests that, in fact, nothing was paid after Easter 1254: Simon de Montfort, p. 132.
55
CLR, 1251–60, p. 285; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 132.
56
If the arrears collected were insufficient to clear the debt, then the king promised to find the remainder of the sum from the money collected by the justices in eyre when they visited Northumberland and five other counties: CPR, 1247–58, pp. 493–4. See also Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 132.
57
CR, 1254–6, pp. 340, 438; CPR, 1247–58, p. 493. Margaret might well have hoped that this would smooth the path of her grandson’s marriage to Margaret Longespée. Simon de Montfort was among those who negotiated the match and the king lent his approval to the union: Wilkinson, Women in Thirteenth-Century Lincolnshire, pp. 55–6. Henry III might, though, have compensated Margaret de Lacy for her heavy outlay. In December 1256, the king authorized a writ of allocate, authorizing payment to Margaret de Lacy of the 1,600 marks that she paid to Simon and Eleanor: CLR, 1251–60, p. 347.