Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England

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by Louise J. Wilkinson


  58

  TNA: PRO E 159/30, mm. 4d, 15. It is not, in fact, entirely clear whether this was actually the case, or whether the crown was having difficulty in simply keeping track of the arrears owing to Eleanor. In May 1257, a further payment of £400 was authorized by Henry, this time to cover one missed payment at Michaelmas 1256, and the remainder now due at Easter 1257: CLR, 1251–60, pp. 372–3. Yet in 1258, Earl Simon received £600, according to the issue rolls, for the period from Easter 1255 to Easter 1256: Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 132.

  59

  For Simon’s initial success in Gascony, see Chronica majora, v, pp. 48–9. For a summary of his lieutenancy, see Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 106–14.

  60

  Chronica majora, v, p. 294.

  61

  Ibid., v, p. 48.

  62

  See, for example, CPR, 1247–51, p. 34; CLR, 1245–51, pp. 214–15.

  63

  The Letters of Adam Marsh, i, pp. 56–63 no. 25, esp. pp. 56–9.

  64

  Chronica majora, v, p. 77; Labarge, Simon de Montfort, p. 112.

  65

  The Letters of Adam Marsh, i, pp. 96–101 no. 34, esp. pp. 96–9.

  66

  E. Boutaric, Saint Louis et Alfonse de Poitiers. Paris: Henri Plon, p. 73; Labarge, Simon de Montfort, p. 114.

  67

  Chronica majora, v, p. 117. For Simon in Gascony in 1250, see ibid., pp. 103–4. Simon had attended the Paris parlement in March 1250 on Henry III’s behalf: Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 112.

  68

  CR, 1247–51, p. 302; Labarge, Simon de Montfort, pp. 114, 116. A letter written by Marsh to Eleanor in May/June 1250, however, requested news from the countess ‘when you next send a courier to England’: The Letters of Adam Marsh, ii, pp. 376–7 no. 155.

  69

  Chronica majora, v, p. 208. See also ibid., v, p. 222.

  70

  Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 113–14.

  71

  Chronica majora, v, p. 263; Labarge, Simon de Montfort, pp. 117–18.

  72

  Letters of Adam Marsh, ii, pp. 326–9 no. 134, esp. pp. 326–7.

  73

  Discussed in Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 114–15.

  74

  Ibid., p. 115; Chronica majora, v, pp. 277, 284, 287–96, 313–16, 334–5, 337–8. A letter dated 7 March 1252, which was sent by Marsh to Grosseteste, offers tantalizing glimpses of Simon and Eleanor’s movements at this time, as the tide of Gascon grievances rose against the earl. Marsh, who acted as a tireless go-between for the Montforts and the crown, described how, at the queen’s request, he had set out for Reading on 25 February 1252, ‘where discussions were held concerning the business of the lord king and his heirs’. ‘On the following Friday’, the friar visited the Montforts’ residence at Odiham, ‘on the same business’. There Marsh remained until the following Monday, when he returned to Reading. He then travelled on to the Berkshire priory of Bromhall on Thursday in the third week of Lent ‘to meet the earl and countess of Leicester’: The Letters of Adam Marsh, i, pp. 126–9 no. 47, esp. pp. 128–9.

  75

  Ibid., i, pp. 78–91 no. 30, esp. pp. 78–9.

  76

  Ibid.

  77

  Peter was not a relation of Simon, but was the nephew of his close friend, Walter de Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester: D. A. Carpenter (2008), ‘Peter de Montfort’, in ODNB, available online at http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37845, accessed on 09 August 2010.

  78

  Letters of Adam Marsh, i, pp. 78–91 no. 30, esp. pp. 80–1.

  79

  Ibid.

  80

  Ibid., i, pp. 78–91 no. 30, esp. pp. 88–91.

  81

  BnFr MS Clairambault 1188, f. 16v. Eleanor’s seal is reproduced in Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 45 plate 3.

  82

  The Letters of Adam Marsh, ii, pp. 378–9 no. 157, 382–3 no. 158, 388–9 no. 161, 388–9 no. 162.

  83

  Ibid., ii, pp. 384–7 no. 159, esp. pp. 384–5.

  84

  Ibid., i, pp. 158–61 no. 60, esp. 158–9.

  85

  Ibid.

  86

  Ibid., ii, pp. 341–51 no. 141, esp. 348–9, 376–7 no. 155. See also ibid., ii, pp.357–9 no. 144, esp. 358–9 for Geoffrey’s delay in joining the earl and countess in Gascony in 1250, and pp. 382–3 no. 158 for the difficulties that Marsh encountered in finding a suitable priest to enter the Montforts’ household.

  87

  Ibid., ii, pp. 562–3 no. 241.

  88

  Ibid., ii, pp. 326–9 no. 134.

  89

  Ibid., ii, pp. 341–51 no. 141, esp. pp. 350–1.

  90

  C. H. Lawrence (1994), The Friars: The Impact of the Early Mendicant Movement on Western Society. Longman: Harlow, p. 168.

  91

  Ibid., pp. 169–70.

  92

  On this, see Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 92–3.

  93

  Monasticon anglicanum, vi, pt iii, p. 1486.

  94

  C. Douais (1885), Les Frères prêcheurs en Gascogne au XIII me et au XIV me siècle. Paris: Société historique de Gascogne, 2 vols, i, p. 265; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 44.

  95

  CR, 1254–6, p. 244.

  96

  The Letters of Adam Marsh, ii, pp. 370–3 no. 151.

  97

  Ibid., ii, pp. 326–9 no. 134, esp. pp. 326–7.

  98

  John founded Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire, which later served as the burial place of Richard of Cornwall’s wife, Isabella Marshal. Richard also founded Hailes Abbey in 1246, which served as his burial place and that of Sanchia of Provence, his son Henry of Almain and another son who died in infancy. See The Beaulieu Cartulary, ed. S. F. Hockey (1974). Southampton: Southampton Record Series, vol. 17; D. Westerhoff (2008), Death and the Noble Body in Medieval England. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, pp. 58–9.

  99

  ‘Annales de Waverleia’, p. 336. Waverley was situated just ten miles from Odiham Castle: Labarge, Simon de Montfort, p. 79.

  100

  ‘Annales de Waverleia’, p. 336; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 42.

  101

  ‘Annales de Waverleia’, p. 336.

  102

  ‘Early Charters and Patrons of Leicester Abbey, Appendix: The Charters of Leicester Abbey, 1139–1265 ’, ed. D. Crouch (2006), in J. Story, J. Bourne and R. Buckley (eds), Leicester Abbey: Medieval History, Archaeology and Manuscript Studies. Leicester: Leicestershire Archaeological Society, pp. 225–87, at pp. 269–70. No mention was made of Eleanor in another charter issued by the earl in c. 1239: ibid., pp. 267–8.

  103

  BnFr MS Clairambault 1021; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 104. According to the Dunstable annalist, Earl Simon secured similar rights from Dunstable Priory in 1263, but Eleanor’s involvement, on this occasion, was not recorded: ‘Annales prioratus de Dunstaplia’, p. 226.

  104

  BnFr MS Clairambault 1021.

  105

  BL MS Cotton Otho D. III (St Albans cartulary), f. 111r.

  106

  Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 55.

  107

  CR, 1247–51, pp. 22, 74, 302; CR, 1251–3, p. 356; CR, 1254–6, pp. 87, 329, 330.

  108

  The Montforts’ voluntary exile prompted Henry to grant Odiham to Engelard de Cigogné. After Cigogné’s death in 1243, Odiham was restored to them: MacGregor, Odiham Castle, p. 52; CFR, 1243–4, no. 451, available online at http://www.finerollshenry3.org.uk/content/calendar/roll_041.html, accessed on 06 April 2011.

  109

  CR, 1242–7, p. 424.

  110

  Ibid., p. 458.

  111

  See p. 55.

  112

  CPR, 1232–47, p. 419.

  113

  R. Allen-Brown (1955), ‘Royal Castle-Buildin
g in England, 1154-1216’, EHR, 276, pp. 353–98, at pp. 368, 394.

  114

  A. Pettifer (1995), English Castles: A Guide by Counties. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, pp. 256–8.

  115

  CLR, 1226–40, p. 220.

  116

  CLR, 1240–45, pp. 32–3.

  117

  Ibid., p. 71. For renovations to the castle, see also The Great Roll of the Pipe for the Twenty-Sixth Year of the Reign of King Henry III, A.D. 1241–1242, ed. H. L. Cannon (1918). New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 177; Bémont, Simon de Montfort (2nd edn), p. 32.

  118

  CPR, 1247–58, p. 5.

  119

  Ibid., p. 250.

  120

  SCLA, DR10/1356.

  121

  The Letters of Adam Marsh, ii, pp. 378–83 no. 157, esp. pp. 378–9.

  122

  Chronica majora, v, p. 1; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 106–7.

  123

  Chronica majora, v, pp. 98–9.

  124

  Harris, English Aristocratic Women, p. 99.

  125

  See, for example, Howell, Eleanor of Provence, pp. 255–6; Parsons, ‘Mothers, Daughters’, pp. 73–5; J. C. Parsons (1996), ‘The Pregnant Queen as Counsellor and the Medieval Construction of Motherhood’, in Parsons and Wheeler (eds), Medieval Mothering, pp. 39–61.

  126

  Chronica majora, iii, p. 518; Stacey, Politics, Policy and Finance, p. 124 n. 168.

  127

  Paris noted that Eleanor was ‘then pregnant’: Chronica majora, iii, p. 567.

  128

  Chronica majora, iv, p. 44 n. 6 (marginal note); Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 43.

  129

  For discussion on this, see Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 43.

  130

  Ibid., pp. 43–4.

  131

  See p. 84.

  132

  Breastfeeding helps to suppress a new mother’s fertility.

  133

  For an image of a noblewoman testing the breast of a wet nurse, see BL MS Sloan 2435, f. 28v (Aldobrandino of Siena, Li Livres dou Santé, France, late thirteenth century). See also W. F. MacLehose (2010), ‘Health and Science’, in L. J. Wilkinson (ed.), A Cultural History of Childhood and Family, Oxford: Berg, pp. 161–78, at pp. 168–70, esp. fig. 9.1.

  134

  ‘Annales prioratus de Dunstaplia’, p. 152.

  135

  L. J. Wilkinson (2010), ‘Education’, in idem (ed.), A Cultural History of Childhood and Family, pp. 91–108, at p. 98.

  136

  The Letters of Adam Marsh, i, pp. 57–63 no. 25, esp. pp. 57–8, pp. 145–9 no. 52, esp. pp. 146–7.

  137

  Ibid., i, pp. 56–9 no. 25, esp. pp. 58–9.

  138

  Chronica majora, v, p. 416. See also Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 122.

  139

  Letters of Adam Marsh, ii, pp. 385–7 no. 159, 386–7 no. 160.

  140

  Ibid., ii, pp. 388–91 no. 162, esp. pp. 390–1.

  141

  Ibid., ii, p. 334–7 no. 138, esp. pp. 336–7.

  142

  Ibid., ii, pp. 338–9 no. 139.

  143

  Ibid., ii, pp. 341–51 no. 141, esp. pp. 350–1.

  144

  Ibid., ii, pp. 326–9 no. 134, esp. pp. 326–7.

  145

  Ibid., ii, pp. 376–9 no. 156.

  146

  For Eleanor of Provence’s children, see Howell, Eleanor of Provence, pp. 27–8, 30, 35, 44–5. Another daughter, Katherine, was born in 1253: ibid., pp. 117–18.

  147

  TNA: PRO E 101/308/1, m. 1. For another messenger, Robert de Gaugy, who was dispatched to Kenilworth, see ibid.

  148

  E 101/308/1, m. 1.

  149

  Ibid.

  150

  Ibid., m. 2.

  151

  Ibid.

  152

  Ibid.; Green, Lives, ii, p. 105.

  153

  TNA: PRO E 101/349/18, m. 1. In the autumn, the queen also paid for a russet robe of Eleanor’s to be sheared and purchased a red squirrel fur for the countess’s use: ibid.

  154

  TNA: PRO E 101/349/12, m. 1.

  155

  Ibid., m. 3. By this time, Richard of Havering was Earl Simon’s steward and ‘righthand’ man: Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 67.

  156

  Bémont, Simon de Montfort, pp. 321–4 no. xxviii bis; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 119. The king had granted the Lord Edward the province in April 1252: CChR, 1226–57, p. 386.

  157

  Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 120–1, 124.

  158

  Chronica majora, v, pp. 415–16.

  159

  It was also on this occasion that the king improved the terms by which the couple held the castle of Kenilworth and the manor of Odiham, so that both properties were now held for the life of the earl and/or countess: CPR, 1247–58, pp. 249–50. The 600 mark fee was, essentially, an extension of, and in the fine detail of its terms an extremely generous reworking of, a fee of 500 marks that the king had granted the earl and countess in 1244: Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 122–3.

  160

  H. W. Ridgeway (1989), ‘Foreign Favourites and Henry III’s Problems of Patronage, 1247–58’, EHR, 104, 590–610; Howell, Eleanor of Provence, ch. 3.

  161

  See p. 79. See also CR, 1256–9, pp. 28, 34.

  162

  Chronica majora, v, pp. 634, 676–7; Howell, Eleanor of Provence, pp. 142, 148.

  163

  Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 128–9.

  164

  In December 1257, the king acknowledged that he owed a total of £1,198 14s. 10½d., for all the debts Henry owed to the earl and the countess: CPR, 1247–58, p. 609; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 133–4. Henry III had also become indebted to Earl Simon in the county of Bigorre, south of Gascony, when Esquivat de Chabnais, the grandchild of Simon’s sister-in-law, Petronilla, Countess of Bigorre, transferred the debts Henry III owed to him for leasing his castles and for military service during the Gascon campaign to Simon de Montfort, to whom Esquivat was indebted from the time when Simon had been appointed guardian of the county on Petronilla’s death in 1251: CPR, 1247–58, p. 609; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 134–5.

  165

  Chronica majora, v, p. 366, 415.

  166

  Ibid., v, p. 415.

  167

  Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 140. The earl also pursued his own business in France during the early part of 1255: ibid., p. 141.

  168

  Ibid., pp. 139–40.

  Notes on Chapter 7

  1

  DBM, pp. 96–113 no. 5, esp. 96–9 (The Provisions of Oxford, 1258).

  2

  These developments are summarized in Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 126.

  3

  D. A. Carpenter (1996), ‘What Happened in 1258?’, in idem, The Reign of Henry III, pp. 183–98; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 153.

  4

  Carpenter, ‘What Happened in 1258?’, p. 183; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 153–4.

  5

  CPR, 1247–58, p. 627. See also pp. 91–2.

  6

  Chronica majora, v, p. 560; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 126.

  7

  CR (Supplementary), 1244–66, p. 15 no. 172.

  8

  Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 155.

  9

  Ibid.

  10

  Ibid., pp. 155–7.

  11

  Richard of Cornwall had been elected king of the Romans (i.e. of Germany) in January 1257 after the German throne became vacant in 1256: Vincent, ‘Richard, First Earl of Cornwall and King of Germany (1209–1272)’, ODNB.

  12

  See, for example, I. J. Sanders (1951), ‘The Texts of the Treaty of Paris’, EHR, 66,
81–97, at 89.

  13

  CPR, 1247–58, p. 663.

  14

  DBM, pp. 194–211 no. 29, esp. pp. 194–5.

  15

  Ibid.

  16

  Bémont, Simon de Montfort, pp. 328–30 no. xxxi, esp. p. 328; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 40 (who translates this passage).

  17

  The earl wanted the couple’s mutual friends, Richard Gravesend, Grosseteste’s successor as Bishop of Lincoln, and Adam Marsh, to counsel his executors should the need arise: Bémont, Simon de Montfort, pp. 328–30 no. xxxi.

  18

  The second visit was dominated by Earl Simon’s desire to pursue his own claims to the county of Bigorre, which had been granted to him in 1256, and re-granted in 1258 by Esquivat de Chabnais: Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, pp. 142, 155–6, 159, 172–8.

  19

  Simon also refused to renounce his claims to his family’s ancestral French lands: CPR 1258–66, pp. 25, 106–7.

  20

  DBM, pp. 194–211 no. 29, esp. pp. 196–7.

  21

  See p. 91.

  22

  P. Chaplais (1952), ‘The Making of the Treaty of Paris (1259) and the Royal Style’, EHR, 67, 235–53, esp. 243–4; Labarge, Simon de Montfort, p. 156.

  23

  Chaplais, ‘The Making of the Treaty of Paris’, 244; Labarge, Simon de Montfort, p. 156.

  24

  CPR, 1258–66, p. 18.

  25

  DBM, pp. 194–211 no. 29, esp. pp. 196–7.

  26

  Ibid.

  27

  Chaplais, ‘The Making of the Treaty of Paris’, 244–7; Labarge, Simon de Montfort, p. 156.

  28

  Chronica majora, v, p. 745.

  29

  CLR, 1251–60, p. 460; DBM, pp. 194–211 no. 29, esp. pp. 196–9; CChR, 1257–1300, p. 18 (Melbourne, Kingshawe and Gunthorpe, Notts; Dilwyn, Lugwardine and Marden, Heref; Bere Regis, Dorset; Rodley and Minsterworth, Glos); CPR, 1258–66, p. 52–3; Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 182, 188–9. The grant of manors was later amended so that the couple also received the Yorkshire manors of Easingwold and Huby: CPR, 1258–66, pp. 34–5; CChR, 1257–1300, p. 20; BnFr MS Clairambault 1188, ff. 13–13v. For an order to extend the Montforts’ new manors, see CPR, 1258–66, pp. 98–9. The speed with which the couple took possession of their new properties did not endear them to the previous tenants. On 19 August 1259, Simon and Eleanor were instructed to return the corn and livestock on the manor of Bere Regis to the Abbess of Tarrant, and, on 5 September 1259, those on the manor of Kingshawe to William le Latymer: CR, 1256–9, pp. 426, 433.

 

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