Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England (13 page)

The largesse shown by Henry III to Eleanor and the countess’s presence at court in 1237 raise the question of how often she visited him. In all likelihood, Eleanor was probably in attendance on her brother at major religious festivals and state occasions, such as celebrations to mark anniversaries significant for her natal kin. One wonders whether Eleanor attended her brother’s Christmas court at Winchester in 1231–2, where her former guardian, Peter des Roches, entertained the king and his followers.
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When the body of King John was moved to a new tomb in Worcester Cathedral on 21 October 1232, the Tewkesbury annalist recorded Eleanor’s presence at this ceremony, alongside that of the king, Hubert de Burgh, Ralph de Neville, the royal chancellor, the Prior of Worcester and Robert, Abbot-Elect of Tewkesbury.
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Admittedly, a grant of venison to Eleanor for Christmas in 1232–3 suggests that the countess spent this festive season away from court.
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Eleanor was also perhaps absent from the Christmas court at Gloucester in 1233–4, which was marred by Richard Marshal’s rebellion.
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Even so, she might well have participated in Henry’s subsequent Christmas celebrations at Westminster in 1234–5
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and at Winchester in 1235–6 and 1236–7.
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As Matthew Paris observed, the atmosphere at the Christmas court of 1235–6 was heavy with anticipation at the imminent arrival of Henry III’s prospective bride, Eleanor, the daughter of Count Raymond-Berengar V of Provence by Beatrice of Savoy.
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The couple’s marriage at Canterbury on 14 January 1236 was followed by the new queen’s coronation as Henry’s consort at Westminster Abbey on 20 January.
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Paris described in elaborate detail the pomp and ceremony that surrounded the latter occasion. Among the nobles who fulfilled their traditional roles at such events was Countess Eleanor’s brother-in-law, Gilbert Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, who as ‘grand marshal of England’ carried a wand before the king and cleared the way before him in the church and banquet hall.
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Paris praised the lavish dress of those who enjoyed these nuptial festivities and the abundance of meats and fish at the table, offering a valuable insight into the opulence and conspicuous consumption that surrounded such gatherings. Countess Eleanor, as the king’s youngest sister and the only sister then resident in England, presumably witnessed this event and partook of the festivities.
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Eleanor also probably witnessed the preparations for her older sister Isabella’s departure from the realm in April and May 1235 on Isabella’s marriage to Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen.
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THE RHYTHMS OF DAILY LIFE

It remains, though, frustratingly difficult in the absence of letters, diaries or household accounts for these years to determine the precise rhythms and activities of Eleanor’s daily life. Eleanor’s education, examined in earlier chapters, indicates that she might have found comfort and enjoyment in reading religious and other works.
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She very probably followed Henry III’s example and the practice of other noble households by overseeing the regular distribution of alms to the poor.
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This was certainly the case later in her life, in 1265, a year for which particularly detailed records survive, when she regularly provided bread for paupers.
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In 1265, she also modified her diet on specific days of the week, like her cousin Eleanor of Brittany had done when in residence at Bristol Castle in the mid 1220s, so that she might adhere to the Christian regime of abstinence, whereby fish, rather than flesh, was typically consumed on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
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Important religious feasts, including Christmas, Easter and the Marian feasts, were usually marked in great households by fasts on their eves, as a prelude to the consumption of meats.
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In addition to observing restrictions on her diet, it is highly likely that Eleanor followed convention by observing a strict regime of liturgical celebrations that punctuated each day, beginning with the celebration of Matins by her household chaplain and concluding, perhaps, with Evensong and Compline.
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She might also have engaged in other acts of piety, such as pilgrimages to holy shrines, like that which her eldest sister, Joan, Queen of Scots, and her sister-in-law, Queen Eleanor, made to Canterbury early in 1238.
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If the main motivation for the visit by the two queens to Canterbury was to seek heavenly aid so that they might conceive children and strengthen their husbands’ dynasties,
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Eleanor’s status as a widow carried with it strong commemorative responsibilities towards her dead husband so that she might help through, for example, religious patronage, to speed his soul in its passage through purgatory.
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As Malcolm Vale has aptly observed, ‘The giving of alms formed a major part of the devotional life of any layman or laywoman of any substance.’
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This was particularly the case with widows. Perhaps Eleanor marked the anniversary of William junior’s death with masses for his soul and the distribution of alms to the poor, like those that Henry III subsequently arranged after the deaths of Joan and Isabella the Empress.
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When Countess Eleanor was not occupied by religious observances or estate and household affairs, she might have found time for recreational pursuits popular with other noblewomen. Eleanor probably passed at least some of her time engaged in embroidery and other forms of needlework, producing fine items of clothing, including vestments, as gifts for members of her family or churchmen.
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In her
Life
, Countess Eleanor’s contemporary, Isabella of France, is described sewing a cap ‘with her own hands’, which her brother, King Louis IX, requested from her and which Isabella, true to her saintly character, secretly bestowed upon a poor woman in his stead.
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Henry III’s youngest sister might also have played games for her amusement. Chess was popular in royal circles throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. At Easter 1235, Henry III bestowed a chess table and set on his sister Isabella, which she carried into the Empire on her marriage.
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The wardrobe books of Henry III’s son, King Edward I and his second wife, Margaret of France, reveal that they both possessed a chess set of jasper and crystal.
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Beyond the confines of her household, falconry, like hunting deer, was another pursuit popular with royal and noble women, some of whom were depicted on their seals holding birds of prey.
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As part of her daily life, Eleanor enjoyed the company of others, most notably the damsels of her household who served as her female attendants. Of lesser noble status than their mistress, it was these young women who provided companionship and who saw to Eleanor’s personal needs. In the thirteenth century and later, it was fairly common for noble daughters to be placed in service in other households so that they might acquire an education appropriate to their gender and rank.
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Service within the household of a queen or a countess offered a number of advantages beyond the acquisition of feminine manners and womanly skills. A damsel who pleased her mistress might benefit from personal gifts. Furthermore, a young woman might expand her social connections and friendship networks, thereby allowing her to advance her own interests and, through her, those of her family. Such service might help her to reap the benefits of patronage by securing an annuity or a materially advantageous marriage, arranged with her mistress’s blessing. On 12 January 1238, for example, Countess Eleanor persuaded Henry III to grant Mabel de Druval, one of her damsels, an annuity of ten marks until the king was able to find Mabel a husband or provide for her maintenance in another way.
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When Henry was unable to find Mabel a suitable husband, this initial grant was followed by a further grant of £10 worth of land for the remainder of her life.
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Just as Countess Eleanor benefitted from the king’s generosity, so too did those who served her by virtue of Eleanor’s proximity to, and privileged contact with, the Henrician court.
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5

The Montfort Marriage

‘the clandestine marriage’
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On 7 January 1238, ‘in the very small chapel of the king, which is in the corner of the [king’s] chamber’ in the palace of Westminster, Eleanor Marshal, Countess of Pembroke, married as her second husband Simon de Montfort, one of the king’s leading counsellors. The ceremony took place in Henry III’s presence and was presided over by Walter, a royal chaplain.
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If the clandestine marriage of a widowed vowess was not shocking enough in its own right, Eleanor’s new choice of bridegroom was highly controversial. Simon de Montfort might well have been a prominent figure at her brother’s court, but he was also an alien and, at the time of their union, an alien of inferior status to that of his new royal wife. Simon’s natal kin were of comital rank and subjects of the kings of France; his birth family took their name from the lordship of Montfort l’Amaury, situated to the west of Paris. If this was not potentially embarrassing enough in itself, Eleanor’s new husband was also a younger son, the third son, in fact, of the Albigensian crusader Simon de Montfort senior and his wife, Alice de Montmorency.
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What had prompted Simon to set his sights on Eleanor, the English king’s sister, and what had prompted Eleanor to renege on her earlier decision to live out her days in perpetual widowhood?

SIMON DE MONTFORT

Simon de Montfort the younger came to England at the beginning of the 1230s, ostensibly to make his fortune. The Montfort dynasty was not unknown in England: Simon’s paternal grandmother, Amicia (d. 1215), had been the eldest sister and co-heiress of Robert (IV) de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, and it was this claim that provided Simon with his entrée to the English court.
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Simon’s older brother, Amaury, resigned his rights to the English earldom in favour of his younger brother probably in return for a substantial sum of money, allowing Simon to embark upon a campaign to secure Henry III’s recognition of his claim to the lands of the honour of Leicester.
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After Simon junior performed homage to Henry III for these properties (worth around £500 per annum), he set about establishing himself on his new estates and at the English court.
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If the English king remained, for the time being, reticent about recognizing Simon’s succession to the title of earl, Simon gradually established himself as one of Henry’s leading advisors during the course of the next five years. John Maddicott has calculated that Simon was one of the most regular witnesses of the king’s charters between May 1236 and December 1237.
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Simon was present in January 1236 at the coronation of Henry III’s new queen, Eleanor of Provence, at Westminster, during which he fulfilled the earl of Leicester’s hereditary ceremonial role as steward of England in the festivities by providing the king with water basins in which to wash before the wedding feast.
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Yet, in spite of Simon’s meteoric rise in royal favour, his future remained highly insecure. As Maddicott astutely observed, ‘A limited endowment, debt, and the residual claims of Amaury’ all posed serious and ever-present threats to his new found position as a royal counsellor.
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Yet we must not forget that Simon, as a younger son of a French nobleman, had done remarkably well for himself in a relatively short space of time. It is, therefore, of no great surprise that he looked to increase his wealth still further through marriage to a well-connected aristocratic woman. He did not, though, alight immediately upon Eleanor as a prospective bride. In fact, from Simon’s earlier choices of brides, we gain a strong sense of his personal political ambition and sheer audacity. Simon, who was still no more than the lord of Leicester, paid court first in 1235 to Mahaut (II),
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Countess of Bolougne and the widow of Philip Hurepel, a younger son of King Philip Augustus of France by Agnes of Meran. Then, during the early months of 1236, his attention switched to Joan,
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Countess of Flanders and the widow of Ferrand, the son of the king of Portugal.
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Not only were both prospective brides important heiresses of comital rank, but they both possessed ties with the ruling houses of France and Portugal through their first marriages to the sons of kings. Although Simon failed to realize his goal in marrying either of these women – his plans fell victim to suspicions at the French royal court about the strength of his attachment to the English crown – his subsequent interest in Eleanor, the widowed sister of the English king, suggests that his ego remained unabashed.
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By comparison with the other two women, Eleanor proved to be a more realistic ‘catch’. True, she was of royal birth and the widow of one of the wealthiest English earls, but she was no great heiress in her own right. The landed endowment that she brought to her new husband was one that was a life, rather than a permanent, interest. Henry III’s recent marriage to Eleanor of Provence and the possibility of future heirs issuing from that union also made it seem increasingly unlikely that Eleanor and her sisters would find themselves as heiresses to the English throne.
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Even so, marriage to Eleanor still carried with it, as Matthew Paris noted, manifest attractions – ‘her beauty, the rich honours contingent to her, and the excelling and royal descent of the lady’.
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Marriage to Eleanor meant marriage to the sister of an English king, an empress and a queen of Scots.
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