Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England (39 page)

BOOK: Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England

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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.

Since Anselm’s death came so soon after that 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.