The Montfort marriage was not a marriage designed by the king. It appears that he was probably charmed into it by de Montfort and Eleanor and that he consented without appreciating the political storm it would cause for him. The possible alternative is that Henry’s hand was forced by a suggestion that the couple had anticipated the ceremony. This alternative, though romantic, is generally considered unlikely, given the favour in which the pair remained immediately after the marriage. But however he was cozened into it, Henry was still casting recriminations about the circumstances of the event some time later: in 1239, while in a rage, he openly accused de Montfort of having seduced Eleanor before the marriage – one classic example of Henry’s unpredictable and misplaced rages referred to above.17
However it was brought about, not only did this wedding bring de Montfort very near the throne in kinship, it also, notionally at least, brought him considerable wealth. Eleanor’s first marriage, to William Marshal, entitled her to a third of her late husband’s lands for life by way of dower. These vast lands had substantially come to Henry III’s childhood regent, the great warrior William Marshal the elder, through his marriage to Isabel de Clare, heiress to the earldom of Pembroke. Eleanor’s rights had also been increased by the dowry given her by Henry on her marriage. Overall, Eleanor was therefore entitled to over £500 per year in respect of the Marshal lands in England and £400 in respect of their Welsh and Irish lands. This was nearly double de Montfort’s own income as Earl of Leicester, and transformed him in one swoop from a mid-ranking noble into a considerable magnate.
In the years which succeeded his marriage, de Montfort’s star continued to rise. He was acknowledged as a military leader internationally as well as in England; he was offered the post of Governor of Jerusalem, and later that of Constable of France. To add insult to injury, so far as Henry was concerned, de Montfort was one of the few people who distinguished himself at Saintes in 1242, fighting a rearguard action to protect Henry.18
All of this led to a relationship where Henry depended upon and violently resented de Montfort in roughly equal measure, and where it is likely that de Montfort’s contempt for him was never entirely absent from the king’s mind. He appointed de Montfort to Gascony in 1248 to protect the area for Edward and yet refused to back his actions there, instead embracing the chief noble of the region, Gaston de Béarn, whom de Montfort had sent to England in chains, recalling de Montfort and putting him on trial. The result was that de Montfort was acquitted in circumstances which were humiliating to Henry. And yet, even after this, in the run-up to the wedding of Edward and Eleanor, Henry was again asking for help from de Montfort, which de Montfort gave – as was his way, at a price.19
So much for the key personalities within the royal family. What of the wider political context? In truth, England was notionally secure but politically fraught; in marked contrast to Castile where, in recent years, faction had largely been buried in an exterior focus: reconquest. Many different issues fed into the English situation, and any full treatment of them lies well beyond the scope of this book. However, there were effectively three key themes: issues of local governance and justice; resentment at the costs involved in Henry’s scheme to procure the throne of Sicily for his second son, Edmund; and the issue of ‘aliens’. It was this latter issue, which encapsulated resentments arising out of Henry’s adoption of a multitude of foreign favourites, which was probably the single most burning problem underpinning the considerable difficulties at the English court at this time. It was also an issue which hovered over the marriage of Eleanor, an ‘alien’, to Edward.
As mentioned above, in the wake of Eleanor of Provence’s marriage to Henry there had come to England a very sizeable contingent of her maternal relatives from Savoy. First came William of Savoy, who was already rising fast in the Church. He was quickly in Henry’s confidence and became the first target of the anti-foreigner lobby when Henry attempted to force his election to the wealthy and prestigious bishopric of Winchester. Death intervened to prevent further advancement of William, but he had left behind him a certain number of other Savoyards, some of whom remained in England. The most notable of these was Peter d’Aigueblanche, named for the area of Savoy from which he hailed. By 1239 he was Archdeacon of Shropshire and he became Bishop of Hereford in 1240. Shortly thereafter, two further uncles arrived. The first was Peter of Savoy, who became Eleanor of Provence’s primary adviser and the head of the Savoyard faction at court. The second was another cleric, Boniface, whose election as Archbishop of Canterbury Henry forced through in 1241. The timing of their arrival was propitious for Henry: both Richard of Cornwall and Simon de Montfort were absent on Crusade at the time and would remain so for some time. By the time they returned, the Savoyards were ensconced at the heart of court and had already been richly provided for. Peter of Savoy, for example, was knighted by Henry in early 1241 and thereafter given a wide range of lands, honours and posts of influence, including the honours of Richmond and Pevensey, the custody of most of the key south coast castles, of the lands of the late Earl Warenne, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.20
At this point, the patronage for the most senior Savoyards was not a particular issue. They were useful men, and by virtue of a number of magnates dying without heirs Henry had sufficient land in hand to indulge them without treading on anyone’s toes. But the problem was a cumulative one. In the wake of these ‘headline’ Savoyards came wave after wave of smaller fry. Ridgeway has identified well over 150 Savoyards who enjoyed Henry’s patronage in the years after Eleanor of Provence’s arrival as queen. Although only a minority became resident in England, and many entered the households of Savoyard magnates, there were a significant number who remained at court.21
Particularly significantly, many of them were ‘seeded’ into Edward’s household and later into his group of companions, thereby (theoretically) ensuring that the Savoyard faction kept control of their most important asset – the heir to the throne. Two examples will suffice. One of those who accompanied Edward to Gascony after his marriage was Ebulo de Montibus, who came, as his name suggests, from the Savoyard mountain regions. He was a protégé of Peter of Savoy and was placed by him in close contact with Edward in the early years of the 1250s. He witnessed many of Edward’s Acts and was one of those who appeared with Edward at his sister’s wedding.22
A second example is Otho de Grandison, who was to become one of Edward and Eleanor’s closest companions. He was of a Savoyard family whose interest was needed by Peter of Savoy in the Pays de Vaux. Otho appears to have been put into Edward’s household during the schoolroom years for Edward later referred to Otho as having given ‘faithful service from his earliest youth and our own’. Otho was probably born in 1238, and the date which has been identified for his likely arrival (1247) corresponds with the period when Edward’s household was set up. It also seems likely, from three facts, that his family, though noble, was impecunious. In the first place, his father was given a pension of £20 per annum for the services of his sons. In the second place, the fact that he would part with Otho, his eldest son, indicates that there was not much to look forward to at home. Finally, the fact that Otho for years appears in the records simply as ‘Ottonin’ – even after his father’s death made him Lord of Grandson, and he became a knight only some seven years later, indicates powerfully that the Lords of Grandson did not have enough money to support the knightly state. Otho, as will become apparent, rose to considerable wealth and rank on the back of his strategic placement with Edward in childhood, although his loyalty was to Edward, not to the Savoyard faction.23
But it was not merely or even mainly in the question of patronage that the Savoyard influx was offensive. Three Savoyards were married, at Peter of Savoy’s behest, to three of the most wealthy Anglo-Irish heiresses, whose marriages were in the gift of the king, removing this source of wealth from the English and Irish nobility. To cap this, following an Anglo-Savoyard treaty in 1246, the male heirs to major English honours began to be picked
off by the queen for her relatives. The queen’s cousin Alice de Saluzzo was brought to England in 1247 to marry the underage heir to the earldom of Lincoln. With her came another relative, to be married to the male heir to the substantial Irish honour of Connacht. Next was the lordship of de Vescy, which at that time controlled Alnwick and much of Northumberland. The Vescy heir, John (another future close friend of Edward and Eleanor), was married to Alice of Saluzzo’s sister Agnes. Then came the matches of Eleanor of Geneva to Alexander Balliol and Margaret of Savoy to the heir to the earldom of Devon. Still further examples can be given. Each of these marriages represented control of vast tracts of land and revenue and affected the running not just of these territories, but their neighbours and those in the affinity of the family for years to come. Thus, although a number of the marriages were happy, and the Savoyards did assist in maintaining peace in difficult areas, feeling ran high over these marriages. It can be seen from Matthew Paris’ reports in his chronicle that the practice was and continued to be resented and the marriage of English heiresses to foreigners was a key issue for the barons in 1258, when the tensions beneath the surface of the English court came to the surface.24
Had matters stopped with the Savoyard interest, however, all might just have been manageable. There was a limited number of sufficiently ranking Savoyards. However, in 1247 Henry invited four of his de Lusignan half-brothers and his half-sister Alice to come to England and live under his patronage. They were later supplemented by a couple of his de Lusignan nieces. The third of the visiting brothers, William ‘of Valence’, was then married to the heiress to the lordship of Pembroke and was also given a pension of over £800 per annum. An attempt was made to install the youngest brother, Aymer, who was probably in his late teens at the time, as Bishop of Durham. When this attempt was not successful, he was given a rich living in Wearmouth and in 1252 was installed in the even richer see of Winchester – at which time he was still being educated at Oxford. The older Lusignans, Guy and Geoffrey, who remained largely in France, were given rich pensions. Meanwhile, Alice was married to the heir to the Earl Warenne (Surrey), while her cousins were married to the heirs of the earldoms of Gloucester and Derby.25
Predictably, with these new aliens came their own protégés and soon they too were installing themselves as constables of strategic castles or within the royal household. Equally predictably, the new aliens were unwelcome both to the English nobility and to the Savoyard faction. So far as the English nobility was concerned, this new influx of foreigners and their preferments fell into the account which was gradually being prepared against the king. So far as the old aliens were concerned, there were naturally rows, the most severe of which prior to Eleanor’s arrival is worth recounting.26
In late 1252, a quarrel arose between the queen’s uncle Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the king’s half-brother Aymer, the bishop elect of Winchester, concerning the appointment to the post of prior of the hospital of St Thomas at Southwark. Boniface was away and Aymer installed his own candidate. An official of the archbishopric pointed out that the archbishop’s confirmation was necessary, and when his advice was ignored he took it upon himself to excommunicate the new prior. At Aymer’s instigation the prior elect ignored this interdict, and was then seized and imprisoned in the archbishop’s prison. Aymer consulted with his brother William who, in true Lusignan style, despatched a bunch of armed men, ransacked the prison and surrounding manor and sprung the prior from his prison. They then rounded up the archbishop’s official, who was beaten up and then dropped in the middle of nowhere with instructions to walk home.27
The king was plainly placed in a most uncomfortable position, but was principally annoyed with those who had taken to complaining about the Lusignans – foremost among them, the queen. Nothing was done immediately on the actual dispute, but Henry suspended her control over all her lands and banished her from court, sending her to Winchester. On the other side of the equation, he simply suspended or diverted monies payable to William of Valence. The row rolled on for weeks, but was eventually patched up in early 1253, with Aymer swearing that he had been no party to the raid and being given the kiss of peace by Boniface. Officially the matter was over, but the huge fault lines which had rapidly opened up at the heart of the court, and which had proved so difficult to close, showed just how unstable the position was.28
Aside from the political aspects of the English court, it is worth considering the royal family life. The key point is that Henry III and Eleanor of Provence were devoted parents, and indubitably made themselves beloved by their children. Henry was capable of great charm and generosity, particularly towards those who were no threat to him, and one can imagine that this made him a delightful father. Having lacked a settled childhood himself, he was keen to see that his own children had what he had missed. Many records remain of his concern for his children. In October 1242, he contacted the constable of Windsor to say that he had heard that the children had no good wine to drink and instructed him to present them with two of the best tuns to be found in the castle. (It should be understood that this was not a case of encouraging underage drinking – diluted wine was drunk to ameliorate the health risk posed by unclean water.) Later the same year, Henry instructed the sheriff of Gloucester to send fifteen lampreys, a much-prized though disgusting-looking eel-like fish, to three-year-old Edward – who we may imagine had confided how very much he liked lampreys. He sent fur-trimmed scarlet robes and special ‘two-seater’ saddles for Edward’s first attempts at horsemanship. It is also likely that Henry and Eleanor were comparatively ‘present’ parents: Windsor, where the children seem to have been largely based, was second only to London in the list of Henry’s most visited locations in the years 1236–41, and most of his other favourite palaces were a sufficiently short distance to enable the children to visit their parents far more frequently than was common with royal children.29
Meanwhile, Eleanor, from a notably devoted family, was well placed to recreate that ambience in her own nursery. Nor did she spurn the maternal role; for prolonged periods in every year of her children’s childhood she would base herself at Windsor with them. While Henry minimised his travel, she travelled even less, choosing to stay with her children for parts of the year rather than accompany her husband. So between July 1252 and July 1253 she was at Windsor for thirty weeks of the year, with the rest of the time spent at Clarendon, Marlborough, Woodstock and Winchester for about a fortnight at a time, and with only two flying visits to the capital.
Despite the king providing a separate fund for the children’s household, her wardrobe records provide clear evidence of her closely overseeing their dress, with a detail which bespeaks intimacy. She chose gowns for Beatrice, a tabard of Ypres silk for Edward and – a fact which will resonate with any parent – apparently innumerable pairs of children’s shoes. Her close presence in her children’s lives is also attested by her gift giving to their nurses – in 1253, eleven-year-old Beatrice was given a brooch to give to her nurse from Eleanor’s accounts, and the nurse was also given a brooch directly by Eleanor. Brooches were also given to Edward’s former nurse Lady Alice, and to the nurses of John de Warenne’s daughter Alice de Lusignan, Richard of Cornwall’s son Edmund and Alice de Saluzzo’s son Henry. Inferentially these children were all being brought up with the royal children at Windsor, and Eleanor had formed warm ties to them all. As Howell notes, the picture which emerges is of an establishment which placed children and their wellbeing at its heart – a child-centred household which would not seem out of place today.30
No contemporaneous detail remains of the way in which the children were looked after from day to day, but a vignette from the nursery later run by Eleanor of Castile at King’s Langley shows the level of comfort which the children enjoyed. In 1286, the Queen’s Remembrancer notes that young John de Warenne (the grandson of John de Warenne and Alice de Lusignan) had two new robes a year, one at Christmas and one at Easter ‘as the sons of great lords are accustomed to have
’; two palfreys and three sumpter horses with men to keep them; five squires, their horses and three valets. For dinner he was allowed three pennyworths of bread, three dishes from the kitchen, a pitcher of wine and two of beer; for supper his allowance was a little larger. At night he had one torch to burn as long as it lasted, and twelve candles.31
What else do we know of the Windsor establishment where Edward was brought up? As in Castile, so also in England, hunting, predominantly in the form of falconry, was a favoured hobby: the queen ordered gloves for this pastime for Beatrice and Edmund. But while that would remain his favourite form of hunting, Edward seems also to have taken to hunting with hounds, being given permission to hunt in Windsor forest in 1247. Chess was certainly played as it was in Castile, but more informal recreations seem to have been favoured. Music in particular was a favourite; there are records of dancing and minstrels to play for the children. Indeed, music was so very much enjoyed that in 1242, when the king and queen went to Gascony, ‘Richard the Harper’ was retained for the comfort of the royal children, who were then only two and three years old.32
Windsor therefore would have been to the royal children very much a family home. However, from quite a young age Edward would have been accustomed to a degree of itinerant life with the court. It is likely Henry had his family around him for Christmas in Westminster or Winchester, and at age seven Edward was with his parents at the consecration of a new abbey church in Beaulieu in 1246 when he fell ill. There are also records of Edward having chambers at a number of the royal castles and palaces: Woodstock, Oxford, Silverstone, Guildford, Havering and Gillingham, for example. Overall, it seems to have been a much more relaxed, and rurally based, upbringing than Eleanor enjoyed. War was far away, not an ever-present reality. Armed camps were unheard of; so too was the prospect of losing a near relative in battle. Administrative business, never a favourite of Henry’s, was predominately carried on away from the children. Life as a royal child in Henry III and Eleanor of Provence’s nursery establishment must have been very much a life of ease and pleasure.33
Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen Page 9
