Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England
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51
Vincent, Peter des Roches, pp. 399–428.
52
Ibid., pp. 401–13.
53
Ibid., pp. 427–8.
54
Ibid., pp. 429, 434–6, 438–40. For the new archbishop, see C. H. Lawrence (1960), Edmund of Abingdon: A Study in Hagiography and History. Oxford: Clarendon Press; The Life of St Edmund of Abingdon by Matthew Paris, ed. C. H. Lawrence (1999). London: Sandpiper Books; Lawrence, ‘Edmund of Abingdon [St Edmund of Abingdon, Edmund Rich] (c.1174–1240)’.
55
Life of St Edmund, pp. 52–6; Vincent, Peter des Roches, pp. 440–5.
56
Life of St Edmund, p. 53.
57
Gilbert was knighted by the king on 11 June 1234 and formally recognised as Earl of Pembroke and Earl Marshal: ‘Annales prioratus de Dunstaplia’, p. 137; D’A. J. D. Boulton (1995), ‘Classic Knighthood as Nobiliary Dignity: The Knighting of Counts and Kings’ Sons in England, 1066–1272’, in S. Church and R. Harvey (eds), Medieval Knighthood, V. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, pp. 41–100, at p. 90; Weiler, Kingship, pp. 139–41.
58
Björn Weiler’s comparative study of the Marshal rebellion and the rebellion of Henry (VII) in Germany, for example, observes that ‘very little’ can be said about the role of women in politics, but overlooks Eleanor’s involvement in the events of 1233–4: Weiler, Kingship, pp. 151–2.
59
Green, Lives, ii, p. 57.
60
The Life of St Edmund, pp. 132–3. On Isabella and Matthew, see R. Vaughan (1958), Matthew Paris. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 13, 170, 173, 181.
61
See p. 28.
62
See p. 45.
63
Magna Carta laid down that widows should not be forced to remarry: Holt, Magna Carta, p. 504. It is, however, likely that had Eleanor not taken a vow of chastity, considerable pressure might have been brought to bear in persuading her to give her free consent to marriage. On the crown’s ‘control’ over widows during the reign of King Henry III, see S. L. Waugh (1988), The Lordship of England: Royal Wardships and Marriages in English Society and Politics, 1217–1327. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 68–70, 86–7, esp. 87.
64
Abulafia (2004), ‘Joanna, Countess of Toulouse’, ODNB, available online at http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14818, accessed on 30 November 2010.
65
Nelson, ‘Scottish Queenship’, pp. 69–70.
66
Wilkinson, ‘Isabella of England’, p. 22.
67
Wendover, iii, p. 77; Vincent, Peter des Roches, pp. 414–15. On Eleanor of Brittany, see G. Seabourne (2007), ‘Eleanor of Brittany and her Treatment by King John and Henry III’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 51, 73–110.
68
CR, 1231–4, p. 369.
69
Ibid., p. 371. In March 1234, however, Eleanor was still waiting to receive £50 from the issues of the manor for her sustenance from Peter de Rivallis: ibid., p. 393.
70
CPR, 1232–47, pp. 46, 56.
Notes on Chapter 4
1
CRR, 1233–7, no. 1088.
2
Eleanor also sought the recovery of 100 marks from Richard Marshal’s sale of the custody of the land and heir of Paulinus de Teyden’, together with other rights and smaller properties from Pembroke’s English estates: ibid.
3
Gilbert also recognized Eleanor’s right to 100 marks as her share from the sale of the wardship. In return for this concession, Eleanor resigned all her claims to dower in the remainder of William junior’s former lands in England: ibid. The king ordered the executors of Earl William to satisfy Eleanor for the £550 in arrears that had built up for her Irish dower from the earl’s chattels and goods, although it was Richard Marshal who had allowed the arrears to accumulate. If this money still went unpaid, then Gilbert was to satisfy the king’s sister for this sum: ibid. Curiously, Eleanor had enjoyed possession of Weston during Richard Marshal’s lifetime: See p. 39.
4
CPR, 1232–47, pp. 65–6.
5
The grant of Magor included common of pasture in the forest of Netherwent and the right to all pleas on the manor, including crown pleas. Eleanor, for her part, promised to resign her rights in the remainder of her dead husband’s lands in Netherwent and Tidenham: CRR, 1233–7, no. 1154. Gilbert also granted Eleanor a further ten librates of land in Badgeworth if the land there was valued at more than the forty librates previously granted to Eleanor. See also KB 26/159, m. 3d.
6
CR, 1231–4, pp. 526–7.
7
CRR, 1233–7, no. 1279.
8
CPR, 1232–47, p. 125.
9
In the meantime, the earl was to receive just enough money to cover the expenses of administering and maintaining each manor in cultivation: ibid.
10
The assignment was witnessed by some of the greatest men of the realm, including the bishops of Chichester, Exeter and Carlisle, and the earls of Lincoln, Cornwall, Norfolk and Kent, as well as leading figures in the king’s administration (e.g. Ralph fitz Nicholas and Godfrey of Crowcombe, both of whom were royal household stewards): ibid., pp. 125–6. Gilbert also entered into a second undertaking, whereby he assigned the issues of the manor of Bosham to Eleanor until she had recovered £350 in outstanding arrears from Richard Marshal’s time as earl. This second agreement laid down that, should Eleanor die before full payment had been made, the remainder of the sum would be paid to her legatees or assigns: ibid., p. 126.
11
That the countess possessed her own, distinctive seal serves as a reminder of the independent legal authority that she now enjoyed in widowhood. The witnesses of Eleanor’s bond were: the Earl of Norfolk, Ralph fitz Nicholas, Walter Marshal (Eleanor’s younger brother-in-law, who also witnessed Gilbert’s deeds), Geoffrey of Langley, William Bluet (previously identified as one of the countess’s knights) and Walter de Hide: ibid., p. 126.
12
Ibid. (where Marjorie is confused with her sister, Margaret).
13
Eleanor was pardoned from paying a further 200 marks that she owed to the king as a prest: CR, 1234–7, pp. 150–1.
14
CPR, 1232–47, p. 65.
15
Eleanor’s vow of perpetual widowhood presumably explains why Eleanor did not appear among those noble widows who felt compelled to fine with the crown to stay single, even in the years after Magna Carta’s provisions on the issue were first published. See, for example, D. A. Carpenter (March 2008), ‘Hubert de Burgh, Matilda de Mowbray, and Magna Carta’s Protection of Widows’, Fine of the Month (March 2008), available online at http://www.finerollshenry3.org.uk/content/month/fm-03-2008.html, accessed on 13 December 2010.
16
See Figure 3. TNA, PRO: C 47/9/20, mm. 3–5. The roll details the partition of Eleanor’s Marshal dower properties between the Marshal co-heirs (see pp. 78–9). Strictly speaking, some of Eleanor’s manors had formed part of the grant made to William junior and her in 1229. See p. 28. For further discussion, see also Maddicott, Simon de Montfort, p. 50.
17
For aristocratic widows as estate managers, see, for example, Archer, ‘“How Ladies … Who Live on their Manors” ’, pp. 149–81; E. Cavell (2007), ‘Aristocratic Widows and the Medieval Welsh Frontier: The Shropshire Evidence’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 17, 57–82, at p. 69.
18
For the officials who staffed the estate and household administrations of thirteenth-century English nobles, see N. Denholm-Young (1937), Seignorial Administration in England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, esp. chs 1 and 2; L. J. Wilkinson (2003), ‘The Rules of Robert Grosseteste Reconsidered: The Lady as Estate and Household Manager’, in C. Beattie, A. Maslakovic and S. Rees Jones (eds), The Medieval Household
in Christian Europe, c. 850–c. 1550: Managing Power, Wealth and the Body. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, pp. 293–306.
19
Wilkinson, ‘The Rules of Robert Grosseteste Reconsidered’, pp. 293–306.
20
See, for example, J. C. Ward (1992), English Noblewomen in the Later Middle Ages. Harlow: Longman, chs 3 and 6.
21
CR, 1227–31, p. 555. See also CR, 1231–4, p. 3 for an example of Eleanor soliciting her brother’s help to recover rights of estover.
22
CR, 1231–4, p. 174.
23
Ibid., pp. 256, 264.
24
Ibid., p. 275.
25
Ibid., p. 509.
26
CRR, 1233–7, no. 1145.
27
CR, 1231–4, p. 466. The countess’s enjoyment of her brother’s favour was demonstrated when the king accompanied this pardon with a personal gift of venison to his sister: ibid.
28
CR, 1234–7, p. 257.
29
CR, 1231–4, p. 527.
30
Vincent, Peter des Roches, pp. 396–8. This is, however, at odds with Wendover’s description of Richard’s friendly reception by the Marshal tenants in Ireland and Wales: Wendover, iii, p. 14.
31
Labarge, Mistress, Maids and Men, p. 49.
32
William Bluet also witnessed Eleanor’s bond: CPR, 1232–47, pp. 125–6. In July 1237, the same knights witnessed Gilbert Marshal’s confirmation of a gift of land made by Eleanor to Andrew de la Brech: CChR, 1226–57, p. 230.
33
Monasticon anglicanum, v, pp. 267–9.
34
Crouch, William Marshal, pp. 149–50, 220–21; Book of Fees, ii (1242–3), p. 724; The Cartulary of Cirencester Abbey, Gloucestershire, Volume III, ed. C. D. Ross and M. Devine (1977). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 760; C. S. Taylor (1889), An Analysis of the Domesday Survey of Gloucestershire. Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeology Society, pp. 167–9; E. Brooks (1950), Knights’ Fees in Counties Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny. Ireland: Manuscripts Commission, p. 26. The Bluet family patronised Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire. See, for example, Lacock Abbey Charters, ed. K. H. Rogers (1979). Devizes: Wiltshire Record Society, vol. 34, p. 25 nos 49–51, p. 44 no. 157, p. 47 no. 169.
35
The countess secured, for example, royal grants of protection for men like Bartholomew de Crek: CPR, 1232–47, p. 2.
36
CR, 1234–7, p. 425.
37
CR, 1231–4, p. 152.
38
CRR, 1233–7, no. 498.
39
Ibid., no. 669.
40
In order to placate Eleanor and, perhaps, in recognition of her forceful personality, Henry ordered the sheriffs to compensate Eleanor with other lands in their place: CR, 1231–4, pp. 231–2.
41
See pp. 39, 40.
42
CR, 1231–4, p. 210.
43
Ibid., p. 243.
44
Ibid., p. 23.
45
For the way in which a later noblewoman pursued similar strategies in Stuart England, see J. L. Malay (2009), ‘Anne Clifford: Appropriating the Rhetoric of Queens to Become the Lady of the North’, in Oakley-Brown and Wilkinson (eds), The Rituals and Rhetoric of Queenship, pp. 157–70, at pp. 160–2.
46
CR, 1234–7, p. 131.
47
See Figure 3 above. As part of the process whereby Eleanor took possession of Odiham, the king’s oxen on the manor were valued and purchased from the crown, together with the last year’s corn and hay, so that she might acquire and maintain her new property with a minimum of disruption: CPR, 1232–47, pp. 161, 166. Just a few days after this gift, the king also assigned Eleanor the park there, together with the vert and the venison: CR, 1234–7, p. 387.
48
P. MacGregor (1983), Odiham Castle, 1200–1500. Gloucester: Alan Sutton, ch. 2.
49
Ibid., pp. 48–9.
50
Ibid., pp. 49–50.
51
Green, Lives, ii, p. 63; CFR, 1243–4, no. 64 (a later entry on the fine rolls whereby Henry pardoned this debt), available online at http://frh3.org.uk/content/calendar/roll_041.html, accessed on 1 January 2011.
52
In common with other noble households in the first half of the thirteenth century, that over which Eleanor presided was a peripatetic institution: C. M. Woolgar (1999), The Great Household in Late Medieval England. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 46–7; Wilkinson, ‘The Rules of Robert Grosseteste Reconsidered’, pp. 293–306.
53
CR, 1234–7, p. 96.
54
See ‘The Rules of Robert Grosseteste’ (1971), in D. Oschinsky (ed.), Walter of Henley and Other Treatises on Estate Management and Accounting. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 390–3, 396–9, esp. nos iv, x, xii.
55
Birrell, ‘Procuring, Preparing and Serving Venison’, p. 180.
56
Eleanor received ten bucks (damos) on 14 April from Rockingham: CR, 1231–4, p. 207. On 10 May 1233, she was given three roe-bucks (capreolos) from Chute and five bucks (damos) from Savernake (ibid., p. 217), followed by five bucks (damos) from Chute on 29 May 1233 (ibid., p. 224), five bucks (damos) from Savernake on 6 June (ibid., p. 226), ten bucks (damos) from Rockingham on 25 August 1233 (ibid., p. 253), and two stags (cervos) from Chute on 20 September 1233 (ibid., p. 269).
57
Eleanor received ten does (damas) from Chute in late January (CR, 1231–4, p. 371), and five bucks (damos) from Feckenham at the beginning of June (ibid., p. 466). A further gift of five bucks (damos) in Savernake on 12 July 1234 was followed a month later by another gift of ten bucks (damos) and two stags (cervos) in Chute (ibid., pp. 473, 497).
58
On 16 May 1235, Eleanor received six deer (damos) from Savernake: CR, 1231–4, p. 92. On 30 May, Eleanor received fifteen deer (damos) from Rockingham and five from Dean: CR, 1234–7, p. 95. On 9 August 1235, Henry III gave her a stag (cervum) in Chute: CR, 1234–7, p. 128.
59
In June 1236, the king’s forester was instructed to deliver fifteen deer (damos) to Eleanor from Wychwood, Whittlewood and Bernwood: CR, 1234–7, p. 278. This gift was followed by another three deer (damos) from the forest of Dean, and another three from the forest of Braden on 23 July 1236, together with four stags (cervos) on 24 July: CR, 1234–7, pp. 291, 292. On 17 August 1236, the constable of St Briavels Castle was instructed to allow Eleanor to have two stags (cervos) in St Briavels Forest: ibid., p. 303.
60
In February 1237, Henry gave Eleanor a further fifteen deer (five damos and ten damas) from Savernake for the express purpose of allowing his sister to stock her own park at Badgeworth: CR, 1234–7, p. 414. In August 1237, Eleanor received eight deer (damos) from Bernwood and eight (damos) from Clarendon: ibid., p. 485.
61
Ibid., p. 386.
62
As the clerk who compiled Henry III’s wardrobe accounts noted, more than £250 was spent on wax for lighting the royal chapel and the chambers of the English king and queen, Joan, Queen of Scots, during her visit, and Eleanor, Countess of Pembroke: TNA: PRO, E 372/81, rot. 1, m. 2. A splendid edition of Henry III’s wardrobe accounts is being prepared by Dr Ben Wild for publication by the Pipe Roll Society.
63
Wendover, iii, p. 19.
64
The annalist had presumably received his information from Robert: ‘Annales de Theokesberia’, p. 84.
65
The Christmas court was held at Worcester, again in the presence of des Roches: Wendover, iii, p. 47; CR, 1231–4, p. 167.
66
Wendover, iii, p. 70.
67
Ibid., iii, p. 101.
68
Chronica majora, iii, pp. 334, 380.
69
>
Ibid., iii, pp. 336.
70
Ibid., iii, pp. 336–9; M. W. Labarge (1962), Simon de Montfort. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, p. 44.
71
Chronica majora, iii, p. 338.
72
Ibid., iii, pp. 336–7.
73
Wilkinson, ‘The Imperial Marriage of Isabella of England’, pp. 29–31.
74
See pp. 13–14.
75
See, for example, Woolgar, The Great Household, pp. 12–14. On Henry III’s lavish almsgiving, see S. Dixon-Smith (1999), ‘The Image and Reality of AlmsGiving in the Great Halls of Henry III’, The Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 152, 76–96.
76
See pp. 118–19. See also R. E. Archer (2003), ‘Piety in Question: Noblewomen and Religion in the Later Middle Ages, in D. Wood (ed.), Women and Religion in Medieval England. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 118–40, at p. 129.
77
Woolgar, The Great Household, p. 90. This, again, appears to have been the case in 1265. See p. 119.
78
Woolgar, The Great Household, pp. 90–1.
79
Ibid., pp. 84–9.
80
‘Chronicle of Melrose’, p. 181.
81
Nelson, ‘Scottish Queenship in the Thirteenth Century’, p. 69.
82
See, for example, P. Ricketts (2003), ‘Widows, Religious Patronage and Family Identity: Some Cases from Twelfth-Century Yorkshire’, Haskins Society Journal, 14, 117–36, at pp. 124–7.
83
M. Vale (2001), The Princely Court: Medieval Courts and Culture in North-West Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 236.
84
Wilkinson, ‘The Imperial Marriage of Isabella of England’, p. 36. I have not, as yet, uncovered any specific grants to religious houses made by Eleanor in her dead husband’s memory. On the royal feeding of poor for the souls of Henry III’s kin, see Dixon-Smith, ‘The Image and Reality of Almsgiving’, 89–90.
85
Aristocratic women skilled in needlework were also found in early modern England: B. Harris (2002), English Aristocratic Women, 1450–1550: Marriage and Family, Property and Careers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 230.
86
Writings of Agnes of Harcourt, pp. 62–5.
87
TNA: PRO C 47/3/4/1.
88
Vale, The Princely Court, pp. 172–3.
89
B. B. Rezak (1988), ‘Women, Seals, and Power in Medieval France, 1150–1350’, in M. Erler and M. Kowaleski (eds),Women and Power in the Middle Ages. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, pp. 61–82, at pp. 76–7.