num_pages: 240
description: Eleanor of Provence was born in the province of her name in 1223. She has come to England at the age of twelve to marry the king Henry III. Hes sixteen years older but was a boy when he ascended the throne. Hes a kind sensitive sort whose only personal attachments to women so far have been to his three sisters. The youngest of them is called Eleanor too. She was only nine when for political reasons her first marriage took place but shes already a chaste twenty-year old widow when the new queen arrives in 1236. In a short time this Eleanor will marry the rising star of her brothers court a French parvenu named Simon de Montfort thus wedding the fates of these four people together in an England about to undergo some of the most profound changes in its history. Its a tale that covers three decades at its heart with loyalty to family and principles at stake in a land where foreigners are subject to intense scrutiny and jealousy. The relationship between these two sisters-in-law close but ultimately doomed will reflect not just the turbulence and tragedy of their times but also the brilliance and splendour.
language: English
title: The Two Eleanors of Henry III
publisher: Pen & Sword History