Eleanor of Provence Eleanor of Provence ( c . 1223 – 24 / 25 June 1291 ) was Queen consort of England , as the spouse of King Henry III of England , from 1236 until his death in 1272 . Although she was completely devoted to her husband , staunchly defended him against the rebel Simon de Montfort , 6th Earl of Leicester , she was very much hated by the Londoners . This was because she had brought a large number of relatives with her to England in her retinue ; these were known as " the Savoyards " , and they were given influential positions in the government and realm . On one occasion , Eleanor ' s barge was attacked by angry citizens who pelted her with stones , mud , pieces of paving , rotten eggs and vegetables . Eleanor was the mother of five children including the future King Edward I of England . She also was renowned for her cleverness , skill at writing poetry , and as a leader of fashion . Family . Born in Aix - en - Provence , she was the second daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV , Count of Provence ( 1198 – 1245 ) and Beatrice of Savoy ( 1205 – 1267 ) , the daughter of Thomas I of Savoy and his second wife Margaret of Geneva . Her three sisters also married kings . Like her mother , grandmother , and sisters , Eleanor was renowned for her beauty . She was a dark - haired brunette with fine eyes . Piers Langtoft speaks of her as " The erle ' s daughter , the fairest may of life " . On 22 June 1235 , Eleanor was betrothed to King Henry III of England ( 1207 – 1272 ) . Eleanor was probably born in 1223 ; Matthew Paris describes her as being " " jamque duodennem " " ( already twelve ) when she arrived in the Kingdom of England for her marriage . Marriage and issue . Eleanor was married to King Henry III of England on 14 January 1236 . She had never seen him prior to the wedding at Canterbury Cathedral and had never set foot in his kingdom . Edmund Rich , Archbishop of Canterbury , officiated . She was dressed in a shimmering golden gown which was tightly - fitted to the waist , and then flared out in wide pleats to her feet . The sleeves were long and lined with ermine . After riding to London the same day where a procession of citizens greeted the bridal pair , Eleanor was crowned queen consort of England in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey which was followed by a magnificent banquet with the entire nobility in full attendance . Eleanor and Henry together had five children : Four others are listed , but their existence is in doubt as there is no contemporary record of them . These are : Eleanor was renowned for her learning , cleverness , and skill at writing poetry , as well as her beauty ; she was also known as a leader of fashion , continually importing clothes from France . She often wore parti - coloured cotte s ( a type of tunic ) , gold or silver girdle s into which a dagger was casually thrust , she favoured red silk damask , and decorations of gilt quatrefoil , and to cover her dark hair she wore jaunty pillbox caps . Eleanor introduced a new type of wimple to England , which was high , " into which the head receded until the face seemed like a flower in an enveloping spathe " . Eleanor seems to have been especially devoted to her eldest son , Edward ; when he was deathly ill in 1246 , she stayed with him at the abbey at Beaulieu in Hampshire for three weeks , long past the time allowed by monastic rules . It was because of her influence that King Henry granted the duchy of Gascony to Edward in 1249 . Her youngest child , Katherine , seems to have had a degenerative disease that rendered her deaf . When the little girl died at the age of three , both her royal parents suffered overwhelming grief . Unpopularity . Eleanor was a loyal and faithful consort to Henry , but she brought in her retinue a large number of cousins , " the Savoyards , " and her influence with the King and her unpopularity with the English barons created friction during Henry ' s reign . Though Eleanor and Henry supported different factions at times , she was made regent of England when her husband left for Normandy in 1253 . Eleanor was devoted to her husband ' s cause , stoutly contested Simon de Montfort , raising troops in France for Henry ' s cause . On 13 July 1263 , she was sailing down the Thames when her barge was attacked by citizens of London . Eleanor stoutly hated the Londoners who returned her hatred ; in revenge for their dislike Eleanor had demanded from the city all the back payments due on the monetary tribute known as " queen - gold " , by which she received a tenth of all fines which came to the Crown . In addition to the " queen - gold " other such fines were levied on the citizens by the Queen on the thinnest of pretexts . In fear for her life as she was pelted with stones , loose pieces of paving , dried mud , rotten eggs and vegetables , Eleanor was rescued by Thomas Fitzthomas , the Mayor of London , and took refuge at the bishop of London ' s home . In 1272 Henry died , and her son Edward , who was 33 years old , became Edward I , King of England . She remained in England as queen dowager , and raised several of her grandchildren — Edward ' s son Henry and daughter Eleanor , and Beatrice ' s son John . When her grandson Henry died in her care in 1274 , Eleanor went into mourning and gave orders for his heart to be buried at the priory at Guildford which she founded in his memory . She retired to a convent ; however , remained in contact with her son , King Edward , and her sister , Queen Margaret of France . Eleanor died on 24 / 25 June 1291 in Amesbury , eight miles north of Salisbury , England . She was buried on 11 September 1291 in the Abbey of St Mary and St Melor , Amesbury on 9 December . The exact site of her grave at the abbey is unknown making her the only English queen without a marked grave . Her heart was taken to London where it was buried at the Franciscan priory . In fiction . Eleanor is the protagonist of " The Queen From Provence " , a historical romance by British novelist Jean Plaidy which was published in 1979 . Eleanor is a main character in the novel " Four Sisters , All Queens " by author Sherry Jones , as well as in the novel " The Sister Queens " by Sophie Perinot .