Eleanor of Provence

Queen Consort of England

Eleanor of England

Joan of England

Edmund, 2nd Earl of Richmond

Richard, 2nd Earl of Somerset

Constance of England

**Eleanor of Provence** (C. 1163 - 1240) was Queen Consort of England by her marriage to Henry III of England, she was born the second child of Geoffrey II, Count of Provence and Sancha of Toronto, Eleanor was originally betrothed to the Count of Maine, but that was until she met the future king of England, Henry of England, Henry and Eleanor fell in-love and Henry begged Eleanor's father who was also his first cousin to let him marry Eleanor, Geoffrey approved and they were married in Westminister Palace, but they moved back to Provence were they had a son Edward of England. Eleanor became Queen at 42, and served as regent until there imprisonment, but Eleanor's clever son freed them and Eleanor joined her son's court, when her husband died, she oversaw the coronation of her son, she died in 1240 aged 77 of fever.

## Early Life

### Childhood

Eleanor of Provence was born in 1163 as the second child of Geoffrey II, Count of Provence and his second wife Sancha of Toronto, she was a great-grand-daughter of Constance of England and a grand-daughter of Maria of Sicily on her father's side, and on her mothers, a great-grand-daughter to Joan of England which made her parents first cousins. Eleanor spoke fluent Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, and English along with Galician, which is a disputed language. Eleanor was described by many to be charming and beyond beautiful, which made her a key figure in the brides market. When Eleanor was 13, she was betrothed to Charles III, Count of Maine.

### French Court

When Eleanor was 14, she joined the French court with her younger sister, Isabella of Provence as a lady-in-waiting to Joan of France, Eleanor was an outstanding figure at the French court, and proved herself to be a court star. Eleanor was haughty and spent a lot of her time looking at herself in the mirror other then serving Joan of France which led to her being kicked out of Joan's court. Eleanor then served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Joan I of Navarre who was the first wife of Louis VIII of France, after the Queen's death, Louis remarried a Danish princess whom Eleanor despised and returned to Provence other then serve the new Queen.

### Marriage

While leaving France, she met a handsome - yet powerful man, named Henry of England, he was heir apparent to the throne of England (Which was the most powerful country in Europe at the time) and the 2 fell in-love, they met at a party and Henry deeply fell for Eleanor and her charm and asked her to marry him, Eleanor's betrothed, the Count of Maine was unhappy and complained to the Pope that Eleanor was betrothed to him first, but the Pope ignored the Count of Maine's request, and allowed Eleanor to marry Henry of England. Eleanor traveled to England and brought her friends to serve as ladies-in-waiting. But she and her husband returned as soon as they were married to live in France. When Eleanor was 16, she gave birth to her eldest son Edward in Provence which outraged England, who could not stand to have another French-born English king, but Eleanor was sure the outrage would pass, and it indeed did.

## England

Eleanor and her husband was called back to England by Eleanor's father-in-law King John I of England to be prepared to be heirs to the English throne, when Eleanor arrived, the people had mixed feelings about the future queen, the people admired Eleanor's dedication to the English, but they despised her aunt Marie of Provence who was also Henry's mother. Eleanor was granted Richmond Palace where she re-designed the palace to look more french. Eleanor raised her son there and her 2 daughters. Eleanor despised her step-mother-in-law Isabella of Auvergne and all of her sister-in-laws. Eleanor was often violent to her sister-in-laws and was not afraid to hurt them, which alarmed the English court, Eleanor gave birth to a daughter Joan of England in England and raised her in Richmond Palace. She was the first of Eleanor's children to not be born in France.

### Court reputation

Many courtiers feared Eleanor of Provence, she once beat up her sister-in-law in front of the royal court. She had to be dragged away from her sister-in-law who was nearly killed. But Eleanor was charming and used it to her advantage to steal from the nobles. Eleanor was haughty and very arrogant which earned her dislike from the English courtiers, Eleanor was also stubborn even to her husband and often disrespectful to her step-mother-in-law the Queen. Eleanor once attempted to poison her mother-in-law to have to not deal with her. Isabella of Auvergne dismissed Eleanor from court, but Eleanor ignored Isabella and ridiculed her infront of the court. Eleanor had a bad reputation of her little temper.

### Popularity in England

The English were not sure about the new future Queen, the people did not really wan't another French Queen as there had been already 4 Plantagenet Queens that were all French, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Berengaria of Navarre, Marie of Provence, and Eleanor's mother-in-law Isabella of Auvergne. But the English admired Eleanor for her dedication and charm to the English, Eleanor also pleased the English by befriending some English noblewoman and making them ladies-in-waiting, and speaking English other then French. But the English had not seen such a violent Queen like Eleanor of Provence sense Eleanor's great-great grand-mother Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor of Provence though was not always the violent Queen people always thought she was. Eleanor gave generously to churches.

## Queen of England

### Coronation

In 1206, John I of England was poisoned by Eleanor's husband, and Henry was the next King, Eleanor was 43, and her husband was 45. They were crowned in westminister abbey, now Queen she organized her court and added more ladies-in-waiting. Eleanor's husband was weak from crusading and was often unable to attend meetings. Eleanor's eldest son was 28 and he married Eleanor of Castile a few days after the coronation. Eleanor wore a red dress laced with pearls and diamonds to her coronation.

### Regency

Her old and tired husband soon declared he could not do his proper duty anymore, he only ruled for 4 years before appointing Eleanor regent. Eleanor kicked all the members of the council out to appoint her own family to English government positions, which was a very unpopular move. Eleanor was manipulated by her brothers to rule England the way they wanted to, but Eleanor soon realized she was being manipulated and demoted her brothers and replaced them with her ladies-in-waiting's fathers. Eleanor ranked her son Edward lord minister of the regency council giving him power to make and request laws like Eleanor could. But Eleanor was soon getting unpopular because of her ways of regency, but there was one man who claimed he knew better, his name was Simon de Montfort.

### Simon de Montfort

Simon was Eleanor's niece-in-law, Eleanor's sister-in-law Eleanor of England, was Simon's mother. Simon de Montfort was a charming, handsome, and dashing knight and he was also 5th Earl of Leicester. Eleanor hated de Montfort for his threats against the English royal family, and ordered a group of knights to storm de Montfort's army-base, during the raid de Montforts wife, children, and friends were murdered, and de Montfort was furious, he declared war on the English royal family and the people joined him in protest against the family, Eleanor wen't into a frenzy trying to figure out what to do, she had no experiance in war other then the crusades and de Montfort had the people's support, at the end she surrendered and the royal family was held hostage at Angevin Castle. Eleanor blamed herself for the downfall and never forgave herself, during her imprisonment, she did not let her grand-children know that they were imprisoned until they were 13, she raised them in the Palace halls and her older-grand-children took care of the younger ones. Simon de Montfort had plans to murder the royal family, but his plan backfired when the people holding the royal family hostage fell-in-love with Eleanor's daughters, and grand-daughters. Edward also knew what to do, he and his wife disguised themselves as knights and servents, and they fled to Normandy where he promised England and the English holdings in France that if they side with him, he would take over the kingdom of Dublin. At first the English were objected, but when they saw Edward's great military skills, they sided with Edward who defeated de Montfort in 3 days, Edward let his family free and publically executed de Montfort, Edward kept his words and defeated the King of Dublin and invaded most of Ireland, Edward was made regent and Eleanor joined the court of her son.

## Dowager Queen

After her release, her husband was blind and deaf, Eleanor had to teach brail to her husband to comunicate with him. He was soon unable to walk stand or move without the help of someone else. Eleanor grew concerned and sent doctors to see whats the problem. The Doctors were sure he had sweating sickness because of the chills he was getting, but they could not find a proper explination on why he lost his hearing or eye sight. Henry was taken to his half-brother the Duke of Brittany who was also suffering from sweating sickness, Henry died in Brittany after drinking 6 cups of water, Eleanor's youngest daughter Constance thought he was sleeping but was informed he was dead a few hours later, Eleanor's son was daughter-in-law were crowned king and Queen of France, Eleanor of Provence became her son's closest advisor.

## Death

Eleanor fell ill of fever in early 1240, her son sent doctors to his moms support, but she did not get any better, she died in the company of her son, and was buried in westminister abbey. Eleanor was buried next to her husband and her tomb was decorated with gold and a crown was placed on her tomb. Eleanor's legacy was she the palace of Eleanora in Spain, was named for her, and the Eleseconstalillanor Palace was named for her as well.