Kings of Aragon
1. Eleanore (Leonor), Countess of Provence, Queen of England: Born about 1223, of Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-Du-Rhone, France; Died 24 June 1291, Amesbury, Wiltshire, England; Married 14 January 1236, Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, England; Henry III, King of England: Born 1 October 1206, Winchester, Hampshire, England; Died 16 November 1272, Westminster, Middlesex, England. (See Kings of England #2) Henry III was handicapped all his life by his family. When he was only nine years old he succeeded to the throne of England and had to rule a Country that had been first ruined by his uncle, King Richard, and then by his father, King John. He also inherited from them three women who were no help at all. Richard's widow Berengaria was perpetually demanding her pension because payments had always been behind; Isabella, his mother, made trouble all over Europe and expected him to welcome and support her second family, although he had scarcely known her and hardly knew them; and Eleanor, his sister, demanded bigger and better dowries, and her quarrels with him about these aggravated his misunderstandings with Simon de Montfort, her second husband.
Physically he was not well-endowed. He had a drooping left eye like his father; like him too he was plump and inclined to indolence, and most years had tertian fever. He had a much nicer nature than any of his immediate ancestors; his instinct, unlike some of his forebears, was to treat women well rather than badly, and he was a devoted father and family man. He had the family temper but was kindly by nature rather than cruel. Like his father he had a great love of luxury and had 'French' tastes, but by this time had few French possessions to help to pay for them.
He was crowned on 28th October, 1216, and because he was so young England was ruled by a Regency. By 1223 he was allowed some say in the government of his Country, and in January, 1227, he announced that being now of age he would rule himself. In 1225 and 1226 there had been three attempts to find him a bride. First he had tried to marry a daughter of Leopold of Austria, then a daughter of the King of Bohemia, and lastly a daughter of the Count of Brittany, Peter of Dreux. These attempts fell through chiefly through the hostility of the King of France, who had no wish to see the King of England become powerful again in Europe.
In 1231 he tried to marry the sister of the King of Scotland, but her elder sister was married to Hugh de Burgh. This old henchman of King John's was now a man of great importance and power, and the Barons were determined that he should get no nearer to the throne, so they were against the marriage.
Between 1231 and 1235, while making his biggest efforts to get married, he was in such money difficulties that he had to pawn the crown jewels in France, and it was only with the greatest effort that he managed to raise the money to get them back. In 1235 he actually got married by proxy to Joan, daughter of Simon Count of Ponthieu. The French King forbade this too, but curiously enough did not mind Henry marrying his own wife's younger sister a year later in January 1236. Possibly because she had little power and no money he thought that a weak King of England bound to him by close family ties, would be a decided asset.
Eleanor of Provence was the daughter of Raymond de Berenger, Count of Provence, and his wife, the daughter of Thomas of Savoy. Her nickname was 'La Belle'. On both sides of her family were good looks, charm and talent. They all wrote poetry and songs and loved beauty and literature but none of them had any money, a commodity of which Henry was also desperately short. Eleanor was devoted to all her relatives and liked to have as many as possible of them in England, and so did Henry, who was fascinated by them and put them into positions of power.
There was some difficulty about her dowry, as nobody in her family had any money, and at one time the marriage was nearly off when her father said that he could not pay the 20,000 marks that Henry demanded. Henry took fright at this and told his negotiators to get her, whatever it cost. He was going to give her the reversion of Isabella the Queen Mother's dowry, but there was no immediate settlement and she did not get any money for a long time. Undaunted by lack of funds, Henry arranged for her to have the most magnificent wedding that the English had yet seen, when they were married at Canterbury on 6th January, 1236. For the ceremony he wore cloth of gold which had just been invented.
She was then fourteen years old and he was twenty-nine. She came to Westminster for her coronation sixteen days after the wedding; the Londoners swept the streets and her chamber was redecorated in her honour. Among the things which Henry gave her were nine chaplets for her hair, a great crown and jewelled girdles. Her sister Margaret, Queen of France, gave her a glorious aquamanile! A peacock made of silver which had a tail set with sapphires, pearls and other precious stones. It was meant to carry sweet waters, which were forced out of its beak into a silver basin.
Henry paid for some of this with the money which he should have given as dowry to his sister Isabella, who had just married the Emperor of Germany. The English people had enjoyed the festivities of the wedding and the coronation, but they did not like footing the bills nor the crowd of foreign retainers that came over with her. Richard, the king's brother, suggested that Henry should follow the example of the King of France, who, after marrying her sister Margaret, had sent away her entourage. Henry wasn't strong enough in character to do so even if he had felt so inclined, which he didn't because he liked them. They were witty, charming and French and ameliorated his life and his rather dull court. Also he adored Eleanor, and she was only really happy with her family about her. As he said later in life, 'he never could do enough to testify his love for the Queen and her family'.
In 1238 his sister Eleanor (Nell) married Simon de Montfort. She had continually blamed Henry for not insisting that the Marshal family, into which she had married when younger and been widowed, should pay her more of her dowry which she claimed they owed. William Marshal had been Henry's Regent and was rich, and she had married his son. Added to her bitterness about this and other money matters, she and Eleanor la Belle disliked each other. Nell may have been jealous of the Queen because until her arrival Nell had reigned at court without competition.
There was no open disagreement with Henry until a year after she and de Montfort married. Edward, the first child of Henry and Eleanor, was born on 16th June, 1239, and christened on 16th July. It was a family affair; de Montfort and Nell were in high favour at the time of the christening ceremony, and he was godfather. At the churching of the Queen which took place a month later, a public affair with a solemn procession from Westminster Abbey, the King suddenly flew into one of the family rages and, in front of the court, accused de Montfort of having seduced his sister Eleanor before they were married, and ordered his attendants to turn him out of the palace. She was pregnant, and they were hustled away in a boat.
Three months later the King and queen were at Woodstock and an attempt was made on Henry's life. A mad poet called Ribault rushed into the presence chamber and demanded that Henry should hand over the crown to him, as he insisted that he was the rightful King. Courtiers led him away and Henry told them to treat him gently because he was mad. They seem to have treated him too gently, because in the middle of the night he stole into the king's chamber with a knife and hid himself under the bed. The King, fortunately for him, was in the queen's chamber and nobody would have known anything about Ribault, except that later in the night he went berserk and, yelling insults about the King, stabbed the bolster. This time he was made captive and later executed at Coventry.
Two years after Edward was born they had a daughter, Margaret. Henry was then persuaded by his stepfather, Hugh, to fight with him against Louis; they were soundly beaten, and Henry's half-brothers, the Lusignans, swarmed to England to take shelter in his court, so he had to support them too, also his half-sister Alice de Lusignan, whom he married to John de Warrenne, Earl of Surrey. This must have been an unwanted extra burden, as he already owed so much money in Bordeaux that he had had to stay there longer than he had wanted while he raised enough to pay his bills. He did not help his money problems by living with Eleanor and their large court in Bordeaux, as if he was celebrating a victory rather than recovering from a defeat. To get the Jews to lend him money to help him out of his difficulties he threatened them with expulsion from London if they did not produce the sum. He had succeeded in doing this by October 1243, when he and Eleanor came back to England with a daughter Beatrice who had been born to them whilst they were away. In this year Richard of Cornwall, who had become a widower, married the queen's youngest sister Sancha.
The Queen's relations were now well established. Thomas of Savoy, one of her uncles, was made Archbishop of Canterbury, and another, Peter of Savoy, Earl of Richmond. Peter built the Palace of Savoy, and there is a plaque about him on the wall outside the Savoy Hotel, which is on the site of the old building. It says: 'Here Peter lodged the many beautiful ladies whom he brought in 1247 from the Courts of Europe to marry them to his wards, a large number of rich young English nobles,' which was a most lucrative trade.
In 1244 Eleanor's uncle Thomas behaved disgracefully. He forced himself into the diocese of the Bishop of London and tried to make the monks there receive him. They did not want to do so, so he hit one of their friars in the face, tore off his cape and trampled it underfoot. When the monks tried to put up some resistance he beat them too, and during the scuffle they discovered that he was wearing armour under his bishop's robes. The monks complained to Henry, but he was so besotted by the family that he would not even listen to them, let alone punish the culprit. The Londoners were furious about this and, whether to try and placate them or not, Henry weighed the royal children in silver and distributed the sum amongst the poor children of London. He seemed to have repented of this the next year and, after the birth of his second son, Edmund Crouchback, imposed a fine on Londoners of 1,500 marks, because he said that they had sheltered a man whom he had banished.
In 1245 Isabella, his mother, died. This must have been a blessed relief, because as she got older she became more and more of a trouble-maker, and upon her death Eleanor got her dower lands, which might have helped them a bit with their own money difficulties if she had not handed most of the money over to her relatives. They had now been married for ten years and his devotion to her had increased rather than waned. The same could be said of his debts, which were enormous, and the state of the Country which was chaotic.
More and more pressed for money, he thought of schemes to raise it and in 1249 he had the brilliant idea of sending the Queen and Prince Edward out to dine with the rich men of the City of London, who were meant to pay for this great honour with gifts. Eleanor improved on this and used to take her relations too, who used to complain if they did not get rich gifts as well.
In 1250 he publicly took the Cross as a pilgrim at Westminster and asked the population to contribute money to this enterprise. Although he was known as a religious man, many of his subjects looked upon it as another of his schemes to help him get out of his debts. At another time he wanted to go on a crusade with Louis, but Eleanor refused to leave her life of comfort, and he could not bear to go without her so the plan fell through.
In 1251 on St. Dunstan's Day the Queen was in her apartments at Windsor with some of the royal children, when the chimney above the room that they were in was struck by lightning and reduced to dust.
In 1252 Henry had to pay the Pope to make his marriage to Eleanor valid because of his proxy marriage to Joan of Ponthieu, who had herself been married for years to the King of Castile and whose daughter Eleanor became the bride of Edward, Henry's son, two years later in 1254 to which marriage the Pope raised no objection. In 1253 Henry went to France and was regally entertained by his brother-in-law Louis, and Eleanor had a daughter, Katherine, who died in infancy and was buried with her four little brothers who had been born and died since the birth of Edmund in 1245. In all, Eleanor she had nine children.
In 1254 the family incurred even further expenses. Eleanor went with Edward to Burgos for his marriage to Eleanor of Castile. Henry settled 1,000 per annum on the bride in case Edward should die before he did, and gave a great feast for them in Paris. The Princess came back to England before Edward and had a suite of rooms with glazed windows, a raised hearth, a chimney, a wardrobe and an adjoining oratory; the apartments were hung with valuable tapestries. She arrived in England on 17th October, 1255. Again the citizens liked the show but not the bill that followed, nor did they like the Spaniards who came with her. They did not have them for long, because almost immediately after Edward arrived in November 1255, he took her back to Bordeaux to complete her education. Queen Eleanor was seriously ill in 1255, and her illness was said to be aggravated by worry about her daughter Margaret, who with her husband the Scots King was being kept a prisoner. They were not kept prisoner for very long and came to stay with her mother at Windsor while Henry was still in France.
When he came back to England again Henry, as usual, was looking for money. Eleanor was said to have become less extravagant by then, but her needs were still great and an account for her necessities included, 'In silks, mantles, upper garments, linen hose for her ladies, and other miscellaneous expenses for her wardrobe, one hundred and four score pounds, eleven shillings and twelve pence halfpenny. In jewels for the Queen's use to wit, eleven rich garlands, with emeralds, pearls, sapphires and garnets, of the value of 145 pounds, 4 shillings and 4 pence.' She seemed at one time to have pawned her jewels in England and Edward, under the pretext of making sure that they were secure, broke into the treasury and stole £10,000 of the people's money which they had left there for safe keeping.
Henry's temper by this time was irascible; like all his family he got worse as he got older, and he must have been difficult to live with. Although there was no sign that he quarrelled with Eleanor he did so with everybody else, and in particular with de Montfort who led the Barons against him. In 1259 he was very ill in Paris with some sort of fever, and again in 1261.
The Londoners hated Eleanor more and more. While Henry was away and she acted as Regent, she taxed them even more heavily and seemed to feel no scruples about how she got money for her immediate needs or those of her family. She showed no mercy to them even when there was a famine and many of them were starving. In 1263 they were so enraged that the Queen became frightened and tried to leave the Tower where she was and get to Windsor by barge. The people saw her trying to escape and shouting, 'Drown the witch!' threw mud and rotten eggs, and large stones to try and sink her, so that the Queen was forced back to the Tower. Edward I, who was very fond of his mother, never forgave the Condoners for this. In 1264, during the Civil War between Henry and de Montfort, Henry took her over to France for safety, and she did not come back to England again until after the Battle of Evesham.
Now for the only time in his life, Henry's name was to be associated with a liason. He captured in battle the Countess of Gloucester, wife of his brother Richard's stepson, and at once released her, remarking that he did not make war on ladies. This seems innocuous enough but the incident caused Queen Marguerite of France to write to him that: Though desiring the society of her sister his queen, she would hasten her departure to him according to his request; because she feared that on account of his long delay he would marry some other lady and that as long as the Countess of Gloucester remained in his vicinity, she should be impatient till she knew that her sister had joined him.
It is difficult to put this letter down to lighthearted banter in view of the fact that the lady almost certainly had an affair with Edward later, so it is possible that she may not have been the most chaste of Countesses.
Eleanor certainly came back to England as soon as she could and Henry gave her the custody of London Bridge. This charge she also abused, as she took money from the Londoners but did not keep the bridge open.
After this, for the last years of his life, Henry became more and more ineffectual and Edward virtually ruled England. In 1264 Henry was so ill that he nearly died, and his illness left him so weak that his convalescence lasted several months. At the beginning of 1272 his brother Richard died and ten months later, in November, he followed, and was buried in the old coffin of Edward the Confessor, of whom he had been a great admirer.
In 1276 Eleanor became a nun and spent the rest of her days at Amesbury. In 1275 she had been very ill; a physician from Provence was sent to her and she recovered, to outlive all her children except Edward and Edmund. She died in 1291.
2. Raimund Berenger V, Count of Provence. and Forcalquier: Born 1195/1198, of Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-Du-Rhone, France; Died 19 August 1245, France; Married 5 June 1219, Provence, France; Beatrice, Countess of Savoy: Born about 1201, of Chambery, Savoie, France; Died December 1266, France. (See Counts of Savoy)
3. Alfonso II Alfonsez, Count of Provence, Prince of Aragon: Born about 1174, Barcelona, Spain; Died February 1209, Palermo, Sicily, Italy; Married July 1193, Aragon, Spain; Gersinde II De Sabran, Countess of Castile: Born about 1180, of Sabran, Gard, France; Died after 1209. (See Cailar)
4. Alfonso II Raimundez, King of Aragon and Pamplon: Born 4 April 1152, Villa, Mayor De V, Aragon, Spain; Died 25 April 1196, Perpignan, Pyrennes-Orienta, France; Married 18 January 1174/1175, Aragon, Spain; Sancha Alfonsez, Princess of Castile, Queen of Aragon: Born 21 September 1154, Castilla, Spain; Died November 1208, Monasterio De Jaen, Jaen, Spain.
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5. Raimund Berenger IV, Marquis of Barcelona and Count of Aragon: Born 1113/1114, of Barcelona, Spain; Died 8 August 1162, San Dalmacio, Torino, Italy; Married 11 August 1137, Aragon, Spain; Petronilla Ramirez, Princess of Aragon: Born 1135, Aragon, Spain; Died 18 October 1172.
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6. Ramiro II "the Monk" Sanchez, King of Aragon: Born about 1095, Aragon, Spain; Died 16 August 1147; Married 1134, Spain; Agnes (Maud), Princess of Aquitaine: Born about 1100, Aquitaine, France.
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7. Sancho V Ramirez, King of Aragon and (I) Navarre: Born about 1067; Died June 1094; Married 1063; Felicitas, Queen of Aragon: Born about 1069; Died 24 April 1086.
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8. Ramiro, King of Aragon: Born about 1041; Died 8 May 1063; Married Gerberge, Countess of Bigore: Born about 1043.
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9. Sancho III, King of Aragon: Born about 1015; Died 18 January 1035; Married Urraca of Alvar: Born about 1017.
10. Garcias IV, King of Aragon: Born about 989; Died 1000.