ELEANOR OF PROVENCE, SURNAMED LA BELLE, QUEEN OF HENRY III. CHAPTER I. ELEANOR of Provence was perhaps the most unpopular queen that ever presided over the court of England. She was unfortunately called to share the crown and royal dignity of a feeble-minded sovereign at an earlier age than any of her predecessors, for at the time of her marriage with king Henry she had scarcely completed her fourteenth year,1 a period of life when her education was imperfect, her judgment unformed, and her character precisely that of a spoiled child, of precocious beauty and genius,-perilous gifts! which in her case served but to foster vanity and self-sufficiency. This princess was the second of the five beautiful daughters of Berenger, count of Provence, the grandson of Alfonso, king of Arragon. Berenger was the last and most illustrious of the royal Provençal counts; and even had he not been the sovereign of the land of song, his own verses would have entitled him to a distinguished rank among the troubadour poets. His consort Beatrice, daughter of Thomas, count of Savoy, was scarcely less celebrated for her learning and literary powers. From her accomplished parents the youthful Eleanor inherited both a natural taste and a practical talent for poetry, which the very air she breathed tended to foster and encourage. Almost before she entered her teens, she had composed an heroic poem in her native Provençal tongue, which is still in existence. The composition of this romance was the primary cause to which the infanta Eleanor of Provence owed her elevation to the crown-matrimonial of England. Her father's major-domo and confidant, Romeo, was the person to whose able management count Berenger was indebted for his success in matching his portionless daughters with the principal potentates of Europe. Eleanor, prompted by 1 M. Paris. 3 Crescembini. Romeo is mentioned by Dante as one of the greatest Italian poets of his time; he was tutor to Eleanor and her 2 Sismondi's Literature. sister Marguerite. Far from reaping any benefit for himself from his faithful and successful match-making in behalf of his patron's daughters, Dante tells us that Romeo expe 1235.] Bachelor king's perplexities. 245 this sagacious counsellor, sent to Richard, earl of Cornwall, Henry III.'s brother, her Provençal romance, on the adventures of Blandin of Cornwall, and Guillaume of Miremas his companion, who undertook great perils for the love of the princess Briende and her sister Irlonde (probably Britain and Ireland), dames of incomparable beauty. Richard of Cornwall1 was highly flattered by the attention of the young princess, who was so celebrated for her personal charms that she was called Eleanor la Belle; but as it was out of his power to testify his grateful sense of the honour by offering his hand and heart to the royal Provençal beauty in return for her romantic rhymes, he being already the husband of one good lady, he obligingly recommended her to his brother, Henry III., for a queen. That monarch, whose share of learning and imaginativeness far exceeded his wit and judgment, had been disappointed in no less than five attempts to enter the holy pale of matrimony, with as many different princesses. He would fain have espoused a princess of Scotland, whose eldest sister had married his great minister, Hubert de Burgh, but his nobles, from jealousy of Hubert, dissuaded him from this alliance. He then vainly sued for a consort in the courts of Bretagne, Austria, and Bohemia. At length, wholly dispirited by his want of success in every matrimonial negotiation into which he had entered, the royal Colebs having arrived at the age of twenty-five, began, no doubt, to imagine himself devoted to a life of single blessedness, and remained four years without further attempts to provide himself with a queen. In 1235, however, he again took courage, and offered his hand to Joanna, the daughter of the earl of Ponthieu; and having, for the first time in his life, received a favourable answer to his proposals, a contract of marriage with this lady was signed, and ambassadors despatched for the pope's dispensation; but when they were within a few days' journey of Rome, he sent word that he had altered his mind, and charged them not to proceed. This sudden change of purpose was occasioned by the agreeable impression Henry had received from his brother, Richard, earl of Cornwall, of the beauty and brilliant genius of his fair correspondent, Eleanor of Provence.3 rienced the proverbial ingratitude of princes, and was driven from the court in disgrace in his old age. "Four daughters, and each one of them a queen, Had Raymond Berenger; this grandeur all By poor Romeo had accomplished been."-WRIGHT'S Dante. 'Lives of the Troubadours,' by Nostradamus, who very stupidly mistakes Richard, earl of Cornwall, for his uncle Cœur de Lion; but Fauriel has, in the Revue des Deux Mondes,' satisfactorily explained the blunder. The poem written by the princess Eleanor bears marks of its origin, being precisely the sort of composition that a child, or young girl of some genius and no literary experience, might have composed. 2 Rapin. 3 We find in Rymer's Fœdera, about this period, a letter written by Henry III. to the earl Savoy, brother to the countess Beatrice, Eleanor's mother, entreating his friendly assistance in bringing about the marriage. As soon as Henry thought proper to make known to his court that he had broken his engagement with the maid of Ponthieu, his nobles, according to Hemmingford, were so obliging as to recommend him to marry the very lady on whom he had secretly fixed his mind. As Louis IX. of France (afterwards styled St. Louis) was married to Eleanor's eldest sister, the infanta Marguerite of Provence, Henry's counsellors were of opinion that great political advantages might be derived from this alliance. The matrimonial treaty was opened June, 1235. Henry discreetly made choice of three sober priests, for his procurators at the court of count Berenger,1-the bishops of Ely and Lincoln, and the prior of Hurle: to these were added the master of the Temple. Though Henry's age more than doubled that of the fair maid of Provence, of whose charms and accomplishments he had received such favourable reports, and he was aware that the poverty of the generous count her father was almost proverbial, his constitutional covetousness impelled him to demand the enormous portion of twenty thousand marks with this fairest flower of the land of roses and sweet song. 2 Count Berenger, in reply, objected on the part of his daughter, to the very inadequate dower Henry would be able to settle upon her during the life of his mother, queen Isabella. Henry, on this, proceeded lower his demands from one sum to another, till finding that the impoverished but high-spirited Provençal count was inclined to resent his sordid manner of bargaining for the nuptial portion, and being seriously alarmed lest he should lose the lady, he in a great fright wrote to his ambassadors, "to conclude the marriage forthwith, either with money or without; but at all events to 'secure the lady for him, and conduct her safely to England without delay." After the contract was signed, Henry wrote both to the count and countess of Provence, requesting them "to permit the nuptials of Eleanor to be postponed till the feast of St. Martin, and to explain to their daughter that such was his wish." Eleanor was dowered in the reversion of the queen-mother Isabella of Angoulême's dower, whose jointure is recapitulated in the marriagetreaty between Henry and his future consort; but no immediate settlement is specified for the young queen. The royal bride, having been delivered with due solemnity to king Henry's ambassadors, commenced her journey to England. She was attended on her progress by all the chivalry and beauty of the south of France, a stately train of nobles, ladies, minstrels, and jongleurs, with crowds of humbler followers. 1 Rymer's Fœdera. 2 In the postscript to his private instructions to John, the son of Philip, his seneschal, and his procurators, Henry subjoins the following scale of progressive abatements, which he empowers his "trusty and well-beloved" to make from his first demand of 20,000 marks: 15,000-10,000-7,000 -5,000-3,000.--Ry mer's Fœdera. It is by no means certain that even the paltry minimum here named by the royal calculator was obtained. 1236.] Married to King Henry at Canterbury. 247 Eleanor was treated with peculiar honours by Thibaut, the poet-king of Navarre, who feasted her and her company for five days, and guarded them in person, with all his knights and nobles, to the French frontier. There she was met and welcomed by her eldest sister, the consort of St. Louis; and, after receiving the congratulations of these illustrious relatives, she embarked for England, landed at Dover, and, on the 4th of January, 1236, was married to king Henry III. at Canterbury by the archbishop, St. Edmund of Canterbury.1 Piers of Langtoft gives us the following description of the royal bride: "Henry, our king, at Westminster took to wife The earl's daughter of Provence, the fairest may in life; Beyond the sea there was no such creature.” All contemporary chronicles, indeed, whether in halting English rhymes or sonorous Latin prose-to say nothing of the panegyrical strains of her countrymen, the Provençal poets,-are agreed in representing this princess as well deserving the surname of "la Belle." King Henry conducted his youthful consort to London with great pride, attended by a splendid train of nobility and ecclesiastics, who had accompanied the sovereign to Canterbury in order to assist at his nuptials. Preparations of the most extraordinary magnificence were made for the approaching coronation of the newly-wedded queen, which was appointed to take place on the feast of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian, sixteen days only after the bridal, being the 20th of January. Previous to that august ceremony, Henry had caused great improvements to be made in the palace of Westminster for the reception of his young consort. There is a precept, in the twentieth year of his reign, directing “that the king's great chamber at Westminster be painted a good green colour, like a curtain: that, in the great gable or frontispiece of the said chamber a French inscription should be painted, and that the king's little wardrobe should also be painted of a green colour, to imitate a The queen's chamber was beautified and adorned with historical paintings at the same time. curtain." The Saturday before the queen was crowned, Henry laid the first stone of the Lady-chapel, in Westminster-abbey. We read also that the good citizens of London, in their zealous desire of doing honour to their new queen, set about the scarcely less than Herculean labour of cleansing their streets from mud, and all other offensive accumulations, with which they were, at that season of the year, rendered almost impassable. This laudable purification, which must have been regarded almost as a national blessing, being happily effected, the loyal citizens prepared all sorts of costly pageantry to grace the coronation-festival, and delight the young queen. 1 M. Paris. Eleanor was just at the happy age for enjoying all the gay succession of brave shows and dainty devices detailed by Matthew Paris, whe after describing streets hung with different-coloured silks, garlands, and banners, and with lamps, cressets, and other lights at night, concludes by saying, "But why need I recount the train of those who performed the offices of the church? why describe the profusion of dishes which furnished the table, the abundance of venison, the variety of fish, the diversity of wine, the gaiety of the jugglers, the comeliness of the attendants? Whatever the world could produce for glory or deligh was there conspicuous." ”1 The most remarkable feature in the coronation of Eleanor of Pro vence must have been the equestrian procession of the citizens o London, who, on that occasion, claimed the office of cellarers to the king of England. The claim of his loyal citizens having been wisely granted, they venturously mounted swift horses, and rode forth t accompany the king and queen from the Tower, clothed in long gar ments, embroidered with gold and silk of divers colours. They amounted to the number of three hundred and sixty. Their steeds were finely trapped in array, with shining bits and new saddles, eaca citizen bearing a gold or silver cup in his hand for the royal use, the king's trumpeters sounding before them; and so rode they in at the royal banquet (better riders, belike, were they than the men who wear long gowns in the city of London in these degenerate days), and served the king and that noble company with wine, according to their duty The mayor of London, Andrew Buckerel, the pepperer, headed this splendid civic cavalcade, and claimed the place of master Michael Belot, the deputy of Albini, earl of Arundel, the grand boteler or pincema of England; but he was repulsed by order of the king, who said, "No one ought by right to perform that service but master Michael." The mayor submitted to the royal decision in this matter of high nial, and served the two bishops at the king's right hand. After the banquet, the earl-boteler received the cup out of which the king had drunk as a matter of right; and master Michael, his deputy, receive the earl's robes. Gilbert de Sandford claimed, for the service of keepin the queen's chamber-door at this coronation, the queen's bed and a its furniture, as her chamberlain.3 The barons of the Cinque-por made their claim to carry, as usual, the canopy over the queen head,- -a right which was fruitlessly disputed by "the marchers" Wales. Alms were bounteously distributed to the poor on this occasion 1 M. Paris. City Record. Speed. 2 As cellarers, they handed the wine to the royal butler. Speed. City records. 3 As the citizens of London had claimed the service of the butlery, so those of Winchester claimed that of the royal kitchen; but the ceremo doings of the men of Winchester, in the cafe city of cook's assistants, have not been corded. The cloth that hung behind th king's table was claimed, on the one side the door-keepers, and on the other by scullions, as their perquisite. |