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1251.]

Extravagance of dress.

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Eleanor, then in her tenth year, to the young king of Scotland, Alexander III., who was about twelve. The nuptials were celebrated with great pomp at York, where the royal families of England and Scotland kept their Christmas together. The youthful bridegroom was knighted by king Henry in York cathedral, on Christmas-day, in the presence of the whole court, and the next morning the marriage was solemnized at an early hour. Henry endeavoured to persuade Alexander to pay him homage for the realm of Scotland; but the princely boy replied that "He came to York to be married, not to discuss an affair on which he, being a minor, could determine nothing without consulting the states of his kingdom." Henry could not find it in his heart to break up the nuptial festivities by insisting on his demand, especially as the archbishop of York had generously promised to be at the expense of all the entertainment, which cost him upwards of four thousand marks, “and six hundred oxen, which," says Matthew Paris, "were all consumed at one meal."

More worthy of remembrance, however, than these enormous devourings of the hospitable archbishop's beef, does the worthy chronicler consider the dignified and princely conduct of the youthful majesty of Scotland at his bridal feast, and his supplication to his royal fatherin-law for the pardon of Philip Lovel, one of his ministers, who lay under the king's heavy displeasure at that time. The royal bride joined in the petition, kneeling with her newly-wedded lord at her father's feet, and hanging on his garments. Henry was so moved by the artless earnestness of their supplications, as to be only able to articulate one word, "Willingly;" and all who sat at the feast melted into tears of tenderness and admiration. The object for whom these interesting pleaders used such powerful intercessions was an unworthy peculator, convicted of receiving bribes in the discharge of his office; nevertheless, the misjudging sovereign was persuaded, by the engaging prattle of two inexperienced children, to invest him with the tempting office of treasurer.

The extravagance of dress at these nuptials has been noted by many writers. The nobility were arrayed in vests of silk called "centoises," or "quintises;" and the day after the nuptial ceremony, the queen of England and her ladies laid these new robes aside, and appeared clad in others still more costly, and of a new pattern. Quintises were upper or super tunics, with no sleeves, or very short ones, bordered, worked, and notched in various patterns; scarfs were worn by knights à la quintise, meaning that they were ornamented with a notched border. The quintise robe was worn by queen Eleanor so long, before and behind, as to trail on the ground, and was held up with one hand, lest her steps should be impeded. The Roman de la Rose, speaking of these garments first worn by Eleanor and her court, counsels the ladies, if

their feet and ankles be not small and delicate, to let their robes fall a the pavement and hide them; whilst those whose feet are of a beauti form may hold up the robe in front, for the convenience of stepping along briskly. The ladies are uncivilly compared to pies and peacock "which delight in feathers of various colours: so do our court ladies The pies have long tails that train in the dirt, but the ladies make the tails a thousand times longer than the peacocks and the pies."

1

The costume of Eleanor's portrait is that worn on high festivals i the queens of England in the thirteenth century. The head of th queen is encircled with the open gothic crown of floriated trefoils, sur mounting a rich band of gems. The royal mantle has a low collar or small cape round the neck, fastening in front with a square fermoir of gems and wrought gold; the mantle is bordered with an elegant gold lace of a scale pattern. The close gown fitting to the shape is of gol diapered brocade; the sleeves are cut very deep on the hands, whic they nearly cover, a peculiarity pertaining to the era of Eleanor Provence.

The felicity which the king and queen enjoyed in the celebration their daughter's union with the Scottish king, was interrupted by return of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, who had passed six ye in a sort of honourable banishment as Governor of Gascony. Deputies had been sent from that province with complaints of Leicester's ty nical conduct, and he, having succeeded in refuting the charges of his Gascon foes, proceeded to call upon the king to reward him for his vices, reminding him of his royal promise to that effect. Henry, infinite scorn, replied, “I do not consider myself obliged to keep my word with a traitor." Leicester fiercely told the sovereign “He lied, and were he not his king, he would make him eat his words;" adding, “that it was scarcely possible to believe he was a Christian, or ever had made cou fession of his sins.”—“Yes,” replied the king, "I am a Christian, and have often been at confession."-"What signifies confession," retorted the earl," without repentance ?"—" I never repented of any thing so much in my life,” rejoined the insulted monarch," as having bestowed favours on one who has so little gratitude and such ill manners."2 After this characteristic dialogue, there was nothing but hatred between the king

and his insolent brother-in-law.

3

ex

To add to the troubles of the king and queen at this juncture, so late as the year 1252, the validity of their marriage was perpet ally agitated at the court of Rome, owing to the king's capricios breach of promise with the countess of Ponthieu; and this year he forced to obtain bulls, at a great expense, from Pope Innocent, decla "the contract of the king of England with Joanna (who had been l married to the king of Castile) null and void, and his marriage

1 See the eight-volume edition of this work.

2 M. Paris.

3 Fœdera, voli

252.]

Eleanor constituted Queen-Regent.

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leanor of Provence good matrimony." Henry's temper now became › irascible, that he quarrelled with his best friends; he was more tortionate than ever, and demanded of the clergy a tenth of their venues, towards the expenses of a projected crusade. He sent for the shop of Ely, who appeared to have great influence with his brethren, id endeavoured by flattering caresses to secure his interest; but when at conscientious prelate attempted to reason with him on the folly of is conduct, Henry angrily retorted, that "he did not want any of his unsels;" and ordered his officers "to turn him out of doors for an illed fellow as he was. "1

Louis IX. of France, and the gallant retinue by whom he had been tended on his ill-starred expedition to Palestine, were at this time guishing in the most doleful captivity, and the flower of the French ivalry had fallen victims either to the pestilence or the sword. eanor talked of accompanying her feeble-minded lord in a crusade for eir deliverance; but could not resolve to abandon her painted ambers and jewelled pomp, to expose herself to the peril of hardships 1 privation like those her sister was suffering at Damietta. The en was this year again in imminent danger from a thunder-storm; was with her children visiting the abbey of St. Alban's, when thing struck the chimney of her chamber, and shivered it to pieces. abbey-laundry burst into flames; while such a commotion was ed by the elements, that the king's chief-justice (who was escorting treasure-carts, and had accepted hospitality at the abbey) thinking whole structure was devoted to destruction, rushed forth into the way with two friars, fancying a flaming torch or a drawn sword sued them.

he same summer Henry made preparations for going in person to Il the formidable revolt in Guienne, occasioned by the recall of the of Leicester and the misgovernment of prince Edward, who had n appointed as his successor in the fourteenth year of his age. een Eleanor, being near her confinement, did not accompany the g, but was solemnly invested by him at his departing with the regency the kingdom, jointly with his brother Richard, earl of Cornwall, the sband of her sister Sancha of Provence. While Henry was waiting the neighbourhood of Portsmouth for a favourable wind, he made will, which is a very interesting document, affording proof of his ction for his queen, and the unbounded confidence which he reposed er. He says:-"I commit the guardianship of Edward, my eldest and heir, and of my other children, and of my kingdom of England, all my other lands in Wales, Ireland, and Gascony, to my illustrious en Eleanor." 2

Attended by the greater number of his barons, king Henry sailed

1 M. Paris.

? Nicolas's Testamenta Vetusta.

from Portsmouth, August 6th: he arrived at Bourdeaux on the 15th of the same month, and took the command of his army in person.

On the 25th of November Eleanor gave birth to a daughter in London, who was christened with great pomp by the archbishop of Canterbury, her uncle. That primate also stood godfather for the infant princess, and bestowed upon her the name of Katherine, be cause she was born on St. Katherine's-day. She died very young and was buried in Westminster-abbey by her two brothers, Richard and John, the third and fourth sons of Henry and Eleanor, who had preceded her to the tomb. These royal children repose in the space between the chapels of St. Edward and St. Bennet.1

CHAPTER II.

WHEN Henry III. appointed Eleanor regent of England, he left the great seal in her custody, but enclosed in its casket, sealed with the impression of his own privy seal, and with the signets of his brother Richard, earl of Cornwall, and others of his council. It was only to be opened on occasions of extreme urgency. Eleanor was directed to govern by the advice of her royal brother-in-law, but the regal power was vested in her; and we find that pleas were holden before her and the king's council, in the court of Exchequer, during Henry's absence in Gascony. "At this time,” says Madox, "the queen was custos regni, and sat vice regis." We have thus an instance of a queen-consort performing, not only the functions of a sovereign, in the absence of the monarch, but acting as a judge in the highest court of judicature, curia regis. There can be no doubt but this princess took her seat on the King's-bench.

No sooner had queen Eleanor got the reins of empire in her own hands, unrestrained by the counterbalancing power of the great earl of Leicester, who had volunteered his services to king Henry against the insurgent Gascons, than she proceeded to play the sovereign in a more despotic manner, in one instance at least, than had ever been attempted by the mightiest monarch of the Norman line. Remembering her former disputes with the city of London, she now took the opportunity of gratifying her revenge and covetousness at the same time, by demanding of their magistrates the payment of a large sum, which she insisted they owed her for aurum reginæ, or queen-gold,-a due which the queens of England were entitled to claim on every tenth mark paid to the king, as voluntary fines for the royal goodwill in the renewals of leases on crown lands, or the granting of charters. Eleanor, in this instance, most unreasonably demanded her queen-gold on various enor

1 Speed.

1254.] Commits the Sheriffs of London to prison.

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amous fines that had been unrighteously and vexatiously extorted by the king from the plundered merchants and citizens of London. For to $ the non-payment of this unjust claim, she committed the sheriffs of London, Richard Picard and John de Northampton, to the Marshalsea prison, in the year 1254;1 and the same year she again committed them, together with Richard Hardell, draper, the mayor, to the same prison, for arrears of an aid towards the war in Gascony. These arbitrary proceedings of the queen-regent were regarded with indignant astonishment in a city governed by laws peculiar to itself,-London being, in fact, a republic within a monarchy, whose privileges had hitherto been respected by the most despotic sovereigns. It had been hoped that Richard, earl of Cornwall, Eleanor's coadjutor in the delegated regal power, would have restrained her from such reckless abuse of the authority with which she had been invested by her absent lord; but since his marriage with her sister, that prince had ceased to oppose the queen in any of her doings. Thus the queen and the countess of Cornwall made common cause, contriving to govern between them the king and his brother, and through them the whole realm, according to their own pleasure.

vain

her

Eleanor,

Early in the year, Eleanor received instructions from the king to summon a parliament, for the purpose of demanding aid for carrying on the war in Gascony. But finding it impossible to obtain this grant, queen Eleanor sent the king five hundred marks from her own private coffers, as a New-year's gift, for the immediate relief of his more pressing exigencies. Henry then directed his brother to extort from the luckless Jews the sum required for the nuptial festivities of his heir. As soon as Henry received the glittering fruits of this iniquity, he sent for Eleanor, to assist him in squandering away the supply in the light and expenses in which they mutually delighted, likewise to grace with presence the bridal of their eldest son, prince Edward. who loved power well, but pleasure better, on this welcome summons resigned the cares of government to the earl of Cornwall; and with her sister, the countess of Cornwall, her second son, prince Edmund, and a courtly retinue of ladies, knights, and nobles, sailed from Portsmouth on the 15th of May, and, landing at Bourdeaux, was joyfully welcomed by her husband and their heir, prince Edward, whom she had not seen for upwards of a year. She crossed the Pyrenees with her son, and having assisted at the solemnization of his nuptials with the infanta Eleanora of Castile, returned with the royal bride and bridegroom to king Henry, who was waiting for their arrival at Bourdeaux. of sailing from thence to England, the queen persuaded Henry to accept the invitation of St. Louis, her brother-in-law, to pass some days at his Court with their train.

Instead

1 Stowe. 'Harrison's 'Survey.'

2 Stowe's Annals.

3 M. Paris.

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