Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England (29 page)

50
  

RLP
, i.i, p. 117.

51
  

Denholm-Young,
Richard of Cornwall
, p. 3;
Histoire des ducs
, p. 180; Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, p. 71.

52
  

On education, see Orme,
From Childhood to Chivalry
, p. 45.

53
  

Isabella’s role in her sons’ early upbringings might help to explain why, much later in life, Henry III extended so warm a welcome to the children of his mother’s second marriage. See H. W. Ridgeway (1989), ‘Foreign Favourites and Henry III’s Problems of Patronage, 1247–1258’,
EHR
, 104, 590–610; Howell,
Eleanor of Provence
, pp. 54–5.

54
  

Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême’, p. 208.

55
  

Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, pp. 153–4.

56
  

PR, 1216–25
, p. 234. It was agreed that Isabella would marry Alexander if Joan failed to return from the south of France in time: ibid., p. 235; Carpenter,
The Minority
, p. 196.

57
  

Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, p. 153.

58
  

I am grateful to Dr Jennifer Ward for this suggestion.

59
  

On this, see Carpenter,
The Minority
, pp. 249–52.

60
  

See
Wendover
, iii, pp. 77; Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, pp. 414–15.

61
  

Similar arrangements are found with the higher nobility. See, for example, J. C. Parsons (1998), ‘ “Que nos in infancia lactauit”: The Impact of Childhood Care-givers on Plantagenet Family Relationships in the Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries’, in C. M. Rousseau and J. T. Rosenthal (eds),
Women, Marriage and Family in Medieval Christendom: Essays in Memory of Michael M. Sheehan
. C. S. B., Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University, pp. 289–324, at pp. 293–4.

62
  

I was alerted to the existence of the following entries by Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, p. 153 n. 93. I am grateful to the staff of the Hampshire Record Office (Archives and Local Studies) for their assistance in accessing the unpublished pipe rolls of the bishopric of Winchester.

63
  

HRO, 11M59/B1/6, mm. 12, 12d.

64
  

HRO, 11M59/B1/7, mm. 10d, 11. See also HRO, 11M59/B1/9, m. 5.

65
  

Orme,
From Childhood to Chivalry
, p. 19 n. 93; Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, p. 155; N. Vincent (2004), ‘Aubigny, Philip d’ (d. 1236)’,
ODNB
, available online at
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/47227
, accessed on 22 September 2010; Alexandre-Bidon and Lett,
Children in the Middle Ages
, pp. 43–5.

66
  

For a letter from Peter de Maulay to Hubert de Burgh, justiciar, that recommends to him ‘Roger of Acaster, master of Richard, brother of the lord king’, see
Royal Letters
, i, pp. 179–80 no. CLVI. See also Carpenter,
The Minority
, pp. 241–2; Orme,
From Childhood to Chivalry
, p. 24.

67
  

Carpenter,
The Minority
, p. 241; Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, p. 154.

68
  

French was the language spoken in court circles: M. T. Clanchy (1993),
From Memory to Written Record, England 1066–1307
(2nd edn). Oxford: Blackwell, p. 161.

69
  

Ibid., p. 161; Howell,
Eleanor of Provence
, p. 60.

70
  

Howell,
Eleanor of Provence
, pp. 83, 87–92. On the patronage of literary works in the vernacular by royal women, see P. Ranft (2002),
Women in Western Intellectual Culture, 600–1500
. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 89. On Henry III’s devotion to Edward the Confessor and his encouragement of his wife’s devotion to this saint, see D. A. Carpenter (2007), ‘King Henry III and Saint Edward the Confessor: The Origins of the Cult’,
EHR,
122 (498), 865–91.

71
  

See, for example, J. C. Ward (2002),
Women in Medieval Europe, 1200–1500
. Harlow: Pearson Education, pp. 16–19; K. M. Phillips (2003),
Medieval Maidens: Young Women and Gender in England, 1270–1540
. Manchester: Manchester University Press, ch. 2.

72
  

Parsons, ‘Mothers, Daughters’, pp. 71–5; L. L. Huneycutt (1996), ‘Public Lives, Private Ties: Royal Mothers in England and Scotland, 1070–1204’, in Parsons and Wheeler (eds),
Medieval Mothering
, pp. 295–311.

73
  

The Writings of Agnes of Harcourt: The Life of Isabelle of France and the Letter on Louis IX and Longchamp
, ed. S. L. Field (2003). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, pp. 52–9. Like Blanche, Eleanor was a granddaughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine.

74
  

Ibid., pp. 52–5.

75
  

Ibid., pp. 54–5.

76
  

Ibid., pp. 54–5, 58–61. In these respects, Isabella’s upbringing accorded well with the advice contained in the work of Vincent of Beauvais, whose treatise
De eruditione filiorum nobilium
was commissioned by Isabella’s sister-in-law, Margaret of Provence, in c. 1247–9. Vincent, who was heavily influenced by the writings of Jerome, recommended that noble girls should be educated in reading and writing to help inculcate Christian devotion, values and virtues, and in textile work and how to be a good wife:
Vincent of Beauvais, De eruditione filiorum nobilium
, ed. A. Steiner (1938). Menasha, WI: Medieval Academy of America, pp. 172–219, chs xlii–li.

77
  

Writings of Agnes of Harcourt
, pp. 60–61.

78
  

Ward,
Women in Medieval Europe
, pp. 17–18.

79
  

Wendover
, iii, p. 108; Wilkinson, ‘Isabella of England’, p. 28.

80
  

Chronica majora
, iii, p. 471.

81
  

Margaret’s grandfather was probably Manasser Biset, Henry II’s steward: Parsons, ‘ “Que nos in infancia lactauit” ’, p. 307.

82
  

Chronica majora
, iii, pp. 497–8;
Historia anglorum
, ii, p. 468; Wilkinson, ‘The Imperial Marriage’, p. 28; Howell,
Eleanor of Provence
, pp. 22–3.

83
  

Chronica majora
, v, p. 235.

84
  

Ibid. Cecily died in 1251 and was buried before the altar of St Andrew in St Albans Abbey. For William de Gorham and his son, see
Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, Vol. VIII
, eds F. Madden, B. Bandinel and J. G. Nichols (1843). London: Society of Antiquaries, p. 93. For the grief of Cecily’s brother, Nicholas, at her demise, see
Chronica majora
, v, p. 236.

85
  

Chronica majora
, v, p. 235.

86
  

Ibid.

87
  

J. Röhrkasten (2004),
The Mendicant Houses of Medieval London, 1221–1539
. Münster: Lit Verlag Münster, part I, chs 1–3; A. G. Little (1892),
The Grey Friars in Oxford
. Oxford: The Oxford Historical Society, part I, chs 1–2. See also the various essays in N. Rogers (ed.),
The Friars in Medieval Britain: Proceedings of the 2007 Harlaxton Symposium
. Donington: Shaun Tyas.

88
  

On female patronage of the Franciscans, see: L. L. Gees (2002),
Women, Art and Patronage from Henry III to Edward III: 1216–1377
. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, pp. 123–4.

89
  

For Marsh’s letters to Eleanor, see
The Letters of Adam Marsh
, ed. C. H. Lawrence (2006, 2010). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2 vols, ii, pp. 377–91 nos 155–62.

90
  

Ibid., ii, pp. 378–83 no. 157, 386–7 no. 160.

91
  

Ibid., ii, pp. 378–83 no. 157, esp. pp. 378–9.

92
  

Ibid., ii, pp. 378–83 no. 157, esp. pp. 380–1.

93
  

Ibid.

94
  

Ibid., ii, pp. 386–7 no. 160.