Eleanor of England Provence

Abt 1217 - 1291  (~ 74 years)

• Name	Eleanor of England Provence
  Birth	Abt 1217	Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France   [1]
  Gender	Female
  Death	24 Jun 1291	Amesbury Priory, Wiltshire, England
  Person ID	I7339	FelsingFam
  Last Modified	21 Dec 2024

  
  

  Family	Henry III King of England Plantagenet,   b. 1 Oct 1207, Winchester Castle, Winchester, Hampshire, England d. 16 Nov 1272, Palace of Westminster, Westminster, Middlesex, England (Age 65 years)
  Children	+ 1. Edward I King of England Plantagenet,   b. 17 Jun 1239, Westminster, Middlesex, England d. 7 Jul 1307, Burgh by Sands, Cumberland, England (Age 68 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
  Family ID	F2348	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	21 Dec 2024

  
  

• Photos		O_Cutler Frank
  		p46

  
  

• Notes

  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Provence-162 BIOGRAPHY FROM GENEALOGICS.ORG: Eleanor was born about 1223, the daughter of Raimund Berengar V, comte de Provence, and Béatrice de Savoie. She was about twelve when she had to leave the warmth of southern France to marry an unknown man in the cold of the English winter, becoming Henry III's queen on 4 January 1236. Henry had first tried to marry Jeanne, countess of Ponthieu, until he was told by his brother Richard of the beauty of the four Provence sisters. Richard married Sancha and the two other sisters were also married to two brothers: Marguerite to King Louis IX of France and Beatrice to Charles I Etienne, king of Naples and Louis IX's younger brother. Eleanor and Henry had eight children of whom the first four would have progeny: Edward, Margaret, Beatrice, and Edmund. However tragedy plagued the early years of the marriage. Their eldest son Edward became very ill. Though he recovered, his siblings Richard, Henry, William, Katherine, and John died at very young ages, leaving their parents grief-stricken. Eleanor was especially upset over the death of her youngest daughter Katharine, who possibly had a degenerative disease that led her to become deaf, and she eventually died at the age of three. The marriage remained happy, but Eleanor became unpopular when her uncles arrived from Savoy to become the king's favourites. At one point Eleanor was sailing on a barge that was attacked by London citizens. When Edmund Rich, archbishop of Canterbury, died in 1240, Eleanor wrote to the pope to have her uncle, Boniface of Savoy, take that position. However Boniface was resented, as was Eleanor's extravagance. In 1252 Henry III went to France because of a revolt in Gascony, and Eleanor becoming regent together with the king's brother Richard. In 1254 Eleanor went with her son Edward to Spain to attend Edward's marriage to Eleanor of Castile, comtesse de Ponthieu; on the way back she and the young couple were invited to visit the French court. During the civil war between Henry III and the barons, Eleanor provided active support to Henry, raising money on her jewellery. After the Battle of Evesham in 1265, in which the barons led by Simon de Montfort were defeated and Montfort killed, she quickly joined her husband and son in England. In 1272 her husband died and Eleanor became regent until her son, now King Edward I, returned to England. In 1275 she lost both her daughters, Marguerite, queen of Scots and Beatrice, duchess of Brittany. In 1280 she retired to the convent of Amesbury, but was still involved in her family's affairs. She remained in Amesbury until her death in 1291.

  
  

• Sources

  [S945] Genealogics.org.