♀Eleanor of Provence

Eleanor of Provence (died 24 June 1291) was Queen of England as the wife of King Henry III, a count’s daughter from Provence whose Savoyard kinsmen gained influence over the English government, and who ended her life as a nun at Amesbury Priory. She was the twenty-third great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son Edward of England (1239–1307).

Marriage

Eleanor was the second daughter and co-heiress of Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence^W, by Beatrice of Savoy^W, a daughter of Tomasso I, Count of Savoy. On 14 January 1236, at Canterbury Cathedral, she married King Henry III of England^W. Henry and Eleanor had nine children, among them their eldest son, Edward, who succeeded his father as King Edward I^W.

Queen

The influence of the queen’s Savoyard kinsmen over Henry’s government turned the barons further against the king. In the civil war^W that followed, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester^W, captured Henry and Edward at the Battle of Lewes^W on 14 May 1264, and he ruled England in the king’s name until he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Evesham^W on 4 August 1265.

Widowhood at Amesbury

Henry died at Bury St. Edmunds on 16 November 1272. As a widow Eleanor entered Amesbury Priory^W in Wiltshire, where she was veiled as a nun on 7 July 1286. She gave five pounds of silver every Friday to the poor in reverence for the five wounds of Christ^W. In 1290 she asked the king, her son Edward, for a commission of oyer and terminer^W to inquire into trespasses committed by her stewards and bailiffs throughout her lands. She made a will and died at Amesbury Priory on 24 June 1291, and she was buried in the convent church there on 10 September 1291.

Notes

Sources

Eleanor’s parentage, her marriage, her children, her years at Amesbury and her death and burial are from Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry (2nd ed., 2011), vol. I, ENGLAND 4, pp. 42–46. This is a printed genealogy of the medieval royal family and nobility, citing the chronicles, the royal rolls and the modern histories of her life. Her date and place of birth are not given there.