A NOTICE OF THE LIFE OF

ELEANOR OF PROVENCE,

QUEEN OF HENRY THE THIRD.

BY THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON.

ELEANOR, no less celebrated for her beauty (which acquired for her the surname of La Belle) than for those defects which rendered her so unpopular in England, was the daughter of Raimond Berenger, Count of Provence, grandson to King Alphonso of Arragon, and of Beatrice, daughter of Count Thomas of Savoy. Raimond Berenger, the last Count of Provence, cultivated poetry with some success, and encouraged the literature, if such it might be called, of the troubadours, to whom he gave a hospitable reception at his court. Beatrice, his countess, also courted the muse, and if we may judge by the only couplet of her poetry preserved, her writings were more remarkable for freedom of sentiment than for delicacy, as this couplet encourages a timid lover to avow his flame.

Eleanor of Provence is said to have possessed much of the talents and accomplishments of both her parents, and while yet in early youth was the author of a poem still preserved, and said to have considerable merit. Beauty and talents, however, although gifts to be prized, were insufficient to fit their possessor for the duties imposed by the high station to which they assisted to elevate her. Nor was Henry the Third a prince likely to correct by his judgment the errors of his youthful queen, or by his example to lead her to the path of

duty. Weak, unsteady of purpose, and avaricious, he had few qualities calculated to make a favourable impression on the heart of his bride, or to inspire her with respect for his opinions. Disappointed as he had so frequently been in his matrimonial projects, he was probably so gratified to find himself at last the husband of so lovely and brilliant a creature as Eleanor, that he was more disposed to yield implicit compliance to her will than to assert his own. The education and example she received, in a court like that of her parents, were not calculated to form the principles or correct the failings of the youthful and flattered beauty; and although she derived instruction from Romieu,' a man of considerable abilities, who was treated more as a friend than a retainer in the family of her father, it may be doubted whether a strict morality, not in those days considered of such vast importance as in our own, was inculcated. The morality of the troubadours was of an extremely lax kind. Exaggerated notions of love and honour, formed only in a chivalrous point of view, pervaded society, and were nowhere more prevalent than in the court of Raimond Berenger and his Countess Beatrice.

The disparity of years between Henry and Eleanor, he being more than double her age, which might, had he possessed a firmer character, have given him an influence over her, produced no good effect; and the love of finery, less pardonable in a man of mature years than in a more youthful one, must have encouraged the natural taste for jewels and rich clothes evinced by the young queen. This passion of Henry the

Romieu, which signifies pilgrim in the Provençal, was a gentleman of an ancient house, but a stranger in Provence, returning from a pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella, arrived at the castle of the Count of Provence, and, charmed with his generous behaviour, attached himself to his service. Raimond was afterwards accused of ingratitude to Romieu, and called the inconstant Catalonian by Dante, in his sixth canto of Paradise.-History of the Troubadours, page 298.

Third for personal finery is more to be wondered at when his love of money is taken into consideration, of which a strong and ungracious proof was given in his reiterated demands for an increase of the portion he expected to receive with his youthful and lovely queen, whose father's finances by no means enabled him to satisfy the indelicate cravings of his future son-in-law. Although dazzled by the reputed charms and talents of Eleanor, Henry betrayed none of the impatience peculiar to expectant bridegrooms to expedite their nuptials, for he voluntarily postponed the celebration of his for some time, without alleging any satisfactory cause for such an unusual proceeding, a step certainly not flattering to the young beauty.

The progress of Eleanor to England was a continued scene of splendour. Followed by a numerous train of high-born ladies, and noble lords and knights, with poets to sing her praises, and crowds to echo them, she was everywhere received with honour and distinction. Thibaut of Nassau, himself a poet, not only exercised a princely hospitality towards her and her stately train, but, attended by his court, escorted her to the frontier of France. Here her sister, the queen of Louis the Ninth, received her, nor left her until she embarked for England, where she landed in January, 1236, and the marriage was celebrated at Canterbury, whither Henry had proceeded to meet her, followed by a vast train of his lords and high clergy. The coronation of the queen,2 for which preparations on the most magnificent scale had been made, took place within a week after the nuptial ceremony, and, as if to mark it with a more solemn character, Henry, two or three days

1 Strickland's Queens of England.

2 Matthieu Paris nous a donné une description exacte de ce couronnement et de ce que fit chaque personne selon la fonction dont elle étoit revêtue. On y voit ceci de remarquable, que le Comte de Chester, en qualité de Grand Connétable, portoit l'épée de S. Edouard, nommé Curleine, devant le roi, pour marquer qu'il étoit Comte du Palais et qu'en cette qualité il avoit droit de réprimer le roi, s'il agissoit contre les loix.-M. Paris, sous l'annee 1235 (Tind. Rapin), liv. viii. page 423.

preceding it, laid the first stone of the Lady Chapel in Westminster Abbey.'

Anxious to do honour to their liege lady, the citizens of London had commanded their streets to be cleaned,2 so that when she passed nought offensive to her eyes or olfactory nerves could be encountered, while bright-coloured tapestry and silks, wreaths of flowers, and flaunting banners, hung from the windows, making a gay and brilliant sight. The citizens, mounted on gallant steeds, and clothed in robes dight with gold and rainbow hues," rode forth to meet their sovereigns, whose dresses, composed of a tissue of gold, then little known in England, and adorned with jewels of the most costly description, dazzled the eyes of all beholders. Never previously had aught approaching the magnificence displayed on this occasion been witnessed in England, and long after did the heavy expense incurred for it embarrass the sovereign, and compel him to have recourse to his subjects to aid him in his difficulties. He found them little disposed to assist him, so that he had the double mortification of being obliged to solicit and of being refused.

England, ever looking with jealousy and dislike to the influx of foreigners, viewed with distrust the numerous ones that flocked over with the queen; and the favour shown by Henry to the uncle of his consort, Peter of Savoy, tended greatly to increase these prejudices and jealousies. To gratify Eleanor,3 her weak husband bestowed on her uncle that portion of London which took the name of the Savoy, a piece of misplaced generosity that deeply displeased his already discontented subjects. The exactions of the pope, carried into effect by his legates, helped to still more alienate the affection and respect of the English from their sovereign, and as this alienation soon. became known at foreign courts, encroachments were made on Henry's power, from the conviction entertained that, aware 1 Strickland's Queens of England.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

of the disaffection of his people, he dared not, however great the provocation, count on being assisted to repel or to avenge them. In the promises of Henry no confidence could be placed. His tergiversations had taught his favourites, as well as the rest of his subjects, to put no trust in him, and even those whom he most favoured were, by the force of example, so well aware of the instability of his good-will, that they sought to take the utmost advantage of it, careless how much injury they entailed on this weak and vacillating monarch by their covetous exactions. With such a husband, Eleanor must have been indeed a woman of more than ordinary good sense and high principle, to have escaped being involved in his unpopularity, and, unfortunately, we have no evidence to prove that she possessed these qualities. Under the influence of her uncle, Peter of Savoy, she aided him to attain a power over Henry never exercised but for his own selfish ends, and which defeated the efforts made by Prince Richard, the king's brother, to enlighten him on the danger he was incurring by lavishing the subsidies, raised with such difficulty from his subjects, on foreigners whom they detested.

It was not until 1239 that Queen Eleanor gave Henry an heir to the English crown, who was named Edward, a name rendered popular in England from being that borne by Edward the Confessor. The birth of Edward cemented the affection of Henry for his queen, and increased her influence over him. He commanded the apartments she occupied to be adorned in a style of luxurious elegance hitherto unknown in England, and remarkable for good taste in a period when it was so little understood. Eleanor's passion for jewels was encouraged rather than checked by her husband. She wore these costly ornaments on her head, neck, waist, and robes, and the money expended on them is said to have amounted to no less a sum than thirty thousand pounds, an expenditure which the country could ill afford at that period, and which added to the dis

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