Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England (28 page)

9
    

For the best English biography of Isabella, see Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême’.

10
  

Alice (d. after 1215) married: (1) Andrew of La Ferté-Gaucher in Champagne (d. c. 1177); (2) William of Joigny (marriage annulled in c. 1184); and (3) Adomar, Count of Angoulême (d. 1202): ibid., pp. 175–82. For her Courtenay ancestry, see
Chronica Albrici monachi trium fontium
, ed. P. Scheffer-Boichorst (1874), Monumenta Germaniae Historica, SS 23, p. 874.

11
  

Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême’, pp. 170–2.

12
  

Ibid., pp. 172–3.

13
  

Ibid., pp. 184–93. See also L. L. Huneycutt (2002), ‘“Alianora Regina Anglorum”: Eleanor of Aquitaine and her Anglo-Norman Predecessors as Queens of England’, in B. Wheeler and J. C. Parsons (eds)
Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady
. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 115–32.

14
  

Isabella’s experiences in this respect stand in stark contrast to those of her future daughter-in-law and eventual successor as queen in England, Eleanor of Provence. See, for example, M. Howell (1998),
Eleanor of Provence: Queenship in Thirteenth-Century England
. Oxford: Blackwell, esp. chs 3 and 6.

15
  

Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême’, pp. 184–93. On Queen’s Gold and its administration under Henry II, see
The Dialogue concerning the Exchequer
, book II, ch. XXVI, in E. F. Henderson (ed.) (1896),
Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages
. London: George Bell and Sons, available online at
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/excheq.asp#b2p26
, accessed on 1 December 2009.

16
  

Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême’, pp. 193, 196–7. For Isabella of Gloucester, see R. B. Patterson (2004/5), ‘Isabella,
suo jure
Countess of Gloucester (c
.
1160–1217)’,
ODNB
, available online at
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46705
, accessed on 7 December 2009.

17
  

Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême’, pp. 193–5; N. Vincent (1996),
Peter des Roches: An Alien in English Politics, 1205–1238
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 70. For the bishop discharging the queen’s expenses, see
The Pipe Roll of the Bishopric of Winchester, 1210–11
, ed. N. R. Holt (1964). Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 34 (Downton, Wilts), 37 (x2, Downton, Wilts).

18
  

RLP
, i.i, p. 117;
RLCl
, i, p. 169b; Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême’, p. 195.

19
  

Warren,
King John
, pp. 219–21.

20
  

Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême’, pp. 195–6. See also
RLP
, i.i, pp. 143b (1215), 192b (1216). For the sojourn at Exeter, mentioned in a later letter close, see
RLCl
, i, p. 433.

21
  

RLCl
, i, p. 177. See also ibid., i, p. 154b;
RLP
, i.i, p. 105b. For Berkhampsted as dower, see
RLC
, i, p. 293.

22
  

RLP
, i.i, p. 124b;
RLCl
, i, p. 180b.

23
  

RLCl
, i, p. 189b;
RLP
, i.i, p. 136 (x2).

24
  

RLP
, i.i, p. 136 (x2). For Isabella at Marlborough, see also
RLCl
, i, p. 213b.

25
  

Corfe was then in the custody of des Roches’s associate, Peter de Maulay:
Histoire des ducs de Normandie et des rois d’Angleterre
, ed. F. Michel (1840). Paris: Jules Renouard, p. 152; Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, p. 71. Richard, the younger son, was also in de Maulay’s charge:
Histoire des ducs
, p. 180.

26
  

For a useful essay on medieval ideas about gender, see J. Murray (1995), ‘Thinking about Gender: The Diversity of Medieval Perspectives’, in J. Carpenter and S. MacLean (eds),
Power of the Weak: Studies on Medieval Women
. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 1–26.

27
  

This was in spite of King John’s disregard for the rights of his nephew, Arthur of Brittany, the son of John’s older brother, Geoffrey (d. 1186), in the matter of his own accession to the throne: M. Jones (2004), ‘Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany (1158–1186)’,
ODNB
, available online at
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10533
, accessed on 4 December 2009. The crown apparently retained the right to bypass the rules of inheritance and succession in this period. See, for example, J. C. Holt (1997), ‘The “casus regis”: The Law and Politics of Succession in the Plantagenet Dominions, 1185–1247,’ in idem,
Colonial England, 1066–1215
. London: Hambledon Press, pp. 307–26.

28
  

D. Alexandre-Bidon and D. Lett (1999),
Children in the Middle Ages, Fifth to Fifteenth Centuries
, trans. J. Gladding. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, pp. 64–5; J. C. Parsons (1993), ‘Mothers, Daughters, Marriage, Power: Some Plantagenet Evidence, 1150–1500,’ in idem (ed.),
Medieval Queenship
. Stroud: Sutton, pp. 63–78, at pp. 68–9.

29
  

For the birth of Henry III, see, for example, ‘Annales de Wintonia’, in
Ann. mon
., ii, p. 80; ‘Annales de Waverleia’, in
Ann. mon.
, ii, p. 259. For the birth of Richard of Cornwall, see, for example, ‘Annales de Margan’, in
Ann. mon
., i, p. 29; ‘Annales de Waverleia’, p. 264. For the birth of Joan, see, for example, ‘Annales de Theokesberia’, in
Ann. mon
., i, p. 59; ‘Annales prioratus de Wigornia’, in
Ann. mon
., iv, p. 399.

30
  

Wendover
, iii, p. 108.

31
  

In or around 1224, Henry III referred to Eleanor as his ‘younger sister’:
Royal Letters
, i, pp. 244–6 no. CCXI, esp. p. 246. See also M. A. E. Green (1857),
Lives of the Princesses of England from the Norman Conquest, Volume II
. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longman and Roberts, pp. 1, 3–4, n. 5; J. R. Maddicott (1994),
Simon de Montfort
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 38 n. 1.

32
  

Medical writers recommended the use of a wet-nurse: W. F. MacLehose (1996), ‘Nurturing Danger: High Medieval Medicine and the Problem(s) of the Child’, in J. C. Parsons and B. Wheeler (eds),
Medieval Mothering
. London: Garland, pp. 3–24, at pp. 12–13.

33
  

RLCl
, i, p. 225. For another gift of robes to Isabella and her damsels in December 1215, see
RLCl
, i, p. 242.

34
  

N. Orme (2001),
Medieval Children
. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 19–21.

35
  

Chronica majora
, iii, pp. 566–7.

36
  

Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, p. 71. See also
Pipe Roll, Winchester, 1210–11
, p. 65.

37
  

P. Stafford (1997),
Queen Emma and Queen Edith: Queenship and Women’s Power in Eleventh-Century England
. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 128–31; L. L. Huneycutt (2003),
Matilda of Scotland: A Study in Medieval Queenship
. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, pp. 37, 41, 69.

38
  

‘Annales de Wintonia’, pp. 82–3.

39
  

Earldom of Gloucester Charters: The Charters and Scribes of the Earls and Countesses of Gloucester to A.D. 1217
, ed. R. B. Patterson (1973). Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 7.

40
  

RLCl
, i, pp. 275, 285 (June and August). In February 1216, Terric was awarded custody of the abbey of St Augustine, Bristol:
RLP
, i.i, p. 166. See also
RLCl
, i, p. 251;
RLP
, i.i, pp. 174b.

41
  

Warren,
King John
, p. 254.

42
  

See also p. 28 below.

43
  

RLC
, i, p. 293. For these and other properties which Isabella held in dower, see also ibid., pp. 294, 302, 302b (French dower), 304b, 315, 328b, 349b, 389b.

44
  

Carpenter,
The Minority
, pp. 13–19.

45
  

Ibid., p. 14 and n. 6; Warren,
King John
, p. 255.

46
  

Vincent, ‘Isabella of Angoulême’, p. 198.

47
  

Carpenter,
The Minority
, pp. 44–9.

48
  

Wendover
, i, pp. 295, 314, esp. 317.

49
  

See, for example, Alexandre-Bidon and Lett,
Children in the Middle Ages
, p. 61; Parsons, ‘Mothers, Daughters’, pp. 68–75. Royal and aristocratic children were usually placed in the care of nurses, some of whom were presumably wet nurses, shortly after birth. References to payments made to the nurses of John and Isabella’s children litter the pipe rolls. See, for example,
Pipe Roll 16 John
, pp. 127 (Christiana, nurse of Joan), 35, 54 (Elena, nurse of the king’s son), 1, 79 (Eva, nurse of Richard the king’s son), 39 (Hodierna, nurse of Richard), 1 (Matildis, nurse of Richard).