Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England (34 page)

33
  

Wendover
, iii, p. 34.

34
  

Richard witnessed no fewer than twenty-eight royal charters between July 1232 and April 1233: Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, pp. 310–11.

35
  

CR, 1231–4
, pp. 233, 310. See also TNA: PRO KB 26/159, mm. 2d–3d for a later legal dispute that recalled the terms of Richard’s settlement with Eleanor, and which dated it to 29 July 1232 (16 Henry III).

36
  

For the troubles that a later absentee landlady and widow encountered in Ireland, see C. O’Cléirigh (1996), ‘The Absentee Landlady and the Sturdy Robbers: Agnes de Valence’, in C. E. Meek and M. K. Simms (eds),
The Fragility of her Sex? Medieval Irish Women in their European Context
. Dublin: Four Courts Press, pp. 101–18.

37
  

See pp. 78–9.

38
  

KB 26/159, m. 3d.

39
  

CR, 1231–4
, p. 310.

40
  

Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, pp. 318, 327–31, 334–9; Weiler,
Kingship
, pp. 14–15.

41
  

Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, pp. 339, 372, 375.

42
  

Ibid., pp. 387-9.

43
  

CR, 1231–4
, p. 310.

44
  

Ibid., p. 233.

45
  

Green,
Lives
, ii, p. 60.

46
  

Ibid.

47
  

See p. 79.

48
  

Mabel was to enjoy the forge just as she was accustomed to have it in the reign of King John and his predecessors:
CPR, 1227–31
, p. 451.

49
  

J. Birrell (2006), ‘Procuring, Preparing, and Serving Venison in Late Medieval England’, in C. M. Woolgar, D. Serjeantson and T. Waldron (eds),
Food in Medieval England
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 176–88, at pp. 178–80. J. Birrell has calculated that between William Marshal junior’s death in 1231 and 1235, for example, Henry III provided Eleanor with no fewer than 181 deer in total – or between 30 and 46 deer a year – from the royal forests, but conflates entries relating to Eleanor and her cousin Eleanor of Brittany: ibid., pp. 186.

50
  

CR, 1227–31
, p. 528 (five deer);
CR, 1231–34
, pp. 9 (five deer), 79 (six deer), 92 (two deer), 167 (ten deer), 217 (three deer), 218 (five deer), 224 (five deer), 226 (five deer), 253 (ten deer).

51
  

Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, pp. 399–428.

52
  

Ibid., pp. 401–13.

53
  

Ibid., pp. 427–8.

54
  

Ibid., pp. 429, 434–6, 438–40. For the new archbishop, see C. H. Lawrence (1960),
Edmund of Abingdon: A Study in Hagiography and History
. Oxford: Clarendon Press;
The Life of St Edmund of Abingdon by Matthew Paris
, ed. C. H. Lawrence (1999). London: Sandpiper Books; Lawrence, ‘Edmund of Abingdon [St Edmund of Abingdon, Edmund Rich] (c.1174–1240)’.

55
  

Life of St Edmund
, pp. 52–6; Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, pp. 440–5.

56
  

Life of St Edmund
, p. 53.

57
  

Gilbert was knighted by the king on 11 June 1234 and formally recognised as Earl of Pembroke and Earl Marshal: ‘Annales prioratus de Dunstaplia’, p. 137; D’A. J. D. Boulton (1995), ‘Classic Knighthood as Nobiliary Dignity: The Knighting of Counts and Kings’ Sons in England, 1066–1272’, in S. Church and R. Harvey (eds),
Medieval Knighthood, V
. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, pp. 41–100, at p. 90; Weiler,
Kingship
, pp. 139–41.

58
  

Björn Weiler’s comparative study of the Marshal rebellion and the rebellion of Henry (VII) in Germany, for example, observes that ‘very little’ can be said about the role of women in politics, but overlooks Eleanor’s involvement in the events of 1233–4: Weiler,
Kingship
, pp. 151–2.

59
  

Green,
Lives
, ii, p. 57.

60
  

The Life of St Edmund
, pp. 132–3. On Isabella and Matthew, see R. Vaughan (1958),
Matthew Paris
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 13, 170, 173, 181.

61
  

See p. 28.

62
  

See p. 45.

63
  

Magna Carta laid down that widows should not be forced to remarry: Holt,
Magna Carta
, p. 504. It is, however, likely that had Eleanor not taken a vow of chastity, considerable pressure might have been brought to bear in persuading her to give her free consent to marriage. On the crown’s ‘control’ over widows during the reign of King Henry III, see S. L. Waugh (1988),
The Lordship of England: Royal Wardships and Marriages in English Society and Politics, 1217–1327
. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 68–70, 86–7, esp. 87.

64
  

Abulafia (2004), ‘Joanna, Countess of Toulouse’,
ODNB
, available online at
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14818
, accessed on 30 November 2010
.

65
  

Nelson, ‘Scottish Queenship’, pp. 69–70.

66
  

Wilkinson, ‘Isabella of England’, p. 22.

67
  

Wendover
, iii, p. 77; Vincent,
Peter des Roches
, pp. 414–15. On Eleanor of Brittany, see G. Seabourne (2007), ‘Eleanor of Brittany and her Treatment by King John and Henry III’,
Nottingham Medieval Studies
, 51, 73–110.

68
  

CR, 1231–4
, p. 369.

69
  

Ibid., p. 371. In March 1234, however, Eleanor was still waiting to receive £50 from the issues of the manor for her sustenance from Peter de Rivallis: ibid., p. 393.

70
  

CPR, 1232–47
, pp. 46, 56.

1
    

CRR, 1233–7
, no. 1088.

2
    

Eleanor also sought the recovery of 100 marks from Richard Marshal’s sale of the custody of the land and heir of Paulinus de Teyden’, together with other rights and smaller properties from Pembroke’s English estates: ibid.

3
    

Gilbert also recognized Eleanor’s right to 100 marks as her share from the sale of the wardship. In return for this concession, Eleanor resigned all her claims to dower in the remainder of William junior’s former lands in England: ibid. The king ordered the executors of Earl William to satisfy Eleanor for the £550 in arrears that had built up for her Irish dower from the earl’s chattels and goods, although it was Richard Marshal who had allowed the arrears to accumulate. If this money still went unpaid, then Gilbert was to satisfy the king’s sister for this sum: ibid. Curiously, Eleanor had enjoyed possession of Weston during Richard Marshal’s lifetime: See p. 39.

4
    

CPR, 1232–47
, pp. 65–6.

5
    

The grant of Magor included common of pasture in the forest of Netherwent and the right to all pleas on the manor, including crown pleas. Eleanor, for her part, promised to resign her rights in the remainder of her dead husband’s lands in Netherwent and Tidenham:
CRR, 1233–7
, no. 1154. Gilbert also granted Eleanor a further ten librates of land in Badgeworth if the land there was valued at more than the forty librates previously granted to Eleanor. See also KB 26/159, m. 3d.

6
    

CR, 1231–4
, pp. 526–7.

7
    

CRR, 1233–7
, no. 1279.

8
    

CPR, 1232–47
, p. 125.

9
    

In the meantime, the earl was to receive just enough money to cover the expenses of administering and maintaining each manor in cultivation: ibid.

10
  

The assignment was witnessed by some of the greatest men of the realm, including the bishops of Chichester, Exeter and Carlisle, and the earls of Lincoln, Cornwall, Norfolk and Kent, as well as leading figures in the king’s administration (e.g. Ralph fitz Nicholas and Godfrey of Crowcombe, both of whom were royal household stewards): ibid., pp. 125–6. Gilbert also entered into a second undertaking, whereby he assigned the issues of the manor of Bosham to Eleanor until she had recovered £350 in outstanding arrears from Richard Marshal’s time as earl. This second agreement laid down that, should Eleanor die before full payment had been made, the remainder of the sum would be paid to her legatees or assigns: ibid., p. 126.