Product Description

It provides an unusually intimate and coherent picture of a woman who combined a remarkable aptitude for politics with a strong family commitment and warm friendships.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #385154 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
"Margaret Howell′s thought provoking study of King Henry III′s queen, Eleanor of Provence: Queenship in Thirteenth–Century England, has come as a welcome, timely and much needed addition ... Margaret Howell′s carefully researched volume has finally allowed Eleanor of Provence to emerge as one of the most important and dominating figures in English political life during her husband′s reign." Reviews in History

"Margaret Howell has written a supremely good book ... in its broad and humane sympathies, as well as in its contribution to political history, this is a book that could hardly have been better done." Times Literary Supplement

"Howell′s reassessment of Eleanor′s role in 13th–century politics and her approach to the study of queenship make this impressively researched work of import to scholars. Her readable and primarily narrative style should nonetheless appeal to a wider audience." Times Higher Education Supplement

"Howell′s study of one of England′s most long–lived queens is thoroughly delightful, engaging, and grounded in impressive scholarship." Choice

"A scholarly and very readable biography" American Historical Review

"In this deeply researched and well–written work, Howell gives, in telling detail, the life of the queen and her place in the larger events of her time ... Above all, given that counselors played as large a part as they did in Henry′s reign, Howell has written a compelling and illuminating account of one counselor who has been too often overlooked, Henry′s Queen." Speculum

Times Literary Supplement
"In its broad and humane sympathies, as well as in its contribution to political history, this is a book that could hardly have been better done."

THES, Joanna Chamberlayne
"Howell's reassessment of Eleanor's role in 13th-sentury politics and her approach to the study of queenship make this impressively researched work of import to scholars. Her readable and primarily narrative style should nonetheless appeal to a wider audience."

Customer Reviews

New insights into medieval queenship
Son of the troubled King John, Henry III inherited his father's impoverished kingdom when he was but nine years of age. At 28, Henry married Eleanor of Provence in Canterbury Cathedral on January 14, 1236. The match with the twelve-year-old daughter of Raymond Bergengar, count of Provence was intended to forge an alliance that would protect the southern part of Henry's Angevin empire. Eleanor had never met her bridegroom nor had she ever visited England prior to her marriage.

Howell's biography of Eleanor of Provence looks at both the public and private aspects of Eleanor's life offering new insights into 13th century English history. Although it began as a dynastic match, Henry found in Eleanor a loving and supportive wife. She bore him nine children of whom four survived to adulthood. Yet in spite of the strength of their family life, Eleanor is remembered as one of the most despised of the English queens; in 1236 Londoners mobbed her barge and drove her to flee to the bishop of London's palace of St. Paul's. As she grows from child to woman we see Eleanor use the available avenues of power-patronage, arranged marriages, and ceremonial events- to benefit her family and her loyal corps of retainers who, throughout her life, formed the base of Eleanor's political strength. Indeed it was family relationships that were to be both the strength and weakness of Eleanor's queenship. Her devotion to her family and her single minded efforts to promote her foreign-born Savoyard relations put her at odds with the English nobility and eventually with her husband's family, all of whom were in competition for lands, titles, and lucrative marriages. As Howell comments, Eleanor "made intercession an art." However, throughout their marriage, Eleanor's support and connections to the French monarchy remained a key factor in Henry's ability to hold on to his throne. Howell gives a full picture of Eleanor of Provence; a woman of culture, complexity, loyalty and intelligence; but one unloved by her subjects. I would highly recommend it.