Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England (38 page)

71
  

Robert Stacey calculated that between February and May 1238, Henry directed ‘almost half the recorded total of the king’s receipts’ from a subsidy of a thirtieth on movables that he had been granted in 1237 towards his brother’s planned expedition. This expenditure was on top of the loans and fees which the king made or paid to those in his service overseas: Stacey,
Politics, Policy and Finance
, pp. 126–7.

72
  

The original debt was owed by Montfort to Peter of Dreux, Count of Brittany, but was transferred by Peter to Thomas of Savoy: Maddicott,
Simon de Montfort
, pp. 24–5;
CR, 1237–42
, pp. 234–5;
CLR, 1226–40
, p. 472; Howell,
Eleanor of Provence
, p. 28; Bémont,
Simon de Montfort
, pp. 333–4 no. xxxiv.

73
  

Chronica majora
, iii, pp. 566–7; Howell,
Eleanor of Provence
, p. 28; Maddicott,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 25.

74
  

Chronica majora
, iii. p. 566; Howell,
Eleanor of Provence
, p. 28; Maddicott,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 25.

75
  

Chronica majora
, iii, p. 566.

76
  

Ibid.

77
  

Ibid
.
, iii, p. 567.

78
  

Bémont,
Simon de Montfort
, pp. 333–4 no. xxxiv. A point made in Labarge,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 54.

79
  

Chronica majora
, iii, p. 567. As Earl Simon later recalled, he escaped imprisonment thanks to Richard of Cornwall’s intervention. See also Bémont,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 334 no. xxxiv; Maddicott,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 25.

80
  

This line of argument is strongly promoted by Maddicott:
Simon de Montfort
, pp. 25–6.

81
  

TNA, PRO E 372/83, rot. 7;
CLR, 1226–40
, p. 410. See also Stacey,
Politics, Policy and Finance
, pp. 126–7.

82
  

Henry III paid 500 marks of Earl Simon’s debt to Thomas and, according to Montfort’s own account, raised the remainder from Simon’s English estates: Bémont,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 334 no xxxiv; Labarge,
Simon de Montfort
, pp. 54–5.

1
    

The Letters of Adam Marsh
, ii, pp. 390–1 no. 162.

2
    

Chronica majora
, iv, p. 7.

3
    

Labarge,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 55.

4
    

Chronica majora
, iv, p. 7; ‘Annales prioratus de Dunstaplia’, p. 152.

5
    

Paris lists those who travelled with Earl Richard and Earl Simon separately:
Chronica majora
, iv, p. 44 n. 6 (marginal note).

6
    

‘Annales prioratus de Dunstaplia’, p. 152.

7
    

Chronica majora
, iv, p. 44 n. 6.

8
    

Ibid., iv, p. 44 n. 6; Labarge,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 57. I have not managed to trace further details of Eleanor’s stay at Brindisi in the works of chroniclers within the Holy Roman Empire.

9
    

Bémont,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 334 no. xxxiv; Maddicott,
Simon de Montfort
, pp. 30–1.

10
  

Maddicott,
Simon de Montfort
, pp. 31–2.

11
  

Richard of Cornwall’s first wife, Isabella, died in childbirth in 1240:
Chronica majora
, iv, p. 2. For Beatrice’s visit, see ibid., iv, pp. 261, 263, 283–4.

12
  

For Beatrice’s assistance to the Montforts, see Bémont,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 335 no. xxxiv.

13
  

CFR, 1243–4
, no. 64, available online at
http://www.frh3.org.uk/content/calendar/roll_041.html
, accessed on 2 August 2010. On 12 February 1244, the king issued the Earl and Countess of Leicester with a formal pardon that itemised the debts which Simon and Eleanor had each incurred to the crown:
CR, 1242–7
, p. 159.

14
  

No dowry had accompanied her marriage to Simon in January 1238: Bémont,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 335 no. xxxiv; Labarge,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 69.

15
  

Bémont,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 335 no. xxxiv.

16
  

Chronica majora
, iv, p. 135.

17
  

Ibid., iv, pp. 157–8.

18
  

CPR, 1232–47
, p. 415.

19
  

Ibid., p. 416.

20
  

Maddicott,
Simon de Montfort
, p. 52. Walter made payments to Eleanor and Simon. In March 1245, a letter patent referred to 300 marks Walter Marshal had placed in the custody of the treasurer of the Temple in London for the Montforts’ use to cover the money that he owed for Michaelmas term last:
CPR, 1232–47
, p. 449. Walter paid another 300 marks to cover the money he owed to the earl and countess after Easter: ibid., p. 453. In July 1245, Henry III acknowledged receipt of £200 from Walter, which Walter owed Eleanor a month after Easter: ibid., p. 456.

21
  

CLR, 1240–45
, p. 231.

22
  

CChR, 1226–57
, p. 278.

23
  

See, for example,
Bracton: de legibus et consuetudinibus Angliae
, ed. G. Woodbine and trans. S. E. Thorne (1968–77). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 3 vols, ii, p. 77.

24
  

CPR, 1232–47
, p. 419. See also p. 67.

25
  

CR, 1242–7
, p. 195.

26
  

CPR, 1232–47
, p. 433.

27
  

Maddicott,
Simon de Montfort
, pp. 33–7.

28
  

His presence was noted in the Chester annals: ‘The Chronicle: 1235–61’,
Annales Cestrienses: Chronicle of the Abbey of S. Werburg, at Chester
, ed. R. C. Christie (1887). Publications of the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. 14, pp. 60–79, available online at
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=67181
, accessed on 14 October 2009.

29
  

These manors had been granted to Mabel, Eleanor’s damsel, for her marriage:
CR, 1242–7
, p. 264. See also p. 60.

30
  

CLR, 1240–45
, p. 281.

31
  

CR, 1242–7
, p. 452. On the next day Henry exempted Eleanor from paying £30 for the fee farm of her Wiltshire manor of Wexcombe for the remainder of her life:
CPR, 1232-47
, p. 485. In July 1246, Henry III loaned Eleanor a tun of wine from the king’s stores at Brill:
CR, 1242–7
, p. 441.

32
  

CR, 1242–7
, pp. 518, 521.

33
  

CR, 1247–51
, p. 22. Eleanor can also be found ensuring that her household was stocked with wine:
CR, 1247–51
, pp. 3–4.

34
  

He also wrote off three years’ worth of arrears that had been allowed to accumulate: ibid., p. 22;
CPR, 1247–58
, p. 5.

35
  

Andrew secured a further exemption in 1253. The first exemption also covered exemption from suit of the king’s hundred of Kintbury Eagle in Berkshire; the second covered exemption from all suits belonging to the king’s courts:
CPR, 1247–58
, pp. 34, 179.

36
  

Ibid., pp. 293 (pardon for John son of Thomas Hykedun at the instance of William de Valence and Eleanor the king’s sister, 30 May 1254), 398 (pardon for Eudo fitz Robert of Metheringham at the instance of Eleanor, 18 February 1255), 457 (pardon for Alexander fitz Giles of Lincoln at the instance of Eleanor, 10 January 1256).