Eleanor of Provence: Virago

Abstract

Queen Eleanor of Provence, wife to King III and mother to King Edward I lived and reigned in the thirteenth century. Contemporary chroniclers maligned her as both a foreign presence in England and a controlling wife who was responsible for leading her weak husband astray. The most famous of these accounts is the Chronica Majora written by Matthew Paris. His accounts have been taken as the official history of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence by modern historians resulting in Eleanor being sidelined or labeled as a destabilizing factor in her husband’s court. Due to Henry III’s extensive record keeping which documented his reign and household, current historians are taking a second look at his kingship as well as the life of his queen, Eleanor of Provence. As these records have been examined and translated, they are opening up new insights into Henry’s reign, including more accurate information as to the role and actions of Eleanor of Provence, offering historians a more balanced view of her life. This information has included: her financial management, her relationship with her natal family, the Savoyards and their influence on England through the king, and her role in the Sicilian business, King Henry’s quests to obtain the Sicilian crown for his youngest son, Prince Edmund.