Eleanor of Provence (c. 1223 – 24/25 June 1291) was a Provençal noblewoman who became Queen of England as the wife of King Henry III from 1236 until his death in 1272. She served as regent of England during the absence of her spouse in France in 1253.
Although Eleanor was completely devoted to her husband and staunchly defended him against the rebel Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, she was very unpopular among the Londoners. This was because she had brought many relatives with her to England in her retinue; these were known as "the Savoyards" (her mother was from Savoy), and, as Londoners saw it, these foreigners were given influential positions in the government and realm to lord over them. On one occasion, Eleanor's barge was attacked by angry Londoners who pelted her with stones, mud, pieces of paving, rotten eggs and vegetables.
Eleanor had five children, including the future King Edward I of England. She also was renowned for her cleverness, skill at writing poetry, and as a leader of fashion.
Born in the city of Aix-en-Provence in southern France, she was the second daughter of Ramon Berenguer V, Count of Provence (1198–1245) and Beatrice of Savoy (1198–1267), the second of four daughters of Thomas I of Savoy and his wife Margaret of Geneva. Two sons were born before the daughters, but they died very young. Eleanor was probably born latest in 1223; Matthew Paris describes her as being "jamque duodennem" (already twelve) when she arrived in the Kingdom of England for her marriage.
She was well educated as a child and developed a strong love of reading, partly due to the influence of her tutor Romée de Villeneuve. Her three sisters also married kings. Like her mother, grandmother, and sisters, Eleanor was renowned for her beauty. She was a dark-haired brunette with fine eyes. Piers Langtoft speaks of her as "The erle's daughter, the fairest may of life".
Her elder sister Margaret married Louis, King of France, and of her younger sisters Sanchia was to marry Richard of Cornwall, Henry's brother who was to become King of the Romans, and Beatrice was to marry Louis' brother Charles of Anjou, the King of Sicily. She was especially close to Margaret, to whom she was close in age, and with whom she sustained friendly relationships until they grew old.
Henry investigated a range of potential marriage partners in his youth, but they all proved unsuitable for reasons of European and domestic politics.
After her elder sister Margaret married Louis IX of France, their uncle William corresponded with Henry III of England to persuade him to marry Eleanor. Henry sought a dowry of up to twenty thousand silver marks to help offset the dowry he had just paid for his sister Isabella, but Eleanor's father was able to negotiate this down to no dowry, just a promise to leave her ten thousand marks when he died.
On 22 June 1235, the marriage contract was confirmed; Eleanor was betrothed to King Henry III (1207–1272).
Eleanor was married to King Henry III of England on 14 January 1236. At the time, she was either 12 or 13 years old, while he was 28. She had never seen Henry prior to the wedding at Canterbury Cathedral and had never set foot in his kingdom. Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated. She was dressed in a shimmering golden dress that fitted tightly at the waist and flared out to wide pleats at her feet. The sleeves were long and lined with ermine. After riding to London the same day where a procession of citizens greeted the bridal pair, Eleanor was crowned queen consort of England in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey planned by Henry which was followed by a magnificent banquet with the entire nobility in full attendance. Her love for her husband grew significantly from 1236 onward.
Through her marriage with Henry she acquired at her coronation the titles of Queen of England, Lady of Ireland and Duchess of Aquitaine. She also acquired the titles of Duchess of Normandy and Countess of Anjou although these already symbolic claims were dropped as part of the 1259 Treaty of Paris.
Despite the substantial age gap, the historian Margaret Howell observes that the King "was generous and warm-hearted and prepared to lavish care and affection on his wife". Henry gave Eleanor extensive gifts and paid personal attention to establishing and equipping her household. He also brought her fully into his religious life, including involving her in his devotion to Edward the Confessor.
Though Eleanor and Henry supported different factions at times, she was a loyal and faithful consort and was made regent of England when her husband went to suppress a rebellion in Gascony in 1253. (During this time she exercised the functions of Lord Chancellor, the only woman to do so until Liz Truss was appointed to the office in 2016.)
Eleanor was devoted to her husband's cause. Although originally supportive of the Simon de Montfort when he was an ally of Henry, she was a strong opponent when de Montfort led the English Barons against Henry, raising mercenary troops in France for her husband. Her influence with her sister Margaret, Louis IX's wife, meant that Henry had some support from France.
The primary reason Eleanor was chosen as queen was the chance she provided to create a valuable set of alliances with the rulers of the south and south-east of France. This led Eleanor to bring in her retinue a large number of Savoyards, many of whom become prominent thanks to Henry's patronage. This caused friction with the English barons. Her uncle Peter was particularly influential as her early advisor before he inherited the County of Savoy.
The Savoyards would later be opposed to the Lusignan faction of Henry's Poitevin half brothers. Many Savoyards, probably including Eleanor, backed a 1258 coup d'état by a coalition of English barons who expelled the Poitevins from England, reforming the royal government through a process called the Provisions of Oxford.
During her early years as queen, her religious formation was under the guidance of the royal physician and confessor Nicholas Farnham, later Bishop of Durham. She was also friendly with the Franciscan Adam Marsh and the reforming bishops Richard of Chichester and Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of London. Eleanor shared her husband's devotion to faith.
Eleanor stoutly hated the Londoners, who returned her hatred. In revenge for their dislike, Eleanor had demanded from the city all the back payments due on the monetary tribute known as queen-gold, by which she received a tenth of all fines which came to the Crown. In addition to the queen-gold, other such fines were levied on the citizens by the Queen on the thinnest of pretexts.