Eleanor of Provence: Queenship in Thirteenth-Century England [Paperback]

Margaret Howell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 16, 2001

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.

Editorial Reviews

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

Book Description

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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (May 16, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631227393
• ISBN-13: 978-0631227397
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #847,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New insights into medieval queenship, February 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Eleanor of Provence: Queenship in Thirteenth-Century England (Hardcover)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sound scholarship, readable prose, March 21, 2002

By 

Lois Huneycutt (Columbia, MO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eleanor of Provence: Queenship in Thirteenth-Century England (Hardcover)

I concur with the excellent synopsis given by the previous reviewer and can only add that Howell has the rare and welcome gift of being able to produce sound scholarship, meticulously documented from the primary sources, that is accessible to the general reader as well as the academic audience for whom the book is primarily intended. This book, while remaining free from tiresome jargon, nevertheless places the subject within current academic discussion very well. She provides a model that I hope will be emulated by future scholars.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rare Insight, May 20, 2009

By 

Elizabeth Boldy "Beth Dovey" (Brisbane, Australlia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eleanor of Provence: Queenship in Thirteenth-Century England (Paperback)

This is a very readable book that gives a rare insight to Queenship in the Thirteenth Century. Queen Eleanor of Provence is shown as a strong and loyal wife, if a very aquisitive one, who amassed a fortune in her lifetime, in an era when women were meant to be subservient to their husbands. Her husband King Henry III, a king with a rather troubled reign was extemely fond of her. When English barons were in revolt against the King, she was in exile in France and from there amassed an army to help her husband against the rebels. She was a woman to admire although sometimes her ruthlessness can cause the reader to doubt her motives. But at all times she kept in mind who she was, her own woman, and The Queen of England.