Simon and Eleanor

After Simon de Montfort failed to gain the hand of the Countess of Flanders, he was offered a different marriage partner: the sister of King Henry III of England, Eleanor of England. Henry may have thought it would be good to use his sister to forge strong bonds between Simon and the royal family.

Also called Eleanor Plantagenet (1215 – 13 April 1275), she was the youngest child of King John. She never knew her father, who died when she was only a year old. When she was nine she had been married to the 34-year-old William Marshal, whose father (also William Marshal) had organized the northern barons to support Young Henry when the French were invading England. Marshal senior died in 1219, and young William had succeeded him as 2nd Earl of Pembroke.

They were married in 1224, but William died in 1231 after producing no children. The now-16 Eleanor swore an oath of chastity to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

She met Simon seven years later when she was 23. Simon wanted to marry her (Matthew Paris said he was attracted to her beauty as well as her wealth), Eleanor was willing to marry him, her brother Henry approved, and the two were married quietly on 7 January 1238 in Westminster Palace at the King's own chapel.

The English nobles objected to the king's sister marrying a foreigner. The king's brother, Richard of Cornwall, started to revolt as well, but Henry gave him 6000 marks to sit down and shut up.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund of Abingdon (c.1174 – 1240), objected because Eleanor had made that vow of chastity in front of him. He declared the marriage invalid. Simon chose to make a pilgrimage to Rome to ask for papal approval, which Gregory IX gave.

The couple had seven children, most of whom grew up and did well. Their union, however, did not mean that Simon was loyal to his brother-in-law. Simon was a principal of the Second Barons' War, which we should look at next.

The End of Richard

Richard of Cornwall, who occasionally rebelled against his brother, King Henry III of England, aided him against a rebellion not long after Richard became King of the Romans.

Simon de Montfort, the 6th Earl of Leicester, in April 1263 called his fellow barons to Oxford where they discussed rebellion against Henry's policies. This resulted in the Second Barons War (referenced here).

Richard stayed with his brother in opposing the barons; possibly he thought he could someday still be King of England and didn't want the barons to have more power. Richard was captured (after running away and hiding in a windmill) along with Henry at the Battle of Lewes.

Believe it or not, in Germany they felt that Richard could not fulfill his duties as King of the Romans and tried to slip Conradin onto the throne. Pope Clement IV and Ottokar II of Bohemia (who had voted for Richard in the first place) blocked the usurpation. Once Richard got out of captivity he made Ottokar his administrator for everything on the right bank of the Rhine.

Richard had a son by his first wife, Isabel Marshal, called Henry of Almain, the only child of theirs that lived to adulthood. At the Battle of Evesham, Henry de Montfort was killed by the royalist forces. Henry's sons, Simon the younger and Guy de Montfort, killed Henry of Almain while Henry was attending services at the church of San Silvestro in Viterbo (Italy) on 13 March 1271, as revenge for the death of their father.

This was sadder (in a sense), because the men involved were cousins. Richard and King Henry's sister, Eleanor Plantagenet, married Simon de Montfort (although against the wishes of Richard) in 1224.

By the time of Richard's captivity by Simon, his wife Sanchia had died. During a time in Germany while he helped to liberate Dietrich I, Count of Falkenburg, he fell in love with Dietrich's 15-year-old daughter Beatrice (Richard was 61). They married on 16 June 1269 and he brought her back to England, never again returning to Germany.

Richard died 2 April 1272 after only two years of marriage. He was buried next to Sanchia and Henry of Almain at Hailes Abbey, which Richard founded.

It's time, however, actually to look into the man that started so much trouble in England, Simon de Montfort.

King of the Romans

Richard of Cornwall was only two years younger than his brother Henry, who became King of England. He rebelled against Henry a few times, using his wealth from Cornwall and Poitou to try to become king. When he was married to Isabel Marshal, a wealthy widow, he had even more money and power.

After Isabel's death, Richard married Sanchia of Provence, sister of Henry's wife, Eleanor. Eleanor was married to a king. Her sister Margaret was married to a king, Louis IX of race. Their sister Beatrice was married to a king, Charles of Sicily.

The Kingdom of Sicily had been offered to Richard by Pope Innocent IV, but Richard knew that taking it from Manfred would be difficult and too expensive, so he declined. Then, in 1257, Richard's golden opportunity to become king came along, and it was thanks to his new wife, Sanchia.

Germany was lacking a king. William of Holland (whose election was contested, prompting him to be called an "anti-king") died after a battle when he got stuck in the ice trying to cross a frozen river. That was in 1247.

Technically, the position that was open was "King of the Romans." That title was used by the King of East Francia from the time of Holy Roman Emperor Henry II (reigned 1002 - 1024). In the 11th century, East Francia started being called the Kingdom of Germany (Regnum Teutonicum). The title Romanorum Rex, "King of the Romans," was used to indicate the entitlement given by being named Holy Roman Emperor by a pope.

There were seven German electoral princes in the time we're discussing, and they got to choose their next king. Pope Alexander IV and Louis IX of France supported Alfonso X of Castile (his mother was descended from the Hohenstaufens, giving him a German claim). The family of Richard's wife Sanchia and Henry's wife Eleanor pushed for Richard. Since Louis' wife was also a family member, this could have made family gatherings awkward, but perhaps the family just wanted Sanchia to have a chance to be a queen, like all her sisters.

Richard gave gifts of money to the electors to win them over. One of the electors, King Ottokar II of Bohemia, was also a candidate, but as a strong ruler already, the other electors were not interested in giving him power in Germany. The ideal situation was to have a king who would not interfere with whatever the nobles wanted to do in their jurisdictions.

Four of the seven electors (including Ottokar, although he had not been offered a bribe) voted for Richard, and on 13 January 1257 Richard was crowned King of the Romans. Several weeks later, on 1 April, Alfonso X was declared King of the Romans by four electors when Ottokar changed his vote. Alfonso never went to Germany. Then Ottokar chose to support Richard, after all. (Alfonso in 1275 officially renounced any claim to the title.)

Richard visited Aachen to be crowned, but afterward made only three additional short visits to Germany. The important thing was that he could call himself king, and Sanchia was now a queen like her sisters.

It appeared that Richard was content now to be supportive of Henry and not usurp his title of king. Let's see what happened next for the two brothers.

Richard of Cornwall

When King John of England died in 1216, his eldest child, Henry, was barely nine years old. He would become Henry III. There were several other children, even younger, one of whom was Richard of Cornwall.

Richard was born on 5 January, 1209, at Winchester. Royal children are often named for their place of birth, but Richard was given Cornwall as a 16th birthday present by his brother Henry in 1225, making him High Sheriff. (The illustration shows his seal.) Cornwall rents and taxes were significant, and Richard became extremely wealthy. In 1225 he was also named Count of Poitou, giving him an important property in France.

Sibling rivalry exists, and when the siblings are wealthy and royal, their rivalries can be more drastic. Richard upon occasion rebelled against Henry, perhaps feeling that Richard should have his chance at the throne. Henry always suppressed the rebellions, however, and paid Richard large sums to satisfy him.

One of Richard's actions in Cornwall was to acquire Tintagel. Richard possessed Merthen Manor, and offered it to Gervase of Tintagel for Tintagel. Richard built a castle on the site in 1233. It is thought that he did so to ingratiate himself to the Cornish by honoring the site linked to Cornwall's Arthurian legends.

When Richard was 22 he married Isabel Marshal, widow of the wealthy 5th Earl of Gloucester. This bothered Henry, because it made Richard potentially more powerful and might lead to another attempt at rebellion. Richard and Isabel had four children, of whom only one survived to adulthood. Isabel died in 1240.

In 1240 Richard went on Crusade where he did not see battle but was involved in negotiations of release of prisoners and the refortification of Ascalon after its destruction by Saladin. On his return trip, he visited the court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who was married to Richard's sister, Isabella of England.

Richard was, of course, the heir apparent if anything happened to Henry, but in 1239 Edward and his queen, Eleanor of Provence, had a son, Edward. Edward was established as Henry's heir, cutting Richard out of there line of succession. When Richard returned from his rails, the king and queen offered him Eleanor's sister, Sanchia of Provence.

Sanchia was born about 1225, and so was in her late teens when they married in 1243. Sanchia and Eleanor's sister Margaret was the wife of Louis IX of France; their sister Beatrice was married to Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily. This marriage put Richard into very good company, related to kings through his brother and his wife. How sad for Sanchia that her sisters married kings and she did not have a crown.

Or did she? Was there a chance that Richard could become king, if not of England, then maybe somewhere else? We'll take a look at his chances tomorrow.

Selling Sicily

Pope Urban IV's first move to try to curtail Manfred of Sicily's imperial ambitions was to excommunicate him. This was Manfred's third excommunication, and clearly he was not bothered by them.

Manfred had made himself King of Sicily after the rumored death of his nephew, Conradin, and refused to relinquish the claim when it turned out Conradin was alive (and demanding the title back). Urban tried to "sell" the title King of Sicily to someone he could trust. He offered it to Richard of Cornwall first.

Richard of Cornwall was the second son of King John of England. Matthew Paris writes that Richard refused the title, since Sicily would have to be taken by force. According to Paris, Richard expressed this unlikelihood to the pope by saying "You might as well say, 'I will sell or give you the moon, rise up and take it'."

Richard's brother, King Henry III of England, tried to get Sicily for his son Edmund Crouchback. Pope Innocent IV had already offered it for Edmund in 1254, but England was not keen on paying taxes for a battle to conquer and hold Sicily for a ten-year-old. There were many twists and turns in what historians call the "Sicilian Business," and ultimately no one from England took over Sicily, despite papal attempts and royal wishes.

The title was offered to Charles of Anjou, brother of King Louis IX of France, who (like Manfred) was interested in expanding his properties anywhere he could in the known world. Charles took up the challenge willingly, and the result has been told in the last several posts on this blog. Manfred was killed in the Battle of Benevento, then Conradin was captured and beheaded, and Sicily went into the hands of Charles.

I mentioned a few posts back, however, how driving out the last Hohenstaufen did not mean that no Hohenstaufen would become Sicilian royalty.

Manfred's only daughter, Constance, had been married to the man who became King Peter III of Aragon. Upon her father's death, Constance (in some minds) inherited the title Queen of Sicily, and that is attached to her name by history. By marriage to her, Peter claimed the throne of Sicily and fought over it. (The illustration shows Peter and Constance arriving in Sicily.) The result was the division of Sicily into the Kingdom of Trinacria, ruled by Peter and Constance and their heirs, and the kingdom of Naples, ruled by the heirs of Charles of Anjou.

So Manfred's daughter became Queen of Sicily, and even lived and ruled on the island until her death in 1302. After that, however, there were no heirs of Manfred or Conradin involved in Sicily.

I want to talk about Richard of Cornwall, the man who was offered papal support to take over Sicily but wisely stayed out of that messy conflict. Turns out he had his own prospects, and we'll see what he was up to next time.

The Interregnum

There was more than one period of time called an Interregnum ("between reigns") when a ruler for a specific area was lacking. The Holy Roman Empire had two, one of which was called the Great Interregnum because it was more than a generation (924 - 962 CE). We're going to talk about the adjective-less Interregnum mentioned yesterday, when the Second Council of Lyons appointed Rudolf I to be King of the Romans. To understand the importance of Rudolf's appointment, however, we have to go back before him, to Richard of Cornwall.

Richard of Cornwall (1209 - 2 April 1272) was the second son of King John. When Richard was eight years old, he was made High Sheriff of Berkshire; eight years later he was Count of Poitou, and also made Count of Cornwall as a birthday present from his older brother, King Henry III. As seemed to happen often in English royal families, relatives rebelled against the king, and Richard rebelled three times against Henry.

Skipping a bit (quite a bit, like three wives, rebellions, building a castle at Tintagel, a Crusade, and several legitimate and illegitimate children), we come to 1257, when four of the seven German Electoral Princes (those who had the privilege of choosing the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire) chose him to be King of Germany (see a 1341 illustration of the seven above). There was opposition: three of the electors voted for Alfonso X of Castile (a successful and respected ruler, but one who had never set foot in Germany), who was also supported by King Louis IX "the Saint" of France and Pope Alexander IV. Louis and Alexander were eventually won over by Richard's sister-in-law, Eleanor of Provence, and by Eleanor's sister, Richard's second wife. She was Sanchia of Provence, daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence, and Beatrice of Savoy. Sanchia's and Eleanor's sister Margaret was married to Louis IX.

One of the seven electors was Ottokar II of Bohemia, who voted for Richard, changed his support to Alfonso, then changed his vote to Richard after being bribed, giving Richard the majority. In all, the position cost Richard 28,000 marks to gain support of the four electors needed for a simple majority.

Richard treated the position as honorary. King of Germany at this point was equivalent to Holy Roman Emperor, and also called "King of the Romans." Richard only made four brief visits to Germany, spending most of his time in England, supporting his brother Henry in the Second Barons War. At the Battle of Lewes, he hid in a windmill, but was discovered and imprisoned until September 1265.

In December 1271 he had a stroke that paralyzed his right side and cost him the ability to speak. He died on 2 April 1272 and was buried next to Sanchia at Hailes Abbey, which he founded.

The powerful families in and around Germany had spread and splintered, and no powerful and obvious candidates for King of the Romans stood out. Ottokar II of Bohemia sought the position, as did Rudolf I of Habsburg, but neither prevailed for almost 20 years, until the Second Council of Lyon selected Rudolf.

Tomorrow we'll see if we can figure out why Rudolf was chosen over Ottokar. It will be Christmas Day, but the quest for knowledge doesn't take a holiday.