Ailenor of Provence, She-Wolf Queen
There were many medieval queen consorts, some honoured as mothers of kings, others regarded as tarnished, unpopular and considered “she-wolves”. The great seal by which royal commands were authenticated was a king’s seal, a physical expression of the medieval crown’s authority. On one side of the seal the medieval king sat in state to give justice to his people, orb and sceptre in his hands. The king rode an enormous war horse on the other, his sword unsheathed in defence of his kingdom. That authority was male, kingly rather than queenly. But, what about queen consorts? How, for instance, did Henry III’s consort, Ailenor of Provence earn the sobriquet “she-wolf?
Shakespeare was first to use the actual expression she-wolf, in reference to Margaret of Anjou, a 15th-century queen consort. It was Agnes Strickland, a Victorian historian, who used the term for Ailenor of Provence, Eleanor of Castile and Isabella of France. These three strong queen consorts are the subjects of my new fictional trilogy, The She-Wolf Queens.
Ailenor of Provence, the first queen in the trilogy, married thirty-two year old Henry III of England in January 1236, aged only thirteen. On her seal, she is shown seated and carrying a sword and a cross. It was unlikely Ailenor would ever wield power in her own right other than as a regent ruling when her husband was absent. The perfect queen consort was expected to adhere to the medieval ideals of queenship. Medieval thought had particular views about women, influenced by Church teaching. Women were physically weaker than men. They were blessed with feminine traits of mercy, gentleness and maternal natures. Unfortunately, as did Eve in the Garden of Eden, females also could lead men astray. Women could be irrational, not suitable rulers.
There was a subtle interplay between secular queenship and that of Mary, the heavenly queen, interpreted on earth through ever-present medieval Biblical images of the Virgin Mary. The 12th and 13th centuries belonged to an age that promoted the Cult of the Virgin. Lady Chapels and chantries were revered throughout Europe. Marian images were visible everywhere in sculpture, art and liturgy. This symbolism became linked with the notion of royal lineage depicted in the Biblical Tree of Jesse. Popular on exquisite non-secular Opus Anglicanum embroidery, it was an image often worked with gold and silver threads on a cope so it shone as a bishop moved, or the image gleamed in candlelight from an altar cloth.
Marian coronations, too, were popular on embroideries, in sculpture and manuscript art with the virgin bearing a sceptre and a book, seated before Christ or crowned Queen of Heaven. Sometimes, Mary appears with her head and body inclined towards the figure of Christ receiving her crown at his hands, holding her posture ready for intercession.
Of all medieval kings, Henry III was particularly imbued with a sense of this noble ancestry. He commissioned the Tree of Jesse to be depicted on thirteen-year-old Ailenor’s bedroom window in Windsor Castle, reminding Ailenor that her first and foremost role as queen was to beget princes and princesses. Ailenor was, historians agree, a deeply involved parent. She developed a deep self-perception of empathy with the exemplary image of the Virgin as mother.
Images of the Virgin as intercessor were found in profusion in 13th-century churches. An earthly queen intercessor such as Ailenor could express merciful intercession with the king for justice. Intercession enhanced her political power when used to advance her causes. Intercession, inherent in her role as queen, occasionally helped her gather allies to her side. No queen knew its persuasive and political value as well as Ailenor of Provence.
A prerogative possessed by medieval queens was patronage of nunneries, lucrative as well as protective. Ailenor had an independent income, owning special land holdings. A queen, unlike most married women, could independently dispose of her lands. Both Ailenor of Provence and her daughter in law, Eleanor of Castile, who was married to Edward I, acquired lands through the exploitation of barons’ debts to Jews. The cheap sale of these debts in the form of lands and estates was a usual practice during the mid-13th century. The Church loathed it, as it was suggestive of usury.
A medieval queen was no ordinary subject. Any offence against the queen touched on the dignity of the king. No one dared sue her and this caused resentment amongst Henry’s barons.
As an impoverished Provencal princess, Ailenor of Provence began her queenship with very little, but she quickly exercised patronage extending privileges to her uncles from Savoy. The English barons, having lost lands in France and Normandy during King John’s reign, were increasingly aware of an English identity. They resented foreigners taking top jobs and marrying English heiresses.
Cultured William of Savoy accompanied Ailenor to England and immediately became one of Henry’s chief councillors. Uncle Peter was a charming diplomat and given the Honour of Richmond. Handsome Uncle Boniface became an Archbishop of Canterbury. Many Savoyard clerks arrived as excellent administrators but, to the barons’ chagrin, controlling Treasury spending, previously in a baron’s remit. Ailenor’s independence as a queen consort was pushed further than barons of the exchequer found acceptable, and they considered her influence on Henry culpable. She possessed her own important household with senior domestic employees, priests, scribes, cooks, tailors, knights, etc. to mention a few roles. Her expenditure was considered extravagant by the barons.
More resentment followed when the court divided into factions with the arrival of Henry’s Lusignan half-brothers. Whilst Ailenor remained pragmatic over these incomers, they attempted to cause rifts between the royal couple. Ailenor remained strong and won Henry’s trust again. Some years later, acting as co-regent of England along with Richard of Cornwall during Gasçon troubles and Henry’s absence from England, she exercised her right to collect Queen’s Gold from fines and levied a new customs tax to raise troops and provisions for Gascony, infuriating wealthy London traders.
By 1263, tensions came to a head and Ailenor was attacked while sailing below London Bridge by a mob who pelted her passing barge with offal. A civil war had been brewing for some years. Henry had not kept promises over new plans for parliaments, and his barons perceived Henry as a foolish weather-cock king led by bad advisors. The barons believed that Queen Ailenor was insatiably stripping the country of resources for her own profit. They saw her as foreign, formidable and a potential danger. Led by Simon de Montfort, a large proportion of English barons rebelled. When civil war followed, Earl Simon took King Henry and his son Lord Edward prisoner. For a year he ruled through Henry, who became a puppet king. Meanwhile, Queen Ailenor fled England to raise royalist troops in France. By 1264, she was positioned in Flanders with a large mercenary army set to invade England. They were not needed as her son Lord Edward escaped captivity in Hereford to raise his own force in the Welsh Marches. Simon de Montfort was subsequently killed at the Battle of Evesham and royal power was restored.
Ailenor of Provence was never to regain the influence over politics she had had before the Baron’s Rebellion. She was scorned, despite her many laudable qualities, which included her loyalty to Henry and family and political astuteness. On a personal level, she was the most likeable of all medieval queens, a courageous she-wolf, and a medieval model for today’s #metoo generation. Ailenor, who showed intelligence, independence and charm, was a determined queen during an age entirely dominated by male power.
About the contributor: Following her first degree in English and History, Carol McGrath completed an MA in Creative Writing at The Seamus Heaney Centre, Belfast, followed by an MPhil from University of London. Her fifth historical novel, The Silken Rose (Headline, April 2020), first in The Rose Trilogy and featuring Ailenor of Provence, is set during the High Middle Ages. Carol was the co-ordinator of the Historical Novels’ Society Conference, Oxford in September 2016. Visit her website.
