Chapter 11

Eleanor of Brittany

There was one Plantagenet princess for whom Magna Carta offered no freedom from imprisonment, despite clause 39. She was not a daughter of King John, but his niece, Eleanor of Brittany. Eleanor was the eldest child of Geoffrey, fourth son of Henry II of England, and Constance of Brittany, sole heiress of her father Conan IV, Duke of Brittany. Constance and Geoffrey had married in 1181 and their daughter, Eleanor, was born in 1184. Whilst estranged from his father, Geoffrey had been trampled to death competing in a tournament in Paris in August 1186. His son and heir, and Eleanor’s brother, Arthur, was born several months later, in March or April 1187. As a consequence, Eleanor was her father’s heir at his death; had Arthur been born a girl, Eleanor would have become duchess after her mother. With a view of her political importance at her father’s death King Philip of France claimed Eleanor’s wardship.¹

The birth of Eleanor’s brother Arthur in 1187 diminished her value, not only politically but also on the marriage market; she no longer came with Brittany as her dowry, like her mother had done. Described as beautiful, Eleanor has been called the Pearl, the Fair Maid and the Beauty of Brittany.² A granddaughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, she was the eldest of her parents’ three children; Matilda was born the following year but died young and Arthur was to face a tragic end at the hands of his uncle, King John. Her mother Constance was to marry twice more following Geoffrey’s death. In 1188 she married Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester; it was recorded in The Chester Chronicles,

In the course of the same year Randle [Randulph], earl of Chester, was knighted by Henry, king of England, on the feast of the Circumcision of our Lord [January 1, 1189] at [Caen]. To whom also Henry, king of England, gave as a wife the countess of Brittany, widow of his son Geoffrey, and daughter of Alan [Conan], count of Brittany, Constance by name, with all the county of Richmond; the said Randle [Randulph], earl of Chester, married her on the feast of S. Werburg the Virgin, that is, February 3.³

The marriage appears to have been a miserable one, with Ranulf imprisoning Constance for a time, supposedly for marital reasons but actually to prevent Constance and her duchy from acting against King Richard I. Shortly after she was freed in 1198 Constance obtained an annulment of the marriage. She was married for a third time, in September or October 1199, to Guy of Thouars, with whom she had two daughters, Alix and Catherine, before she died in September 1201, possibly from complications in childbirth.

Initially, Eleanor’s life seemed destined to follow the same path as many royal princesses – marriage. Richard I was her legal guardian after his accession to the English throne and the rest of the Plantagenet empire in 1189. It was following his sister Joanna’s adamant refusal, that Richard offered Eleanor as a bride to Saladin’s brother, Al-Adil, in a failed attempt at a political settlement to the Third Crusade. However, nothing came of the suggestion and, shortly after, at the age of 9, Eleanor was betrothed to Friedrich, the son of Duke Leopold VI of Austria, who had made the betrothal a condition of the ransom for Richard I’s release from imprisonment by the duke. Eleanor was travelling to Germany in the care of Baldwin de Béthune when news arrived that Duke Leopold had died suddenly. The duke’s s son had ‘no great inclination’ for the proposed marriage and so Eleanor and her party turned around and returned home.⁴

Further marriage plans were mooted in 1195 and 1198, to Philip II of France’s son Louis, the dauphin, and Odo, Duke of Burgundy, respectively; although neither came to fruition. Duchess Constance then pressed for Eleanor to be released from royal custody and by the time of Richard’s death, in 1199, Eleanor was living in France with her mother and brother.

Eleanor’s fortunes changed drastically when her brother Arthur, supported and encouraged by King Philip II Augustus of France, rebelled against Richard’s successor, King John, in the early 1200s. A Plantagenet prince, Arthur of Brittany’s story is one of the most tragic of the medieval period. The posthumous son of Geoffrey, fourth son of Henry II of England, he was Duke of Brittany from the moment of his birth. In 1190 the 2-year-old Arthur was named as heir presumptive to his uncle Richard I, King of England, who had succeeded his father Henry II the previous year. As we have seen Richard even arranged a betrothal for young Arthur, to a daughter of Tancred of Sicily. The betrothal was part of a peace deal that would see Richard’s sister, Joanna, released by Tancred and Tancred pay Richard 40,000 ounces in gold; half to compensate Joanna for her lack of dower and half in place of the ships and supplies which Tancred’s predecessor had promised to provide for Richard’s crusade. It was at this moment, probably to boost Arthur’s status in the eyes of Tancred, that Richard designated Arthur as his heir, should the king die before fathering a legitimate son of his own. However, the Emperor Henry VI conquered Sicily in 1194 and the betrothal came to nothing. Arthur was a valuable pawn for both the kings of France and England; when Richard tried to take him into his household, in 1196, his mother sent him to the French court, where he spent several months. On his return to Brittany, Constance started involving him in the government of the duchy.

Arthur had been considered as a successor for King Richard I in a meeting between William Marshal and Hubert Walter, the archbishop of Canterbury, within days of Richard’s death in 1199. According to L’Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchale, Marshal counselled against giving the crown to Arthur, saying, ‘Arthur has treacherous advisers about him, and he is haughty and overbearing. If we call him to our side, he will seek to do us harm and damage, for he does not like those in our realm.’⁵ Arthur was 12 years old at the time, and firmly under the influence of King Philip of France, two factors that were not in the young duke’s favour. Marshal successfully pressed for the succession of John, Richard’s brother, a grown man, who it was believed was more aligned with the interests of the Anglo-Norman baronage than the young Breton duke.

It was not cut-and-dried, however, and Arthur and his mother acted quickly after Richard’s death, advancing into Angers and receiving the homage of the barons of Anjou, Maine and Touraine. King Philip, in the meantime, advanced on Normandy in support of Arthur, seizing Evreux and advancing on Le Mans, where John was in residence. John stole away from Le Mans as Arthur and Philip advanced on the city which was captured by Arthur a few hours later. When Philip arrived, he recognised Arthur’s right to Anjou, Maine and Touraine in return for his homage.⁶ Normandy supported John, however, and he was invested as duke in Rouen Cathedral on 25 April 1199. A month later, on 27 May, John was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey. It was a flying visit to his new kingdom and by 20 June, John embarked at Shoreham, returning to the Continent with a ‘multitude of knights, foot soldiers and ships.’⁷ While John was in England, the leading nobles of Poitou, rallied by Eleanor of Aquitaine, had attacked Tours, where Arthur was staying. He escaped, but the attack attracted the attention of King Philip, who sent troops south in support of the young contender, leaving John to land unopposed in Normandy. By late August, hostilities had resumed, but King Philip’s heavy handedness in Anjou persuaded a leading Angevin baron, William des Roches, to defect to King John bringing Arthur and his mother with him: ‘Arthur, the son of John’s brother Count Geoffrey of Brittany, came to the king and obeyed his every wish, but John somewhat incautiously dismissed him. Arthur then went to the king of France who, with an avid eye on his wealth, had him brought up with his own son at Paris.’⁸ Arthur, it seems, was warned that John intended to seize him and throw him in prison and so the day after his submission he, his mother and supporters, fled to Angers and then to Tours, where he was received by King Philip. In January 1200, however, John and Philip came to terms, with Philip agreeing to withdraw his support for Arthur’s claim; the peace was sealed at Le Goulet on 22 May, with John paying homage to Philip for his Continental possessions, and Arthur performing homage to John for Brittany. Peace was restored, for the moment.

Arthur’s claim was revived in the early 1200s when Philip Augustus confiscated John’s possessions in northern France for failing to acknowledge the French King as his overlord. As such, Philip recognised Arthur as the rightful heir to Normandy and Anjou. Tensions were again stretched to their limits in 1202, when Philip declared John’s Continental lands forfeit as a result of his refusal to deal justly with the Lusignans, who had rebelled following John’s marriage to Hugh IX de Lusignan’s betrothed, Isabelle d’Angoulême. Eleanor of Brittany’s whereabouts in 1200 are unknown, but she did accompany her brother two years later, in 1202, when he next took up arms against King John.

Once more, King Philip sought to promote Arthur’s interests against those of King John. Now 15 years old, the young duke was knighted and betrothed to Philip’s own infant daughter. The French king then invested Arthur with Anjou, Maine, Touraine and Aquitaine, furnished him with a small army which included 200 knights and sent him south to join forces with the Lusignans. Philip’s plan was for Arthur and the Lusignans to pursue the war against John in Aquitaine. When Arthur received intelligence that his grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, had left Fontainebleau and was making her way to Poitiers, Arthur, Eleanor and the Lusignans set a course to intercept. They met up with the dowager queen of England at Mirebeau, where she had sought refuge in the castle and despatched a messenger to John, asking for his assistance.

Having become aware of Arthur’s movements and the potential danger to Eleanor, John had already set out and had reached Le Mans by the time his mother’s messenger caught up with him on 30 July. Taking a small force he set out at once for Mirebeau and arrived outside the town’s walls in the dawn of 1 August, having marched 100 miles in less than two days. Possibly a little over confident in their numbers and abilities, Arthur and his fellow commanders were still at breakfast when John arrived. With surprise on his side, John’s forces attacked the one town gate that remained unblocked and stormed the town. After some fierce fighting through the streets, the enemy commanders were all captured, including Arthur, Count Hugh de Lusignan and Geoffrey de Lusignan. In a justifiably jovial mood, John wrote to the English barons announcing the victory, the rescue of his mother as well as the capture of Arthur and over 200 French knights.

As we have seen, it was one of John’s most trusted barons, William de Braose, who is credited with capturing Arthur. The young duke was sent to imprisonment at Falaise, which may have been less than comfortable, given John’s reputation for the harsh treatment of prisoners. Of the other prisoners captured, the Lusignans were freed after a time, on condition that they ‘had surrendered their castles and hostages and given their oath not to rebel against him.’⁹ John vainly hoped that they would help stem the tide of disaffection against him. Other prisoners were sent to England, where twenty-five of them imprisoned at Corfe Castle made an escape attempt and seized the keep; twenty-two of them are said to have chosen to starve to death rather than surrender to John a second time. Eleanor had been with her brother at Mirebeau and was captured at the same time. She was also sent to imprisonment in England, although in more comfortable surroundings than the other Breton captives.

With Arthur imprisoned at Falaise, the Bretons continued to cause trouble. According to Ralph of Coggeshall, the

counsellors of the king, realising that the Bretons were causing much destruction and sedition everywhere on behalf of their lord Arthur, and that no firm peace could be made while Arthur lived, suggested to the king that he order Arthur to be blinded and castrated, thus rendering him incapable of rule, so that the opposition would cease from their insane programme of destruction and submit themselves to the king.¹⁰

John gave the order: ‘enraged by the ceaseless attacks of his enemies, hurt by their threats and misdeed, at length in a rage and fury, King John ordered three of his servants to go to Falaise and perform this detestable act.’¹¹ Two of the appointed messengers fled the king’s court, to avoid the distasteful duty, while the third carried the order to Falaise where the royal chamberlain, Hubert de Burgh, had custody of Arthur. De Burgh, however, ‘having regard for the king’s honesty and reputation and expecting his forgiveness, kept the youth unharmed. He thought that the king would immediately repent of such an order and that ever afterwards would hate anyone who presumed to obey such a cruel mandate.’¹²

Despite balking at mutilating a 15-year-old, de Burgh announced that the sentence had been carried out, hoping to put a stop to the Breton revolt. Although it is recorded that, John ‘was not displeased for the moment that his order had not been carried out.’¹³ The Bretons were so enraged that their revolt rose to a new level of ferocity and the rebels were only pacified when it was announced that Arthur was, in fact, alive and well.

In 1203 Arthur was moved to Rouen. The Bretons and King Philip again called for his release, but John refused. It was in Rouen, at Easter 1203, most likely on 3 April, that Arthur was put to death. A chronicler of the Cistercian monastery of Margam, in Glamorgan, described the murder:

1204. When King John fled to England, Philip, King of the French, occupied Normandy and Anjou. A congregation was sent from Cîteaux, an abbot placed over them, and the abbey of Beaulieu was built. The Cornish first, and then the men of Devon, by pledge of payment, threw off the yoke of forest law. Queen Alienor died. Godfrey, bishop of Winchester, died; Peter des Roches, archdeacon of Poitou, succeeded him and was later consecrated by the lord Pope in Rome. Guido, bishop of Praeneste, once abbot of Cîteaux, was made archbishop of Reims.

The King of the French took the castle of Chinon, and afterwards all the garrisons of Normandy, Anjou, and the city of Poitiers, with other castles, fortified towns and cities, as he so willed it – for this reason; when king John had captured Arthur, he had him kept alive in prison for some time, but finally, in the great tower at Rouen, on the Thursday before Easter, after his dinner and when drunk and possessed by the devil, he killed him by his own hand, and, after a large stone had been tied to the body, threw it in the Seine. It was discovered by a fisherman in his net and recognised when it was brought to the riverbank, and, for fear of the tyrant, secretly buried at the priory of Bec, which is called Notre Dame des Pres.

When the aforesaid king of the French heard the news of this and knew for certain that Arthur had been killed, he had his killer John summoned to the court of France, as was customary with dukes of Normandy, to answer for the murder of such a great man and to defend himself if he could; of such a great man, say I, for he was the legitimate heir of England, the count of Brittany, and the son-in-law of the king of France. John, fully aware of his evil deed, never dared to appear before the court, but fled to England and exercised a most cruel tyranny over his people until he died. When he never came to answer for the death of Arthur or to defend himself, judgement was given against him by the king’s court, and he was deprived of all his titles, in all the lands and honours which he held of the French crown; this was an incontrovertible and just sentence.¹⁴

Although it is believed John was present at Rouen that Easter, it is unknown what role he played in Arthur’s death, whether he was the murderer or a mere bystander. Whatever his part, however, it was an act that would be held against John, not only during his lifetime, but for centuries to come. In 1204 Philip, probably suspecting that Arthur was dead, made the young duke of Brittany’s release a condition of any peace settlement: ‘For if Arthur was now discovered to be dead, Philip hoped to marry his sister and thus to gain all her Continental possessions. King Philip was unwilling to make peace because he was confident that he would soon possess all the lands of the English king.’¹⁵

Not only was Eleanor Arthur’s heir, but with John still having no legitimate children of his own, she was also the heir to England. If the laws of inheritance had been strictly followed, Eleanor would have been sovereign of England after her brother’s death. John and his successor, Henry III, could never forget this. In 1203 she was moved to England and would be held a prisoner of successive English kings to her dying day. Although her confinement has been described as ‘honourable’ and ‘comfortable’, Eleanor’s greater right to the throne meant she would never be freed or allowed to marry and have children, despite repeated attempts over the years by King Philip and the Bretons to negotiate her release.

It seems Eleanor did spend some time with the king and court, particularly in 1214 when she accompanied John to La Rochelle to pursue his war with the French. John planned to use Eleanor to gain Breton support and maybe set her up as his puppet duchess of Brittany, replacing her younger half-sister Alice. Alice was the daughter of Eleanor’s mother, Constance, by her third marriage to Guy of Thouars. She was married to Peter of Dreux, a cousin of King Philip of France and duke of Brittany by right of Alice. Using the carrot and stick approach, John offered Peter the earldom of Richmond to draw him to his side, while at the same time dangling the threat of restoring Eleanor to the dukedom, just by having her with him. Peter, however, refused to be threatened or persuaded and chose to face John in the field at Nantes. John’s victory and capture of Peter’s brother in the fighting persuaded Peter to agree to a truce, and John was content to leave Brittany alone, thereafter, instead advancing on Angers. His plans to restore Eleanor abandoned and forgotten.

As John’s prisoner, Eleanor’s movements were restricted, and she was closely guarded. Her guards were changed regularly to enhance security, but her captivity was not onerous. She was provided with ‘robes’, two ladies-in-waiting in 1230, and given money for alms and linen for her ‘work’.¹⁶ One order provided her with cloth; however, it was to be ‘not of the king’s finest.’¹⁷ Eleanor was well-treated and fed an aristocratic diet, as her weekly shopping list attests: ‘Saturday: bread, ale, sole, almonds, butter, eggs. Sunday: mutton, pork, chicken and eggs. Monday: beef, pork, honey, vinegar. Tuesday: pork, eggs, egret. Wednesday: herring, conger, sole, eels, almonds and eggs. Thursday: pork, eggs, pepper, honey. Friday: conger, sole, eels, herring and almonds.’¹⁸

She was granted the manor of Swaffham and a supply of venison from the royal forests. The royal family sent her gifts and she spent some time with the queen and the daughters of the king of Scotland, who were hostages in the king’s custody. King John gave her the title of Countess of Richmond on 27 May 1208, but Henry III’s regents would take it from her in 1219 and bestow the title elsewhere. From 1219 onwards she was styled the ‘king’s kinswoman’ and ‘our cousin’. In her sole surviving letter, written in 1208 with John’s consent, she is styled ‘Duchess of Brittany and Countess of Richmond.’¹⁹ Throughout her captivity she is said to have remained ‘defiant’.²⁰

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly where Eleanor was imprisoned at any one time. Over the years, she was held in various strongholds, including the castles of Corfe (Dorset), Burgh (Westmorland), and Bowes (Yorkshire).²¹ Corfe Castle is mentioned at various times, and it seems she was moved away from the coast in 1221 after a possible rescue plot was uncovered. She was also held at Marlborough for a time, and was definitely at Gloucester castle in 1236. By 1241 Eleanor was confined in Bristol castle, where she was visited regularly by bailiffs and leading citizens to ensure her continued welfare. Eleanor was also allowed her chaplain and serving ladies to ensure her comfort. She died at Bristol Castle, on 10 August 1241, at the age of about 57, after thirty-nine years of imprisonment, achieving in death, the freedom that had eluded her in life. She was initially buried at St James’s Priory church in Bristol but her remains were later removed to the abbey at Amesbury, as instructed in her will; a convent with a long association with the crown.

The freedoms and rights enshrined in Magna Carta in 1215, and reissued in 1216 and 1225 under Henry III, held no relevance for Eleanor. Every other subject of the king was afforded the right to judgement of his peers before imprisonment thanks to clause 39 and guaranteed that justice could not be denied or delayed as a result of clause 40. Eleanor’s royal blood and claim to the throne meant that she was awarded no such privilege; justice and freedom were perpetually denied her. Of all the royal family and noblewomen, it is Eleanor who proves that Magna Carta was not always observed and implemented, especially where women were concerned, and particularly where the royal family – and the interests of the succession – were concerned.