Chapter 5

Ela of Salisbury

Another lady caught up in the struggle that defined the end of King John’s reign is Ela, Countess of Salisbury. Ela’s husband was John’s half-brother, William Longespée, and as an illegitimate son of King Henry II, his fortune and position in society were inextricably linked with the fortunes of his royal half-brothers, King Richard I and King John.

Ela was born at Amesbury in Wiltshire, probably in 1187.¹ She was the only surviving child – and sole heir – of William Fitzpatrick, Earl of Salisbury, and his wife, Eleanor de Vitré, daughter of Robert III de Vitré, Baron of Vitré in Brittany. Ela’s father was a descendant of Walter, an ally of William the Conqueror, who had been rewarded for his support at Hastings with great estates which eventually passed to Ela. Her grandfather, Patrick of Salisbury, had been created earl of either Wiltshire or Salisbury (there seems to be some confusion as to which) by Empress Matilda before 1147, but was styled Earl of Salisbury.² As earl, Patrick witnessed the 1153 peace treaty between King Stephen and Henry of Anjou, which would see Henry succeed Stephen as king. He served as sheriff of Wiltshire in 1160 and was leading the king’s troops in Aquitaine when he was killed by the Lusignans in 1168. Earl Patrick had been escorting Eleanor of Aquitaine when their party was ambushed in an attempt to kidnap the queen of England. Patrick suffered a fatal spear wound during the ensuing skirmish and was buried in Poitiers. A younger member of the party, William Marshal, the future earl of Pembroke, was wounded and taken prisoner during the encounter; Queen Eleanor would later negotiate his release. William Marshal was the son of Patrick’s sister, Sybil, making him a cousin of Ela. Patrick’s son William eventually succeeded to the earldom.

Ela’s father, William, Earl of Salisbury, had carried the sceptre at Richard I’s coronation, but when the king was taken prisoner in Germany, William supported his brother John, Count of Mortain. In 1194 he served as high sheriff of Somerset and Dorset and in 1195 served with King Richard in Normandy. In the same year, he was one of the four earls who supported the canopy of state at Richard’s second coronation, and attended the great council, called by the king, at Nottingham. He died in 1196, leaving his only child, Ela, as his sole heir. Ela became Countess of Salisbury in her own right, and the most prized heiress in England. There is a story that little Ela, only 9 years old at the time of her father’s death, was kidnapped by her uncle, her father’s brother, and hidden away in a castle in Normandy, so that he could gain control of the vast Salisbury inheritance. According to the mid-fourteenth-century Book of Lacock: ‘when Ela was deprived of both her father and her mother she was secretly taken into Normandy by her relations and there brought up in close and secret custody.’³

Another version of the story has Ela taken to Normandy by her mother, in order to protect her from her grasping uncle; this suggestion ‘would account for her daughter’s confinement by an anxious and affectionate mother, that she might be placed out of reach of those who perhaps might have meditated worse than confinement.’⁴ The story has obvious inconsistencies, but it may be that the countess thought her daughter would be safer being raised among her own family on the Continent, away from her brother-in-law who would have inherited the earldom had anything happened to Ela. She may also have preferred the security of her family in Normandy to the court of King Richard I, where Ela would be under the prying eyes of those who would seek an advantageous marriage with the little heiress.

As the tale goes, an English knight, named William Talbot toured the Norman castles in search of poor Ela singing ballads beneath castle windows in the hope that the little countess would hear him and join in with his singing. He is said to have wandered Normandy for two years, dressed as a pilgrim, in search of the little countess. When he found her, he exchanged his clothing with that of a troubadour in order to gain entry to the castle in which she was being held. He engineered her escape, took her back to England and presented Ela to King Richard, who promptly married her to his half-brother, William Longespée. It is a story that closely resembles that of the legendary Blondel, who was said to have toured the castles of Germany, singing ballads beneath windows in an attempt to find King Richard during his imprisonment. Whether a romantic legend or a true story, the distance of time makes it difficult to be certain, but there appears to be little basis in truth. William Talbot, however, was a faithful retainer of the Salisbury family and witnessed several of the earl’s charters.⁵

Whether Ela was rescued, or never kidnapped in the first place, we do not know. However, what we do know is that, on her father’s death, Ela’s wardship passed into the hands of the king himself, Richard I, the Lionheart. The king saw Ela as the opportunity to reward his loyal, but illegitimate, brother, William Longespée (or Longsword), by offering him her hand in marriage. The Salisbury lands were a suitable reward for a king’s son, especially one born out of wedlock, and would give him a power base in England. Ela and Longespée were married in the same year her father died, 1196, so if Ela had been spirited away to Normandy, she was soon recovered, and the story of William Talbot wandering Normandy for two years in search of her is an exaggeration, to say the least. It may also be that Ela was quickly married off to prevent any further kidnap attempts, although they would not have lived as husband and wife until Ela was 12 years old, the church’s legal age of marriage for a girl. Her husband was an experienced soldier and statesman and would be able to protect Ela, her lands and interests. William acquired the title Earl of Salisbury by right of his wife and took over the management of the vast Salisbury estates.

William Longespée was the son of Henry II by Ida de Tosney, wife of Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, from a relationship she had with the king before her marriage. For many years, it was thought that Longespée was the son of a common harlot, called Ikenai, and a full brother of another of Henry’s illegitimate sons, Geoffrey, Archbishop of York. There were also theories that his mother was Rosamund Clifford, famed in ballads as ‘the Fair Rosamund’. However, it is now considered beyond doubt that his mother was, in fact, Ida de Tosney, with two pieces of evidence supporting this. There is a charter in the cartulary of Bradenstoke Priory, made by William Longespée, in which he refers explicitly to his mother as ‘Countess Ida, my mother’.⁶ There is also a prisoner roll from after the Battle of Bouvines, in which a fellow captive, one the sons of Ida and the earl of Norfolk, Ralph Bigod, is listed as ‘Ralph Bigod, brother [half-brother] of the earl of Salisbury’.⁷ Ralph was a younger son of Earl Roger and Ida and had been fighting under Longespée’s command in the battle in which both were taken prisoner.

Ida was probably the daughter of Roger (III) de Tosney, a powerful Anglo-Norman lord, and his wife, also called Ida.⁸ She was made a royal ward after her father’s death and became mistress of King Henry II sometime afterwards. She gave the king one son, William Longespée, who was born around 1176, making him ten years younger than the king’s youngest legitimate son, John. Ida was married to Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk around Christmas 1181. Through his mother’s Norfolk family, Longespée had four half-brothers, Hugh, William, Ralph and Roger and two half-sisters, Mary and Margery.⁹ Despite the misunderstandings over his mother, the identity of William Longespée’s father was never in doubt. He was Henry II’s son and acknowledged by his father; he served two of his half-brothers, Richard I and King John. He adopted the coat of arms of his paternal grandfather, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, of azure, six leoncels rampant or [gold], to emphasise his descent from the Angevin counts.¹⁰ The moniker of Longespée (also Lungespée or Longsword) harkens back to his Norman forebear and namesake William Longsword, second Duke of Normandy (reigned 928–942), from whom he was descended through his father, the king. Little is known of Longespée’s childhood, upbringing or education, though a letter of 1220 that Longespée sent to Hubert de Burgh reminds the justiciar that they were raised together, probably fostered in a noble household.¹¹ In 1188 he had been given the manor of Appleby in Lincolnshire by his father, but he did not come into prominence until the reign of his half-brother Richard I.

At the time of his marriage to Ela, Longespée was in his early-to-mid-twenties, while his bride was not yet 10 years old, although she would not have been expected to consummate the marriage until she was 14 or 15. William (I) Longespée had an impressive career during the reigns of his half-brothers. He first served in Normandy with Richard between 1196 and 1198, attesting several charters for his brother at Château Gaillard, and taking part in the campaigns against King Philip II of France, gaining essential military experience. He took part in John’s coronation on 27 May 1199 and was frequently with John thereafter. The half-brothers appear to have enjoyed a very cordial relationship; the court rolls record them gaming together and John granting Longespée numerous royal favours, from gifts of wine to an annual pension.¹² By 1201 Longespée, along with William Marshal and Geoffrey fitz Peter, Earl of Essex ‘were seen by John at this stage in his reign as the main props to his rule, and lavish gifts followed.’¹³

Although Longespée’s marriage to Ela of Salisbury gave him rank and prestige, it was not a wealthy earldom. The barony commanded fifty-six knights’ fees and gave the earl custody of the royal fortress of Salisbury, but Longespée had no castle of his own. He was made sheriff of Wiltshire on three separate occasions, 1199–1202, 1203–1207 and 1213–1226, but was never granted the position as a hereditary right by the king. As sheriff, it was Longespée’s task to hunt down the famous outlaw Fulk Fitzwarin, whom he besieged in Stanley Abbey in 1202. Fitzwarin and his band of about thirty men were pardoned in 1203, Longespée was among those who secured the pardon from the king.¹⁴ During his career, William was also entrusted with several important diplomatic missions. In 1202 he negotiated a treaty with Sancho VII of Navarre and in 1204 he and William Marshal escorted the Welsh prince Llywelyn to the king at Worcester. He was also sent to Scotland on a diplomatic mission to King William the Lion in 1205 and was with John at York in November 1206 when the two kings met. The earl was also involved in the election of his nephew, Otto, as German emperor, heading an embassy to the princes of Germany which resulted in Otto’s coronation.

William Longespée’s most prominent role during the reign of King John, however, was as a military leader. He was a commander of considerable ability. In August 1202 he had fought alongside William Marshal and William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, hounding the retreating forces of King Philip of France. The French king had withdrawn from the siege of Arques following news of John’s victory over his nephew, Arthur, at Mirebeau. Longespée and his lightly-armed fellow earls, however, narrowly escaped capture from a counterattack led by William de Barres. Following the fall of Normandy, Longespée was given command of Gascony in May 1204. In September of the same year he was also given custody of Dover castle and made warden of the Cinque Ports; he retained both offices until May 1206.¹⁵ In 1208 Longespée was appointed warden of the Welsh Marches and in 1210 he joined King John on the Irish expedition which had been prompted by William de Braose fleeing to Ireland to escape John’s persecution. In 1213 he allied with the counts of Holland and Boulogne, led an expeditionary force to the aid of Count Ferrand of Flanders against King Philip II and on 30 May he achieved a significant naval victory when his forces destroyed the French fleet off the Flemish coast near Damme, burning many enemy ships and capturing others. The victory forced King Philip to abandon plans for an invasion of England.

In 1214 William Longespée commanded an army in northern France for the king, while John was campaigning in Poitou. He managed to recover most of the lands lost by the count of Flanders. In July of the same year, however, he commanded the right-wing of the allied army at the Battle of Bouvines, alongside Renaud de Dammartin, Count of Boulogne. William fought bravely but was captured, after being clubbed on the head by Philippe, the bishop of Beauvais. According to the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal the battle had been fought against the earl’s advice, and if it were not for Longespée’s own heroic actions, Emperor Otto would have been taken prisoner or, worse, killed.¹⁶ The battle was a military disaster for the English forces in France and ended John’s hopes of recovering his Continental possessions. William Longespée was held prisoner for almost a year. He was eventually ransomed and exchanged in March 1215, for John’s prisoner, Robert, son of the count of Dreux, who had been captured at Nantes in 1214.

William Longespée was back in England by May 1215 and appointed to examine the state of royal castles. However, England was reaching crisis point by this time with the rebellion gathering pace. Although unable to prevent rebels from gaining control of London, he was effective against the rebels in Devon, forcing them to abandon Exeter. He was named among those barons who had advised John to grant Magna Carta, though whether he was actually present at Runnymede, when the charter was sealed, is unknown. He was granted lands from the royal demesne in August 1215 in compensation for the loss of Trowbridge, which had been returned to Henry de Bohun, one of the twenty-five barons appointed to the committee to oversee the enforcement of the terms of Magna Carta.¹⁷ Also in 1215, following the fall of Rochester, Longespée was given the task of containing the rebels in London, while John led the rest of his forces north. Alongside Faulkes de Bréauté and Savaric de Mauléon, he led a punitive chevauchée through Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. However, in the early weeks of 1216, when Walter Buc’s Brabançon mercenaries ravaged the Isle of Ely, it was Longespée who protected the women from their worst excesses.

Longespée was still supporting John when Louis, the Dauphin, landed on 21 May 1216; however, Louis’ rapid advance through the southern counties led the earl of Salisbury to submit and ally with Louis after Winchester fell to the French, in June 1216. He remained in opposition to his half-brother for the rest of John’s life.¹⁸ Unfounded rumours, recorded by William the Breton, suggested that Longespée’s desertion of John was caused by the king’s seduction of Ela while the earl was a prisoner of war in France.¹⁹ It seems more likely that, like so many others, he saw John’s cause as lost and decided to cut his own losses. With Longespée’s defection, and that of William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, John’s support was severely diminished and in retaliation, John ordered his brother’s lands seized in August 1216. The king still had the adherence of William Marshal and Ranulf de Blundeville, Earl of Chester, with only the earls of Derby and Warwick offering additional support.²⁰

Despite the death of King John in October 1216, Longespée remained with Louis and even called for Hubert de Burgh to surrender Dover to the French.²¹ However, when Louis returned to France in March 1217, Longespée submitted to the king, swearing loyalty to his 9-year-old nephew, Henry III. He was also absolved the sentence of excommunication which had been passed on all those who had defected to Louis. Along with Longespée, William Marshal’s eldest son, William (II), and a hundred other men from Wiltshire and the south-west, returned to the king’s peace. Longespée was now instrumental in driving the French from England and defeating the remaining rebel barons. He was part of William Marshal’s army at the Battle of Lincoln Fair on 20 May 1217, when Lincoln Castle and its formidable castellan, Nicholaa de la Haye, were finally relieved following a three-month siege by the French under the Comte de Perche.

We know little of Ela’s whereabouts during Longespée’s various adventures, nor how she felt about her husband’s defection from John to Louis. We know nothing of their married life, although it appears to have been a happy one. The couple had at least eight children together, if not more; four boys and four girls. Of their three youngest boys, Richard became a canon at the newly built Salisbury Cathedral, Stephen became seneschal of Gascony and justiciar of Ireland, and their youngest son, Nicholas, was elected bishop of Salisbury in 1291; he was consecrated at Canterbury by Archbishop John Pecham on 16 March 1292. Already in his sixties, Nicholas died on 18 May 1297.²²

In 1216, the oldest son, William II Longespée, fourth Earl of Salisbury, was granted marriage by King John to Idonea, granddaughter and sole heiress of the formidable Nicholaa de la Haye. Both children were very young when the grant was made, with Idonea being, possibly, no older than 8, the youngest age that a betrothal was sanctioned by the church, though she could not be married until the age of 12. John ordered that:

The sheriffs of Oxford and of Berkshire are commanded that they cause William, Earl of Salisbury, to have the right of marriage of the daughter of Richard de Canville, born of Eustacia, who was the daughter of Gilbert Basset and wife of the said Richard, for William his first-born son by his wife Ela, Countess of Salisbury, with all the inheritance belonging to the said Richard’s daughter from her mother in their Bailiwicks. Witness myself, at Reigate, the twenty-second day of April.²³

This order may be the source of Nicholaa’s later wranglings with Salisbury, given that it appears to pass all of Idonea’s inheritance into the custody of Longespée, regardless of the fact Nicholaa was still very much alive at this time. It also suggests that Richard de Canville already may have been deceased, despite most mentions of him have him dying in the first quarter of 1217.

Young William and Nicholaa de la Haye would spend several years in legal disputes over the inheritance of Nicholaa’s Lincolnshire holdings. William (II) Longespée went on crusade with Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in 1240–1 and later led the English contingent in the Seventh Crusade, led by Louis IX of France. His company formed part of the doomed vanguard, which was overwhelmed at Mansourah in Egypt on 8 February 1250. William’s body was buried in Acre, but his effigy lies atop an empty tomb in Salisbury Cathedral. His mother is said to have experienced a vision of her son’s last moments at the time of his death.

Of the couple’s four daughters, Petronilla died unmarried, possibly having become a nun. Isabella married William de Vescy, Lord of Alnwick, and had children before her death in 1244. Another daughter, named after her mother, married, firstly Thomas de Beaumont, Earl of Warwick and, secondly, Phillip Basset; sadly, she had no children by either husband. A fourth daughter, Ida, married Walter Fitzrobert; her second marriage was to William de Beauchamp, Baron Bedford, by whom she had six children. As a couple, William Longespée and Ela were great patrons of the church, laying the fourth and fifth foundation stones for the new Salisbury Cathedral in 1220. William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey and a cousin to Ela, also laid a foundation stone.²⁴

In the first half of the 1220s, Longespée played an influential role in the minority government of Henry III and also served in Gascony to secure the last remaining Continental possessions of the English king. In 1225 he was shipwrecked off the coast of Brittany and a rumour spread that he was dead. While he spent months recovering at the island monastery of Ré in France Hubert de Burgh, first Earl of Kent and widower of Isabella of Gloucester, proposed a marriage between Ela and his nephew, Reimund. Ela, however, would not even consider it, insisting that she knew William was alive and that, even if he were dead, she would never presume to marry below her status. It has been suggested that she used clause 8 of Magna Carta to support her rejection of the offer: ‘No widow is to be distrained to marry while she wishes to live without a husband.’²⁵ However, as it turned out, William Longespée was, indeed, still alive and he eventually returned to England and his wife, landing in Cornwall and then making his way to Salisbury. From Salisbury he went to Marlborough to complain to the king that Reimund had tried to marry Ela whilst he was still alive. According to the Annals and antiquities of Lacock Abbey Reimund was present at Longespée’s audience with the king, confessed his wrongdoing and offered to make reparations, thus restoring peace.²⁶

Unfortunately, Longespée never seems to have recovered fully from his injuries and died at the royal castle at Salisbury shortly after his return home, on 7 March 1226, amid rumours of being poisoned by Hubert de Burgh or his nephew.²⁷ He was buried in a splendid tomb in Salisbury Cathedral. Although the title earl of Salisbury still belonged to his wife, his son, William (II) Longespée was sometimes called Earl of Salisbury, but never legally bore the title as he died before his mother.

Ela did not marry again. On her husband’s death, she was forced to relinquish her custody of the royal castle at Salisbury, although she did eventually buy it back. Importantly, she was allowed to take over her husband’s role as sheriff of Wiltshire, which he had held three times in his career and continuously from 1213 until his death in 1226. Ela herself served twice as sheriff of Wiltshire from 1227 until 1228 and again from 1231 to 1237. Nicholaa de la Haye’s appointment as sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1216 may have aided Ela in attaining the post, serving as a precedent.²⁸ She also appeared in person at the Exchequer to render accounts, demonstrating her personal involvement in the management of her household and estates.²⁹

In 1225, William Longespée had been given the wardship of the heir to the earldom of Norfolk, Roger Bigod. When young Roger was married to Isabella, sister of Alexander II, King of Scots, that same year, however, his wardship was transferred to the Scottish king as he was still underage. Two years later, when Ela was early in her widowhood, debts concerning Bigod’s wardship and her status as the countess of Salisbury were taken into account:

1227 29 Oct. Rochester. To the barons of the Exchequer. The king has granted to Ela, countess of Salisbury, formerly the wife of William Longespée, former earl of Salisbury, uncle of [the earl of] Salisbury (sic.), that the 550 m. which the executors of the testament of the aforesaid earl of Salisbury ought to render to the king of the fine that Alexander, King of Scots, made with them for having custody of the land formerly of Earl Hugh Bigod, which was in the hand of the aforesaid earl of Salisbury, are to be allowed to the same countess of Salisbury in the debt of £1075 12s 3d which is exacted from her at the Exchequer for the debts that the aforesaid earl of Salisbury owed to the king. The king has also granted to the countess that she may render 100 m. of the residue of the same debt each year at two terms, namely 50 m. at Easter in the twelfth year and 50 m. at Michaelmas in the same year, and 100 m. thus from year to year at the same terms until the rest of the aforesaid debt is paid in full. The king has further granted to the countess that if death befalls her before the rest of the debt is paid to the king, the heirs of the aforesaid earl of Salisbury and the countess are to render the aforesaid debt each year at the same terms, namely 100 m., until the debt is paid to the king. Order to cause this to be done and enrolled thus.³⁰

It is a testament to Ela’s own considerable abilities, in the management of her money and estates, that the crown dealt directly with her in relation to the debts of her husband. When Roger Bigod was in the earl’s wardship, the revenues from his estates passed directly to William. However, when his wardship was handed over to his brother-in-law, King Alexander, accounting had to be taken of the revenues of Roger’s lands and Ela had to renegotiate the debt her husband had incurred in purchasing the Bigod wardship.

Ela was also known as a great patron of religious houses; she and her husband had co-founded Salisbury Cathedral and Ela herself founded two Augustinian religious houses. She managed to lay the foundation stones of both, at Hinton and Lacock, sixteen miles apart, on the same day in 1232. The abbey at Hinton, Somerset, was endowed for monks, in memory of her husband, after the original house, founded by Longespée at Hathorp, proved to be unsuitable. The foundation of Lacock Abbey had been three years in the planning; in 1229 Ela’s charter, granting the manor and church of Lacock to the abbess and nuns of the newly-founded abbey of Lacock, was confirmed by her son, William (II) Longespée and witnessed by many of the leading nobles of the kingdom, including, among others William (II) Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent and justiciar and William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey.³¹ On April 3 of the same year an indented agreement was made between Ela and John, rector of the church at Lacock, whereby John gave his assent to the building of Lacock Abbey and Ela, in return, promised that she and her heirs would preserve the indemnity of the church. The agreement was witnessed by many of the leading officers of Salisbury Cathedral, including the bishop of Salisbury, Robert de Bingham.³²

Lacock Priory was established in 1232 as a house for Augustinian canonesses at the village of Lacock in Wiltshire. Ela herself entered the priory in 1237 and became its first abbess when it was upgraded to an abbey in 1239. As abbess, Ela was able to secure many rights and privileges for the abbey and its village, including a charter from Henry III, granting the right to hold a fair for St Thomas of Canterbury, a grant to hold a market on Tuesdays, permission for the nuns to host a fair on the vigil and feast of Saints Peter and Paul, including the six days following, and a charter permitting Lacock’s abbess to take a cart through the forest of Melksham to collect dead wood for firewood.³³ All these grants, and the establishment of a village with reeve, ploughmen, shepherds, fishermen and others, ensured that the abbey was self-sufficient.

As abbess of Lacock, Ela obtained a copy of the 1225 issue of Magna Carta, which had been given to her husband for him to distribute around Wiltshire. Despite her seclusion, she did retain contact with her family and with her lands. Held in the National Archives at Kew one grant is made by her son, William (II) Longespée to Ela as ‘abbess of Lacock, of all the lands which had belonged to her daughter Ela, countess of Warwick, his sister, held in marriage in Chitterne [Wiltshire], which she has quitclaimed to him, as well as the homage and service of Robert de Holta, clerk, for the tenement which he holds of him in the same vill.’³⁴ The grant is witnessed by William of York, Bishop of Salisbury and Richard Longespée, Ela’s son, and others. The grant must have been made sometime after 1256, when William of York became bishop of Salisbury, but before 1259, when Ela resigned as abbess after twenty years in that position.

Ela remained at Lacock Abbey after she retired as abbess and, having eventually outlived both her eldest son and grandson, died there on 24 August 1261. On her death Ela was succeeded as countess of Salisbury by her great-granddaughter, Margaret, who was the daughter of William (III) Longespée. Margaret was married to Henry de Lacey, third earl of Lincoln and grandson of John de Lacy and Margaret de Quincey. Margaret was the mother of Alice de Lacey, fourth Countess of Lincoln and the unfortunate, unloved wife of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who was killed in rebellion against Edward II, at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322.

Ela, third Countess of Salisbury, was described in the Register of St Osmund as ‘a woman indeed worthy of praise because she was filled with the fear of the Lord.’³⁵ Ela was not buried alongside her husband in Salisbury Cathedral, but was given a funeral fit for a countess and laid to rest within the abbey church of Lacock that she had founded and ruled – and had called her home for the last twenty-four years of her life. Her tombstone demonstrates the high esteem in which she was held and records the words: ‘Below lie buried the bones of the venerable Ela, who gave this sacred house as a home for the nuns. She also had lived here as holy abbess and Countess of Salisbury, full of good works.’³⁶ Still a young woman when she lived through the Magna Carta Crisis, Ela had no influence on the Great Charter’s creation but may well have used it to avoid an unwanted marriage when her husband was presumed dead. A generous patron of the church and influential in her political connections as sheriff and countess, Ela is described by Linda Elizabeth Mitchell as having been ‘one of the two towering female figures of the mid-thirteenth century’.³⁷