The Queen From Provence
by Jean Plaidy
From the 1981 American Putnam Edition:
“The Count of Provence had four daughters. Although they were beautiful and cultured, they were without dowries and it seemed unlikely that they could make the marriages their father wanted for them. The eldest, Marguerite, helped by good luck and the Count’s wily minister, married the King of France; and her sister Eleanor was determined to make as grand a match.
Eleanor, the most beautiful of the four, knew exactly what she wanted and aimed to get it. Only a miracle could bring her to the notice of the King of England. Eleanor contrived to bring about that miracle.
England was in an uneasy state. Henry, the King, meant well, but he was weak, and the barons remembered the reign of Henry’s wantonly cruel and recklessly foolish father, King John. Magna Carta was the symbol of their triumph over him, and Henry was never allowed to forget it.
When he married the girl from Provence, Henry immediately became her slave. His great joy was to shower gifts on her, and the heavy taxation he levied in order to please his wife and her relations inevitably led to revolt. The man at the head of this was Simon de Montfort, the adventurer who had romantically and secretly married the King’s sister.
Throughout these troubling times Henry was sustained by the love and loyalty of his family, at the head of which was his Queen. His son Edward—the delight of his parents—grew out of a boyhood marred by acts of thoughtless but revolting cruelty to become a great leader. The erstwhile victorious Simon de Montfort instituted the first real parliament; and at the center of the scene was Henry, haunted by the specter of his father, a weak king but a loving husband and father, only happy with his family.
Dominating that family—and the country itself—was Eleanor, the dowryless girl from Provence, who was almost murdered by the Londoners, but who stood firmly beside the King throughout his trials and made him a happy man, while, through her, he came near to losing his kingdom.”
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