Abstract

In her own day, Eleanor de Montfort (d. 1275) was one of the most important women within the English realm. As the youngest daughter of King John, a sister of King Henry III and an aunt of the Lord Edward (the future King Edward I), Eleanor occupied a place at the heart of politics during one of the most turbulent periods in English history, the period of baronial reform and rebellion (1258-67). This book is the first full-scale biography of Eleanor for more than one hundred and fifty years. It draws on a wealth of information from contemporary records to provide an intimate portrait of Eleanor as a wife, mother, politician and lord. Beginning with her years as the child bride of William Marshal junior (d. 1231), earl of Pembroke, this biography charts Eleanor's experiences as a teenage widow, her second marriage to Simon de Montfort, and the couple's subsequent political fortunes.