Poitou and the Lusignans
In 1241, the barons in Poitou, including Henry's step-father
Hugh de Lusignan, rebelled against the
rule of Louis of France. The rebels
had counted on aid from Henry, but he lacked domestic support and was slow to mobilize
an army, not arriving in France until the next summer. His campaign was hesitant
and was further undermined by Hugh switching sides and returning to support
Louis. On 20 May Henry's army was surrounded by the French at Taillebourg. Henry's brother Richard persuaded the French
to delay their attack and the King took the opportunity to escape to Bordeaux.
Simon de Montfort,
who fought a successful rearguard action during the withdrawal, was furious
with the King's incompetence and told Henry that he should be locked up like
the 10th-century Carolingian king
Charles the Simple. The Poitou rebellion collapsed and Henry entered into a
fresh five-year truce. His campaign had been a disastrous failure and had cost
over £80,000.
In the aftermath of the revolt, French power extended
throughout Poitou, threatening the interests of the Lusignan family. In 1247
Henry encouraged his relatives to travel to England, where they were rewarded
with large estates, largely at the expense of the English barons. More
Poitevins followed, until around 100 had settled in England, around two-thirds
of them being granted substantial incomes worth £66 or more by Henry. Henry
encouraged some to help him on the continent; others acted as mercenaries and
diplomatic agents, or fought on Henry's behalf in European campaigns. Many were
given estates along the contested Welsh
Marches, or in Ireland, where they protected the frontiers. For Henry, the
community was an important symbol of his hopes to one day reconquers Poitou and
the rest of his French lands, and many of the Lusignans became close friends
with his son Edward.
The presence of Henry's extended family in England proved
controversial. Concerns were raised by contemporary chroniclers – especially in
works of Roger de Wendover and Matthew Paris – about the number of
foreigners in England and historian Martin
Aurell notes the xenophobic overtones of their commentary. The term "Poitevins" became loosely
applied to this grouping, although many came from Anjou and other parts of
France, and by the 1250s there was a fierce rivalry between the relatively well
established Savoyards and the newly arrived Poitevins. The Lusignans began to
break the law with impunity, pursuing personal grievances against other barons
and the Savoyards, and Henry took little or no action to restrain them. By
1258, the general dislike of the Poitevins had turned into hatred, with Simon
de Montfort one of their strongest critics.
Scotland, Wales and
Ireland
Henry's position in Wales was strengthened during the first
two decades of his personal rule. Following the death of Llywelyn the Great in 1240, Henry's power in Wales expanded. Three
military campaigns were carried out in the 1240s, new castles were constructed
and the royal lands in the County of
Chester were expanded, increasing Henry's dominance over the Welsh princes.
Dafydd, Llywelyn's son, resisted the incursions, but died in 1246, and Henry
confirmed the Treaty of Woodstock
the following year with Owain and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Llywelyn the Great's
grandsons, under which they ceded land to the King but retained the heart of their
princedom in Gwynedd.
In South Wales, Henry gradually extended his authority
across the region, but the campaigns were not pursued with vigor and the King
did little to stop the Marcher territories along the border becoming
increasingly independent of the Crown. In 1256, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd rebelled
against Henry and widespread violence spread across Wales. Henry promised a
swift military response but did not carry through on his threats.
Ireland was important to Henry, both as a source of royal
revenue – an average of £1,150 was sent from Ireland to the Crown each year
during the middle of his reign – and as a source of estates that could be granted
to his supporters. The major landowners looked eastwards towards Henry's court
for political leadership, and many also possessed estates in Wales and England.
The 1240s saw major upheavals in land ownership due to deaths among the barons,
enabling Henry to redistribute Irish lands to his supporters.
In the 1250s, the King gave out numerous grants of land
along the frontier in Ireland to his supporters, creating a buffer zone against
the native Irish. The local Irish kings began to suffer increased harassment as
English power increased across the region. These lands were in many cases
unprofitable for the barons to hold and English power reached its zenith under
Henry for the medieval period. In 1254, Henry granted Ireland to his son,
Edward, on condition that it would never be separated from the Crown.
Henry maintained peace with Scotland during his reign, where
he was the feudal lord of Alexander II.
Henry assumed that he had the right to interfere in Scottish affairs and
brought up the issue of his authority with the Scottish kings at key moments,
but he lacked the inclination or the resources to do much more. Alexander had
occupied parts of northern England during the First Barons' War but had been excommunicated and forced to
retreat. Alexander married Henry's sister Joan in 1221, and after he and Henry
signed the Treaty of York in 1237,
Henry had a secure northern frontier. Henry knighted Alexander III before the young king married Henry's daughter
Margaret in 1251 and, despite Alexander's refusal to give homage to Henry for
Scotland, the two enjoyed a good relationship. Henry had Alexander and Margaret
rescued from Edinburgh Castle when
they were imprisoned there by a rebellious Scottish baron in 1255 and took
additional measures to manage Alexander's government during the rest of his
minority years.
European strategy
Henry had no further opportunities to reconquer his
possessions in France after the collapse of his military campaign at the Battle of Taillebourg. Henry's
resources were quite inadequate in comparison to those of the French Crown, and by the end of the
1240s it was clear that King Louis
had become the preeminent power across France. Henry instead adopted what
historian Michael Clanchy has
described as a "European
strategy", attempting to regain his lands in France through diplomacy
rather than force, building alliances with other states prepared to put military
pressure on the French King. In particular, Henry cultivated Frederick II,
hoping he would turn against Louis or allow his nobility to join Henry's
campaigns. In the process, Henry's attention became increasingly focused on
European politics and events rather than domestic affairs.
Crusading was a popular cause in the 13th century, and in
1248 Louis joined the ill-fated Seventh Crusade, having first made a fresh
truce with England and received assurances from the Pope that he would protect
his lands against any attack by Henry. Henry might have joined this crusade
himself, but the rivalry between the two kings made this impossible and, after
Louis's defeat at the Battle of Al
Mansurah in 1250, Henry instead announced that he would be undertaking his own
crusade to the Levant. He began to make arrangements for passage with friendly
rulers around the Levant, imposing efficiency savings on the royal household
and arranging for ships and transport: he appeared almost over-eager to take
part. Henry's plans reflected his strong religious beliefs, but they also stood
to give him additional international credibility when arguing for the return of
his possessions in France.
Henry's crusade never departed, as he was forced to deal
with problems in Gascony, where the harsh policies of his lieutenant, Simon de Montfort, had provoked a
violent uprising in 1252, which was supported by King Alfonso X of neighbouring
Castile. The English court was split over the problem: Simon and Eleanor argued
that the Gascons were to blame for the crisis, while Henry, backed by the
Lusignans, and blamed Simon's misjudgment. Henry and Eleanor quarrelled over
the issue and were not reconciled until the following year. Forced to intervene
personally, Henry carried out an effective, if expensive, campaign with the
help of the Lusignans and stabilized the province. Alfonso signed a treaty of
alliance in 1254, and Gascony was given to Henry's son Edward, who married
Alfonso's half-sister Eleanor, delivering a long-lasting peace with Castile.
On the way back from Gascony, Henry met with Louis for the
first time in an arrangement brokered by their wives, and the two kings became close
friends. The Gascon campaign cost more than £200,000 and used up all the money
intended for Henry's crusade, leaving him heavily in debt and reliant on loans
from his brother Richard and the Lusignans.
The Sicilian business
Henry did not give up on his hopes for a crusade, but became
increasingly absorbed in a bid to acquire the wealthy Kingdom of Sicily for his son Edmund. Sicily had been controlled by
Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire, for many years a
rival of Pope Innocent IV. On
Frederick's death in 1250, Innocent started to look for a new ruler, one more
amenable to the Papacy. Henry saw Sicily as both a valuable prize for his son
and as an excellent base for his crusading plans in the east. With minimal
consultation within his court, Henry came to an agreement with the Pope in 1254
that Edmund should be the next king. Innocent urged Henry to send Edmund with
an army to reclaim Sicily from Frederick's son Manfred, offering to contribute
to the expenses of the campaign.
Innocent was succeeded by Pope Alexander IV, who was facing
increasing military pressure from the Empire. He could no longer afford to pay
Henry's expenses, instead demanding that Henry compensate the Papacy for the
£90,000 spent on the war so far. This was a huge sum, and Henry turned to
parliament for help in 1255, only to be rebuffed. Further attempts followed,
but by 1257 only partial parliamentary assistance had been offered.
Alexander grew increasingly unhappy about Henry's
procrastinations and in 1258 sent an envoy to England, threatening to
excommunicate Henry if he did not first pay his debts to the Papacy and then
send the promised army to Sicily. Parliament again refused to assist the King
in raising this money. Instead Henry turned to extorting money from the senior
clergy, who were forced to sign blank charters, promising to pay effectively
unlimited sums of money in support of the King's efforts, raising around
£40,000. The English Church felt the
money was wasted, vanishing into the long-running war in Italy.
Meanwhile, Henry attempted to influence the outcomes of the
elections in the Holy Roman Empire, which would appoint a new King of the
Romans. When the more prominent German candidates failed to gain traction,
Henry began to back his brother Richard's candidature, giving donations to his
potential supporters in the Empire. Richard was elected in 1256 with
expectations of possibly being crowned the Holy
Roman Emperor, but continued to play a major role in English politics. His
election faced a mixed response in England; Richard was believed to provide
moderate, sensible counsel and his presence was missed by the English barons,
but he also faced criticism, probably incorrectly, for funding his German campaign
at England's expense. Although Henry now had increased support in the Empire
for a potential alliance against Louis of France, the two kings were now moving
towards potentially settling their disputes peacefully; for Henry, a peace
treaty could allow him to focus on Sicily and his crusade.
Later reign
(1258–1272)
Revolution
In 1258, Henry faced a revolt among the English barons.
Anger had grown about the way the King's officials were raising funds, the
influence of the Poitevins at court and his unpopular Sicilian policy, and
resentment of abuse of purchased Jewish loans. Even the English Church had
grievances over its treatment by the King. The Welsh were still in open revolt,
and now allied themselves with Scotland.
Henry was also critically short of money. Although he still
had some reserves of gold and silver, they were totally insufficient to cover
his potential expenditures, including the campaign for Sicily and his debts to
the Papacy. Critics suggested darkly that he had never really intended to join
the crusades, and was simply intending to profit from the crusading tithes. To
compound the situation, the harvests in England failed. Within Henry's court
there was a strong feeling that the King would be unable to lead the country
through these problems.
The discontent finally erupted in April, when seven of the
major English and Savoyard barons – Simon
de Montfort, Roger and Hugh Bigod, John Fitzgeoffrey, Peter de Montfort, Peter de Savoy and Richard de Clare – secretly formed an alliance to expel the
Lusignans from court, a move probably quietly supported by the Queen. On 30
April, Roger Bigod marched into
Westminster in the middle of the King's parliament, backed by his
co-conspirators, and carried out a coup d'état. Henry, fearful that he was
about to be arrested and imprisoned, agreed to abandon his policy of personal
rule and instead govern through a council of 24 barons and churchmen, half
chosen by the King and half by the barons. His own nominees to the council drew
heavily on the hated Lusignans.
The pressure for reform continued to grow unabated and a
fresh parliament met in June, passing a set of measures known as the Provisions of Oxford, which Henry swore
to uphold. These provisions created a smaller council of 15 members, elected
solely by the barons, which then had the power to appoint England's justiciar,
chancellor, and treasurer, and which would be monitored through triannual parliaments.
Pressure from the lesser barons and the gentry present at Oxford also helped to
push through wider reform, intended to limit the abuse of power by both Henry's
officials and the major barons. The elected council included representatives of
the Savoyard faction but no Poitevins, and the new government immediately took
steps to exile the leading Lusignans and to seize key castles across the country.
The disagreements between the leading barons involved in the
revolt soon became evident. Simon championed radical reforms that would place
further limitations on the authority and power of the major barons as well as
the Crown; others, such as Hugh Bigod,
promoted only moderate change, while the conservative barons, such as Richard,
expressed concerns about the existing limitations on the King's powers. Henry's
son, Edward, initially opposed the revolution, but then allied himself with de
Montfort, helping him to pass the radical Provisions
of Westminster in 1259, which introduced further limits on the major barons
and local royal officials.
Crisis
Over the next four years, neither Henry nor the barons were
able to restore stability in England, and power swung back and forth between
the different factions. One of the priorities for the new regime was to settle
the long-running dispute with France and, at the end of 1259, Henry and Eleanor
left for Paris to negotiate the final details of a peace treaty with King Louis, escorted by Simon de Montfort and much of the
baronial government. Under the treaty, Henry gave up any claim to his family's
lands in the north of France, but was confirmed as the legitimate ruler of
Gascony and various neighbouring territories in the south, giving homage and recognizing
Louis as his feudal lord for these possessions.
When Simon de
Montfort returned to England, Henry, supported by Eleanor, remained in
Paris where he seized the opportunity to reassert royal authority and began to
issue royal orders independently of the barons. Henry finally returned to
retake power in England in April 1260, where conflict was brewing between Richard de Clare's forces and those of
Simon and Edward. Henry's brother Richard mediated between the parties and
averted a military confrontation; Edward was reconciled with his father and
Simon was put on trial for his actions against the King. Henry was unable to
maintain his grip on power, and in October a coalition headed by Simon, Richard
and Edward briefly seized back control; within months their baronial council
had collapsed into chaos as well.
Henry continued publicly to support the Provisions of Oxford, but he secretly opened discussions with Pope Urban IV, hoping to be absolved
from the oath he had made at Oxford. In June 1261, the King announced that Rome
had released him from his promises and he promptly held a counter-coup with the
support of Edward. He purged the ranks of the sheriffs of his enemies and
seized back control of many of the royal castles. The baronial opposition, led
by Simon and Richard, were temporarily reunited in their opposition to Henry's
actions, convening their own parliament, independent of the King, and
establishing a rival system of local government across England. Henry and
Eleanor mobilized their own supporters and raised a foreign mercenary army.
Facing the threat of open civil war, the barons backed down: de Clare switched
sides once again, Simon left for exile in France and the baronial resistance collapsed.
Henry's government relied primarily on Eleanor and her
Savoyard supporters, and it proved short-lived. He attempted to settle the
crisis permanently by forcing the barons to agree to the Treaty of Kingston.
This treaty introduced a system of arbitration to settle outstanding disputes
between the King and the barons; using Richard as an initial adjudicator,
backed up by Louis of France should
Richard fail to generate a compromise. Henry softened some of his policies in
response to the concerns of the barons, but he soon began to target his
political enemies and recommence his unpopular Sicilian policy. He had done
nothing significant to deal with the concerns over Baronial and royal abuse of
Jewish debts.[
Henry's government was weakened by the death of Richard, as
his heir, Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of
Gloucester, sided with the radicals; the King's position was further
undermined by major Welsh incursions along the Marches and the Pope's decision
to reverse his judgement on the Provisions, this time confirming them as
legitimate. By early 1263, Henry's authority had disintegrated and the country
slipped back towards open civil war.
Second Barons' War
Simon returned to England in April 1263 and convened a
council of rebel barons in Oxford to pursue a renewed anti-Poitevin agenda.
Revolt broke out shortly afterwards in the Welsh Marches and, by October,
England faced a likely civil war between Henry, backed by Edward, Hugh Bigod and the conservative barons,
and Simon, Gilbert de Clare and the
radicals. The rebels leveraged concern among knights over abuse of Jewish
loans, which feared losing their lands, a problem Henry had done much to create
and nothing to solve. In each case following, the rebels employed violence and
killings in a deliberate attempt to destroy the records of their debts to
Jewish lenders.
Simon marched east with an army and London rose up in revolt,
where 500 Jews died. Henry and Eleanor were trapped in the Tower of London by the rebels. The Queen attempted to escape up the
River Thames to join Edward's army
at Windsor, but was forced to retreat by the London crowds. Simon took the pair
prisoners, and although he maintained a fiction of ruling in Henry's name, the
rebels completely replaced the royal government and household with their own
trusted men.
Simon's coalition quickly began to fragment; Henry regained
his freedom of movement and renewed chaos spread across England. Henry appealed
to Louis of France for arbitration in the dispute, as had been laid out in the
Treaty of Kingston; Simon was initially hostile to this idea, but, as war
became more likely again, he decided to agree to French arbitration as well.
Henry went to Paris in person, accompanied by Simon's representatives.
Initially Simon's legal arguments held sway, but in January 1264, Louis
announced the Mise of Amiens,
condemning the rebels, upholding the King's rights and annulling the Provisions of Oxford. Louis had strong
views of his own on the rights of kings over those of barons, but was also
influenced by his wife, Margaret, who was Eleanor's sister, and by the Pope.
Leaving Eleanor in Paris to assemble mercenary reinforcements, Henry returned
to England in February 1264, where violence was brewing in response to the
unpopular French decision.
The Second Barons'
War finally broke out in April 1264, when Henry led an army into Simon's
territories in the Midlands, and then advanced south-east to re-occupy the
important route to France. Becoming desperate, Simon marched in pursuit of
Henry and the two armies met at the Battle
of Lewes on 14 May. Despite their numerical superiority, Henry's forces
were overwhelmed. His brother Richard was captured, and Henry and Edward
retreated to the local priory and surrendered the following day. Henry was
forced to pardon the rebel barons and reinstate the Provisions of Oxford, leaving him, as historian Adrian Jobson
describes, "little more than a
figurehead". With Henry's power diminished, Simon canceled many debts
and interest owed to Jews, including those held by his baronial supporters.
Simon was unable to consolidate his victory and widespread
disorder persisted across the country. In France, Eleanor made plans for an
invasion of England with the support of Louis, while Edward escaped his captors
in May and formed a new army with Gilbert
de Clare, who switched sides to the royal government. He pursued Simon's
forces through the Marches, before striking east to attack his fortress at
Kenilworth and then turning once more on the rebel leader himself. Simon,
accompanied by the captive Henry, was unable to retreat and the Battle of
Evesham ensued.
Edward was triumphant and Simon's corpse was mutilated by
the victors. Henry, who was wearing borrowed armour, was almost killed by
Edward's forces during the fighting before they recognized the King and
escorted him to safety. In places the now leaderless rebellion dragged on, with
some rebels gathering at Kenilworth Castle,
which Henry and Edward took after a long siege in 1266. They continued
targeting Jews and their debt records. The remaining pockets of resistance were
mopped up, and the final rebels, holed up in the Isle of Ely, surrendered in
July 1267, marking the end of the war.
Reconciliation and
reconstruction
Henry quickly took revenge on his enemies after the Battle
of Evesham. He immediately ordered the sequestration of all the rebel lands,
triggering a wave of chaotic looting across the country. Henry initially
rejected any calls for moderation, but in October 1266 he was persuaded by Papal Legate Ottobuono de' Fieschi to
issue a less draconian policy, called the Dictum
of Kenilworth, which allowed for the return of the rebels' lands, in
exchange for the payment of harsh fines. The Statute of Marlborough followed in November 1267, which effectively
reissued much of the Provisions of
Westminster, placing limitations on the powers of local royal officials and
the major barons, but without restricting central royal authority. Most of the
exiled Poitevins began to return to England after the war. In September 1267
Henry made the Treaty of Montgomery
with Llywelyn, recognizing him as the Prince of Wales and giving substantial land
concessions.
In the final years of his reign, Henry was increasingly
infirm and focused on securing peace within the kingdom and his own religious
devotions. Edward became the Steward of
England and began to play a more prominent role in government. Henry's
finances were in a precarious state as a result of the war, and when Edward
decided to join the crusades in 1268 it became clear that fresh taxes were necessary.
Henry was concerned that Edward's absence might encourage further revolts, but
was swayed by his son to negotiate with multiple parliaments over the next two
years to raise the money.
Although Henry had initially reversed Simon de Montfort's anti-Jewish policies, including attempting to
restore the debts owed to Jews where these could be proven, he faced pressure
from parliament to introduce restrictions on Jewish bonds, particularly their
sale to Christians, in the final years of his reign in return for financing.
Henry continued to invest in Westminster
Abbey, which became a replacement for the Angevin mausoleum at Fontevraud Abbey, and in 1269 he
oversaw a grand ceremony to rebury Edward the Confessor in a lavish new shrine,
personally helping to carry the body to its new resting place.
Death
Edward left for the Eighth Crusade, led by Louis of France,
in 1270, but Henry became increasingly ill; concerns about a fresh rebellion
grew and the next year the King wrote to his son asking him to return to
England, but Edward did not turn back. Henry recovered slightly and announced
his renewed intention to join the crusades himself, but he never regained his
full health and on the evening of 16 November 1272, he died in Westminster, probably
with Eleanor in attendance. He was succeeded by Edward, who slowly made his way
back to England via Gascony, finally arriving in August 1274.
At his request, Henry was buried in Westminster Abbey in
front of the church's high altar, in the former resting place of Edward the Confessor. A few years
later, work began on a grander tomb for Henry and in 1290 Edward moved his
father's body to its current location in Westminster
Abbey. His gilt-brass tomb effigy was designed and forged within the abbey
grounds by William Torell; unlike
other effigies of the period, it is particularly naturalistic in style, but it
is probably not a close likeness of Henry himself.
Eleanor probably hoped that Henry would be recognized as a
saint, as his contemporary Louis IX
of France had been; indeed, Henry's final tomb resembled the shrine of a saint,
complete with niches possibly intended to hold relics. When the King's body was
exhumed in 1290, contemporaries noted that the body was in perfect condition
and that Henry's long beard remained well preserved, which at the time was
considered to be an indication of saintly purity. Miracles began to be reported
at the tomb, but Edward was skeptical about these stories. The reports ceased,
and Henry was never canonised. In 1292, his heart was removed from his tomb and
reburied at Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou, France with the bodies of his Angevin family.
Legacy
Historiography
The first histories of Henry's reign emerged in the 16th and
17th centuries, relying primarily on the accounts of medieval chroniclers, in
particular writings of Roger of Wendover
and Matthew Paris. These early
historians, including Archbishop Matthew
Parker, were influenced by contemporary concerns about the roles of the
Church and state, and examined the changing nature of kingship under Henry, the
emergence of English nationalism during the period and what they perceived to
be the malign influence of the Papacy. During the English Civil War, historians also drew parallels between Henry's
experiences and those of the deposed Charles
I.
By the 19th century, Victorian scholars such as William Stubbs, James Ramsay, and William Hunt sought to understand how
the English political system had evolved under Henry. They explored the
emergence of Parliamentary institutions
during his reign, and sympathized with the concerns of the chroniclers over the
role of the Poitevins in England. This focus carried on into early 20th-century
research into Henry, such as Kate
Norgate's 1913 volume, which continued to make heavy use of the chronicler
accounts and focused primarily on constitutional issues, with a distinctive
nationalistic bias.
After 1900, the financial and official records from Henry's
reign began to become accessible to historians, including the pipe rolls, court
records, correspondence and records of administration of the royal forests. Thomas Frederick Tout made extensive
use of these new sources in the 1920s, and post-war historians brought a
particular focus on the finances of Henry's government, highlighting his fiscal
difficulties. This wave of research culminated in Sir Maurice Powicke's two major biographical works on Henry,
published in 1948 and 1953, which formed the established history of the King for
the next three decades.
Henry's reign did not receive much attention from historians
for many years after the 1950s: no substantial biographies of Henry were
written after Powicke's, and the historian John
Beeler observed in the 1970s that the coverage of Henry's reign by military
historians remained particularly thin. At the end of the 20th century, there
was a renewed interest in 13th-century English history, resulting in the
publication of various specialist works on aspects of Henry's reign, including
government finance and the period of his minority. Current historiography notes
both Henry's positive and negative qualities: historian David Carpenter judges him to have been a decent man, who failed as
a ruler because of his naivety and inability to produce realistic plans for
reform, a theme echoed by Huw Ridgeway,
who also notes his unworldliness and inability to manage his court, but who
considers him to have been "essentially
a man of peace, kind and merciful".
Popular culture
The chronicler Matthew
Paris depicted Henry's life in a series of illustrations, which he sketched
and, in some cases, water-colored, in the margins of the Chronica Majora. Paris first met Henry in 1236 and enjoyed an
extended relationship with the King, although he disliked many of Henry's
actions and the illustrations are frequently unflattering.
Henry is a character in Purgatorio,
the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy
(completed in 1320). The King is depicted sitting alone in purgatory, to
one side of other failed rulers: Rudolf
I of Germany, Ottokar II of Bohemia, Philip III of France and Henry I of Navarre, as well as Charles I of Naples and Peter III of Aragon. Dante's symbolic
intent in depicting Henry sitting separately is unclear; possible explanations
include it being a reference to England not being part of the Holy Roman Empire and/or it indicating
that Dante had a favorable opinion of Henry, due to his unusual piety. His son,
Edward, is also saluted by Dante in this work (Canto VII. 132).
Henry appears in King
John by William Shakespeare as a
minor character referred to as Prince
Henry but within modern popular culture, Henry has a minimal presence and
has not been a prominent subject of films, theater or television. Historical
novels which feature him as a character include Longsword, Earl of Salisbury: An Historical Romance (1762) by Thomas Leland, The Red Saint (1909) by Warwick Deeping, The Outlaw of Torn (1927)
by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The De Montfort
Legacy (1973) by Pamela Bennetts, The
Queen from Provence (1979) by Jean
Plaidy, The Marriage of Meggotta (1979) by Edith Pargeter and Falls the Shadow (1988) by Sharon Kay Penman.
Issue
Henry and Eleanor had five children:
Edward I (b.
17/18 June 1239 – d. 7 July 1307)
Margaret (b. 29
September 1240 – d. 26 February 1275)
Beatrice (b. 25
June 1242 – d. 24 March 1275)
Edmund (16 January
1245 – d. 5 June 1296)
Katherine (b. 25
November 1253 – d. 3 May 1257)
Henry had no known illegitimate children.
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