The Plantagenet Queens of England (1154 to 1485) by Grace Isobel

The Plantagenet dynasty reigned from 1154 to 1485 and provided 14 kings. The royal line descended from the union between Geoffrey, count of Anjou and Matilda, daughter of the English King Henry I. It consisted of The Angevins (1154-1216), The Plantagenets (1216-1399) and eventually The Houses of Lancaster & York (1399-1485). The dynasty eventually came to an end with the brutal death of Richard III in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth. But, what about their Queens? The different wives of all Kings? Let’s take a brief look into each of them. The dynasty’s Queenship started off strong with Henry II’s wife, arguably viewed as one of the most powerful women in the medieval period. Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was likely born sometime in 1124 and after the death of her brother and father became Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right. Aquitaine was one of the most powerful regions and Eleanor was now the most eligible bride in Europe. At around age 17, she married the French King Louis VII and the couple would have two daughters together, Marie and Alix. However, the couple divorced in 1152. Eleanor wished to have remained unmarried, however with her power, land and wealth made that impossible. After an unsuccessful kidnapping attempt, by Geoffrey of Anjou, Eleanor married his older brother Henry (future Henry II of England). Together they had eight children (including five sons) and played a very active role in government for almost two decades. In 1173 Eleanor’s eldest surviving son, Henry, plotted to overthrow his father. His brothers Richard and Geoffrey joined him in the plot. Eleanor supported this revolt. The revolt failed, and in 1173 Henry II captured Eleanor and imprisoned her for almost 16 years. When her son Richard became King, his first act was to release Eleanor. Richard spent the majority of his time away and Eleanor acted as vice regent (with her younger son, John). She died on the 1st April 1204, remaining involved in the affairs of Aquitaine and over the reign of her youngest son John. Richard I’s Queen was Berengaria, Daughter of Sancho V of Navarre. Her date of birth is unknown, but between the years of 1165 - 1170. We know little about her early life of upbringing. Berengaria married Richard I on the 12th May 1191 in Limassol, Cyprus and was crowned the queen of England on the same day. There is also very little evidence for her time as Queen Consort. It is also not known if she attended her husbands funeral in 1199. Despite the misconception of “the only queen of England to never step foot in the country” she did visit the country in 1220. She never remarried or had any children. She became more involved with religious activities. She died in 1230. King John is often viewed as the worst kings in English History. He had two wives. First, Isabella of Gloucester. Little is known about her. We do know that she was the youngest daughter of and co-heiress, of William, 2nd Earl of Gloucester and his wife, Hawise. Her birthdate is unknown. They both were great grandchildren of Henry I and faced objections. However, the two married in August of 1189. In the ten years they were married, no children were born. Within months of King John's succession he had obtained a divorce on the grounds of consanguinity. Isabella married two more times but had no children by either of her husbands and died on the 14th October 1217. John then married Isabella of Angouleme. She was born between 1186 -1190, as the only daughter of and heir of Aymer Taillefer, Count of Angoulême and his wife Alice of Courtenay. She was related to the royal houses of France, Jerusalem, Hungary, Aragon and Castile. She was originally betrothed to Hugh IX de Lusignan. However, this fell through and instead John took it upon himself to marry Isabella. They were married, in the summer of 1200, when she was ages 10-14 years old. While he was in his 30s. The couple had five children together. She was described as being called 'more Jezebel than Isabel’. When John died in 1216, Isabella’s life did not get any less dramatic. Firstly, by marrying her daughters intended betrothed, and also the son of the man she was originally supposed to be. She would then go on to give birth to another nine children by her new husband ( Hugh X of Lusignan). She would later be thought of attempting to poison the French King, Louis IX of France and his brother. Then again, in 1244 the two royal cooks admitted the attempted poisoning of the French king, and that they had been paid by Isabella. Before she could be attested, she fled to Fontevraud Abbey, where she died on 4 June, 1246.

Eleanor of Provence was the daughter of Raymond Berenger V, the Count of Provence, and his wife Beatrice of Savoy, born AROUND 1223. She was 12/13 when she married Henry III (who was 16 years her senior) in January 1236. They had five children together, four of them would survive infancy. Her influence with the King made her unpopular and was especially disliked by Londoners. On one occasion, her barge was attacked as she sailed down the River. She was also left as regent during August 1253 and served until May 1254. On 16th November 1272 Henry died, and her son Edward became King of England. She remained in England as Queen Dowager and outlived her husband by 20 years. She would later retire to a convent and become a nun. Eleanor died on 24/25 June 1291 at Amesbury. We do not know the exact sight of her grave. Her son Edward I had two wives. Firstly, Eleanor of Castile. Eleanor was the daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile and Joan, Countess of Ponthieu and was born in about 1241. At age 12 she married Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward I) who was 15. Around a year later, she gave birth to her first short lived child. They would go on to have another 16 children over nearly 30 years. They were crowned in Westminster Abbey in August 1274. They were devoted to each other and Edward heavily listened to her advice in matters of state. She died on the 28th November 1290, with Edward at her bedside, to hear her final wishes. Edward was extremely distraught after her death and although he remarried, he attended memorial services for Eleanor to the end of his life. Edward, who only had one surviving son, feared a succession crisis may take place if something was to happen to his son. Nine years later, he married Margaret of France. Born in 1279. Margaret was the daughter of Philip III of France and Marie of Brabant. Edward married Margaret on the 8th September 1299. He was around 40 years older than his bride. Despite this age gap, the marriage was a happy one. They would have three children together. Including two sons. She also remained on positive terms with her step son (future Edward II). One letter even addresses her as "my very dear lady and mother". Edward I died on the 7th July 1307. Despite her young age, Margaret never remarried or had any more children. She attended the wedding of Edward II and her niece, Isabella of France. She died on the 14th February 1318. Isabella of France earned the nickname of the "She-Wolf of France". She was the daughter of Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre. She was born between 1295-1296. Around the age of 12, on the 25th January 1308, she married Edward I of England. She had four children by him. She would eventually become a key figure in the rebellion which deposed him in 1326, in favour of their eldest son (future Edward III.) Alongside Roger Mortimer. The pair essentially ruled as regent for around four years until 19 October 1330, when her son launched a seizure of power against the pair at Nottingham Castle, and had then Mortimer hanged on November 29th. Isabella herself was placed under house arrest and had to give up her lands and income. She was held under house arrest for a short time but was eventually released. Isabella died on 22nd of August 1358. Edward III had actually married his queen before he came to the throne. His marriage to Philippa of Hainault came about in exchange of military aid in the form of ships and soldiers to Isabella of France and her plan to overthrow her husband Edward II. She was born between 1310-1315? (I found many different dates while researching). She married Edward on the 24th January 1328. They had 12 children together. Including seven sons. She was a popular queen and was devoted to her husband. She became known for her compassion, gentle nature and charity. Philippa successfully pleaded for the lives of the burghers of Calais who surrendered the town to Edward. She died on the 4th August 1369. Richard II came to the throne after his grandfather's death, at just 10 years old. He was the son of Edward, the Black Prince, who died 1376. This made Richard the heir to the throne. He also had two wives. His first wife was Anne of Bohemia, daughter of the Emperor Charles IV of Bohemia and Elisabeth of Pomerania. Anne was born on the 11th May 1366. She married Richard on 22 January 1382. Though it seems she was at first disliked as a queen, her popularity grew overtime and earned the nickname 'Good Queen Anne'. The marriage was a happy one and Richard seemed completely devoted to his wife, but they produced no children. Anne sadly died, due to the plague on the 7th June 1394. Devastating Richard completely. His second wife, Isabella of Valois was the youngest Queen Consort in English History. As she was just shy of her 7th birthday when she married. She was the daughter of King Charles VI of France and his wife Isabeau of Bavaria. She was born on the 9th November 1389. She married Richard (who was 29 years old) on the 31st October 1396. Negotiations specified that the marriage was not to be consummated until her 12th birthday. The king was kind to her and treated her more as a daughter than a wife. Their marriage only lasted 4 years as Richard was deposed by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke (King Henry IV) on the 26th September 1399. Richard would later die on the 14th February 1400. Isabella then was married to Charles, Duke of Orléans, in 1407 at the age of 16. Sadly, Isabella would die in childbirth on 13 September 1409, when she was just 19. Her daughter Joan of Valois survived and married.

This is where it gets slightly more complicated. The Houses of Lancaster and York were two royal families that claimed the English throne through Edward III. This caused the Wars of the Roses, which took place from 1399 to 1485. The House of Lancaster were descended from John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III and the House of York claimed the throne through Edward III's second surviving son, but through a female line. Henry IV’s first wife, Mary of Bohun was the daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford and his wife Joan Fitzalan and was born in 1369/70. She and her sister Eleanor were wealthy heiresses of their fathers possessions. In 1381, she married Henry Bolingbroke (future Henry IV.) The couple had five children together. She died giving birth to her daughter Philippa, around the age of 24. She died before her husband's succession, though her son would become the future Henry V. His second wife was Joan of Navarre. Joan was the daughter of Charles II of Navarre and Joan of France, born sometime in 1368. Joan was first married to John IV of Brittany. Together, the couple had nine children. John would die in 1399. As their eldest son was still a minor. Joan would be left regent and was made his guardian during his minority. After Henry IV expressed a desire to marry her, she left her powers as regent to the duke of Burgundy and departed for England with her daughters. She then married Henry IV on the 7th February 1403. They had no surviving children together. Henry died in 1413 and his son (by his first wife Mary) became Henry V of England. They had a good relationship, though at one point, Joan was accused of plotting against the King, through witchcraft and sorcery and was imprisoned. She was eventually released. She lived through the rest of Henry V’s reign and his son’s Henry VI. Joan died on the 10th June 1437. Henry V married Catherine of Valois. She was born on the 27th October 1401 as the youngest daughter of King Charles VI of France and his wife Isabeau of Bavaria. Catherine married Henry V on 2nd June 1420 and their only son became Henry VI (born in 1421). Henry V died in 1422, leaving his son to the throne at just eight months old. After 1525, rumours and speculation started about a romance between Catherine and Owen Tudor. We don’t know when the pair married or even if they ever did. We know that the couple had at least 4 children. Edmund, Jasper, Owen and a daughter. Edmund would become the father of Henry VII, in the years to come. In 1436, Owen was imprisoned on a charge of treason, after his arrest, Catherine "retired" to Bermondsey Abbey, where she died after giving birth to their last child on the 3rd January 1437. Henry VI married Margaret of Anjou. Margaret was born on the 23rd March 1430 to René of Anjou, and Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine. She married Henry on the 23rd April 1445 at the age of 15. They had one son together, Edward of Westminister, in 1453. Henry experienced states of Catatonic interludes, where he would become mute and unresponsive. He also suffered from hallucinations. Margaret essentially ruled in place and called A Great Council in May 1455 that excluded Richard Duke of York. This caused the series of battles between York and Lancaster that would last more than thirty years. In 1461, Edward IV took the throne and Margaret fled. Though, not for long. She formed an alliance with Richard The Earl of Warwick after he had a falling out with Edward over his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, in a plot to put her husband back on the throne. She initially succeeded but was later taken prisoner by the Yorkists after the Lancastrian defeat at Tewkesbury. Her son Edward also died in this battle. She would later be ransomed by her cousin Louis XI of France. She died on the 25th August 1482. The House of York now sat on the throne. Edward IV would be crowned in 1461. He married Elizabeth Woodville, who was described by people around her as “the most beautiful woman in the island of Great Britain”. She was born in 1437 to an unequal marriage between Jacquetta of Luxembourg and Richard Woodville. She first married Richard Grey and had two sons by him. However he died in the Battle of St Albans in 1461, leaving her a widower. Edward IV married her in secret and there is no documented date, but presumed sometime in May of 1465. The couple had eight children together. She was not a popular queen and faced many challenges and accusations during her marriage. When Edward IV died unexpectedly in April of 1483, her twelve year old son became King Edward V. However, the new king's uncle (Richard of Gloucester) quickly took control of the young king and his younger brother. Elizabeth and her daughters went into sanctuary. All of Elizabeth's children were declared illegitimate and her sons mysteriously disappeared in the Tower of London. Richard III and his wife Anne Neville were crowned King and Queen. In 1485, Henry Tudor invaded England and defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. As per agreement, Henry married Elizabeth's eldest daughter (Elizabeth of York). Finally ending the wars of the roses, by uniting the two houses together. Her titles were restored and she was present at the birth of her grandson (future Henry VIII). Elizabeth Woodville died at Bermondsey Abbey, on 8 June 1492. Anne Neville was the wife of Richard III, the last Plantagenet King. Born in 1456 to Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick and Anne Beauchamp. Her father was one of the most powerful men in England at the time of her birth. To me, it seems Anne’s true age is never really portrayed correctly. She married her first husband, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales when she was just 14. He would die in battle only a year later, alongside her father. This left Anne and her sister, Isabel extremely wealthy. Isabel was already married to George, Duke of Clarence, while now Anne was a widow. Now, both Richard and George scrambled to claim Anne’s share. If she remained without a husband and living under George’s roof, George would control her wealth. Anne and Richard married in the spring of 1483, she was 16 and he was 19. She had one son by him, Edward. I will not go into specifics about Richard III and his nephews. Regardless, Anne was crowned alongside her husband on 6 July 1483. Their only son Edward would die at the age of ten in the April of 1484, leaving Anne completely heartbroken. She herself died on the 16th March 1485 of tuberculosis.