Histoires de famine. La patente au Moyen Age

Collection dirigee par Martin Aurell

4 Plantageriets et Capetiens: confrontations et heritages

EDITE PAR MARTIN AURELL ET NOEL-YVES TONNERRE

BREPOLS '\ I " )_:_ Lj Patronage, Politics and Piety in the Charters of Eleanor of Aquitaine

Nicholas VINCENT

In 1959, H.G. Richardson wrote that Eleanor of Aquitaine 'has been less than happy in her biographers", Even in Richardson's day, this was something of an understatement, since Eleanor has in fact inspired some of the very worst historical writing devoted to the European Middle Ages. Adopted as a figurehead by literary romantics and more recently by feminist historians, the Eleanor of history has been overshadowed by an Eleanor of wishful-thinking and make-believe. The tone here is set by Amy Kelly's biography, first published in 1950. Attempting to enter the mind-set of her heroine after the manner of Sir Walter Scott, Kelly conjures up a fantasy world of courtly love, fair damsels and daring deeds. 'The highhearted Plan- tagenets are marble still. The dusty sunlight falls softly where they sleep', Kelly concludes, in fine pre-Raphaelite mode but with about as much understanding of optical physics as of the reality of twelfth-century kingship". Even the most sober and distinguished of scholars, some of them far too distinguished to cite here by name, have been tempted to tread in Kelly's footsteps. On the one hand they admit that very little is or can be known of Eleanor's personality or daily life. On the other hand, and in direct contradiction of the admitted facts, they then pile conjecture upon conjecture in pursuit of an Eleanor whom even the novelists amongst us might find unduly fantasmagorical. To cite only two recent examples, both from historians who really should know better, the best-selling claims of Professor Simon Schama that Eleanor established a 'troubadour court' at Poitiers, and the even more remark- able statement in a textbook published in 2003 that 'there are references to Eleanor of Aquitaine leading 300 of her women dressed as Amazons during the Second Crusade' are both in their way as extraordinary as any of the claims made by Hol- lywood scriptwriters for King Arthur, or by Alexandre Dumas for the domestic life of Louis XIV3.

Fortunately, for those of us able, Perseus-like, to resist the allure of the Eleanor of Mills and Boon and the 'romans roses', there is a real Eleanor still to be recap- tured. She is to be found in more than a hundred references in the twelfth-century chroniclers, in several dozen dull but nonetheless significant entries in the Pipe Rolls of the twelfth-century kings of England, and above all in the surviving charters or mentions of charters that she herself issued or that were issued in her name.

I H. G. Richardson, "The Letters and Charters of Eleanor of Aquitaine", English Historical Review, 74, 1959, p.193. 2 A. Kelly, Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings, Cambridge Mass., 1950, here quoting from the first English edition, London, Cassell and Co., 1952, p. 387. 3 S. Scharna, A History oj Britain: At The Edge of the World 7 3000BC-AD1603, London, 2000, p.152; C. Daniell, From Norman Conquest to Magna Carta: England 1066-1215, London, 2003, p.92.

17 NICHOLAS VINCENT

In recent times, at least four scholars - Edmond-Rene Labande, H.G. Richardson, Jane Martindale and Marie Hivergneaux - have attempted to employ this factual evidence in their pursuit of an Eleanor very much more plausible than the Eleanor of fantasy'. Richardson and Hivergneaux in particular have drawn attention to the significance of Eleanor's charters. Richardson, in an article published in 1959, attempted on the basis of some 50 documents to demonstrate that Eleanor pos- sessed no chancery establishment of her own. Hivemeaux, in an article published in 2000, based upon a collection almost twice the size of Richardson's, demon- strated with great subtlety how the survivingcharter evidence can be used to delin- eate at least half a dozen distinct periods within Eleanor's career, each period being marked by significant differences in her exercise of power. The present investiga- tion, inspired by what I trust is a far more comprehensive collection of charters _ more than 150 all told - is intended to supplement and to some extent to correct various of these earlier studies. Readers willbe relieved to learn that I do not intend here to deal with the vexed questions of whether Eleanor was a good or a bad mother, whether she was handsome or ugly, or whether she did or did not like French poetry: questions, I would suggest, that are as impossible to answer as what her favourite colour may have been, or whether for breakfast she preferred apples or crispy bacon. Instead, I wish to set out what can be discovered from Eleanor's charters of the queen's patronage and authority, of the people who surrounded her, and in conclusion of the extent to which she should, or perhaps should not, be deemed to merit yet further detailed investigation.

The first and most obvious feature of Eleanor's charters is their sheer number. Although we must assume that the vast majority of documents issued in her name have vanished without trace, we nonetheless have nearly 160 charters or mentions of charters now lost. This is greatly in excess of the number that survives for any other twelfth-or indeed thirteenth-century Queen of England, up to and including the empress Matilda, defacto ruler of large parts of England and Normandy during the 1140s5. Professor Jean Dufour's forthcoming edition of the charters of the queens of France will likewisereveal no Carolingian or Capetian example to rival that of Eleanor. The extent of the collection of her charters points to two themes that will loom large hereafter: firstly that Eleanor was an extraordinarily wealthy woman, and secondly that at significant moments in her life, between 1154 and

• E.-R. Labande, "Pour une image veridique d'Alienor d'Aquitaine", Bulktin de la Sociite des Antiquaim de l'Ouest 4th series 2, 1952, p.175-234; H. G. Richardson, "Letters and Charters", (see n. I) p.193-213; J. Martindale, "Eleanor of Aquitaine", Richard Coeur de Lion in History and Myth, ed. J. Nelson, London, 1992, p.17-50;J. Martindale, "Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Last Years", The &ign of King John, ed. S. Church,

Woodbridge, 1999, p.137-64; M. Hivergneaux, "Alienor d'Aquitaine: Le pouvoir d'une femme ä la lurniere de ses chartes (1152-1204)", La Cour Plantagmit (1154-1204): Actes du Colloque tenu a Thouars du 30 Aiml au 2 Mai 1999, ed. M. Aurell, Poitiers, 2000, p.63-87. 5 For the slightly less than 100 surviving charters of the empress Matilda, see the survey by M. Chibnall, "The Charters of the Empress Matilda", Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy. Essays in Honour of Sir James Holt, ed. G. Garnett, and J. Hudson, Cambridge, 1994, p. 276-96. For other twelfth- century English queens, I have been able to collect less than 20 charters of Berengaria of Navarre, wife of Richard I. The four 'English' charters of Isabella of Angouleme, wife of King john, are published in N. Vincent, "Isabella of Angouleme .john'sjezebel", KingJohn, (see n. 4) p.216-19, with a more extensive collection of charters issued in her capacity as countess of Angouleme and La Marche after 1219 assem- bled by R. C. Watson, "The Counts of Angoulerne from the 9th to the 13th Century", Unpublished University of East Anglia Ph.D. Thesis, 1979.

18 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

1160, between 1168 and 1173, from 1189 to 1194, and again in 1199, she exercised a degree of political influence in England or Aquitaine that was far greater than that enjoyed by most other medieval queens.

The charters themselves can be divided, in accordance with Marie Hiverneaux's analysis, between a number of distinct periods within Eleanor's career. Thus, we have six charters issued by Eleanor as Queen of France before 1152, all relating to her estate in Aquitaine". Four charters concern her period as duchess of Aquitaine and Normandy between 1152 and 11547. Twenty-fivewere issued as regent or queen of England between 1154 and her imprisonment in 1174, three of them concern- ing Normandy or Maine, the remaining twenty-two England". A further twenty-six concern Aquitaine during this period, ten of them perhaps issued during her brief visit to the duchy in 1156-71,the other sixteen undoubtedly granted between 1168 and 1173, when Eleanor attempted to rule in Aquitaine in association with, and as guardian for, her son Richard!", From her years of captivity after 1174, we have but a single charter, issued at Aleneon for the nuns of Fontevraud in 118511• Thereafter, with her release on the accession of Richard I, we have five charters issued as regent for Richard in England between 1189 and 119412, twenty-two charters issued after 1189 concerning her dower lands in England!", and two or three concerned with her dower or with other affairs in Normandy!". Above all, we have more than sixty charters issued for Aquitaine after 1189, fourteen of them concerning Eleanor's jurisdiction there during the reign of Richard Jl5, no less than thirty-eight issued in the single year 1199, following the death of Richard, when Eleanor enjoyed a brief period of personal rule within the duchy", and twelve probably to be dated to the final years of her life between 1200 and 120417• Divided chronologically into only two periods, before and after the death of Henry II, the collection contains 66 charters issued during Eleanor's first sixtyfiveyears before 1189, or roughly 1 char- ter a year, set against 93 issued during the last fifteen years of her life: a survival rate more than six times as great as that before 1189, distorted by the extraordinary survival of nearly 40 charters from the one year 1199. Divided geographically, the collection contains six charters relating to Normandy and Maine, 50 concerning England and more than 100 concerning Poitou and Aquitaine, providing some indication of the predominantly southern focus of Eleanor's interests, but nonethe- less suggesting that England was by no means so foreign to Eleanor as has some-

6 Below appendix nos.128-9, 146, 151, 153 and probably no.154.

7 Appendix nos.67, 100, 132, 152, and for the political significance of this small group of charters, see J. Martindale, 'Eleanor', (1999, see n.4) p.32. 8 Appendix nos.I, 6, 7, 9, 12, 19,34,37,39,45,47,75-7,87-8,94-5, 117-18, 125, 159, and see nos.85, 90, 148 for Maine and Normandy. 9 Appendix nos.8, 48-9, 89, 113, 120-1, 139, 145 and perhaps no.122. 10 Appendix nos.ll, 31, 41, 55-7, 84, 92-3, 99,112,123 and probably nos.86, 98,133-4. II Appendix no.58, perhaps merely duplicated in no. 70. 12 Appendix nos.l0, 26-9. 13 Appendix nos.2-5, 13,20,35,40,44,46,53,61,81,105-6,124,126,143,155-8. 14 Appendix nos.l38, 150, and possibly no.23. IS Appendix nos.18, 22, 24, 30, 43, 62, 68-9, 74, 110, and possibly nos.30, 42, 71, 137.

16 Appendix nos.15-17, 21, 32-3, 36, 51-2, 59, 60, 63, 65-6, 72-3, 79, 82-3, 91, 97, 101, 103-4, 107-9, Ill, 114-16, 127, 130-1, 140-1, 147, 149. 17 Appendix nos. 14,50,54,64,80,96,102,119,135-6,142,144.

19 NICHOLAS VINCENT times been supposed. It was as Queen of England, after all, rather than as duchess of Aquitaine, that Eleanor was known by her contemporaries, and it was in England that Eleanor was to spend most of her life after 1154, from 1154 to 1168, from 1174 to 1190 and again between 1192 and May 1194: a residence of nearly 39 years, as opposed to the relatively brief period of less than twenty years, in 1156-7, from 1168 to 1173 and from 1194 to 1204, during which she is known to have been chiefly resident in Aquitaine. It was as Queen of England and duchess of Normandy that Eleanor was shown crowned on the majesty side of her seal, with the reverse show- ing her wearing a simple band or coronet as duchess of Aquitaine and countess of Anjou'",

Historians, keen to bolster the myth of Eleanor as an exiled southern princess - a myth, it should be noticed which enjoyed some currency amongst Poitevin writ- ers even in Eleanor's own lifetime'? - have tended to exaggerate the extent to which she may have found England and the English uncongenial. Regine Pernoud, for example, describing the period of the Queen's captivity at Old Sarum after 1174, writes that 'on peut imaginer qu 'elle connut des instants de desespoir; qu 'elle demeura parfois prosnie. durant les sombresjournies d 'hiver enveLoppees de brume, quand les cris des cornedles, tournayant autour des atbres squelettiques, remplacaient pour elle cefond musical de flute et de cithare~o. In reality, the trees of Sarum may have been no more skeletal and the Sarum crows no more raucous than those of Poitou. Sarum was probably chosen for Eleanor's captivity precisely because it was a place in which she took particular delight. It was at Old Sarum that she had issued four of her letters and charters before 1160, more than at any other English location during the lifetime of her husband". Itwas at Sarum after 1173 that the King undertook significant new build- ing work, to improve the condition of the royal apartments", and it was to the archives of the local diocesan, the bishop of Salisbury, that Eleanor appears to have entrusted the keeping of a confraternity arrangement that she had entered into at some time between 1158 and 1165 with the monks of Reading, itself a significant indication of the extent to which she had already, before 1174, established friendly relations with English monasteries and churchmen'".

18 F. Eygun, Sigillographie du Poitou jusqu'en 1515, Poitiers, 1938, p.159-60 nos.4-5, esp. p.l60 no.4a. 19 See here the lament on southern subjection to Henry II, the King of the north, printed in Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de fa France, ed. M. Bouquet, and others, 24 vols., Paris, 1738-1904, xii, p.419-2I, esp. p.420, referring to Eleanor's exile "to an unknown land", where she would be forced to live with an obscure and savage people ("cum gmlL ignota et inculJa"), dated by its editor to the end of Henry II's reign, but highly speculatively to c.1174 by N. Kenaan-Kedar, "Alienor d' Aquitaine conduite en captivite", Cahiers de Civilisation Mediivale, 41, 1998, p.323. This Poitevin lament, with its scriptural references to the harp and the organ, appears to be the direct inspiration for Pernoud's purple prose cited below. 20 R. Pernoud, Aliirwr d 'Aquitaine, Paris 1965, repr.1981, p.182-3. 21 Appendix nos.7, 9, 34, 47 22 The History of the King's WorlcsI: The Middle Agps, ed. R. Brown, H. M. C. Allen, and AJ. Taylor, 2 vols., London, 1963, ii, p.826. 23 C. Cheney, "A Monastic Letter of Fraternity to Eleanor of Aquitaine", English Historical Review, 51, 1936, pA88-93, at pA88 also noting the confraternity arrangements that Eleanor appears to have made with the monks of Canterbury and possibly those of Winchester.

20 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

Far from experiencing a lonely exile, there is in fact considerable evidence, both before and after 1174, that Eleanor had good cause to enjoy her life in England. Part of this evidence is to be found in the Pipe Rolls of the royal Exchequer, virtu- allyour only source of insight into Eleanor's finances. Here she is to be found, from the moment of her arrival in 1154, commanding very significant resources. In the single year to Michaelmas 1156,for example, nearly £600 of expenditure isrecorded on behalf of the Queen and her household, a figure that probably represents only a fraction of the total actually spent'" This included more than £60 spent at London and Winchester on the Queen, her children and their nurse, including significant sums on clothing and wine25• On her return to England from Aquitaine in 1157, she was likewise richly entertained, with a further £600 recorded in her expenses, including the purchase of incense, basins, pepper, cumin, cinnamon and almonds at Winchester, and the purchase of robes and their transport from Winchester to Oxford'", In 1159, more than £80 was spent at London on robes for the Queen, and three shillings were recorded as the cost of bringing chestnuts ('castaneas') for her from Warwickshire to Old Sarum'". At Winchester in 1160, work was carried out on the Queen's chapel, houses and garden, and more than £22 was spent in the transport of her robes and wine, on incense and coffers for her chapel, on shields for her attendants, and on her chamber and cellar". The fewroyal charters in which she appears during this period suggest once again that she had already begun to forge links to England and especially to the English monasteries. In this way,probably shortly after her coronation at Westminster in December 1154, she appears as witness to a group of charters issued by Henry II to the London priory of the Holy Trinity,founded earlier in the twelfth century by Eleanor's predecessor as Queen, Matilda the wife of King Henry 129•Described as the King's wife, or with full designation as Eleanor the Queen, she also appears as the intended recipient of prayers and spiritual benefits in the pro anima clauses to at least a dozen of Henry II's charters issued to the abbeys and priories of England in the 1150s or

24 The Great Rolls oJ the Pipe for the Second, Third and Fourth Year.sof the Reign oj King Henry the Second, ed.]. Hunter, London, 1844 (henceforth Pipe Rolls 2-4 Henry 11), p.4, 5. 9,11,13,15,17,20-1,23,34,52,54, 57,63,65. 25 Pipe Rolls 2-4 Henry II, (see n. 24) p. 4-5, p. 52. 26Jbidem, p.112, 116, 123-4, 141-2, 149, 157-9, 171, 175-6, and for expenses on her return from France in 1157, see also p.107. 27 The Great RoU oj the Pipe Jor the Fifth Year oj the Reign oj King Henry the Second, Pipe Roll Society 1, 1884 (henceforth citing this and subsequent rolls, all published by the Pipe Roll Society, as Pipe RoU 5 Henry II etc), p.l , 25. 28 Pipe RoU 6 Henry II, p.49. 29 For Henry's charters to Holy Trinity London witnessed by Eleanor, see London, Public Record Office E4O/6242; Cartae Antiquae Rolls 11-20, ed. J. Conway Davies, Pipe Roll Society new series 33, 1960, nos. 389,396,401. She also appears at Westminster, again probably in December 1154, as witness to a charter in favour ofWarin fitz Gerald; at Bridgnorth, probably in the summer of 1155, as witness to a charter in favour ofWroxall Priory, and at Lincoln, probably in December 1157, as witness to a charter to the nuns of Godstow: N. Vincent, "Warin and Henry Fitz Gerald the King's Chamberlains: The Origins of the FitzGeralds Revisited", Angio-Norman Studies XXI, ed. C. Harper-Bill, Woodbridge, 1999, p.252-3 no.l; Calendar oJ Charter Rolls 1327-41, London, 1912, p.63; PRO E164/20 (Godstow cartulary) fO.I9v. The place of issue of a charter to the order of Sempringham, apparently given by Henry II before 1162 "apud Bangisit, cannot be identified: London, British Library ms. Cotton Claudius D xi (Malton cartu- lary) fO.30r (28r).

21 NICHOLAS VINCENT

60s30• It wasat much this same time that Eleanor began to take an interest in Anglo- Norman literature, and especially in English history. Contrary to popular myth, there is precious little evidence at any stage of her career to suggest that Eleanor patronised the poetry of the southern troubadours". Bycontrast, the one work of vernacular poetry that was undoubtedly dedicated to her was an Anglo-Norman translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'History of the Kings of Britain'F. In Eng- land too she had already begun the recruitment of English or Anglo-Norman knights and clerks to her household. Besides such men asJocelin de Balliol, Hugh de Gundeville or Manasser Biset- royal officialswho appear aswitnesses to the writs and charters issued by Eleanor in her capacity as regent after 115833 - as early as 1155 her expenses were being supervised by a knight named Ralph of Hastings, sprung from a family with a longstanding tradition of service as stewards to the queens of England". For her regular Channel crossings, Eleanor could call upon the assistance of the lords of Padworth in Berkshire, confirmed as a serjeanty by charter of Henry II, with the obligation of providing service to the Queen's' esnecca' or great ship, whenever it should cross between England and Normandy'".

A similarly significant interest in England emerges from Eleanor's charters, if we now reshuffle them, dividing them up not by date but according to the purpose of the various commands and gifts that they record. From this exercise, two impor- tant points emerge: firstly,that Eleanor was in many waysa very tightfisted patron both in France and in England, and secondly that her English patronage was second only to the patronage that she lavished upon the one institution that seems most significantly to have engaged her interest, the abbey of Fontevraud. Seen in this light, of our 157letters and charters, 35 can immediately be dismissed from con- sideration as administrative writs or miscellaneous letters, for the most part issued

30 Full details here will be forthcoming in 1M Acta oj King Henry II 1154-1189, ed. N. Vincent, J. C. Holt and]. Everard, 4 vols., Oxford, forthcoming. From those of the 3100 charters of Henry II that I have thus far indexed, see nos.351, 384, 601,799,1081, 1138, 1254, 1338, 1360, 1421, 1426-7 (for the religious of Bullington, Byland, Chicksands, Durford, Fountains, Haverholme, Hurley, the Hospitallers, Kirkstall and Kirkstead), and from France, no.I029 (for the lepers of La Fleche). A confirmation by Henry II to Hurley Priory made for the soul of William, the King's eldest son (d.1l55) (no.1138) is specifically said to have been made at the request and with the assent of the Queen. " See most recently here, R Harvey, "Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Troubadours", The World oJEleanor oj Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France Betueen the Eleventh and Thirteenth Centuries, ed. M. Bull and C. Leglu, Woodbridge, 2005, p.l01-14 . ssK.M. Broadhurst, "Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine: Patrons of Literature in French ?", Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 27, 1996, p.7().84. ~'For Jocelin, Hugh and Manasser as witnesses to Eleanor's writs, see appendix nos.l, 9,11-12,19,34, 37,47, 75, 85. S< For Ralph as witness to Eleanor's charters, on one occasion with title as steward, see appendix nos. II, 113. For his role in supervising expenses, see Pipe RoUs 2-4 Henry II, (see n. 24) p.ll, 21, 65,124, In, 176; Pipe RnU 5 Henry II, (see n. 27) p.18, 35, 38, 58. For his family, and for the service of his uncle, Reginald of Windsor, as steward to Queen Adela, widow of King Henry I, both men being close relations of the King's chamberlain, Warin fitz Gerald, see N. Vincent, "Warin and Henry Fitz Gerald", (see n. 29) p.248; Acta oj Henry II, (see n. 30) no.1235. '5 For Henry II's charter to Alard fitz William, c.1177, confirming Padworth "per seruicium serganterie ad seruandam neccam regine Angl(orum) inter Angtiam et Normann(iam)", a service that dated back to at least the reign of Henry I, see PRO E368/123 (LTR Memoranda Ro1l25 Edward III) rn.53d (Acta o/Henry II, see n. 30, no.1020). For references to the Queen's 'esnecca', see Pipe RoU 5 Henry II, (see n. 27) p.4l, 45; Pipe RoU 6 Henry II, p.47.

22 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE as regent in England before 1160,which tell us little or nothing of the Queen's own patronage but merely of the requests that were put to her by petitioners who would normally have approached the King". No less than 43 charters, 29 of them for southern beneficiaries, three for Normandy, two for Maine, and eight for England, take the form of confirmations, on occasion of settlements devised in Eleanor's own court, but containing no element of new grant". A further twelve consist for the most part of awards of protection, occasionally restoring good customs or lands said previously to have been withheld, in only one instance, for the Cistercians of Can- deil, mentioning a potential, though not as yet an actual, grant of land", Sixteen more are essentially minor grants, sometimes attached to confirmations, including awards of quittance from toll or custom, rights to take timber, hunting privileges, the right to have men serve a monastery in particular localities, the restoration of part of a vineyard, the right to free warren, or in one instance restoring a gold cup offered to the Queen in payment of a debt". Whilst not entirely negligible, none of these awards can be considered as a major act of patronage. This leaves us with barely 50 charters of real significance for our perception of Eleanor as patron. either of laymen and women or of the religious. Of these, ten concern the towns ofAquitaine, almost all of them issued in 1199, granting rights to a commune, con- firming customs or concerning the right to a minr'", This particular group of char- ters, although highly significant as an indication of the revival of urban life in the south, involved the alienation of no land and perhaps little income. Indeed, by stimulating commercial activity and in certain instances by confirming privileges already awarded by Henry II, Richard I, Otto of Brunswick or King John, these charters may have been intended in the long term to increase the duchy's potential revenues", Thirteen charters involve the award of rents or the right to levy tolls, directed mostly to the monasteries, though in one instance to a layman of Aqui- taine, all made payable from the Queen's southern resources. The most substantial awards here were to Fontevraud, including her confirmation of an annual rent of 500 sous poitevines granted as Queen of France before 1152 in association with her first husband Louis VII42,a rent of 100 livres from the revenues of Poitiers and

36 For writs or letters as regent, all but one of them before 1160, see apppendix nos.l, 6, 7,9,10,19,26, 34, 37, 39, 47, 75-7, 87-8, 94-5, 117-18, 125. For other miscellaneous petitions or administrative writs, charters and concords, see nos.27-9, 68, 79-81, 106, 110, 133-4, 142, 155, 159. '7 Appendix nos.ll, 14, 16, 18,36,48,55,59,62,69,72-4,84,89,100-1,107,113,120, 122, 128-31, 139- 40, 1534 (Aquitaine), 5, 35, 44, 53, 61, 143, 156-7 (England), 23, 85, 90, 148, 150 (Normandy or Maine) . ssAppendix nos.21-2, 24, 41. 49, Ill, 114-16, 121, 123, 151. ,g Appendix nos.8 (right to timber), 12 (free warren), 20 (gold cup), 31 (quittance from custom), 42 (quittance from salt tax and right to take timber), 50 (quittance from providing bread for the Queen's hounds), 52 (grant of the service of a burgess of La Rochelle), 56 (grant of Peter de Ruffee with his annual rent oflOOs. Poitevin), 57 (rights to take timber), 71 (quittance from custom), 91a (right to take timber and to pasture animals), 93 (restoration of a vinyard), 99 (quittance from custom), 136 (quittance from custom), 144 (licence to carry salt), 152 (quittance from custom). 40 Appendix nos.l5, 17,82-3, 102-4, 108-9, 127. 4' For more detailed study here, see J. Martindale, "Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Last Years", (see n. 4) p.162-3; G. Pon, and Y. Chauvin, "Chartes de libertes et de communes de I'Angoumois, du Poitou et de la Saintenge (fin XII'-debut XIII' siede)", Mimoires de In. Societi de Antiquaires de l'Ouest, 5th series 8, 2002, p.25-149. 42 Appendix no.67, as noted byJ.-M. Bienvenu, "Alienor d'Aquitaine et Fontevraud", Cahiers de Civilisa- tion Mediivale, 29, 1986, p.17-19, esp. p.18 n.19, p. 19 n.25

23 NICHOLAS VINCENT

Benon granted during Eleanor's first visit to France after 1174 and apparently made in association with King Henry II and Richard her son", a further annual rent of 100 livres from the revenues of Oleron granted in 1199 to finance the Queen's obit celebrations", an annual rent of 10 livres from Oleron to pay for celebrations in the chapel ofSt-Laurence that Eleanor had founded at Fontevraudv, and two fur- ther grants, each of 10 livres of the rents of Oleron, intended for the use of Elean- or's grand-daughter, Alice daughter of the countess of Blois46, and of Alice prioress of Fontevraud, in both cases to be put towards obit celebrations after the benefici- aries' deaths". Earlier awards of rents or toll to a layman at St-Pandelon (Landes), to the monks of Fontenay-Ie-Comte, Lieu-Dieu-en-jard, Maillezais, the canons of St-Hilaire at Poitiers and to the hospital at Surgeres were in all but one case made in association with Henry II or Richard I, and appear to have involved no very sig- nificant alienation of revenue". This leaves us with eight awards of land to laymen or women in England"; three grants of land to English monasteries or hospitals'", one grant of land and forest rights to a layman in Normandy?', eight grants of land or a mint to southern laymen'", and eight or nine grants of land to monasteries in Aquitaine'" - figures which suggest a distribution of largesse that was almost as generous to secular beneficiaries in England as in France, and from which only the monasteries ofPoitou benefited to a significantly greater degree than their English counterparts.

Hwe leave to one side for the moment the question of Eleanor's secular patron- age, a more detailed examination of her awards to the religious would reveal that it was Fontevraud above all other monasteries that benefited from the Queen's largesse, with gifts of rents worth at least 250 livres poitevines each year, mostly from the Ile-d'Oleron, as well as an oven and houses at Poitiers and the viIIof]aunay-Clan (Vienne) granted by Eleanor to endow the work, perhaps the building work, of the nuns' kitchen". As Queen of France, before 1152, she had also made significant grants of forest and moor to the monks of St-Maixent, and of mills and houses at

••Appendix no. 58, probably merely duplicated in no.70. For the confirmations by Henry II and Richard, see Acta of Henry II, (see n. 30) no.l063 (previously printed in Recueil des Actes de Henri II roi d'Angletnn et due de Notmandie concernant les provinces jraTifaises et les affaim de France, ed. L. Delisle, and E. Berger, 3 vols., Paris, 1916-27, ii, no.655) ;J.-M. Bienvenu, ~Alienor d'Aquitaine et Fontevraud" (see n. 42), p.21 n.4B . .. Appendix no.63, whence J.-M. Bienvenu, ~Alienor d' Aquitaine et Fontevraud", (see n. 42) p.26, where it is suggested that Eleanor made two awards, one of a rent of l00s. angevin, the other of l00s. poite- Yin . •5 Appendix no.65, whence J.·M. Bienvenu, ~Alienor d'Aquitaine et Fontevraud", (see n. 42) p.26 n.95. 46 Appendix no.66, whence J.-M. Bienvenu, "Alienor d'Aquitaine et Fontevraud", (see n. 42) p.25 n.89. 47 Appendix no.64, whence J.-M. Bienvenu, ~Alienor d'Aquitaine et Fontevraud", (see n. 42) p.26 n.90. 48 Appendix nos.43, 51, 86, 92,112,145. 49 Appendix nos.24, 13,40,45-6,105. 50 Appendix nos.l24, 126, 158.

51 Appendix no.138. 52 Appendix nos.30, 32-3 (covering the same award), 78, 91, 96-7,119,141. "Appendix nos.54, 60, 98,132,135,137 (perhaps duplicating no.132), 146-7, 149. 54 In addition to the rents listed above, see appendix nos.54 (not noticed byJ.-M. Bienvenu), 60 (noticed byJ.-M. Bienvenu, "Alienor d'Aquitaine et Fontevraud", see n. 42, p.26 n.91, but perhaps misinterpret- ing the phrase •ad coquinam earum" to suggest the endowment of a food allowance rather than the building of the nuns' new kitchen).

24 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

La Rochelle to the Templars, her charters as Queen of England after 1154 perhaps merely confirming these earlier awards". In reward for his attendance at the obse- quies of Richard I, in 1199 she granted a pond and two mills at Langeais (Indre-et- Loire) to the Benedictine abbot of 'Iurpenay'". However, it is important to stress that even amongst her religious benefactions, Eleanor seems to have founded no new priory or abbey", Likewise she showed herself to be no particular devotee of hospitals and leper houses which elsewhere appear to have attracted the particular attention of women patrons'Benedictines and the Cistercians and to those southern French houses - at Cadouin, Candeil, Les Chätelliers, Dalon and Grandselve - established by Ger- ard de Sales in association with Robert of Arbrissel, the founder of Fontevraud, and from the 1140s onwards incorporated within the wider order of Citeaux". With the exception of Fontevraud and its daughter houses, she appears to have shown no particular favouritism for nunneries or houses of women religious'". Above all, and one again with the exception of her gifts to Fontevraud, her religious patronage was neither especially generous nor especially extensive, either in England or in Aquitaine, and this despite the fact that for much of her life, both before 1174 and after 1189, she was in possession of financial and landed resources that qualified her to rank as one of the richest women in Christendom. On the basis of the Pipe Roll figures alone, her English income of at least £600 a year during the mid-1150s was more than six times that of the average English baron. Even during her captiv- ity, after 1174, the Pipe Rolls suggest that, although her lands were confiscated by the King, she continued to draw an annual allowance of as much as £180, and this despite the fact that we must assume a drastic reduction during this period both in

55 Appendix nos.132, 135, 137, 146-7. 56 Appendix no.149. 57 The suggestion that it was she who founded Fontevraud's priory at Ste-Catherine La Rochelle c.1185 is founded only upon much later testimony:J.-M. Bienvenu, "Alienor d'Aquitaine et Fontevraud", (see n. 42) p.21, citing P. Marchegay, Notices et documents historiques, Angers, 1857, p.204. 58 For grants or confirmations to hospitals, see appendix nos.126, 145, 158. 59 Broken down by order, the houses which preserved charters from Eleanor were Benedictine (Abing- don, Belvoir, Ste-Croix Bordeaux, Bourgueil, Burton, Bury St Edmunds, St-Etienne Caen, Christ Church Canterbury, Colchester, Fontaines-en-Talmondais, Fontenay-le-Comte, St Benet Holme, Horsham, St- Vincent Le Mans, Uanthony, LUI;on, Maillezais, MaIling, Malmesbury, La Meilleraie, Ste-Croix Poitiers, Puyravault, Reading, St-Aignan-d'Oleron, StAlbans, Notre-Dame Saintes, St-Eutrope Saintes, St-Maixent, La Grande-Sauve, Turpenay) , C1uniac-Benedictine (Bermondsey, Montiemeuf) ; FontevraIdine-Benedic- tine (Amesbury, St-Bibien d'Argenson, Fontevraud) ; Cistercian (Fontmorigny, Grace-Dieu, Merci-Dieu, Le Pin, Le Valasse, Ste-Trinite Vendöme); Foundations of Gerard de Sales, later incorporated as Cister- cian (Cadouin, Candeil, Les Chätelliers, Dalon, Grandselve); Augustinian (Cirencester, Dunstable, Fontaine-le-Comte, Sablonceaux, Southwick, Waltham), Premonstratensian (Lieu-Dieu-en-jard, Luzerne), and Grandmontaine (Grandmont) . Two at this time were still secular colleges (Ste-Radegonde and St-Hilaire Poitiers). 00 See here, apart from the FontevraIdine houses, charters for Mailing, Ste-Croix Poitiers and St-Mary- du-Pre at St Albans.

25 NICHOLAS VINCENT

the size of her household and in the opportunities that she had to incur expense'", Ironically, it was during the years of her captivity, though not it should be stressed at Eleanor's own bidding, that the King employed an extensive portion of her estate for the endowment of his new Augustinian abbey at Waltham in Essex, an endow- ment made in recompense for Henry's role in the murder of Thomas Becket and only later, perhaps somewhat reluctantly, confirmed in charters from the Queen and even then only in return for an annual rent of £60 from the canons to Eleanor", It was Henry, rather than Eleanor herself, who during the same period and out of the same desire for penance for Becket's murder established Amesbury Priory in Wiltshire as a daughter-house of Fontevraud, expelling the former community and introducing nuns from the Fontevraldine priory of Westwood in Worcestershire63• There is no clear proof that Amesbury had previously formed part of Eleanor's English estate, even though the nuns are known to have been in communication with the Queen in the late 1150s64• However, the fact that the King endowed the new priory with various lands that had traditionally been associated with the dowers of England's queens, including land at Winterslow (Wiltshire) pertaining to the manor of Berkhamsted - both manors later included in Eleanor's dower - as well as the significantly named 'Queen's Wood' at Nether Wallop in Hampshire, suggests that, as at Waltham Abbey, Henry II may have taken the opportunity afforded by his wife's disgrace to confer yet another portion of her confiscated dower lands upon his own foundations". If this were indeed the case, then Henry's atonement for the murder of Becket was conducted at even less expense to the King than has previously been suggested". In many ways, the King's activities at Amesbury and Waltham may remind us of the practice of Henry's grandfather, King Henry I, whose

61 For payments to Eleanor after 1174, that must be considered as only a fraction of her total expenditure, see Pipe RoU 20 Henry II, p.29, 34 (£39,1173-4); Pipe RoU 21 Henry II, p.lOO, 106 (£160, II 74-5) ; Pipe RoU 22 Henry II, p.171, 198 (£80, 1175-6); Pipe RoU 26 Henry II, p.95, 118-20 (£180, 1179-80); Pipe RoU 27 Henry II, p.5, 129 (£lIO, lI8()'1). In other years, her expenses are recorded as less than £30: Pipe RoU 23 Henry II, p.166; Pipe RoU 24 Henry II, p.128; Pipe RoU 25 Henry II, p.125; Pipe RoU 28 Henry II, p.l09, 159; Pipe RoU 29 Henry II, p.134. 62 For the refoundation, c.1177, see The Early Charters of Waltham Abbey 1062-1230, ed. R. Ransford, Woodbridge, 1989, p.xxiv-v: E. Hallam, "Henry IIas a Founder of Monasteries", Journal of &clesiastical History, 28, 1977, p.113, 124-5. For proof that Waltham itself had earlier formed part of Eleanor's estate, see Pipe Rolls 2-4 Henry II, (see n. 24) p.73, 133, and for her charters to the abbey after 1189, see appen- dix nos.155-7, esp. no.156. 6~ Acta of Henry II, (see n. 30) no.45 (&cueil., ed. Delisle and Berger, see n. 43, ii, no.539) ; E. Hallam, "Henry II as a Founder of Monasteries", (see n. 62) p.1l7-18.

64 Appendix no.6. 65 For lands and rights at Amesbury itself as well as at Allington, Boscombe, Bulford, Winterboum and Winterslow in Wiltshire, and in Queen's Wood in Nether Wallop (Hampshire), granted or confirmed by Henry to the nuns after 1177, see Acta of Henry II, (see n. 30) no.45. For the traditional association of all of these places, save for the self-evidently "reginal" Queen's Wood, with the dowers of the late Anglo-Saxon queens, see M. S. Meyer, "The Queen's 'Demesne' in Later Anglo-Saxon England", The CultUTl! of Christendom. Essays in Medieval Histury in Commemoration of Denis L. T. Bethell; ed. MA Meyer, London, 1993, p.113. For the specification of Winters low and Berkhamsted as parts of Eleanor's dower, see below n.88. It is of course possible that the majority of these lands were merely confirmed to Ames- bury in the 1170s, having been granted to the previous community of nuns by the Anglo-Saxon queens. 66 For Henry's expenditure on his new foundations, lavish at Waltham but relatively modest elsewhere, and for his reluctance to alienate land to these houses from his own estate, see E. Hallam, "Henry IIas a Founder of Monasteries". (see n. 62) p.129-32.

26 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE greatest monastic foundation, Reading Abbey, also built as an act of penance, appears to have been established using land likewise 'abstracted' from the estate of former English queens".

Contrary to what might be supposed from the survival of 160 of her charters, Eleanor emerges as only an indifferent patron of the religious, some of her most generous awards having perhaps been prised from her, against her will, during her years in captivity in the 1170s. Even after 1189, her preference for gifts of annual rents to Fontevraud over gifts ofland can be read as evidence of a less than open- handed approach to patronage, ensuring that only the proceeds of land were per- manently alienated from her estate; the lands themselves, in this instance on the Ile-d'Oleron, and their potential for future increase in income remained firmly under ducal control. In each instance such rents were granted in the expectation of spiritual benefits, and in particular of obit celebrations for Eleanor or her family. In this regard it is worth pointing out that it was not only for herself and her sons that the Queen endowed obits. We have, for example, her gift to St-Hilaire at Poi tiers intended to commemorate earl Patrick of Wiltshire, killed in 1168 fighting in defence of Eleanor against the rebellious Lusignans'", We have evidence of her involvement in the endowment of Hurley Priory for the commemoration of her infant son, William, and of her later confraternity arrangement with Reading where William lay buried'", We have her endowment of obits at Fontevraud for Alice her grand-daughter, and for Alice the abbey's prioress?", More significantly still,just as Eleanor was occasionally commemorated in the pro anima clauses of the charters of King Henry II both before and after 1174, so we have a number of awards in which the Queen specifically refers to the commemoration of her husband, King Henry II7l• One of these dates from before 1154, another from Eleanor's brief period in France in 1185, when she was persuaded to grant rents to the nuns of Fontevraud 'for the good of the soul of my lord the King and for my own soul and that of Rich- ard my son and my other sons, daughters and ancestors', an award in which Henry II himself clearly took keen interest". Nonetheless, although after 1189 it was for the soul of Richard or for Eleanor's own soul that the majority of her pious benefac- tions were said to have been made, Henry II was by no means entirely forgotten". In Eleanor's charters issued after 1189, Henry is twice referred to as 'of pious

67 P. Stafford, "'Cherchez la femme'. Queens, Queens' Lands and Nunneries: Missing Links in the Foundation of Reading Abbey", Hislory, 85, 2000, p.4-27. 68 Appendix no.112. 69 Infra nn.23, 30, 72. 70 Appendix nos.64, 66.

71 For an example of a "pro anima" clause from the late 1180s in which the King once again refers to the soul of his wife, see Acta of Henry II, (see n. 30) no.763, previously printed in W. Dugdale, and R. Dods- worth, Monaslicon Anglicanum, ed. J. Caley, H. Ellis and B. Bandinei, 6 vols., London, 1846, vi, 944, a grant to Dodford Priory, probably in 1186, made "pro anima Henr(ici) aui mei et pro anima pains mei Galfrid(i) et matris mee Matild(is) imperatricis, pro salute anime mee cl Alienore regine mee ct puerorum heredum meorum', 72 Appendix nos.58, 152, this latter made in 1153-4 for the souls of Eleanor and Henry and for the con. tinuing health of William their son, clearly a child who was already the cause of concern, born in August 1153 and destined to die in 1156, being buried at Reading Abbey. For gifts made by Henry II to Hurley at Eleanor's request for the commemoration of William, see above n.30. 73 For the commemoration of Richard I, see appendix nos.24, 58-9, 63, 72, 101, 114,147, 149-50, 156. KingJohn is specifically commemorated in appendix no.l30, Henry the Young King in nos.63, 156.

27 NICHOLAS VINCENT record'?', Confirming Henry's gifts to the monks ofLe Valasse in Normandy, Eleanor claimed to act 'for the soul of the lord King Henry and for the salvation of my son King Richard'P. Likewise, in a charter confirming grants made to the canons of Southwick Priory by William du Hommet, the late King's constable, originally awarded for the soul ofWiIliam's wife, Eleanor's charter is couched as a grant made 'out oflove of God and the blessed Virgin Mary and for the souls of that illustrious King Henry our lord and my sons King Henry and count Geoffrey and our daugh- ter the duchess Matilda and others of our children and relations and friends', the slip from first person plural to singular here in the reference to Eleanor's sons being worthy of note". All told, in no less than six of her charters issued after 1189, Eleanor included her late husband amongst those for whose spiritual benefit she claimed to act". Such phrases might be dismissed as mere pious platitudes but in a similar vein, the Pipe Rolls record gifts made by Eleanor in 1189, immediately after Henry's death, of two marks to the monks of Winchester Cathedral and 20 marks to the nuns of Amesbury, 'for the salvation of the soul of her (late) hus- band", According to Jocelin of Brakelond, when the monks of Bury St Edmunds, in raising their contribution for the ransom of King Richard, were forced to send up to London a gold cup given to them by Henry II, Eleanor insisted that the cup be restored to Bury as a perpetual memorial to her late husband?"

Biographers, many of them no doubt more familiar with the performance of Katherine Hepburn in TheLion in Winter-than with the Eleanor of charters and Pipe Rolls, have tended to present the Queen's relations with her husband as one long story of cross words and broken crockery. The tone here was set as long ago as 1835 in Lady Callcott's emetic but highly influential Little Arthurs History afEngland. Here we are told that Henry II married a woman named Eleanor of Aquitaine who 'brought up (her) children badly, and instead of teaching them to love their father, who was very kind to them, she encouraged them to disobey him ... Now Henry's great fault in marrying a bad woman because she was rich, brought the greatest punishment with it, for she taught her children to be wicked and to rebel against their father. And there is nothing in the world so unhappy as a family where the children behave ill to their parents?", sentiments with which most medieval kings, not to mention most modern parents, would only too readily agree. Nonetheless, the very fact that it should have been Fontevraud to which the Queen retired after 1194, following in a tradition established by various of Henry's female Angevin kinsfolk, suggests that Eleanor felt some depth of attachment to her late husband. Fontevraud, after all, was chosen for her retirement in part because both King

7. Appendix n05.42, 63, for Dalon and Fontevraud.

75 Appendix no. ISO. 76 Appendix no.143. 77 Appendix nos.61, 63,143,147, ISO, 156. 78 The Great RoY of the Pipe for the First Year of the Rrig;n of King Richard the First, ed. J. Hunter, London, 1844, p.6,197. 79 The Chronicle ofJocelin of Brakelond; ed. H.E. Butler, London, 1949, p.46-7, apparently distinct from the Queen's gift of another gold cup, a gift made in commemoration of Richard I, appendix no.20, as noted byJ. Martindale, "Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Last Years", (see n. 4) p.148n. 80 Lady Maria Callcott, Little Arthur's History of England, London, 1835, here quoting from the Century edition, last republished in 1981, p.66-8.

28 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

Richard and King John might have found it inconvenient to have so domineering a mother established in the ducal capital at Poi tiers, but in part also because it was at Fontevraud that Eleanor's late husband lay buried'", Whatever we may make of Eleanor's supposed involvement in the commissioning of Henry's funeral memorial at Fontevraud, and later in the commissioning of similar memorials for herself and her children Richard and Joan, her attachment to Fontevraud seems to fit into a wider pattern in which the commemoration of her ancestors and her immediate family appears to have been one of her most abiding concerns'".

Thus far, I have concentrated chiefly upon Eleanor as patron of the religious. However, as we have seen, her charters also include acts of secular patronage. Only a small proportion of such charters can be assumed to have survived. However, by using them, and above all by reference to the witness lists to the collection as a whole, we can make some attempt to establish the composition of Eleanor's house- hold, and in the process reveal even further evidence of the Queen's commitment to memorial piety. Of the charters to secular beneficiaries conferring land or priv- ileges, we have almost as many from England as from France. The reason for this is quite simple: even before 1174, and certainly after 1189, the majority of Eleanor's disposable resources lay in England or Normandy rather than south of the Loire. The grants that she made in Aquitaine before 1199 seem all of them to have been subject to approval and control, either by her husbands, Louis VII and Henry II, or her son, Duke Richard. Only during the last few years of her life, above all in the one ann us mirabilis 1199, was she free to dispose of a full range of privileges, lands and rents in her ancestral lands south of the Loire. In England, by contrast, she possessed a rich source of land and patronage for the twenty years after 1154 and again after 1189. Her estate can to some extent be reconstructed, before 1189 from the evidence of the English Pipe Rolls, and thereafter from the settlements of land promised by Richard to his Queen Berengaria, and byJohn to Isabella of Angouleme, both settlements made to a large extent from lands which from 1189 until 1204 constituted Eleanor's dower. For most of the period from 1154 until 1174, Eleanor had possession of the revenues of the city of Exeter (Devon), as well as controlling Waltham in Essex, the liberty of Queenhithe in London, and unspecified estates in Hertfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire, perhaps already including the rich hon- our of Berkhamsted'", From 1174 until 1189, most of this land was seized back by

8' For rumours that perhaps as early as the 1170s Henry intended to divorce Eleanor or force her retire- ment to Fontevraud, see below n.266. 82 For the tombs at Fontevraud, see the highly speculative essay by K. Nolan, "The Queen's Choice: Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Tombs at Fontevraud", Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady, ed. B. Wheeler, andJ.C. Parsons, Basingstoke, 2003, p. 377-405, with further commentary by D. Power, 'The Stripping of a Queen: Eleanor of Aquitaine in Thirteenth-Century Norman Tradition", The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine, (see n. 31) p.122 "' Note here the danegeld exemptions for the Queen's estate recorded in the earliest surviving Pipe Roll for Henry's reign, that for 1155-6, covering lands in Essex, at Waltham, in Hertfordshire (probably Berkhamsted), Berkshire and Hampshire: Pipe Rolls 2-4 Henry II, (see n. 24) p.l7, 20, 23, 34, 55, and for Berkhamsted, see also Pipe RoU 7 Henry II, p.68. Her revenues from Exeter are first referred to in the year 1157-8,when she appears to have received income equivalent to at least £177 of the King's former revenues at Exeter as well as a futher £22 from the Devon stannaries and from the proceeds of the Exeter fair: Pipe RoUs 2-4Henry II, (see n. 24) p.158-9, and thereafter see the figures for her income from Devon and Exeter recorded in Pipe RoU 5 Henry II, (see n. 27) pAO-l; Pipe RoU 7 Henry II, p.27-8; Pipe

29 NICHOLAS VINCENT

the King, although Queenhithe was apparently restored to her as early as 1184,fol- lowing her release from house arrest in southern England into a lessrestricted form of custody". Her dower, assigned by Richard in 1189, appears to have been even more extensive than the estate that she had controlled before 1174. According to a list prepared c.1191, it included Waltham, Queenhithe, Exeter and Berkhamsted as before, and in addition the manors, or perhaps in several cases merely the farms of the manors, of Ilchester and Martock in Somerset, the whole of Rutland with the manor of Ketton and its appurtenances at 'Bradecrost' and North Luffenham, Lambourn in Berkshire, the viII of Chichester in Sussex, Westbury, Wilton and Malmesbury in Wiltshire, Stanton Stjohn in Oxfordshire, the vill of Northampton and Rockingham castle in Northamptonshire, the manors of Kenton, Lifton, 'Aluchescot' (perhaps Easton in Cheriton Bishop), the vill ofSalcombe Regis and 'Kenewk' (perhaps Germansweek) in Devon, 'Wlfinton' (perhaps Warblington) in Hampshire, Grantham and the vill of Stamford in Lincolnshire, and what must be assumed to have been either theoretical or short-lived custodies of the honours of Berkeley in Gloucestershire and Arundel in Sussex". Many of these estates had enjoyed an association with the queens of England from at least the eleventh cen- tury if not before'", In France after 1189, Eleanor appears to have been granted a dower consisting of Falaise,Domfront and Bonneville-sur-Toquein Normandy, Chä- teau-du-Loir in Maine, the castles and vilIs of Loches and Montbazon (Indre-et- Loire) in the Touraine, and in Poitou of the villofJaunay-Clan (Vienne), the castle and vill of Mervent (Vendee), and the He d'Oleron". The English and Norman lands listed in 1191 are more or less identical to those that appear in a second list made at the time of Eleanor's death in 1204, save that various estates specified in 1191,including Grantham, Stamford and Northampton, are no longer to be found, and save that land at Biddestone and Winterslow in Wiltshire is listed in place of WestburyBB.Even this is unlikely to be an exhaustive catalogue. In the Touraine, for example, as Eleanor's charter to Turpenay suggests, she may well have possessed rights at Langeais. Certainly, Langeais was later to be claimed as dower by Isabella of Angoulerne, the widow of Kingjohn'",

Roll8 Henry II, p.4; Pipe Roll 9 Henry /l, p.12; Pipe RolllO Henry /l, p.19; Pipe Roll 11 Henry II, p.78-9; Pipe RollI2 Henry II, p.93; Pipe RollI3 Henry II, p.169, thereafter recorded as roughly £200 per annum in various accounts until the last record of her Devon income in the year to Michaelmas 1172, already missing from the account taken at Michaelmas 1173: Pipe RollI8 Henry II, p.98-9; Pipe RollI9 Henry II, p.l44. For Exeter, whose possession had been disputed by Baldwin de Redvers earl of Devon (d.1l55), but which was apparently never conferred upon Baldwin's son earl Richard, removed from the sheriff- dom of Devon in 1157-8, see Charters of the Redvers Family and the Earldom of Devon 109fJ.1217, ed. R. Bearman, Devon and Cornwall Record Society new series 37, 1994, p.8-12. 84 Pipe Roll 30 Henry II, p.138.

85 Les Registres de Philippe Auguste, ed.J. Baldwin, and others, Paris, 1992, p. 471-2 no.30 86 See here M.S. Meyer, "The Queen's 'Demesne", (see n. 65) p.105-13. 87 Registres de Philippe-Auguste, (see n. 85) p.469-70 no.28. 88 Rotuli Chartarum; ed. T. D. Hardy, London, 1835, 128, listing Exeter, Lifton, Kenton, Easton and "Wike" in Devon, Ilchester in Somerset, Wilton, Malmesbury, Biddestone and Winterslow in Wiltshire, Chich- ester in Sussex, Queenhithe in London, Waltham in Essex, the honour of Berkhamsted, Rutland, Rock- ingham, and the Norman lands as listed in the I I90s. 89 N. Vincent, "Isabella of Angouleme", (see n. 5) p.209, and for Isabella's dower, see p.185-9, 207-9.

30 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

Not all of these estates were controlled either directly or simultaneously by Eleanor. There is, for example, no evidence that she exercised any practical author- ity over either Northampton or Loches. At best she may simply have drawn rents from these places for a limited period of time. As a result, the exact value of her dower is virtually impossible to calculate, save to note that her income must have been as high as that of most of the greater barons of England or the Angevin lands in France, and that beyond her lands she enjoyed other sources of revenue, not least the collection of Queen's gold - a levy of ten per cent on all voluntary fines, and on fines made byJews with the King - apparently paid to her both before 1174 and again after 1189, payments perhaps resuming as early as the mid-1180s, even before her full release from captivity'",

It was nonetheless from her dower lands, and in particular from her dower in England, that Eleanor made the majority of her benefactions both to the religious and to her secular household. In England, for example, as early as the 1150s she appears to have granted land in London, perhaps from her estate at Queenhithe, to a local man named Simon of Felstead'". After 1189, she granted the vill of Lifton in Devon and part of a wood at Hemelhemstead (pertaining to Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire) to a woman named Agatha, described as 'the Queen's nurse', known from other sources to have served as nursemaid to the future King John, to have fathered illegitimate children by the courtier bishop of Winchester, Godfrey de Lucy, and to have ended her life as the wife of the Surrey knight William of Gad- desdon'". Again before 1199, she rewarded another of her female servants, Amiria sister of Hugh Pantulf, described as the Queen's 'domestic and nurse' and almost certainly the same Amiria who is recorded as the Queen's attendant during her captivity of the 1170s, with land at Winterslow subsequently awarded by Amiria to the nuns of Amesbury". Nicholas fitz Richard of Wiltshire, who occurs as an occa- sional witness to Eleanor's charters after 1189, was rewarded with land outside the walls of Ilchester, the charter recording this gift revealing that Nicholas had served earlier in the household of Eleanor's son Henry (d.1183)94. Henry de Bernevalle, perhaps a Norman by birth, who served at various times both as Eleanor's steward and as constable of Berkhamsted, was granted £10 of land at Biddestone in Wilt- shire'", and at least three of Eleanor's cooks - Adam, Robert and Roger - were rewarded with land either in England or at Domfront in Normandy" By contrast in Poitou, although we have evidence of Eleanor awarding or confirming lands or privileges to her close kinsmen Hugh vicomte of Chätellerault and Andrew de

90 For Queen's Gold, see H. G. Richardson, "Letters and Charters of Eleanor", (see n. 1) p.209-II; N. Vincent, "Isabella of Angouleme", (see n. 5) p.I90; below appendix nos.8I, 155. For evidence ofElean- or's collection of Queen's gold after 1154, see also Pipe Rolls 2-4 Henry II, (see n. 24) p.I23. 91 Appendix no.45. 92 Appendix nos.3-4; Pipe Roll 6John, p.32, and for Agatha, see M.G. Cheney, "Master Geoffrey de Lucy, An Early Chancellor of the University of Oxford", English Historical Review, 82, 1967, p.750-63. 93 Appendix nos.5, 105, and for the Amaria (sic) of the ll70s, see Pipe Roll25 Henry II, p.I25.

94 Appendix no.46, and for Nicholas as witness, see nos.2, 143. 95 Appendix no.I3, and for Henry, see below n.257. 96 Appendix nos.2, 40, 138, and see below n.I 02. For the grant to Robert "Ie Saucier" of land at Montfril- ous (Orne, cant. Passais, com. Mantilly), see also D. Power, "The Stripping of a Queen", (see n. 82) p.ll8.

31 NICHOLAS VINCENT

Chauvigny'", and after 1199 making a significant political settlement with Ralph de Mauleon in order to retain La Rochelle in ducal hands", we have relatively few references to the Queen dispensing patronage to her more humble, household retainers. Those gifts that are recorded, such as an award of a 60 sous rent to her servant Hugh deJaunay99,or a charter confirming the mastery of the mint at Poitiers to a man named Savaric the younger, witness to at least three of Eleanor's char- ters'?", appear to have been made from the relatively limited dower that Eleanor controlled in Poitou after 1189, to the list of which we should perhaps now add the ovens and houses at Poitiers granted by Eleanor to Roger the Queen's chaplain, and to Reginald de MarinlOl•

Of course, the surviving charter evidence tells us only part of the story and can record only a fraction of the awards that Eleanor actually made. Here the Pipe Roll evidence, from both England and Normandy, is instructive, recording gifts made by Richard and John after 1189 to Eleanor's servants, including Adam the cook, granted the manor of Salkeld in the far north of England by a charter of Richard I, witnessed by Eleanor and dated 20 April 1194, with subsequent grants by King Richard of land at 'Hobriteby' (perhaps Oughterby in Kirkhampton) and 'Hars- ineby' confirmed in a charter of Eleanor issued in 1200-1102•Another of her servants named Adam, in this instance Adam the Queen's clerk, is recorded in possession of 30 shillings of land from the royal demesne in Cambridgeshire and Huntingdon- shire from Michaelmas 1193 onwards, and may well be identifiable as Adam of Wilton, clerk of the Queen's chapel, who from the same year was in receipt of a further 43 shillings from the royal demesne in Gloucestershire, both of these grants, it should be noticed, having been made during Eleanor's time as viceregent in England, perhaps, if we may ourselves play at the role of lady novelist, in reward for services rendered by Adam as go-between with the captive King Richard in Ger- many.'?" Since neither Adam the cook nor Adam the clerk is recorded anywhere in the witness lists to Eleanor's charters, these references from the Pipe Rolls remain our only evidence of the important role that these two men may have played within Eleanor's household'?'. Osbert 'the Queen's man', found from 1194 onwards hold-

97 Appendix nos.30, 32-3, awards considered respectively by Hivergneaux, "Alienor", (see n. 4) p.66, and J. Martindale, "The Last Years", (see n. 4) p.161-2. 98 Appendix no.97, considered byJ. Martindale, "The Last Years", (see n. 4) p.151, relating to the fee of Ste-Severe (Indre, arr; La Chatte), and see also appendix nos.91, 119, for what appear to have been major, "political" awards of Surge res to William Maengot, probably in 1199, and of the bourg of St-Ouen in Aunis to Aimery de Rochefort, this latter specifically said to have been made in 120~ in compensa- tion for violence ("vim") committed by Richard and Eleanor to Aimery in the viII of La Rochelle.

99 Appendix no.78, involving land at Tron and La Bruyere (Vienne, arr. Poitiers, cant. St-Georges, com. Montamise). 100 Appendix no.141, and for Savaric the younger as witness, see nos.50, 54, 64. 101 Appendix nos.54, 96.

102 For Richard's charter, see The Cartae Antiquae Rolls 1-10, ed. L. Landon, Pipe Roll Society new series 17,1939, p.96 no.195, whence TheItinerary of King Richard I, ed. L. Landon, Pipe Roll Society new series 13, 1935, p.89 no.402. For Eleanor's, see appendix no.2, and see also Pipe Rna 6 Richard T, p.ll, supple- mented with a further 28 shillings of land in Cumberland from 1195 (Pipe Rna 8 Richard I, p.21), with the land recorded in Adam's possession until at least 1214 (Pipe Rna 16John, p.138).

10' Pipe Rna 6 Richard I, p.76, 231; Pipe Rna 7 Richard I, p.1l9, 173, continued until Easter 1209 (Pipe RoU llJohn, p.55). 104 The only Adam who witnesses for Eleanor is Adam of Ely, witness to a single charter of 1156 X 1162 in favour of the Norman monks of La Luzerne: appendix no.90.

32 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

ing 30 shillings of land from the royal demesne in Surrey is likewise unknown from charter witness lists'?", whilst William 'the almoner' recorded in the same year receiving 4 livres by the Queen's gift from the revenues of Bonneville-sur-Toque within Eleanor's Norman dower, and from 1198 in possession of 4 livres of land at Bonneville, appears elsewhere as witness to only three of Eleanor's charters, twice with title as 'Master William almoner of the Queen"?'.

Even where charters of Eleanor survive, therefore, we must be wary of treating them as if they provide either a comprehensive or necessarily a very accurate picture of the Queen's household. As David Bates has shown, the witness lists to charters may be highly selective, excluding large numbers of individuals who were in attend- ance at the time a charter was drawn up, but who were omitted from the witness lists either because they were deemed of insufficient social or political status, or because they had no direct interest in the award being made!", Here we can cite one example from Eleanor's own charters, and two examples from amongst the charters of Henry II that are particularly instructive. On 1 August 1199, at Rouen, Eleanor issued a pair of surviving documents. The first, to the abbey of Notre-Dame at Saintes, is witnessed by six individuals, the second, to the nuns of Amesbury, by six, of whom only two -Joan the Queen's daughter and Roger the chaplain - are common to both lists. Without the Amesbury charter we would have no idea that Eleanor was attended by such major figures as Ralph count of Eu or Robert earl of Leicester. Without the charter for Saintes, we would likewise be unaware that she was attended by such men as Imbert de Forz, her knight, or William de Saint-Maix- ent, one of her most prominent clerks'!". As for the evidence from Henry II's chan- cery, in 1185, when Eleanor confirmed rents at Poi tiers and Benon to the nuns of Fontevraud, the confirmation was recorded in charters issued both by the King and the Queen. Henry II's charter names eleven Anglo-Norman or Angevin witnesses, all of them well-known courtiers'?". Eleanor's charter, although issued at the same place and probably on the very same day, carries a witness list that includes sixteen men!", Only five of these are regular witnesses to charters of Henry II, three of them being common to the witness lists both of Eleanor's and of Henry's awards. The rest are Poitevins, who we must assume to have been in attendance upon the Plantagenet court at Aleneon. perhaps in order to meet with Eleanor, but whose presence there would go entirely unnoticed had we only the charter of Henry II to inform us of the composition of the court. A few years earlier, in the first weeks of 1173, when Henry II was at Montferrand in the Auvergne, he issued a charter to the collegiate church of Ennezat, witnessed by six for the most part Anglo-Norman

105 Pipe Roll 7lUchard I, p.251; Pipe Roll 8lUchard I, p.30. 106 For the money and land at Bonneville, see Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae sub regibus Angliae, ed. T. Stapleton, 2 vols., London, Society of Antiquaries, 1840-44, i, p.234, ii, p.369. For William as witness, see appendix nos.42, 61, 143, all of the 1190s.

107 See here D. Bates, "The Prosoprographical Study of Anglo-Norman Royal Charters", Family Trees and the Roots of Politics: TM Prosapography of Britain and France from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century, ed. K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Woodbridge, 1997, p.89-102, and the further scepticism voiced by N. Vincent, "King Henry II and the Poitevins", La Cour Plantagenit (1154-1204): Actes du colloque tenu cl Thouars du 30avrii au 2 rnai 1999, ed. M. Aurell, Poitiers, CESCM, 2000, p.103-35, esp. p.l07-8. lOS Appendix nos.5, 130

109 Acta of Henry II, (see n. 30) nO.l063 (L. Delisle and E. Berger, Recueil; see. n. 43, ii, no.655). Ito Appendix no.58.

33 NICHOLAS VINCENT courtiers, and he also confirmed a marriage contract between his son john and a daughter of the count of Savoy to which the parties had obtained the oath and agreemen t of 55 Savoyardbishops, abbots or barons and twelveof the greater men of Henry's lands, including fivemen from the Anglo-Norman realm and seven from Aquitaine, most if not all of whom we can assume were present at this especially significant court!". Already there are significant discrepancies between our two charter witness lists. However, were it not for the survivalof a third charter, a non- aggression pact between King Alfonso of Aragon and count Raymond of Toulouse, drawn to my attention by Ruth Harvey, dated to the day after Henry's settlement with Savoyand almost certainly to be assigned to the same meeting of Henry II's court at Montferrand in February 1173,we would have no clue that the court was attended not only by Anglo-Normans, Poitevins and Savoyards,but by upwards of twenty of the great men of Provence, listed as witnesses to the Aragon-Toulouse treaty,but clearly omitted from the witnessliststo Henry's charters relating to Enne- zat or Savoyas being irrelevant to the business in hand!".

Witness liststherefore, even more than the haphazard survivalof Eleanor's char- ters, are to be treated with the gravest of caution. Even so, in the absence of more reliable evidence, they must serve us here in the concluding part of this article, in an attempt to move on from Eleanor's patronage to the personnel that she patron- ised. Here, and without I hope trespassing on territory to be covered in greater detail elsewhere by Marie Hivergneaux, I wish to consider a number of broadly related themes. In particular, I intend to revisit the conclusion ofH.G. Richardson, that Eleanor possessed no proper chancery of her own, and with this in mind to pass on to what, as we shall see, appears to have been an especially strong clerical element within the Queen's household. Using Eleanor's clerks as a point of depar- ture, I shall then attempt to explore the degree to which gender, ethnicity or lan- guage determined the composition of her household, concluding with some intriguing but possibly disturbing points of contact that will emerge between the household of Eleanor and that of her husband, King Henry II.

Let us begin, then, with the chancery. Here, the basic ground rules were laid down by Richardson, who concluded that although Eleanor's charters were wit- nessed and perhaps in some cases written by a variety of men styling themselves notaries or the Queen's 'chancellor', the charters themselves most likely emerged from local diplomatic traditions, being in many cases drafted by the beneficiaries, with no clear evidence of direction by a centralised Queen's chancery!". Since Richardson, both Marie Hivergneaux andjane Martindale have drawn attention to particular diplomatic details. Hivergneaux, for example, has noticed the peculiar title 'duchess of the Poitevins', rather than duchess of Aquitaine or the Aquitanians, attributed to Eleanor in one charter of the early 1150s, and has pointed out that during the late 1160sEleanor's writs and charters may cease to have been addressed

111 L. Delisle and E. Berger, Recueil; (see n. 43) i, nos.389, 455. 112 The Aragon-Toulouse pact survives as Marseilles, Archives departementales de la Bouche-du-Rhöne B286, as calendared by E.-G. Leonard, Catalogue des actes de Raymond V cornu de Toulouse, Nimes, 1932, no.66, and cf. "Addenda et Corrigenda", 165, references courtesy of Ruth Harvey. 113 H.G. Richardson, "Letters and Charters", (see n. I) p.193-209, esp. p.208-9.

34 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE to both the King and the Queen's men in Aquitaine ('fidelibus regis et suis totius Aqui- tanie') and instead are on occasion addressed only to the men ofthe Queen Cfidel- ibus suis') : an indication of the extent to which Eleanor may have believed her own authority to have supplanted that of Henry II within her own ancestral landsl'Ljane Martindale, on the basis of the attestation clause 'Teste me ipsa', has attempted to identify those awards in which Eleanor may have taken a particular personal inter- est!". Neither authority, however, has seen fit to challenge Richardson's basic thesis. Let us then reviewthe evidence, beginning with the chancellors identified in Elean- or's letters.

Bernard the Queen's chancellor appears as witness to two charters issued in France in 1152116 and may be identifiable with either Master Bernard or Bernard the chamberlain who appear elsewhere as witnesses'P. Whatever the romantics amongst us might wish, neither Bernard the chancellor nor Bernard the chamber- lain is likely to be identifiable as the southern poet Bernard de Ventador, credited by one late and semi-fictitious biographer with a controlling authority over Elean- or's court'!". In any case, as Richardson noted, Bernard the chancellor was suc- ceeded, perhaps after only a few months in office by a Master Matthew, who occurs as the final witness to a charter of 1152/3119 and who occurs elsewhere, as Matthew the chancellor, witnessing at least a further seven charters issued in England, Nor- mandy and Poitou after 1154, almost certainly all before 116212°. Building upon a suggestion of Leopold Delisle, Richardson concluded that Master Matthew was to be identified with a namesake, known to have served as tutor to the young Henry II as well as to Henry's aunts, the sisters of Geoffrey Plantagenet'". The evidence for this identification is not particularly strong, since Matthew is by no means so rare a name as Delisle and Richadson supposed: Eleanor herself was served by at least two other Matthews, styled her chamberlain and her constable in a charter issued in her capacity as Queen of France in 1139122• Nonetheless, Master Matthew the chancellor wasclearly preferred to church livingsin England shortly after 1154, appearing c.1163 as petitioner against the prior of Monmouth, a daughter house of the Angevin abbey of St-Florent Saumur, over the church of Llangarren (Her- efordshire), and after 1157 as 'Mattheus A(lienordis) venerande et illustris regine Anglie cancellarius' addressing a letter to the bishop of Salisbury in which he released whatever rights he been granted by King Henry in the church of Westbury (Wilt-

114 M. Hivergneaux, "Alienor", (see n. 4) p.66, 71-3, citing appendix nos.48-9, 56, 67.

115]. Martindale, "The Last Years", (see n. 4) p.148-52. 116 Appendix nos.Iüü, 132.

117 Appendix nos.12 (1154 X 1170), 112 (1168 X 1173). liB See]. Martindale, "Eleanor", (1992, see n. 4) 37, citing version B of the semi-fictitious occitans vida of Bernard: Biographies des troubadours, textes prouencaux des XII/' et XIV siecles, ed.]. Boutiere, and A.-H. Schutz, Toulouse, 1950, 27, in which Bernard is described as having been" to seingnor et maistre de tota La s(o)a corf'.

II' Appendix no.67.

120 Appendix nos.12, 87-8, 90,113,118,120.

121 For Master Matthew witnessing charters of Henry II issued in England and Anjou before 1154, on two occasions as the King's "tutor", see Regesta Regum Anglo-Narmannarnm, ed. H.W.C. Davis,C.Johnson, H.A. Cronne and R.H.C. Davis, 4 vols., Oxford, 1913-69, iii, p.xlvi, nos.329, 331, 666, 776. 122 Appendix no.146.

35 NICHOLAS VINCENT

shirej F". He mayor may not have retired from Eleanor's service c.1162 to take up office as dean of the cathedral church at Angers124• Coinciding with the period dur- ing which Master Matthew served in her household, Eleanor was also served by a clerk named Jordan, witness to two charters issued in France between 1168 and 1173125 and on other occasions styled either Jordan the clerk and notary!" or, in 1156-7,Jordan 'my chancellor'P". He may well be the same man, styled Jordan the clerk, who remained in Eleanor's service until at least the 1190s, in 1187 receiving payments from London for the Queen's entertainment and thereafter witnessing l28 further charters both in Aquitaine and England . The fact thatJordan appears as notary or chancellor only in charters issued in Aquitaine might suggest that in the late 1150s Eleanor maintained independent chanceries for her lands north or south of the Loire. However, Master Matthew was clearly styled chancellor in a charter issued at Poitiers in 1156-7. Furthermore, yet another man, named Martin, is to be found in 1156-7, witnessing as 'my chancellor' in a charter issued by Eleanor at St- Jean-d'Angely, also witnessed by men named Jordan Berdon and William Jordan, either or whom might be identified with Jordan the clerk'P. Altogether, this evi- dence suggests that in the 1150s Eleanor was served by at least four clerks - Bernard, Master Matthew, Jordan and Martin - an of whom affected title as her chancellor more or less simultaneously.

Just as the title 'chancellor' appears not to have been restricted to any particular individual at anyone time, so the term 'notary' was employed to designate men other than Jordan the notary, even before Eleanor's coronation as Queen of Eng- land. In this way we find a Peter 'notary of the duchess' as final witness and hence perhaps as scribe or author to a charter of Eleanor issued shortly before her depar- ture for England in 1154130, possibly the same Peter who occurs later as the Queen's chaplain in at least ten charters issued before 1173 in England, Normandy and Poitou+", Peter the chaplain is unlikely to be the man named Peter the clerkl32, possibly to be identified as Peter Morinus the clerk!", witness to charters after 1194, and should not be confused with Peter of Poi tiers, who appears with title as scribe in the witness list to a charter issued at Bermondsey before 1170, in whose witness list Peter the chaplain also occurs'P', Thereafter, from c.1163, no further chancellor is named in Eleanor's letters. Instead, but only from the 1190s, we find clerks either styled notary or recorded as having issued the Queen's charter by their own hand

123 The Letters and Charters of Gilbert Foliot, ed. A. Morey, and C.N.L. Brooke, Cambridge, 1967, p.195 no.149; Charters and Documents Illustraiing the History of the Cathedral, City and Diocese of Salisbury, ed. W. R.Jones, and WD. Macray, London, Rolls Series, 1891, p.17-18 no.19. 124 Gallia Christiana, xiv, p.592.

125 Appendix nos.4l, 123. 126 Appendix no. 57, issued at St:Jean-d'Angely, 1156 X 1173. ,.7 Appendix no.121, issued at Poltiers. 128 Appendix n05.150, 156, and for the payments from London toJordan the Queen's clerk, see Pipe RoU 33 Henry II, p.39. 129 Appendix nO.145. I~ Appendix no.152. 131 Appendix nos.12, 31, 41, 48, 57, 90, 93, 99,112,123. 132 Appendix no. 54. 133 Appendix no.18.

134 Appendix no.12.

36 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

('per manum') 135. The first and probably the senior of these was named Roger the chaplain. He appears as witness to five charters of Eleanor's issued at Poitiers and Rouen after 1199136• A further ten charters issued from the late 1190sonwards, one of them issued at Rouen, the rest in Aquitaine, are said to have given by Roger, for the most part in the formula 'per manum Rogeri capellani nostri, but in one instance with Roger designated as a witness' qui cartam horum libertatum scripsit', and in another with Roger entitled not only chaplain but Queen's 'notary'!". Roger's career remains for the most part obscure, although he could conceivably be the Roger de Gruszi who in 1189, together with Humphrey the Queen's servant, vouched for Eleanor's expenses in London!". What we do know is that in the last years of Eleanor's life Roger retired with her to Fontevraud, where as a 'brother' of the abbey he is recorded in receipt of an annual rent of 10 livres from Oleron and of the proceeds of an oven and a house that Eleanor had previously commanded built at Poitiers, intended to assist him in ministering in the chapel of St-Laurence which Eleanor had endowed within the abbey precinct at Fontevraud-". One of the charters concerning Roger's pension, issued at Poitiers after 1200, appears under the 'per manum' formula, but in this instance citing Master Richard the Queen's clerk as its issuing authoritv'w, Master Richard, almost certainly to be identified as an Englishman, Master Richard of Gnosall (Staffordshire), appears as witness to a further six charters, for the most part issued at Poitiers in the last fiveyears of Elean- or's life!". The other charter referring to Roger's pension was issued by the hand of yet another man, Master William de Saint-Maixent, who as Eleanor's clerk or notary witnesses four of the Queen's charters and appears as the issuing authority in a further two, all of them expedited in France, for the most part in Poitou, after 1199142• Master William's subsequent career is better known than that of most of his colleagues, since by October 1203 he had entered the service of King John, occurring from 1205 as a clerk of the King's chamber, authorising payments in association with the King's alien minister Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, to whose household Master William duly gravitated. Promoted dean of the colle- giate church ofSt Martin at Angers during the King's Poitevin expedition of 1206, and involved in King John's expedition to Ireland in 1210, Master William also acquired benefices in England, at Ewhurst (Surrey), Mixbury (Oxfordshire) and in the royal chapel at Bridgnorth (Shropshire). He last appears in 1219 as one of the justices of the Hampshire forest eyre, and seems to have died or retired to France c.1222143•

1~5 The Henry of London said to have written appendix no.20,july 1189 X February 1190, was probably a scribe either of the beneficiary (Bury St Edmunds) or of the royal chancery. 1% Appendix nos.36, 50, 65, 115, 130. 1~7 Appendix nos.2, 3, 5, 15, 16 ("per manum Rogen capellani et notani nostn~), 32, 64, 66, 74, 101 ("qui cartam horum libertaium scripsit'],

138 Pipe RoU 1 Richard 1,p.223. 139 Appendix nos.54, 65.

140 Appendix no. 54, "per manum magistri Ricardi clericinostri",

141 Appendix nos.50, 64-5, 96, 102, and cf. no.66 for Master Richard "de Gnowesale",

142 Appendix nos.2, 36 (with title as Eleanor's notary), 63 ("per manum"), 65 ("per manum"), 115, 130. m For a full biography, see English Episcupal Acta IX: Winchester 1205-1238, ed. N. Vincent, Oxford,I994, p.200-1 no.35.

37 NICHOLAS VINCENT

The evidence for Eleanor's chancery clerks considered thus far, although more extensive than that available to H.G. Richardson, might be supposed to bear out Richardson's principal conclusions. Noting the apparently haphazard way in which nearly a dozen named individuals are recorded as serving as Eleanor's chancellor or notary, and to some extent through analysis of the very different diplomatic forms that were employed by the Queen, at different periods in her career and for the different parts of the Angevin 'empire' in England, Normandy and Aquitaine, Richardson concluded that Eleanor maintained no distinct chancery or her own, but had charters and writs drawn up in her name by a wide variety of clerks, for the most part according to local diplomatic conventions that reflect the prevailing tra- ditions of the beneficiaries of these charters rather than the dictates of a centralised Queen's chancery. Richardson, however, depended for the most part upon printed or calendared versions of the charters, and particularly the witness lists with which he was dealing, rather than searching out the Latin texts themselves. In particular, he made no attempt at a palaeographical analysis of the 24 charters of Eleanor that still survive as single sheet originals!", The handwriting of the charters themselves suggests, in contradiction of Richardson, that the Queen was served by professional scribes, writing charters for a number of different beneficiaries. Two such scribes appear as named witnesses to particular charters: Peter of Poitiers, named in the witness list to a charter issued at Bermondsey before 1170, and William Joseph, final witness to a charter issued in France in 120M145.

Furthermore, what might otherwise appear to be gross inconsistencies in style, language and linguistic formulae can, on closer examination, be employed as evi- dence that the Queen's chancery merely adopted fashions dictated by changes in the practice of the royal chancery, either of her husband, Henry II, or her sons, Richard and John. Restricting ourselves here to only the most obvious of features, it is worth remarking that from 1154 onwards, Eleanor's letters adopt the practice of the kings of England in placing the Queen's name and titles - 'A(lienor) regina Anglorum, ducissa Normannorum et Aquitanorum, comitissa Andegauorum' - at the head of each document, thereby breaking with the diploma form and the invocation of the Trinity - 'In nomine sancte et indiuidue Trinitatis' - which had been customary both during her years as Queen of France and, from 1152 to 1154, during her time as duchess of Normandy and Aquitaine!". As late as 1154, on the eve of her cross- ing to England for coronation as Queen, Eleanor was still employing an invocation - 'In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti' -that with only one exception disappears entirely thereafter!". After 1154, and save in two or three cases out of more than 100, Eleanor adopted the Anglo-Norman style of intitulatio favoured in the chancer- ies of Henry II and Richard!".

144 For charters still surviving as original single sheets, see appendix nos.2, 10,26,32,34,52-4,63-7,101, 108,111-12,121,123,135,142,149-5l.

145 Appendix nos.12, 96.

146 For invocations of the Trinity in Eleanor's charters before 1154, see appendix nos.l Oü, 129, 132, 146, 152.

147 Appendix no.152. The exception is appendix no.l07, with an invocation "In nomini'liomini nostri Ihesu Cristi' in a charter issued after 1189, probably in 1199.

148 For exceptions, see appendix nos.8, 119 (both of which, although of very different dates, open" MIlum sit omnibus"), 61 (opening" Sciant presentes etfutun~). See also no.67, issued as coun tess of Poitou in 1152- 3, opening "Sciant universi sanae mains ecclesiefilii tam presentes quam futuri", After 1154, the adjective

38 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

Secondly, as is well known from the investigations of Leopold Delisle, at some time in 1172 or 1173 Eleanor's husband, Henry II, added the style 'Dei gratia' to his title as King. Eleanor herself had employed the 'Dei gratia' formula in the major- ity of her charters issued before 1154, and in one instance (a surviving original) as 149 late as 1156-7 • However, in all other instances, she followed the example of her husband in dropping the formula from her charters after 1154, resuming it only after her period ofimprisonmem in the 1170s,and thereafter employing it consistently from 1185 until her death twenty years later+". Thirdly, from the coronation of Richard I onwards the kings of England began to issue charters in the first person plural ('we' or 'us') rather than the first person singular ('I' or 'me') that had been l5l standard under Henry II • This change too was rapidly adopted by Eleanor. A charter issued at Freemantle on 30 October 1189, again known from a surviving original, continues to employ the first person singular'P, but thereafter Eleanor followed the example of her son in adopting the more exalted first person plu- ral' 53.

After 1189, Richard Ior his chancery clerks, themselves merely copying a papal initiative, introduced yet another important innovation, through their insistence that henceforth all royal charters be dated, in the more solemn instances being supplied with the day of the month and the regnal year, and elsewhere with the day of the month alone. Richardson was undoubtedly correct to suggest that Eleanor's charters demonstrate no such uniformity of style. After 1189, they employ a number of different dating formulae: by the year of the incamation!": by the day of the month calculated according to the ordinal, church or Roman calendars'r": by the

"humilis" is occasionally joined to Eleanor's title in the form "Alienor Dei gratia humilis regina", as in appendix nos.52, 59, 50, 72-3, 81, 85,133,155, and in one instance (no.157) Eleanor writes of herself as "Alienor Dei gratia regina Anglie humilis Iesu Cristi ancilla".

149 See, for example, appendix nos.67, I00. For an original charter of 1156-7in which" Dei gratia" appears, see no.121, and see also no.85, a charter of 1156 X 1173, possibly of 1160, known only from a later cartulary copy.

150 The formula appears in none of the charters issued during Eleanor's time between 1168 and 1173 asjoint ruler of Aquitaine, some of them conceivably as late as 1173 (cf. appendix nos.11, 31, 41, 56, 92, 99,112,123), but first appears in a charter issued at Henry II's court in 1184-5 (no.58). Thereafter, it becomes a standard feature of her style, save in one isolated instance (no.l07) which ispeculiar in other respects for its continued adoption of an invocation of the Trinity. 151 See here, K. Yoshitake, "The Origins of the Royal Plural in England", Minds of the Past: Representations of Mentality in Literary and Historical Documents ofJapan and Europe, ed. T. Matsuda, and others, Keio, 2005, p.19-50.

152 Appendix no.10. Richard himself was still using the first person singular in a charter issued as "domi- nus Angl(ie)" at Barfleur in August 1189, after the death of his father but before his own coronation as King of England on 3 September: Ancient Charters Royal and Private Prior to A.D. 1200, ed. J. H. Round, Pipe Roll Society 10, 1888, p.91-2 nO.55. Thereafter, his earliest charters to survive as King, issued on 5 September 1189, adopt the first person plural as standard: The Itinerary of King Richard I, (see n. 102) p.4, 146 nos.2-5 and references.

15> Even before 1189, there are examples of Eleanor using the first person plural, but savein one instance (appendix no.85) only in charters in which she claimed to act in company with Richard or Henry II: appendix nos.31, 41,112,123. After 1189, there are three instances of charters issued in the first person singular (appendix nos.61, 107, 119), all three of these distinguished in other respects by anomolies in their style. Appendix no.79 adopts a peculiar mixture of first person singular and plural. 154 As in the majority of cases, considered below.

155 For the day of the month, see, for example, appendix nos.lO, 135, 140, 149 (ordinal dates), 5, 97, 130 (church calendar), 111 (Roman calendar).

39 NICHOLAS VINCENT

day of the month and the year of the incarnation+", by the day of the month and the regnal yearl57 ; by the year of the incarnation supplemented with details of reign- ing kings, popes or bishops'P, and in some instances with no date at all159• One pair of charters, for example, issued to different beneficiaries at Rouen on 1 August 1199,carries not only significantlydifferent witness listsbut dates calculated accord- ing in one instance to the church calendar and the regnal year of KingJohn, and in the other the year of the incarnation and the date of the month specified in both ordinal and church calendar form 160. Nonetheless, amidst this bewildering variety, Richardson missedwhat isperhaps the most important point of all: that the charters of Eleanor, which from 1154to 1189were rarely if ever supplied with a dating clause, began once again to adopt such a clause after the accession of King Richard. In other words, as in their intitulatio, their adoption of 'Dei gratia', and their change from first person singular to first person plural, the charters of Eleanor adopted, or rather readopted, a dating clause in direct imitation of the official court style. Far from suggesting that Eleanor had no chancery clerks of her own and that for her writing office she depended largely upon the service of scribes attached to the beneficiaries of her charters, this evidence in fact proves that the clerks who wrote Eleanor's charters were keen to adopt changes imposed elsewhere in the royal chancery, responding not so much to local, beneficiary needs as to the fashions of the wider Plantagenet court. Nor, apart from a period in the 1150swhen Eleanor was acting as regent during Henry II's absence from England, should we suppose that the Queen was merely making use of the service of clerks more normally attached to the chancery of the King. The various hands to be found in Eleanor's charters after 1189are not those that normally wrote the charters of Richard I, and whilst the language of Eleanor's charters is remarkably close to, indeed in many cases directly modelled upon that of the royal chancery, there are sufficient oddi- ties of expression to suggest that the Queen had a house style all of her own, adapted from rather than slavishlycopied from that of the reigning king. Particu- larly significant here is the relatively large body of writs and charters issued by Eleanor in Poitou and Aquitaine after 1168. Were we to substitute the name of Henry rather than Eleanor in the intitulatio to these documents, most could be passed off, virtually unaltered, as writs and charters of the King. But even here, as Hivergneaux has shown, the precise phraseology of the address suggests a deliber- ate adaptation byEleanor's clerks, in which Eleanor's role as governor of Aquitaine 161 was exalted over that of Henry 11 • Even after 1189 and the death of Henry II, Eleanor continued to produce writs and charters that followed the format of those of Henry rather than of Richard I, especially in respect to their specification of a place of issuewithout supplying a date'62• Compared to the entirely negligible quan- tity of writs and charters of Henry II that survivesfor southern French beneficiaries, from 1168 until 1173 it appears to have been to Eleanor, and to some extent to Richard her son, that southern beneficiaries turned for the confirmation of their

156 For example, appendix nos.97, 130, 140, 149. 157 Appendix nos.5, 10, 135. 158 Appendix nos.63, Ill. 119. 159 Appendix nos.53-4, 64, 66, 74.

160 Appendix nos.5, 130. 161 Above n.1l4.

162 Appendix nos.24, 33, 80.

40 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE privileges and the issue of writs to local officials'P. Nonetheless, there can be little doubt that these letters and charters, however close in format they might be to Plantagenet royal charters and writs, were solicited from Eleanor clerks, rather than from clerks of the King.

Writing at a time when a far cruder understanding of chancery mechanisms prevailed than is the case today, Richardson looked for a uniformity in Eleanor's charters that would not be found even were it to be sought in the charters of her husband the King. Henry II's charters, like Eleanor's, exhibit a bewildering variety of forms determined by regional and chronological circumstance, without this in any wayleading us to doubt that the King maintained a writing office fit to be des- ignated as a 'chancery'. As with the clerks of Henry's chancery, so those of Eleanor were capable of producing documents in a number of different styles, adapted to particular circumstances according to both time and place. What is perhaps most surprising about Eleanor's clerks is not the extent of their production of docu- ments, nor the variety of different documentary forms they employed, but the sim- ple number of clerks who can be shown to have been in attendance upon the Queen. We have seen that nearly a dozen men are to be found witnessing either as notary or chancellor, in some cases specified as the Queen's chaplains. This by no means exhausts the list of chaplains who appear as witnesses to her charters. Above and beyond the appearances of Peter and Roger detailed above, and of Adam and Adam of Wilton, Queen's chaplains, recorded only in the Pipe Rolls, we find chap- lains named Bartholomew, Drogo,jocelin,john (perhaps aliasjohn Piner), Philip, Ralph and Ranulph, all at one time described as chaplains or Queen's chaplains in charter witness lists'?'. On at least two occasions in 1199 we find three of these men - Roger,Jocelin and Ranulph -witnessing charters simultaneously'<. Others appear to have served Eleanor over a long period of time, including John Piner, recorded 66 with title as chaplain in the 1150s and again, as 'our chaplain', in the 1190S1 •At what we can assume to be a lower level of the clerical hierarchy, we also find nearly a dozen individuals witnessing Eleanor's charters with title as clerk, from William de Saint-Maixent, Master Richard and Roger, defacto chancellors, down to Geoffrey of Chinon (witness to at least three charters) and the semi-anonymous 'F.' witness to only one"" As early as 1156, Solomon the Queen's clerk is to be found in receipt

163 For the paucity of writs and charters of Henry II for Aquitaine, see N. Vincent, "Henry II and the Poitevins", (see n. 107) p.l07-11, 134-5. 164 In order of the number of charters that they witness, we find Jocelin (described several times as "our chaplain", witnesses six charters after 1199: appendix nos.14, 54, 65-6, 96, 102) ; Ranulph (described as "our chaplain", witnesses six charters after 1196: appendix nos.14, 18, 54, 65-6, 96) ;John ("our chap- lain", witnesses two charters of the 1190s: appendix nos.18, 143) ;John Piner ("our chaplain", witnesses two charters, one from the 1150s, the other from the 1190s: appendix nos.42, 121); Philip (one charter, appendix no.7I); Bartholomew (one charter, appendix no.121), and Drogo, apparently the chaplain not of Eleanor but of Drogo de Bernezai (appendix no.96). 165 Appendix nos.65-6. 166 Appendix nos.42, 121. 167 Excluding those dealt with above as chancellors or notaries, and those whose appearance as witnesses may be purely incidental, see the cases of Geoffrey of Chinon ("our clerk", witness to three charters after 1194: appendix nos.65-6, 74); Geoffrey ("our clerk" or "clerk of our chamber", witness to two charters after 1200: appendix nos.54, 102); Peter Morinus ("our clerk", witness to one charterofl196: appendix no.18), perhaps the same as Peter ("our clerk", witness to one charter after 1200: appendix no.54); William ("our clerk", witness to one charter of 1199: appendix no.10l). For "F. ordine clerico", see appendix no.71.

41 NICHOLAS VINCENT ofa gift of2 marks in Hunungdonshire'". Elias de TUITe,clerk both to Eleanor and to the earls of Gloucester, is to be found, probably in the late 1160s, rendering an annual rent of three ivory dice to Eleanor for land that he held from the earls of Gloucester in Olamorgan't". Given the near impossibility of tracing the careers of most of these men beyond Eleanor's household, or of firmly identifying them with any others of the many witnesses named Geoffrey, Peter, William or whatever the case may be, who appear with full toponyms but without clerical titles, Eleanor's clerical establishment has not surprisingly attracted little notice from historians. However, when we add to the lists of chaplains, notaries and clerks, the various men who appear witnessing with title as 'Master"?", the numerous bishops, abbots, deans, subdeans, archdeacons and even the simple monks'?' who appear from time to time in the witness lists, we must very swiftly come to the conclusion that although only a small proportion of these men were in any permanent sense attached to her household, Eleanor maintained a clerical establishment and contacts with the wider ecclesiastical world that would have rivalled those of many a bishop.

Here we perhaps arrive at one explanation for why Eleanor's gifts of land to the religious orders appear so limited. Far from being an ungenerous patron of the Church, she may in fact have devoted so disproportionate a quantity of her movable income to clerical patronage that she felt herself excused from making permanent alienations of land to monks, nuns and canons. If the presence of secular clergy, especially from the I I90s, was so much a feature of her household, then it becomes easier to understand precisely what it was that Eleanor did with the relatively vast cash income that she received each year from her estates. Certainly she did some- thing with this money. She may have spent it on buildings, on luxuries, or indeed, as an older generation of historians liked to think, on the patronage of vernacular poetry from southern French troubadours. She may, for all we know, have poured it all into the purchase of vast quantities of apples, chestnuts and bacon. We simply do not know. What is now clear, however, is that the size of her clerical establish- ment would of itself have necessitated very considerable expenditure. The precise purpose of this establishment is less self-evident, but can perhaps be surmised, not

168 Pipe Rolls 2-4 Henry II, (see n 24) p.13, and for Solomon, see also The Letters OfJohn of Salisbury, ed. Wl MilIor, H.E. Butler and C.N.L. Brooke, London, 1955, and Oxford, 1979, i, p.151-2 no.98. 169 Earldom of Gloucester Charters, ed. R B. Patterson, Oxford, 1973, p.l2, nos.65, 130.

170 For example, masters Heufredus (appendix no.31), Isembert (no.156, and cf. nos.52, 82 for Imbert master of the schools ofSaintes) .julian (no.50), Oliver canon ofSt-Hilaire at Poitiers (no.lll), Paulinus (nos.5O, 114), Ralph Niger (no.20), Reginald master of the schools (no.112), Richard of Gnosall (no.66), Uchaor (no.lIl), W. de Dammartin (no.20) and Walter of Driffield (no.143). If the Ralph Niger of no.20 is the same as the famous scholar of that name (for whom see G.B. Flahiff, "Ralph Niger: An Introduction to his Life and Works", Mediaeoal Studies; 2,1940, p.l04-126), then this might explain why, in his history, Ralph's treatment of the Queen's captivity after 1173 should be so sympathetic to Eleanor and so critical of Henry II, described as having "imprisoned the Queen whom he had previously married after the fashion of a satyr": Radulphi Nigri Chronica: The Chronicles of Ralph Niger, ed. R. Anstruther, London, 1851, p.165-9. Ralph had certainly been patronized by Henry the Young King before 1183 (G. B. Flahiff, "Ralph", ibidem, p.l08), having earlier studied at the schools of Poi tiers lLeuers ofJohn a/Salis- bury, see n. 168, ii, p.206-7 no.182, correcting Flahiff, "Ralph", p.l Oö),

171 For monks, see for example, Hubert de Lausduno the monk (appendix no.18),Jacob the monk (of La Trinite Vendöme) (no.152), Luke the sacrist and monk (no.18). Bishops and archdeacons appear as witnesses so regularly as to make it unecessary to list them here.

42 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE least from the surviving evidence of Eleanor's endowment of obit celebrations for members of her own family and for such figures as earl Patrick of Salisbury and the prioress of Fontevraud'P, Her chaplains and clerks may have been intended to maintain a particularly elaborate liturgy, in which prayers for the dead and for members of Eleanor's own family and friendship network loomed large173• Here we might care to remember that Eleanor's one significant religious foundation appears to have lain in her endowment of a chapel dedicated to St Laurence, within the monastic precinct at Fontevraud, and that her own obituary notice from Fontevraud records both the establishment of this chapel and Eleanor's gifts to the nuns of a great processional cross and of various liturgical vessels'?'. To the monks of Bury she is known to have given at least one gold chalice and to have restored another l75 originally given by Henry II • As early as the 1150s,the expenses of her chapel and its furnishings appear occasionally in the accounts recorded in the royal Pipe Rollsl76,whilst throughout her life she appears to have taken especial care, and to have been unusually generous in her endowment of obit celebrations for herself and her family, be it at Reading in the 1150s or at Fontevraud after 1199177• In the 1180s, it was Eleanor who publicised a vision that she had experienced of Henry the Young King, her eldest son, installed in heaven wearing two crowns. Indeed it maywellhave been Eleanor who was responsible for commissioning the long eulogy of her son in which this vision was reported and in which Henry the Young King was presented as a martyr and potential saint!". The fact that her household con- tained at least two men bearing title as the Queen's almoner - Richard, who occurs in 1189 or 1190, and William who occurs thereafter - suggests that her almsgiving may have been on a significant scale, and once again brings us back to the Queen's household chapel as the most likely place for the distribution of such alms'?", Read in light of other recent work on aristocratic and queenly piety, our evidence sug- gests that Eleanor was attuned to that particular strain of memorial religion that even as early as the eleventh century, if not before, had led queens to playa prom- inent role in the commissioning of biographies and liturgical commemorations for their husbands, fathers and offspring, and that by the thirteenth-century wasensur-

172 See also her role in the commemoration of various of her sons, including William, Henry and Rich- ard, infra nn.30, 72. Note too the appearance of Robert abbot of St-Vincent at Nieuil-sur-I'Autise as witness to a charter of Eleanor: appendix no.99. It was at Nieuil (Vendee, cant. St-Hilaire-des-Loges, arr. Fontenay) that Eleanor's mother was buried, as noticed in a charter of Louis VII made in 1141, specifi- cally referring to Eleanor's involvement in the confirmation of earlier grants by the counts of Poitiers: A. Luchaire, Etudes sur les actes de Louis VII, Paris, 1885, no.77; C. Arnauld, Histoire de l'abbaye de Nieuil- sur-l'Autiz.e, Niort, 1865, p.3-6, 79-80. 173 For a context here, discussing the earlier clerical establishments of the kings of England, see D. Crouch, "The Origin of Chan tries : Some Further Anglo-Norman Evidence",journal of Medieval History, 27,2001, p.159-80; D. Crouch, "The Troubled Deathbeds of Henry I's Servants: Death, Confession and Secular Conduct in the Twelfth Century", Albion, 34, 2002, p.23-36. 174 J. M. Bienvenu, "Alienor d"Aquitaine et Fontevraud", (see n. 42) p.26n., citing the necrology printed by B. Pavilion, La Vie du bienheureux &bert d'Arlnissel, Saumur, 1666, p.589 no.97. 175 Above n.79.

176 Pipe Rolls 2-4Henry II, (see n. 24) p.175 (incense) ; Pipe RoU 6 Henry II, p.49 (expenses of her chapel, and on incense and coffers of the chapel). 177 Above nn.30, 72-3. 178 Thomas Agnellus, "Sermo de motte et sepultura Henna regis iunioris", in Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanum, edJ. Stevenson, London, Rolls Series, 1875, p.265-73, esp. p.273. 179 For Richard, see appendix no.20. For William, see above n.l06.

43 NICHOLAS VINCENT ing the endowment of chantry chapels in churches and royal and aristocratic house- holds across western Europe+", As several modem commentators have stressed, women and particularly noble women, had a crucial role to play in the preservation of family, and hence often of public memory, in part at least through the pious commemoration of their husbands and sons!". Less than openhanded in her gifts of land to the religious orders, Eleanor may nonetheless have served as a most magnificent patron of religion in general, indeed as a far greater patron of religion than of poets, troubadours or wandering exponents of extra-marital love.

All of this will no doubt come as a disappointment to those who would see in Eleanor one of the greater patrons of secular literature and the chivalric ethos. Nor have we yet exhausted the conclusions that can be drawn from a consideration of Eleanor's clerks. We have seen that, even on our inadequate evidence of their back- grounds, Eleanor's chaplains and clerks were drawn from a number of different ethnic or linguistic backgrounds. Master Richard of Gnosall and Adam of Wilton were presumably Englishman. William, the Queen's almoner, was granted lands in Normandy, whilst others of her clerks were drawn, like Geoffrey of Chinon, from AJUou, or like Peter of Poitiers or William de Saint-Maixent from Eleanor's own homeland in Poitou. Matthew, one of her earlier chancellors, although assumed to be an Angevin by birth, was beneficed in Wiltshire and the Welsh Marches. Peter of Poi tiers, although self-evidently a Poitevin, is to be found witnessing a charter at Bermondseyon the banks of the Thames. Two questions are raised here. Firstly, in what language did Eleanor conduct her own affairs, and secondly how representa- tive is the ethnic and linguistic mix of her clerical establishment of the wider com- position of Eleanor's household? The first question I shall leave to others better qualified to answer. It must nonetheless be apparent that Eleanor's court was far from being a monoglot, occitans-speaking institution. From Wace, she is believed to have commissioned poetry in Norman French. Latin was the language both of the liturgy that Eleanor seems to have been so keen to patronise, and of the charters from which we learn of her patronage and personal contacts. In communicating with her English chaplains she can hardly have relied upon the French of Poi tiers or Bordeaux. To this extent, the linguistic mixture of her household renders it even more improbable that Eleanor can have lived up to her later, entirely unsubstanti- ated reputation as a troubadour queen'F.

As for her wider household, there are at least three groups of witnesses to Elean- or's charters, other than the clergy, to which I would draw particular attention. First, and in many ways most remarkably, come the women. In general, women appear very rarely as witnesses to twelfth-century charters, and for the most part only if they

180 For a context here, see P. Stafford, Queen Em71UJand Queen Edith, Oxford, 1997; D. Crouch, "The Origin of Chan tries" (see n. 173). 181 J. L. Nelson, "Gender and Genre in Women Historians of the Early Middle Ages", L'Histuriographi4 midiivale en Europe: actes du colloqu« urganise... du 29 7IUlT.f au ler auril1989, ed. J.-P. Genet, Paris, 1991, p.150-63, esp, p.151; E. Van Houts, Memory and Gender in MedievalEurope, 900-1200, Toronto, 1999, esp. p.143-50; S. M.Johns, Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Pouer in the Twelfth-Century An&Norman Realm, Man- chester, 2003, p.3Off. 182 For what may be the earliest attempt (c.125O) to suggest that Eleanor's own speech was marked by a southern accent, see D. Power, "The Stripping ofa Queen", (see n. 82) p.133.

44 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE were women of peculiarly noble birth, closely related to the man (or very rarely the woman) whose charter they witnessed's". Eleanor herself, like her mother-in-law the empress Matilda, appears as witness to only a handful of the charters of Henry II, and of even fewer charters of her sonsl'". Yet, apart from Eleanor and Matilda, no other woman witnesses so much as a single charter of Henry II, Richard orJohn. The women who witness Eleanor's charters likewise appear only infrequently, and are themselves always of high status. Nonetheless, they are present in sufficient numbers to excite attention. They include ecclesiastical dignitaries, such as the abbess and the prioress of Fontevraud'P, and secular figures, from Eleanor's rela- 186 tives, including her sister Alice , and her daughter-in-law Queen Berengaria'F, to such leading ladies of France as M(argaret) countess cf Perche-'", Matilda vicomtesse of Aunay in Aquitaine+", M(atilda) vicomtesse of Turenne in the Correze'P" and A(lice) duchess of Bourbon!", these last two apparently fellow members with Eleanor of the community of Fontevraudl'", The most prominent of all such wit- nesses isJoan, the Queen's daughter, who first appears in Eleanor's charters in the mid 1190s with title from her first marriage as Queen of Sicilyl'", and who in four instances shortly before her death in 1199, appears at Niort and Rouen with the signification 'Queen Joan our most dear daughter' or 'our most dear daughter the ladyJoan, countess of Toulouse and duchess of Narbonne'I'", the depth of motherly affection displayed here perhaps reflecting the fact thatJoan wasalready both preg- nant and seriously ill, her death later that year being followed by Eleanor's attempts to secure the enforcement of her last will and testament in Gascony, Toulouse and England!". That certain of Eleanor's charters to Fontevraud were witnessed by as many as three women besides the Queen may reflect nothing more than the fact that at Fontevraud in her old age Eleanor was surrounded by women, and that charters to nunneries traditionally allowed for the inclusion of women wit- nesses'P',

183 S. M.Johns, Noblewomen, (see n. 181) p.81-I06.

184 For charters of Henry II witnessed by Eleanor, see above n.29. It should nonetheless be noted that Eleanor is more or less the last English Queen to appear even infrequently as a witness to her husband's charters, this change running directly contrary to the tendency for laywomen in general to appear more frequently as witnesses after c.1150.

185 Appendix nos.62, 64, 71, and for the abbesses, see GaUia Christiana, ii, p.1319-20. 186 Appendix no.l28.

187 Appendix no.149.

188 Appendix nos.62, 149. 189 Appendix nos.65-6, as identified byJ. Martindale, "Eleanor", (1992, see n. 4) 19, and cf. H. Michel, and E. Bonsergent, Histoire du canton d'Aulnay, Niort, 1913; A. Richard, Histoire des comtes de Poitou 778- 1204,2 vols., Paris, 1903, ii, p.338. 190 Appendix no.64.

19I Appendix no.64, and for Alice daughter of Mary of Champagne, abbess of Fontevraud, born to Mary's marriage with the duke of Burgundy, said to have lived at Fontevraud for 36 years following the death of her husband Archernbald de Bourbon, see GaUia Christiana, ii, p.1320; A. Richard, Comtes de Poitou, (see n. 189) ii, p.435 ..

192 See A. Richard, Comtes de Poitou, (see n. 189) ii, p.435. 193 Appendix no.62.

194 Appendix nos.5, 73, 115, 130. 195 Appendix no.l42.

196 Appendix no.62 is witnessed at Fontevraud in the mid I I90s by three women and nine men, no.64 at Poitiers after 1200 by three women and eleven men.

45 NICHOLAS VINCENT

Nonetheless, besides these high status witnesses, the Pipe Rolls and charters reveal the presence of many other women in Eleanor's household, and from much earlier in her career. Charters relating to the two nurses, Agatha and Amiria, both of them presumed to have been English, have already been considered, and during her imprisonment after 1174, Eleanor seems to have been attended not only by Amiria Pan tulf but by an unspecified 'girl', for whom a cap and a bedspread were provided, and by another with the rather unusual name Bellebelle, perhaps a nick- name, but one that hardly suggests that Bellebelle herself was of especially exalted birth!". The Queen's kinswoman Marchisia, probably the daughter of Audebert count of La Marche rather than Audebert's wife, disgraced at about this time for her liaison with one of her husband's knights, occurs in receipt of gifts in England as early as 1165\98.In 1184, Eleanor's release from house arrest occurred at the same time as the arrival in England of her daughter Matilda, and Matilda's husband Henry duke of Saxony, with both of whom Eleanor is to be found in residence at Berkhamsted, and later crossing the Channel to France'?", and at much the same time, a Poitevin contemporary imagines the Queen surrounded in her captivity by an entire entourage of maidens ('juvenculae'), albeit somewhat fancifully by maid- ens playing upon the harp and the organ2OO• After 1189, the Queen's girls become an even more regular feature of the court. It was for her' girls' that the Queen was provided with rich liveries in 1189 at the time of Richard's coronation at Westmin- ster, and in the same year the royal household accounts suggest that Eleanor was attended by a number of women, including her step-daughter Alice, daughter of Louis VII and long the intended bride of King Richard, Isabella daughter of the earl of Gloucester, subsequently married to Richard's brother John, and Denise, heiress to the honour of Chäteauroux in Berri, previously betrothed to the earl of Devon and in 1189 married, apparently in Eleanor's presence, to the Poitevin courtier Andrew de Chauvigny?". When Eleanor crossed to France in 1190 it seems to have been in the company of Alice of France, a daughter of the countess of Eu, the countess of Aumale and Eleanor, the daughter of Geoffrey of Brittany, the Queen's son202• Thereafter, Eleanor was to play a prominent role as marriage broker

197 Pipe Ro1l24 Henry II, p.128; Pipe Roll 25 Hmry II, p.125; Pipe Roll 30 Hmry lI, p.134. 198 Pipe Roll II Henry II, p.40. For Marchisia, daughter of count Audebert, described in 1177 as sterile and presumably still unmarried, and for the scandalous murder some years earlier of the knight Geoffrey Panet, falsely accused of a liason with count Audebert's wife, herself said subsequently to have been repudiated by Audebert and to have married Chalo de Pons, see Geoffrey ofVigeois in Recueil; (see n. 19) xii, p.446-7. A. Richard i Comtes de Poitou, see n. 189, ii, p.192) confuses the falsely accused countess with the sterile daughter. Audebert's wife was named Mirabla not Marchisia, and was still employing her title as countess after Audebert's death: G. Thomas, Us Comtes de In MaTChe de In maison de Charroux (X> siecle-I177), Paris, 1928, p.127 no.110. 199 The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols., London, Rolls Series, 1879-80, i, 326; (Roger of Howden) , Gesta Regis HmM Secundi Benedicti ahbatis, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols., London, Rolls Series, 1867 (henceforth Roger of Howden, Gesta), i, p.312, 333-4, 337-8, 345; Roger of Howden, Chronica, ed. W. Stubbs, 4 vols., London, Rolls Series, 1868-71, ii, 288; Pipe /WU 30 Hmry II, p.134; Pipe /WU 31 Hmry II, p.206, 215. Nonetheless, for the exclusion of Eleanor from the family portrait painted on the opening leaf of a psalter presented by Matilda and Henry the Lion to Brunswick Cathedral c.IIBS, suggesting that Eleanor was still considered disgraced, see E. Van Houts, Memury and Gender, (see n. I81)p.96-7. 200 M. Bouquet, Recueil; (see n. 19) xii, p.420. 201 Pipe Roll l Richard I, 223, and for the marriage of Denise of Chäteauroux at Salisbury in August 1189, see Roger of Howden, Chronica, (see n. 199) iii, p.7.

202 Pipe /W1l2 Richard I, p.2, 131.

46 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE for her son, arriving in Sicily in 1191 with Berengaria, daughter of the King of Nav- arre, whose betrothal to Richard I was almost certainly arranged following personal 20S negotiations by Eleanor in Spain • At Richard's second coronation at Winchester cathedral in 1194, it was the very fact that Eleanor sat with her 'girls' on the right of the high altar, perhaps usurping the position that Berengaria was expected to occupy, that attracted the attention of the chroniclers/?', and as late as 1200, she was still serving as a go-between in royal marriage schemes, travelling to Castile to bring back Blanche, the daughter of King Alfonso as a bride for Louis, the son of Philip Augustus of France/'".

The presence of women in Eleanor's circle should hardly come as a surprise to us. Nonetheless, there are various points here that merit attention. Firstly, we might note Eleanor's association with a number of aristocratic women whose experience of Plantagenet hospitality was to be just as frustrating as Eleanor's own. Her step- daughter Alice of France, for example, was held a virtual hostage at the court of Henry IIfor twenty years, amidst rumours of a sexual liaison with Henry and in the growing awareness that her own proposed marriage to Henry's son Richard would never be solernnised=". Eleanor's grand-daughter, Eleanor of Brittany, was to be not a virtual but an all too real prisoner of kings John and Henry III. Following the collapse of the rebellion led by her brother Arthur of Brittany, her captivity in Eng- land was destined to last until her death more than thirty years latera?~ Set in this context, the Queen's own period of house arrest after 1174 appears not so much an exception as a common experience amongst Plantagenet womenfolk. Secondly, we might note that the women with whom Eleanor was associated came from all manner of backgrounds and regions of France, from Paris to Champagne and from Normandy to the Limousin. Berengaria of Navarre, indeed, was probably not even a native speaker of French. Once again we are left to wonder how communications can have been conducted amongst this circle, whose accents and dialects would have diverged greatly from Eleanor's own supposed occitans.

The second group of witnesses to which Iwould draw attention, in many cases literally related to the first, consists of Eleanor's own kinsmen. Most prominent here are her cousins, descended from her maternal grandfather, Aimery vicomte of Chätellerault. These included not only the vicomtes of Chätellerault themselves - Hugh II (d. C.1170)208,William (d. c.1184)209and Hugh III (d.1204)210 - but the

20~J. Gillingham, "Richard I and Berengaria of Navarre", in J. Gillingham, Richard Coeur de Lion, London, 1994, p.1l9-39, esp. p.121-3; Roger of Howden, Gesta, (see n. 199) ii, p.157, 161; Roger of Howden, Chronica, (see n. 199) iii, p.95, 100.

204 Roger of Howden, Chronica, (see n. 199) iii, p.248. 205 Ibidem, p.l 07, 114. 206 J. Gillingham, "Richard I and Berengaria", (see n. 203) p.129-30. 207 J. Everard, "Eleanor of Brittany", in the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 208 Appendix nos.100, 112,132.

209 Appendix no.92. 210 Appendix nos.58, 97, and see no.30 for a grant by Eleanor to Hugh III of land and lordships at Beau- mont and Bonneuil-Matours (Vienne, cant. Vouneuil-sur-Vienne) and privileges within the forest of La Mouliere (Vienne, arr, Chätellerault). The appearance of the vicomtes as witnesses to Eleanor's charters forces revisions to the chronology supplied by F. Chamard, "Chronologie historique des vicomtes de Chätellerault", Mhrwires de La Sociiti des Antiquaires de l'Ouest; 35,1872, p.79-119, and by F. Eygun, Sigil- lographie du Poitou, (see n. 18) p.190-1, demonstrating that Hugh II died some years before 1174 and

47 NICHOLAS VINCENT

son-in-law ofvicomte William, Hugh de Surgeres, and this Hugh's father, William Maengot, who between them witness almost as many of Eleanor's charters as the vicomtes'!'. Most importantly of all, her Chätellerault connection brought Eleanor into contact with Ralph the brother ofvicomte Hugh II, Eleanor's maternal uncle, generally known from the name of his lordship in the Touraine as Ralph de Faye, who from the 1150s until his disgrace in 1174 served as by far the most frequent witness to Eleanor's charters, appearing in this capacity on no less than thirteen occasions-". Ralph served both Eleanor and Henry II as seneschal of Poitou for much of the 1150s and 60s. He fell from grace at the same time as Eleanor and for the same cause, as a result of his involvement in the rebellion of 1173-4. However, his sons and kinsmen, Ralph II, Peter, Philip, Raymond and William de Faye reappear from the 1190s onwards as regular witnesses to charters of the Queen!". Ralph, it should be noted, is one of the very few Poitevins known to have been rewarded by Henry II with lands in England, with an estate that descended after 1189 to his son and grandson!". Via a marriage between Ralph II de Faye and Beatrice, the daugh- ter of Stephen of Thurnham, the Queen was distantly related to yet another of the regular witnesses to her charters, Stephen's brother Robert of Thurnham, one-time Plantagenet seneschal of Anjou, appointed seneschal of Poitou after 120021!'. Another clan with direct blood ties to Eleanor was the Chauvigny family, in all prob- ability the offspring of a marriage between Peter-Elias de Chauvigny and Haois, 216 daughter ofAimeryvicomte ofChätellerault, Queen Eleanor's aunt • In the char- ters issued by Eleanor in 1199 to Andrew de Chauvigny, Andrew is specifically referred to as the Queen's kinsman, whilst, as we have seen, in 1189 Eleanor had personally attended Andrew's marriage to the heiress of Chäteauroux-'". Andrew himself, although a leading courtier of King Richard, makes no appearance as a witness to Eleanor's charters, and in 1202 was to be taken prisoner by KingJohn as one of the rebels who had apparently laid siege to Eleanor at Mirebeau/". However, as early as 1.158,Bernard de Chauvigny, perhaps Andrew's uncle, is to be found in England, receiving money at Winchester on the Queen's behalf'!". Bernard occurs as witness to a charter issued by Eleanor at Poitiers between 1168 and 1173, and is

William some years before 1185. For a more recent survey, see S. Painter, "The Houses of Lusignan and Chätellerault, 1150-1250", in Painter Feudalism and Lihmy, ed. F. A. Cazel, Baltimore, 1961, p.73-89 ..

211 Appendix nos.5, 8, 41, 57, 92,119, and for a confirmation by Eleanor in favour of William Maengot of Surgeres, see no.91. For the Surgeres-Chätellerault connection, see F. Chamard, "Chronologie his- torique", (see n. 210) p.l10-12.

212 Appendix nos.8, 11, 41, 5~7, 67, 92-3, 99, 112, 123, and twice as Ralph brother of Hugh II vicomte of'Chätellerault, nos,100, 132. For Ralph's career and family, see N. Vincent, 'Henry II and the Poitevins", (see n. 107) p.122-4. srs For Ralph II, son of Ralph I, witness to thirteen charters after the late 11905, see appendix nos.2, 3, 5, 16,36,50,54,64,96,101-2, twice described as the Queen's kinsman, nos.65-6. For his brother William, see nos.2, 50, 54, 64, 101. For another brother, Philip, who appears in association with Peter de Faye, see nos.82-3. For the otherwise obscure Raymond de Faye, see no.13O. 214 N. Vincent, "Henry II and the Poltevins", (see n. 107) p.l23-4.

215 N. Vincent, "Henry II and the Poitevins", (see n. 107) p.123-4, and for Robert of Thumham as witness, see appendix nos.14, 54, 64,119,149.

216 See here E. and]. Hubert, "L'Origine de la parente entre la familie de Chauvigny et les Plantagenets", Revue du Berry et du Centre, 1927 part 2, p.38-40. 217 Appendix nos.32-3, and for the Chäteauroux marriage, see above n.201.

218 N. Vincent, "William Marshal, King Henry II and the Honour of Chäreauroux", Archives, 25, 2000, p.12-13. 219 Pipe Rolls 2-4 Henry 1/, (see n. 24) p.176.

48 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE almost certainly identifiable as Bernard the Queen's chamberlain, recorded at Ber- mondsey some years eadier2W. Following Eleanor's disgrace in 1174, he entered the service of Eleanor's son Richard, appearing as Richard's chamberlain in 1177, an office in which he was succeeded before 1188 by his nephew, Geoffrey de Chau- vigny221.This same Geoffrey occurs as witness to no less than ten charters of Eleanor issued after 1199222.Although they may have been unrelated by blood, the Chau- vigny clan were clearly linked by lordship to another group of witnesses prominent in Eleanor's charters, marked out by their title as 'capicerius' or 'capicerius of Chau- vigny', apparently as laymen holding the office of 'chevecier' within the collegiate church of St-Pierre at Chauvigny. This group includes an otherwise anonymous 'chevecier' of Chauvigny, William Vigerius 'the cheueciet' and men named Boterone and Peter 'the chevecier', Peter being amongst the most frequent witness to Elean- or's charters after 1189 and occurring elsewhere as witness to a charter of Andrew de Chauvigny issued shortly before Andrew's departure with Richard Ion the Third Crusadef".

This survey by no means exhausts the list of witnesses to Eleanor's charters who were closely related to the Queen. At Berkhamsted, in the mid 1190s, for example, Eleanor was attended by an otherwise obscure individual named Silvius or Silvio 'our kinsman'F". As Queen of France before 1152 she had maintained a household that included service by Ralph count of Vermandois as her chamberlain. Ralph subsequently married Eleanor's younger sister Alice alias Petronillat". Two of Elean- or's surviving charters concern Peter Raimond, abbot of St-Maixent, described by the Queen as her kinsman, perhaps as a son of Raymond count of L'Isle-jourdain, himself a grandson of William III count of Toulouse-". There is also a possibility that Eleanor was in some way related to Bartholomew ofVendöme, later archbishop of Tours, witness to one of her charters and before 1173 rewarded with a benefice in England at the Queen's requestf".

The appearance of these men amongst the witness lists to Eleanor's charters is reminiscent of the ties that appear to have bound Eleanor to her kinswomen and

220 Appendix nos.12, 92. 221 See the charters of Richard as count of Poitiers in Paris, Archives nationalesJ191 no.106; Poitiers, Bibliotheque Municipale ms. Fonteneau 25 p.291. 222 Appendix nos.16, 64-6, 82, 103-4, 108-9, 114. 22~ Boterone capicerius the knight, appendix no.36 ; Capiscerius the knigh t, nos. I02, 108; the capicerius ofChauvigny, no.l02; Peter capicerius the knight, nos.3, 16, 18,50,65-6,74,101,115; William Vigerius capicerius of Chauvigny, the Queen's knight, no.96. For Peter as witness to Andrew de Chauvigny, see E. Clouzot, Cartultzire tU l'ahbaye de Notre-Dame de La Merci-Dieu, autremeni dite de Becheron, Archives His- toriques du Poitou 34, 1905, p.83. For the collegiate church of St-Pierre-de-Chauvigny, see Poi tiers, Archives departementales Vienne 8G, and E. Audouin, "Recueil de documents concernant la commune er la ville de Poitiers", Archives Historiques du Poitou; 44, 1923, p.51n. '124 Appendix no. 155. 225 Appendix no.I46, and for Ralph's marriage, see Robert of Torigny, "Chronica", Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard I, ed. R. Howlett, 4vols., London, Rolls Series, 1885-9, iv, p.167; A. Rich- ard, Comtes de Poitou, (see n. 189) ii, p.499-501. 226 Appendix nos. 133-4, and for abbot Peter, see Charles et Documents POUT seroir Ii Ihistoire de l'Abbaye de Saint Maixent, ed. A. Richard, 2 vols., Archives Historiques du Poitou 16, 18, 1886, i, p.lxxix-lxxxi,

227 Below appendix no.63; Westminster Abbey Charters 1066-c.1214, ed. E. Mason, London Record Society 25, 1988, p.298-9 no.463, as drawn to my attention byJörg Peltzer.

49 NICHOLAS VINCENT the close attention that she appears to have paid to the pious commemoration of her ancestors and children. Nonetheless, it is worth noticing that Eleanor's kinsmen were otherwise unrelated to her husband, King Henry II. As a group offer the most part Poitevin barons and knights, they were patronised by both Eleanor and Richard at a time when Henry II appears to have been extended very little patronage to the men ofPoitou and to have maintained virtually no Poitevins at his court. In conse- quence, Eleanor's kinsmen formed what amounted to virtually a court within a court, constituting one of the more significant networks of kinship and patronage to function beyond the immediate control of Henry II, but nonetheless within the general orbit of Henry's affinity.

The size and power of this group is difficult to estimate, but it was certainly boosted by links to a third and final category of Eleanor's men: the knights and officers of her secular household. This third group is by far the most difficult either to quantify or describe, since our witness lists supply only an imperfect glimpse of the Queen's secular establishment. Certain features nonetheless stand out. To begin with, it is clear that Eleanor was attended by a significant number of knights, many of whom, such as Boterone capicerius 'the knight', Chalo de Rochefort 'the knight'. Geoffrey de Clermont, Hamelin de Breuil, Imbert de Forz, Launo Ogerii, and Peter Capicerius, are specifically described as "milites: in the witness lists to Eleanor's char- ters, some years before the specific designation 'miles' became a common feature of the witness lists to English royal or private charterst". Eleanor was clearly a woman who had considerable experience of campaigning and warfare, from the time of the Second Crusade through to her adventures at Mirebeau in 1202, so that the militaristic aspect of her household is not necessarily remarkable. Nor, given what we have already established of the close-knit relations between Eleanor and her family in Poitou, should it be surprising to find that a large number of the secular witnesses to her charters were likewise sprung from Poitou, and in certain cases from Poitevin families which supplied more than one member of her house- hold. Amongst such men, we find a series of Poitevin toponyms such as those of Hugh de Jaunay (Jaunay, Vienne)229,Imbert de Forz (Fors, Deux-Sevresj P", David de Podio Liberellus (?Puilboreau, Charente-Maritimej=" and Geoffrey de Didonne

228 For Boterone, perhaps the same man described elesewhere as Capiscerius the knight, see appendix nos.36, 108-9. For Chalo de Rochefort, described as knight in no.108, and elsewhere witness to more than a dozen of Eleanor's charters, see nos.52, 58,72-3,83, 101, 10~, 109, III, 114, 127. For Geoffrey de Clermont as knight, see no.18, and elsewhere, nos. 155-6. For Hamelin de Breuil ("Brolio") as the Queen's knight, see nos.65-6, lIS, and elsewhere nos. 5, 64, 74,101. For Humbert, alias Huben de Forz, see nos. 16,21, 36,130, and without title, nos.Iüß-t, 140. For Launo with title as knight, see nos.108, 150, and without title, nos.42, 52, 72-3, 82, 101, IO~, 109, 111, 114, 127. For Peter Capiceriusas knight. see nos.18, 50, 65-6,115, and elsewhere, nos.3, 16,74,101. See also, Elias Moil! (no.21), Raymond de Faye (no.130), and William Vigerius (no.96), each of whom makes a single appearance with title as "knight" or "Queen's knight". 229 Appendix no.78. 2l

50 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

(St-Georges-de-Didonne, Charente-Maritimej=", this latter perhaps the same as Geoffrey de Tonnay, another of the witnesses to Eleanor's charters, the family of Didonne, lords of Royan, having adopted the name Tonnay following their inherit- ance of the lordship of Tonnay-Charente-". Besides Hugh de Jaunay the Queen's servant, beneficiary of a grant of land from Eleanor at Tron and La Bruyere near Poitiers, we find another witness to Eleanor's charters named Geoffrey de Jaunay, also described as the Queen's 'servant' or 'serjeant' Cserviens'P'", and there are appearances amongst the witness listsby an entire host of men bearing the toponym Rochefort - Chalo, Eble, Hugh, Peter Chalo and the brothers Nivard and Pain de Rochefort. These men were in fact the members of at least two, distinct families, since Nivard and Pain took their names from Rochefort-sur-Loire (Maine-et-Loire), whilst some at least of the others originated either from Rochefort (Charente- Maritime) or Rochefort (Vienne, arr. Poitiers)!". The concentration of men here from the Aunis, the Saintonge and the Rochelais is nonetheless worth remarking. It fits well with what else we know of Eleanor's lordship which, to judge from the surviving charters, was particularly strong in western Poitou, no doubt because it was in this region that the dukes of Aquitaine, and hence Eleanor herself, had retained their greatest concentration of demesne estates=".

On occasion, various members of Eleanor's secular household appear with offi- cial titles. Thus we find men named Ralph of Hastings!", Porteclie-", John de

2~2 Appendix nos.I5, 16, 36,140. m Appendix nos.4I, 57-8, and for Geoffrey and his family, see H. Beauchet-FiIleau, and C. de Cherge, Dictionnaire historique etginialogique des families du Poitou; 2nd. ed., vol. 3, Poi tiers, 1905, p.125-6; Cartufaires inidits de fa Saintonge, ed. T. Grasilier, Niort, 1871, p.24-5 no.30 . •'" Appendix nos.z, 65-6, 78. 235 For Chalo, perhaps the senior member of the family, see appendix nos.52, 58, 72-3, 83, 101, 103-4, 10B-9, III, 114, 127, and the various namesakes who appear amongst the Charles de Saint-Maixent, (see n. 226) ii, p.25-6 no.406, 28 no.408, 39 no.416, 45 no.418, 47 no.420, 50 no.422, 75 no.445, 103 no.463, and especially Archives Historioues du Poitou, 20, 1889, p.227 no.8: a grant by Chalo and Peter de Roche- fort of land to the Hospitallers at La Reveliere in St-Ceorges-de-Noisne (Deux-Sevres, arr. Parthenay). For Eble, see appendix nO.97. For Hugh, see no.132. For Nivard, see nos.8, 67, and for his origins, N. Vincent, "Henry II and the Poitevins", (see n. 107) p.ll4. For Pain, see nos.67, 74. For Peter Chalo, see no.82. In 1203/4 Eleanor herself made a grant to Aimery de Rochefort of the bourg of S-Ouen (in the Aunis) and of ovens at St-jean-d'Angely, in compensation for damages done by the Queen and her sons to Aimery's property at La Rochelle: appendix nO.II9. In the aftermath of the siege of Mirebeau, in which Pain de Rochefort, seneschal of Anjou under Richard I, appears to have served as constable of Mirebeau, Aimery de Rochefort is said to have served as pledge for Chalo de Rochefort, one of the captured rebels sent to England, suggesting that Chalo, like Andrew de Chauvigny, later turned against the Queen: A. Richard, Comtes de Poitou, (see n. 189) ii, p.420-1; Rotuli Liuerarum Patentium, ed. T. D. Hardy, London, 1835, p.6, 24b, 31,66. Chalo or an earlier namesake had been one of the leaders ofthe 1173 rebellion in the south: Roger of Howden, Gesta, (see n. 199) i, p.47. 236 See here the map of the beneficiaries of Eleanor and Richard's charters to Poitou, supplied by N. Vincent, "Isabella of Angoulerne", (see n. 5) p.169. 257 Witnesses once as "dapifer" (1156 X ll57), appendix no.1I3, and elsewhere no.l l (1I68 X ll73), cf. above n.34 . • 38 Witnesses once as "dapifer" (1156 X 1157), appendix no.89, and elsewhere as PortecIie or PortecIie "dominus Mausiaci", nos.8, 56, 92 (1156 X 1173).

51 NICHOLAS VINCENT

Waurai or Vaureyo-", Geoffrey de Galiun'240,Julian241, and Raymond Bernard de Rouman=" all at one time or another designated as the Queen's steward or sene- schal, apparently serving as household officers independent of the ducal or public office of seneschal ofPoitou or Gascony. Queen's constables appear named Geof- frey de Wanchy243and Matthew'": butlers named William245,Luke246,Philip=? and Ingelram=", and chamberlains after 1152 named Matthew=", Bernard (perhaps Bernard de Chauvigny)250and Adam251. A man named Saldebrol, one of the more frequent witnesses to Eleanor's charters, appears on occasion with title either as constable or as steward252,as does Henry de Bernevalle who appears on separate occasions as steward and as constable of Berkhamsted-".

Taken in conjunction with Eleanor's maintenance of a chancery and an impres- sive clerical establishment, this evidence suggests a household constituted on a grand scale, sufficient certainly to have merited the enormous expenditure recorded in the Pipe Rolls for the 1150s. The charter witness-lists remain a less than perfect source for the reconstruction of Eleanor's entourage. We might note, for example, how even the most significant of Eleanor's servants, such as the stewards John de Waurei, Geoffrey de Galiun,Julian, and Raymond Bernard de Rouman, appear as witnesses to only a single charter each. The witness lists necessarily omit the names oflarge numbers of the Queen's servants whose attestations were not judged appro- priate to any particular charter, whilst the southern focus of the charters themselves may give an exaggerated impression of the role of the southerners within Eleanor's

2~9Witnesses once as "dapifer", appendix no.90 (1156 X 1162), and see Pipt Roll 10 Henry II, p.19; Pipe RollI4 Henry II, p.174, where, as "dapifer" he took receipt of part of Eleanor's revenues in Devon, and in 1168 is to be found still attached to Eleanor's service. 240Witnesses once as seneschal, appendix no.36 (1l99 X 12(0). 241Witnesses once as seneschal, appendix no.54 (1200 X 1204) 242Witnesses once as seneschal (1199). appendix no.14O. perhaps on this occasion as royal seneschal of Gascony rather than as an officer of the Queen. 24~Witnessesas constable, appendix nos.4O (before 1199), 106 (1191 X 1192), on both occasions appa-, entlyas constable of Berkhamsted, and elsewhere nos.lO, 20, 35, 39, 61, 156, and cf. Pipe Roll Illichard I, p.197. Perhaps a member of the Anglo-Norman family of Wanchy (native to Wanchy-Capval, Seine- Maritime). 244Witnesses once as constable (1139 X 114O), appendix no.I46. 245Witnesses once as "buucularius" (1139 X 1140), appendix no.I46. 246Witnesses once as Luke pin cerna (1156 X 1162), appendix no.90. 247Witnesses as Philip pincerna (1154 X 1173), appendix nos.8, 12. 248Appears as Ingelram pincerna (1189 X 1199), appendix nos.44, 143, 156. As Ingelram pincerna of the Queen, he made grants ofland in Shortgrave (Bedfordshire), granted to him before 1154 by Osbert Martel and held from the barony of Simon earl of Northampton, to the Augustinians of Dunstable Priory, subsequently confirmed by Eleanor: below, appendix no.44; A Digest of the ChaTters Preserved in the Cartulary of the Priory of Dunstable, ed. G. H. Fowler, Bedfordshire Record Society 10,1926, p.161-3 nos. 1748. 249Witnesses once (1139 X 1140), appendix no.I46, and see above n.122. 250Above nn.219-21. 251Occurs once, in 1171/2: Pipe Roll 18 Henry II, p.15. 252Witnesses as "dapifer" (1152 X 1153), below no.67, as constable (1l52 X 1173) nos.8, 31, 57, 89, 92. 99,100, 113, 132, 145, and elsewhere (1168 X 1173) no.1l2, and cf. below n.256. m Witnesses as seneschal (1189 X 1194) no.157, as constable of Berkhamsted (l200 X 1201) appendix no.2, and elsewhere (1189 X 1199) nos.3, 5, 53, 61, and cf. Pipe Roll 1 Richard I, p.197; below n.257.

52 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE household. Nonetheless, various general principles may still be discerned. Firstly, although the bishops and clerical dignitaries of Poitou and Gascony appear fairly regularly as witnesses to the charters, with the exception of her Chätellerault kins- men, Eleanor seems to have been only rarely attended by the greater secular mag- nates of Aquitaine. To cite only the most obvious examples, the lords of Lusignan, Mauleon, Thouars and Parthenay appear only infrequently as witnesses, suggesting a degree of detachment between Eleanor and the greater nobility of Poitou, and in the cases of the Lusignans almost certainly active hostility='. Many of Eleanor's men were nonetheless southerners, and their presence in her household is very signifi- cant, not least because of what appears to have been the almost total, and perhaps deliberate exclusion of Poitevins from the household of Henry II. Thus the pres- ence of Peter of Poi tiers, the scribe, as a witness at Berkhamsted before 1170255, or the fact that Eleanor's proteges Ralph de Faye and Saldebrol are amongst only a tiny handful of southerners known, or suspected, to have acquired lands in England during the reign of Henry IJ256, suggests that, at least until her disgrace after 1173, Eleanor and her household represented one of the more important points of con- tact between Plantagenet England and the Plantagenets' lands and subjects south of the Loire. Once again, we must question precisely how communications were effected within a household in which Poitevins rubbed shoulders with Eleanor's Anglo-Norman and English servants. Certainly, it cannot have been through the imposition of any sort of monoglot occitans culture upon men to whom the French of Poitiers, let alone of Bordeaux or Gascony would have been virtually unintelligi- ble.

It is also worth emphasising the diversity of the backgrounds and careers of Eleanor's servants. By no means all of them were southerners or passed their lives entirely in the service of the Queen. Henry de Bernevalle, for example, perhaps of Norman birth, appears to have gravitated to Eleanor's service following an earlier career as a servant to Henry 11257•Nicholas of Wiltshire, to whom Eleanor gave land outside Ilchester, was presumably an Englishman, and was certainly at one time a servant of Henry the Young King258.Several of Eleanor's men served regularly as witnesses to another of her sons, Richard, in his charters as count of Poi tiers and

254 Eble de Mauleon witnesses three charters, appendix nos.89, 100, 152, on the latter occasion as sene- schal of Poitou, and his brother Ralph appears once, no.100. Aimery vicomte of Thouars witnesses nos.59, 60, 97, Guy his brother nos.59, 60, 149, and cf. no.97 witnessed by Hugh and Raymond de Thouars. Geoffrey de Lusignan appears once, no.101, and his kinsman, Ralph de Lusignan, lord of Issoudun and count of Eu, on three occasions after 1199, nos.5, 101, 147. Compare here the appearances by Henry bishop of Saintes, witness to thirteen charters (nos.16, 21, 36, 42, 63, 65-6, 103-4, 127, 140, 147, 150) ,john bishop of Poi tiers, witness to five charters (nos.31, 41, 93, 99,112), and Maurice bishop of Poi tiers, witness to nine (nos.21, 54, 59, 60, 63-6,149). '85 Appendix no.12. 256 N. Vincent, "Henry II and the Poitevins", (see n. 107) p.1204, esp. p.124. 257 For Henry as witness to Eleanor's charters, see above n.253, and cf. Pipe RDU1 Richard I, p.5, 197; Pipe RoU5 Richard I, p.133, 166 for later references to his control of the Queen's expenses and for a gift from King Richard I. From Eleanor he obtained a £10 rent in England (appendix no.13), but by c.Easter 1174 he had already obtained £20 of land at Vemham's Dean in Hurstboume by gift of Henry II, from which land he later made a grant to the Augustinian canons of Poughley Priory (Berkshire) for the souls of Henry and Eleanor: Acta of Henry II, (see n. 30) ed. Vincent and Holt, no.220. 258 Appendix no.46, where Nicholas' former service to the Young King is specified.

53 NICHOLAS VINCENT

duke of Aquitaine before 1189259• Geoffrey de Caritate, whose origins remain unknown, and who witnesses three of Eleanor's charters after 1189, appears to have owed his introduction to England not to Eleanor but to Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester260• Wandrille de Courcelles, another of the regular witnesses to Elean- or's charters, whatever his geographical origins in France, sprang from a family that 261 already possessed lands in Somerset in the 1150s • John of Sandford, witness to three of Eleanor's charters in the 1190s, was already serving as a royal marshal and 262 as the King's constable at Hereford before the death of Henry 11 •

Some of Eleanor's men, not least the Poitevins, may nonetheless have met with a lessthan warm welcome in England, in particular during the period of the Queen's disgrace and captivity after 1173. Their potential fate is best illustrated by the story of Philip fitzViel, the Queen's water carrier (' aquarius Alienore regine') , a man whose very title is suggestive of the elaborate luxury of Eleanor's court and whose tragic fate supplies a fitting note on which to conclude this survey. Philip, who is said to have been a very handsome and generous man ('pulcherrimus et liberalis), had inher- ited his father's land at Epping in Essex, but had engaged in an adulterous affair with Edith, the wifeof Aueher the huntsman. Richard fitzAucher, Edith's son, plot- ted to have Philip killed in Wales, perhaps during one or other of Henry II's Welsh campaigns, and in the meantime accused Philip, entirely unjustly, of being involved

259 See above n.221 for the service of Geoffrey de Chauvigny as Richard's chamberlain before 1189. For others of Eleanor's knights, see the examples of Geoffrey de Tonnay. witness to three charters of Richard for Fontevraud before 1189: Paris, Bibliotheque nationale ms. Latin 5480 part I p.363, 455, 487-8, the latter also witnessed by Chalo de Rochefort. As count of Poi tiers, Richard also granted quittance from tallage and customs to the lands of Eleanor's knight Imbert de Forz and John his brother: Rotuli CIun-- tarum, (see n. 88) p.8. 200 For Geoffrey as witness, see appendix nos.61, 155-6. He first appears as a Hampshire landowner in the mid I I60s and held £20 of land from the Winchester episcopal estate by the time of the vacancy following the death of Henry of Blois: Pipe Ron 13 Henry II, p.187; Pipe Roll 18 Henry II, p.S6. For the land, apparently at Stoke Charity, Wishanger and Chilcomb in Sparsholt (Hampshire), see Pipe RoU 34 Henry Il, p.178; Pipe Roll 2 Richard I, p.l35; Registrum Johnannis de Pontissara episcopi Wintoniensis AD MCCLXXXII-MCCCIV, ed. C. Deedes, 2 vols., Canterbury and York Society, 1915-24, ii, p.388; Curia &gis Rolls, iii, 118; Victoria County History Hampshire III, London, 1908, p.444, 448. For Geoffrey as witness to the charters of Henry of Blois and his successors. see English Episcopal Acta VIII: Winchester 1070-1204, ed. M.J. Franklin, Oxford, 1993, nos.28, 56, 88, 94, 98, 114, 128-30, 135, 166. 26\ For Wandrille as witness during the 11905, see appendix nos.53, 61, 155. He or an earlier namesake was the addressee of a mandate of Eleanor, issued before 1160 (appendix no.37), relating to the church of Frome in Somerset, and it is this earlier namesake whose lands in Somerset are recorded from 1161 untilll70 whereafter they appear to have passed to a man named Hugh de Courcelles: Pipe RnU 7Henry II. p.50; Pipe Roll 8 Henry II, p.23; Pipe RoU 11 Henry II, p.64; Pipe Roll 16 Henry II, p.ll3; Pipe RoU 18 Henry II, p.76. For the Wandrille whose lands in the I I60s appear to have been held from the Somerset barony of Odcombe, perhaps descended from William de Courcelles (from Courseulles-sur-Mer, Calva- dos, aIT.Caen, cant. Creully), Domesday lord of Curry Malet (Somerset) whose heirs appear to have lost control of the barony of Curry Malet at some time before 1135, see I.J. Sanders, English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford, 1960, p.38, 132. 262 For John as witness, see appendix nos.143, 155-6. For his administrative service under Henry II, see Pipe Roll27 Henry II, p.157; Pipe Roll 28 Henry II, p.12; Pipe Roll 31 Henry II, p.236; Pipe RoU 32 Henry II, pA9. For aJordan of Sandford associated with the Queen's household in the late 1160s, see PipeRoU 14 Henry IL p.191. John of Sandford is reputed the founder of the Augustinian Priory of Blackmore in Essex: Victoria County History: Essex II, London, 1907, p.l46. For the connection between the Sandford family and the family ofJohn and William Marshal, see D. Crouch, William Marshal: Knighthood, War and Chivalry, 1147-1219, 2nd. ed., London, 2002, p.221.

54 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE in an attack made against the Essex property of William fitz AudeIin, whose house at Stapleford had been robbed and burned by various unknown malefactors. Richard and his followers apprehended Philip in London, imprisoned him and had him hung, more in vengeance for his adultery than because of the trumped up charges of robbery and arson. In the aftermath, apparently c.1l77, King Henry II granted Philip's former land at Epping to Richard fitz Aucher-". Thus far, the story might appear to be of purely local interest, at best supplying picaresque details of the career of one of Eleanor's less significant servants. However, there was a political dimension to Philip's disgrace that should not be allowed to pass unnoticed. The chief actors in his downfall, Richard fitz Aueher and William fitz Audelin, were both servants of Henry II. Richard and his father Aueher were the King's huntsmen in Essex, with Richard serving from 1179 as royal constable of Hertford=', William fitz Audelin was Henry II's steward, one of the most frequent witnesses to Henry II's 265 charters, and a leading figure in the Plantagenet conquest ofIreland after 1171 • What we have here may well be evidence of a court-centred feud, in which the serv- ants of Henry II took revenge upon a former servant of the Queen, perhaps in the immediate aftermath of Eleanor's disgrace in the 1170s, at a time when Henry him- self not only had Eleanor held captive at Sarum but is reported to have contem- plated a formal process of divorce266• As such, the story may illustrate much deeper tensions between Henry and Eleanor's courts. Certainly, it supplies an indication that, in England at least, Eleanor's servants were not always afforded the protection and privileges that might be expected by servants of a reigning queen.

As the present survey has, I hope, demonstrated, it is not just the number of Eleanor's charters that counts, or their division into key phases, into geographical groupings or according to whether they concern secular or religious beneficiaries. Not nearly so much hard evidence survives for Eleanor of Aquitaine as the readers of popular biography might suppose: indeed the popular and even some of the scholarly biographers might do better to nail their colours to the mast and admit that what they are writing is fiction as much as it can ever claim to be fact. Nonethe- less, I hope here at least to have begun the exploration of various themes in Elean- or's career, not previously treated by her modem biographers yet discernible from the charters and the other surviving evidence. These themes, I would suggest, merit further and more detailed exploration. Meanwhile, I end with the vain hope that such matters of fact as Eleanor's linguistic and cultural identity, her memorial piety and her management of her large household may at last enable us to bid farewell to the mythical court of troubadours to which Eleanor has for far too long been shackled.

263 The Early Chartns of Waltham Abbey, (see n. 62) no.284. 264 Acta of Henry II, (see n. 30) nos.79, 932-3. 2M Ibidem, passim, esp. no.935. 266 For rumours of divorce, see Gervase of Canterbury, (see n. 199) i, p.256. Divorce would certainly have been possible, since Henry and Eleanor were cousins within the prohibited degrees of kinship, being both descended by blood from Duke Robert I of Normandy (d.1035), grandfather both of Henry II's grandfather and of Eleanor's great-grandmother: see N. Vincent, "A Letter to King Henry I from Tou- louse" ,journal of Ecclesiastical History, forthcoming. That it was not pursued was almost certainly the result of Henry's fears for the future of his lordship over Aquitaine. For other examples of homicidal feud at Henry's court, see N. Vincent, "The Court", The World of Henry II, ed. C. Harper-Bill, Woodbridge, forth- coming.

55 NICHOLAS VINCENT

Appendix:

A Brief List of the Letters, Charters and Writs of Eleanor of Aquitaine

The following list is intended to assist readers in accessing materials referred to in the pre- ceding article, and lists the 157 letters and charters of Eleanor (two having been omitted from the series as irrelevant or incorrectly identified) which are known to survive or which. in the case of items marked with an asterix (*) are recorded merely as mentions of letters now lost. All of the items listed below will appear with full texts and details of manuscripts and printings in my forthcoming edition of The Acta of Eleanor of Aquuain« and of Richard Dult.. of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou, Oxford, Oxford University Press, forthcoming. Readers are warned that the dating of these documents and various other details supplied below remain provisional, pending the completion of the forthcoming edition. Readers meanwhile seeking clarification of various of the abbreviated references or seeking transcripts of individual items are advised to write to the Angevin Acta Project, History Faculty, West Road, Cambridge.

No. Beneficiary Place/Date Short Reference

1. Abingdon Abbey Winchester [1159 X usoj Hist.Mun.Abingdon. ii, 225 2. Adam the Cook Fontevraud [1200 X 1201] Round, CaImdar, no. I I07 3. Agatha the Queen's nurse Fontevraud [1198 X 1199] Hertfordshire Record Office ms. 17465 fo.28r 4*. Agatha the Queen's nurse [1189 X 1199] lWtuJi Charlarum, 7b-8 5. Amesbury Priory Rouen, I Auguslll99 Round, Calendas; no.I09On. 6*. Amesbury Priory [1154 X 1161] John of Salisbury, Early Letters, i, 189 no.115 7*. Anstey, Richard of Old Sarum [1158] English Lawsuits, Selden Society 107, 347 no.386 8. Argenson Priory [l156X1173] Poitiers, BM ms. Fonteneau I p.269 9. Belvoir Priory Old Sarum [1155 X neoj HMC Rutland, iv, 126 10. Berkeley, Maurice de FreemantIe, 30 October Jeayes, Bnluky Charter»; 34 1189 11. Berland, Geoffrey Chinon [1168 X 1173] AHPxliv, 39-40 no.22 12. Bermondsey Priory Bermondsey [1154 X BL ms. Harley 4757 fo.2v 1170] 13*. BernevaIle, Henry de [1154 X 1199] lWtuli Chartarum, 8 14. Bordeaux Cathedral [1200 X 1203] Ge, ii, instr, 285 nO.16 15. Bordeaux, men of [Bordeaux], 1July 1199 An:h~ Municipaks tk Bordeaux: Lnm des Coutumes, ed. H. Barckhausen (Bordeaux 1890), 437~ nO.45 16. Bordeaux, S. Croix 'Solacum', 4July 1199 CalmdarofPatmt RaUs 1232-47,393 17*. Bordeaux, men of [ll99] Roeul: Chartarum, 4b 18. Bourgueil Abbey Fontevraud, 24 April 1196 Poitiers AD Vienne I H 19 Iiasse 29 19. Burton Abbey Winchester [1l56 X BOO] William Salt Society v part i (1884), 12 20. Bury St Edmunds Abbey Westminster [1189 X Dugdale, Monasticon, ii, 154 1190] 21. Cadouin Abbey Poitiers, 15July [ll99] RN ms. Perigord 12 fo.238v 22. Cadouin Abbey [1l90 X 1199] BN ms. Perigord 12 fos.239v-24Or 23*. Caen, Sr-Etienne Abbey [1154 X 1199] lWtuli Chnrtarum, 6b 24. Candeil Abbey Chinon [1190 X 12M] RN rns. Doat 115 fos.l68r-169r 26. Canterbury Cathedral London [1192 X 1193] W. Sornner, Antiquities of Canterbury (1703), app. 1-2 nO.2

56 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

No. Beneficiary Place/Date Short Reference

27. Celestine III [1192 X 1193] Migne, PL, ccvi, 1262-5 no.2 28. Celestine III [1192 X 1193] Migne, PL, ccvi, 1265-8 no.3 29. Celestine III [1l92 X 1193] Migne, PL, ccvi, 1268-71 no.4 30*. Chätellerault, Hugh de [1152 XlI54] AHPviii (1879),64 31. Chätelliers Abbey Poitiers [1168 X 1173] BN ms. ClairambauIt 1188 fo.5r 32. Chauvigny, Andrew de Le Vaudreuil [1199 X Layettes, i, 209 no.508 1200] 33. Chauvigny, Andrew de Le Vaudreuil [1199 X AN ms.lJ40 fo.63r-v no.130 1200] 34. Chester, Matilda countess Old Sarum [1158 X 1160] F.M. Stenton, Documents .. of the of Danelaw (1920),260-1 no.494 35. Chichester, Thomas of [1189 X 1194] HMC Various Collections, i, 183 no.18 36. Chitrus the serjeant Bordeaux [1199 X 1200] Mbnoires de Gaseogne, ii (1991),2-3 37. Cirencester Abbey Winchester [1154 X 1160] Cirencester Cartulary, ed. C. Ross, i, 58-9 no.76 39. Colchester Abbey Oxford [1155 X 1160] Cartularium ... de Coleeestria, ed. SA Moore (1897), i, 54 40*. Cook, Roger the [1154 X 1199] Rotuli Chartarum, 25 41. Dalon Abbey Perigueux [1168 X 1173] EHRcx (1995),659-61 42. DalonAbbey Perigueux [1190 X 1199] EHR cx (1995), 663-4 43*. Domo Nova family [1154 X 1204] Calendar of Liberate RaUs 1226-40, 125 44. Dunstable Priory [1189 X 1204] BL ms. Harley 1885 fo.25v 45*. Felstead, Simon of [1154 XlI58] Delisle, Recueil; i, no.45 46. Fitz Richard, Nicholas [1183 X 1200] Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College ms.205/ III fo.31lr 47. Flambard, Robert Old Sarum [1155 X 1170] Cartae Antiquae Rolls, ii, no.410 48. Fontaines Priory Poitiers [1156 X 1173] Marchegay, Cartulaires du Bas-Poitou; 109 no.24 49. Fontaine-le-Cornte Abbey Poitiers [1156 X 1173] AHPlxi (1982),40 no.26 50. Fontaine-le-Comte Abbey Poitiers [1200 X 1204] AHPIxi (1982),41-2 no.27 51. Fontenay-le-Comte Abbey [1199 X 1200] BN ms. Latin 12758 p.574 52. Fontevraud Abbey La Rochelle [1199 X Machegay, 'Chartes', 134-5 1200] 53. Fontevraud Abbey [1189 X 1194] Round, Calendar, no. I 090 54. Fontevraud Abbey Poi tiers [1200 X 1204] BL ms. Additional Charter 54007 55. Fontevraud Abbey Fontevraud [1168 X 1173] Angers AD Maine-et-Loire 242Hl no.33 pp.29-30 56. Fontevraud Abbey Chinon [1168 X 1173] Marchegay, 'Chartes', 135-6 57. Fontevraud Abbey St-jean-d'Angely [1156 X Marchegay, 'Chartes', 329 1173] 58. Fontevraud Abbey Aleneon [1185] Round, Calendar, no. I 080 59. Fontevraud Abbey Fontevraud [11 April Marchegay, 'Chartes', 334-5 1199] 60. Fontevraud Abbey Fontevraud [April 1199] BN ms. Latin 5480 part 1 p.25 61. Fontevraud Abbey Saumur [1196 X 1197] Angers AD Maine-et-Loire 242HI no.19 62. Fontevraud Abbey Fontevraud [I194X 1195] BN ms. Latin 5480 part 1 p.l21 63. Fontevraud Abbey Fontevraud [1199 X 1200] Round, Calendar, no.lIOl 64. Fontevraud Abbey Poi tiers [1200 X 1204] Round, Calendar, no.ll 08 65. Fontevraud Abbey Poitiers [1199 X 1200] Round, Calendar, no. I I00 66. Fontevraud Abbey Poitiers [1199 X 1200] Marchegay, 'Chanes', 340-1

57 NICHOLAS VINCENT

No. Beneficiary Place/Date Short Reference

67. Fontevraud Abbey Fontevraud [1152 X lI53] Delisle, Introduction, I27-8n. 68*. Fontevraud Abbey [1196] BN ms. Latin 5480 part 2 p.415 70*. Fontevraud Abbey [1152 X 1204) Angers AD Maine-et-Loire 101H225bis pp.140-1 71. Fontmorigny Abbey Fontevraud [1156 X 1204] Le Oumrier de Fontmorigny, ed. A. Huchet (Bourges 1936),22 no.35 72. Grace-Dieu Abbey Niort [1199 X 1200) ce. ii, instr. 389-90 nO.IO 73. Grandmont Priory Niort [1199 X 1200) Bulletm de La Sociiti A rchiologique cl His- tonoue du Limousin lvii (1907), 71-2 74. Grandselve Abbey Saumur [1194 X 1199] BN ms. Latin 1l01O fo.138r-v 75. Holme, St Benet's Abbey Hungerford [1155 X Dugdale, Monasticon, iii, 88 no.20 1160) 76. Holme, St Benet's Abbey Oxford [1158 X 116O] BL ms. Cotton Galba E ii fo.33v 77. Horsham St Faith's Priory London [1154 X 116O] Oxford, Queen's College ms.88 fo.l64v 78*. Jaunay, Hugh de [1154 X 1199) Rotuli Chartnru71l, 13 79. John King of England [1199) Rotuli Chartarum. 30b 80. John King of England Fontevraud [1200 X 1201] Rotuli Chcrtorum; 1021>-103 81. Jurnet the Jew London [1193 X 1194] Pipe RoU 10john, 15 82. La Rochelle, men of Niort [1199 X 1200) MSAO 5th series viii (2002), 54-9 no.3 83. La Rochelle, men of La Rochelle [1199 X 1200J MSA05th series viii (2002),59-61 no.4 84. La Rochelle, Petita of [1168 X 1173] ANJI92 Poitou II no.4 85. Le Mans, St-Vincent Abbey [1156 X 1173] Liber Controversariu71l, ed. A. Chedeville (Paris 1968), 150-1 no.91 86*. Lieu-Dieu-en-jard Abbey [1152 X 1199] AN S4343 dossier I 87. L1anthony Priory Winchester [1156 X 116O] PRO CI15/K2/6683 fo.25r 88. London, St Paul's Winchester [1156 X 116O] Early Charters of St Paul S, 34 nO.48 Cathedral 89. Lucon Abbey Chize [1156 X 1157) Poitiers BM ms. Fonteneau 14 pp.251-2 90. Luzerne Abbey Caen [1156 X 1162] GC, xi, instr. 82 nO.16 91*. Maengot, William [1189 X 1199] Rotuli Chartnru71l, 25-25b 91a, Magne Priory [1154 X 1204] RDks Gascons, ii, 240 no.862 92. Maillezais Abbey Poi tiers [1168 X 1173] L. Delhommeau, Notes et documents ... de Maillezais (Paris 1961) no.lOO 93. Maillezais Abbey Poitiers [1156 X 1173] L. Delhommeau, Notes et documents ... de Maillezais (Paris 1961) nO.96 94. Mailing Abbey Bermondsey [1154 X 1160) Calendar of Charter Rnlls 1341-1417, 61 95. Malmesbury Abbey Westminster [1154 X 1160) Registrum Malmesburiense, i, 335 96. Marin, Reginald de [1203 X 1204) AHPxliv (1923), 65-6 no.32 97. Mauleon, Ralph de Loudun, 29 Apri11199 BN ms. Latin 5480 part 1 p.469 98*. Meilleraie Priory [1152 X 1204] La Roche-sur-Yonne AD Vendee HI90 99. Merci-Dieu Abbey Poitiers [1168 X 1173] AHPxxxiv (1905), 78-9 100. Montierneuf Abbey Poitiers [1152] AHPlix (1973), 135-6 no.87 101. Montierneuf Abbey Poitiers, 4 May 1199 AHPlix (1973), 182-6no.112 102. Niort, men of [1203 X 1204] MSAO 5th series viii (2002), 75-8 no.2

58 PATRONAGE, POLITICS AND PIETY IN THE CHARTERS OF ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

No. Beneficiary Place/Date Short Reference

103. Oleron, men of Andilly [1199 X 1200] MSAO 5th series viii (2002),87-9 no.2 104. Oleron, men of Andilly [1199 X 1200] MSAO 5th series viii (2002),92-4 no.4 105*. Pantulf, Amiria de [1154 X 1203] English Episcopal Acta II/, no.469 106. Passelewe, Hamo de [1191 X 1192] Oxford, Bodleian Library ms. Dugdale 39 fo.82r 107. Pin Abbey [1189 X 1204) Poitiers AD Vienne 2Hlliasse 44 108. Poi tiers, men of Niort [1199 X 1200] MSAO 5th series viii (2002), 100-3 no.2 109. Poitiers, men of Niort [ll99 X 1200] MSAO 5th series viii (2002), 10% no.2 110. Poitiers, Ste-Croix 1190 Poi tiers BM ms. Fonteneau 5 pp.601-2 ll1. Poi tiers, Ste-Croix Montreuil, 5 May 1199 Poi tiers AD Vienne Carton 1 dossier 12 nO.5 112. Poi tiers, St-Hilaire Poitiers [l168X 1173] MSAOxiv 180-1 no.153 113. Poi tiers, St-Hilaire Rossay [1156 X 1157] MSAOxiv 160 nO.140 114. Poi tiers, Ste-Radegonde [1199 X 1200] Besly, Histone des comtes de Poictou (1647),497-8 115. Puyravault Priory [1199 X 1200] BN ms. Latin 5419 p.31 ll6. Puyravault Priory [1199 X 1200] BN ms. Latin 5419 p.3l 117. Reading Abbey [1154 X 1160] Reading Abbey Cartularies, ed. B.R. Kemp, i, 57 no.466 118. Reading Abbey [1154 X 1160) Reading Abbey Cartularies, ed. B.R. Kemp, i, 358 no.467 119. Rochefort, Aimery de [1203 X 1204) Layettes, i, 247 120. Sablonceaux Abbey Poitiers [1156 X 1157] AHPlxi (1982),25-6 no.17 121. Sablonceaux Abbey Poitiers [1156 X 1157] AHPlxi (1982),36-8 no.24 122*. Sablonceaux Abbey [1152 X 1204] BN ms. Clairambault 1188 fo.5r 123. St-Aignan-d'Oleron Priory Chinon [1168 X 1173] Cartulaire Saintongeais, ed. Metais. 114-16 no.70 124*. St Albans Abbey [1154 X 1204) Chatsworth House, St Albans Cartulary endpapers 125*. St Albans Abbey [1154 X 1160] Gesta Abbatum Sancti Albani, i, 162 126*. St Albans, Priory of St [1154 X 1199] Cartae Antiquas Rolls, ii, no.376 Mary 127. Saintes, men of Saintes [1199 X 1200] MSAO 5th series viii (2002), 139-42 no.l 128. Saintes, Notre-Dame [1139 X 1152] T. Grasilier, Cartulaires de la Saintonge (Niort 1871), ii, 51 no.48 129. Saintes, Notre-Dame [1139 X 1152) T. Grasilier, Cartulaires de la Saintonge (Niort 1871), ii, 36 no.29 130. Saintes, Notre-Dame Rouen, 1 August 1199 ANlJ114 fo.124v no.239 131. Saintes, St-Eutrope St-Jean-d'AngeIy [1199 X BN ms. Latin 12754 pp.266-7 1200] 132. St-Maixent Abbey Poi tiers, 27 May 1152 AHPxvi (1886),352-3 nO.335 133. St-Maixent Abbey [1160 X 1173] D'Achery, Spicilegium, ii, 528 134. St-Maixent Abbey [1160 X 1173) D'Achery, Spiciligium, ii, 528-9 135. St-Maixent Abbey Fontevraud, 6 October AHPxviii (1886), 16-17 nO.402 1200

59 NICHOLAS VINCENT

No. Beneficiary Place/Date Short Reference

136. St-Maixent Abbey Fontevraud, 6 October AHPxviii (1886), 17-18 no.403 1200 137*. St-Maixent Abbey [1139 X 1204] SN ms. Latin 13818 fo.301r 138. Saucier, Robert Ie [1189 X 1204] Le Pays Bas-Normand 4ge annee (1956),86 139*. Grande-Sauve Abbey Bordeaux, 21 December Bordeaux SM ms. 1871 pp.161-2 1155 140. Grande-Sauve Abbey Bordeaux, I July 1199 Bordeaux SM ms. 1871 pp.I64-5 141*. Savaric the younger [1199] Rotuli Chartarum. 11 142. Sicily,Joan Queen of [1200 X 1204] Round, Calendar, no.ll 05 143. Southwick Priory Southwick [1189 X 1194] Southwick Cartularies, i, 89 no.147 144*. Stephen the chamberlain [1152 X 1199] Rotuli Chartarum; 112 145. Surgeres Hospital St:Jean-d'Angely [1156 X La Rochelle SM ms. 130 fo.72r 1157] 146. Templars 'Lorriacum' [1139 X Poitiers SM ms. Fonteneau 25 1140] pp.287-8 147. Templars St-lean-d'Angely [1199 X Poitiers SM ms. Fonteneau 27 ter 1200] pp.243-4 148. Tironneau Abbey [1155 X 1173] Le Mans AD H977 no.I 149. Turpenay Abbey Fontevraud, 21 Aprilll99 Layues, i, 200 nO.489 150. Valasse Abbey Bordeaux [1190 X 1204) Rouen AD Seine-Maritime 18HP? 151. Vendöme, S.Trinite [1139 X 1152) Cartulairt Saintongpais, ed, Metals, 9S-1oo 152. Vendörne, S'Trinite [1153 X 1154) Cartulairt Saintongpais, ed. Metais, 103-4 153. Vendöme, S.Trinite [1146] Cartulaire Saintongpais, ed. Metais, 100-2 154. Vendöme, S.Trinite [1139 X 1204) Vendöme SM ms. 273 fo.27v 155. Waltham Abbey Berkhamsted [1192 X Waltham Abbey Charters, no.36 1194) 156. Waltham Abbey Waltham [l189X 1194] Waltham Abbey Charters, no.29? 157. Waltham Abbey Canterbury [1189 X 1194) Waltham Abbey Charten; no.288 158*. Wilton Hospital [1154 X 1204] Journal of the British Archaeological Association xvii (1861), 312-13 159*. Worcester, Roger bishop of [1170) &ckn Matnials, iii, 103

60