Blanche, the daughter of Eleanor of England and Alfonso VIII of Castile, and granddaughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II, married prince Louis of France when she was twelve. Queen at last in 1223, her reign was short, for Louis VIII (1223-26), although an excellent warrior, died on the Albigensian crusade. Blanche became regent for her son Louis IX, over the objections to her as a woman and a foreigner. She asserted her authority over the barons, and by pursuing a policy of never aligning herself with a single faction, she kept the barons divided against each other and retained control in her own hands. She even kept France out of disastrous wars with England and Germany. Even when Louis came of age Blanche continued to be his closest adviser. Nevertheless, she did not always see eye to eye with Louis, and she disliked his wife, Margaret of Provence, whom he married in 1234. Devoted to her son Louis and his brothers Alphonse of Poitiers (1220-71) and Charles of Anjou (1226-85), she played politics to keep all of them in power in their respective territories. She rebuilt the castle at Angers into a magnificent seat of power. When Louis decided to go on a crusade, Blanche opposed his decision. Nevertheless, after four year of preparation, Louis left in 1248, and Blanche assumed the regency again. She died in 1252 while Louis was still in the Holy Land.
Blanche’s patronage focused on the Cistercians and their strong yet severe art. The castle at Angers and other buildings usually attributed to
The reign of Louis IX were often built during the regency and under the patronage of the regent-queen mother, Blanche.
Edward I (1239-1307), King of England, 1272-1307;
Duke of Aquitaine, 1272-1307
Edward was first and foremost a warrior king. He was nearly killed while on crusade in Acre and learned he had inherited the throne while returning in 1272. He probably met his architect James of St. George as he passed through Savoy. Edward had married Eleanor of Castile, and the couple were crowned in 1274. For the next twenty years he stabilized the government at home and carried on a war against the Welsh, especially in 1277 and 1282-83 and finally in 1294-95. To control and govern Wales, Edward built a series of castles, of which the finest are Harlech, Conway, and Caernarfon. Edward made Caernarfon his principal headquarters.
In the 1290s his closest adviser and queen, Eleanor, died. At the same time trouble increased with France. In 1294 Philip IV tricked Edward into giving up Gascony by promising that the arrangement was temporary and that he, Philip, would return the land as the dowry of his sister Margaret. Of course Philip broke his promise at once. Edward married Margaret anyway in 1299, but Edward and Margaret did not get Gascony back until 1303.
Wars with Scotland cast a dark shadow over the last years of Edward’s life. Edward defeated the Scots in 1296 and took the “Stone of Destiny” from Scone to London, where it was placed in the royal throne (and only returned in our own times). William Wallace led a successful rising in 1297, but the next year the English defeated the Scots and executed Wallace. Robert the Bruce, crowned king of Scots in 1306, led another revolt. On the way to fight the Bruce, Edward died in 1307.
Edward was a great patron of architecture, devoting thousands of workers and vast resources to building castles and fortification, additional work at Westminster Abbey and the royal palace, and a series of monuments to Eleanor, as well as stained glass and illuminated manuscripts.
World History
