Eleanor of Provence (c 1217 - 26 June,1291) was Queen Consort of King Henry III of England.

Born in Aix-en-Provence, she was the daughter of Raymond Berenguer IV, Count of Provence (1198-1245) and Beatrice of Savoy (1206-1266), the daughter of Tomasso, Count of Savoy and his second wife Margaret. Eleanor's sister, Marguerite (1221-1295), married Louis IX, King of France and became Queen of France.

When she was 13 years old, Eleanor was married to Henry III, King of England (1207-1272) in January 1236. She had never seen him prior to the wedding at Canterbury Cathedral and had never set foot in his impoverished kingdom. The dynastic match became a true partnership, but her first year in London the despised foreign queen in her barge on the Thames was threatened by a London mob and fled to the bishop of London's palace for safety.

She was a confident consort to Henry, but she brought in her retinue a large number of cousins, "the Savoyards," and her influence with the King and her unpopularity with the English barons created friction during Henry's reign. She stoutly contested Simon de Montfort, raising troops in France for Henry's cause. In 1272 Henry died, and her son Edward, 33 years old, became Edward I, King of England. Eleanor retired to a convent but remained in touch with her son.

Eleanor died in 1291 in Amesbury, England.

The couple had nine children, four of whom survived:

Edward I (1239 - 1307)

Margaret (born 19.9. 1240)

Beatrice (born 25.6. 1242)

Edmund (born 14.3. 1245)

Reference

• Margaret Howell, Eleanor of Provence: Queenship in Thirteenth-century England 1997