Eleanor of England, Countess of Bar

Eleanor
Depiction of princess Eleanor on the family tree
Countess of Bar
Tenure	1293 – 12 October 1298
Born	18 June 1269 Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire
Died	29 August 1298 (aged 29) Ghent, County of Flanders
Burial	12 October 1298 Westminster Abbey
Spouse	Henry III, Count of Bar (m. 1293; her death 1298)
Issue	Edward I, Count of Bar Joan of Bar, Countess of Surrey Eleanor?
House	Plantagenet
Father	Edward I of England
Mother	Eleanor of Castile

Eleanor of England (18 June 1269 – 29 August 1298) was an English princess, the eldest surviving daughter of King Edward I of England^[1] and his first wife, Queen Eleanor of Castile.^[2]

What evidence exists for her early years suggests that while her parents were absent on Crusade between 1270 and 1274, she became very close to her paternal grandmother, Eleanor of Provence, with whom she continued to spend a good deal of time. She was also close to her sickly brother Henry. On one Pentecost Eve, Henry and Eleanor were given two partridges for their dinner, for a special treat.^[3]

For a long period Eleanor was betrothed to King Alfonso III of Aragon.^[4] Alfonso's parents were under papal interdict, however, because of their claims to the throne of Sicily, which were contrary to the papal donation of the Sicilian throne to Charles I of Naples, and despite the Aragonese ruler's repeated pleas that Edward I send his daughter to them for marriage, Edward refused to send her as long as the interdict remained in place. In 1282 he declined one such request by saying that his wife and mother felt the girl, who had just turned 13, was too young to be married, and that they wanted to wait another two years before sending her to Aragon. Alfonso died before the marriage could take place.

Eleanor subsequently married the French nobleman, Henry III, Count of Bar on September 20, 1293,^[5] and had two children:

• Edward I, Count of Bar
• Joan

According to Kenneth Panton, Eleanor is credited with a daughter called Eleanor (b.1285), who supposedly married a Welshman named Llywelyn ap Owain.^[6]

She was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Family tree

Ancestors of Eleanor of England, Countess of Bar

16. Henry II of England               8. John of England                       17. Eleanor of Aquitaine               4. Henry III of England                             18. Aymer Taillifer, Count of Angoulême               9. Isabella of Angoulême                       19. Alice of Courtenay               2. Edward I of England                                   20. Alfonso II, Count of Provence               10. Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence                       21. Garsenda II of Sabran               5. Eleanor of Provence                             22. Thomas I of Savoy               11. Beatrice of Savoy                       23. Marguerite of Geneva               1. Eleanor of England                                         24. Ferdinand II of León               12. Alfonso IX of León                       25. Urraca of Portugal               6. Ferdinand III of Castile                             26. Alfonso VIII of Castile               13. Berenguela of Castile                       27. Leonora of England (daughter of 16)               3. Eleanor of Castile                                   28. Alberic, Count of Dammartin               14. Simon de Dammartin, Count of Ponthieu                       29. Maud de Ponthieu               7. Jeanne of Dammartin                             30. William IV of Ponthieu               15. Marie of Ponthieu                       31. Alys, Countess of the Vexin

References

1. Burke's Guide to the Royal Family, London, 1973, 197 & John Carmi Parsons
2. genealogics.org Family of Eleanor of England
3. Siblings of Edward II
4. Balaguer, Víctor. Historia de Cataluña y de la Corona de Aragón. Barcelona, 1860, p. 698.
5. Michael Prestwich, Edward I, (Yale University Press, 1997), 389.
6. Kenneth Panton, Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy, (Scarecrow Press, 2011), 173.