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Berengaria of Navarre: Overshadowed Consort

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Norman to Early Plantagenet Consorts

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Abstract

Berengaria of Navarre, wife of Richard I of England, has been noted in the two extant English biographies as a “shadow queen”. Little evidence survives for her tenure as Queen, which is an interesting contrast to her dowager period as Lady of Le Mans. This chapter provides a comparative approach by looking at Berengaria’s exercise of power, and the lack of evidence for this, throughout her time as consort and dowager. Berengaria’s growth in authority as dowager Queen is an unexpected juxtaposition to her time as Queen consort, and although not unusual within this period of Angevin queenship, it is unusual for queens in the later Middle Ages, which makes her worthy of study through this lens.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Crónica de Garci Lopez de Roncesvalles: Estudio y Edicion Critica, ed. Carmen Orcastegui Gros (Pamplona: Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, 1977), 67; José Yanguas y Miranda and Antonio Ubieto Arteta, eds., Carlos, Príncipe de Viana. Crónica De Los Reyes de Navarra (Pamplona, 1843), 100.

  2. 2.

    Ghislain Baury and Vincent Corriol, Bérengère de Navarre (v.1160–1230): Histoire et mémoire d’une reine d’Angleterre (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2022), 28–30.

  3. 3.

    Elena Woodacre, The Queens Regnant of Navarre: Succession, Politics, and Partnership, 1274–1512 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 21.

  4. 4.

    Santos Augustín García Larragueta, ed., El Gran Priorado de Navarre de la Orden de San Juan de Jerusalén, siglos XII–XIII, 2 vols. (Pamplona: Institución Príncipe de Viana, 1957), 2:60.

  5. 5.

    Ann Trindade, Berengaria: In Search of Richard the Lionheart’s Queen (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999), 54.

  6. 6.

    John Gillingham, “Richard I and Berengaria of Navarre,” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 53 (1980): 158–160.

  7. 7.

    Gillingham, “Richard I and Berengaria,” 167–168.

  8. 8.

    William Stubbs, ed., Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi Benedicti Abbatis: The Chronicle of the Reigns of Henry II and Richard I. A.D. 1169–1192; Known Commonly under the Name of Benedict of Peterborough, 2 vols. (London: Longmans, 1867), 1:191, 306; 2:70, 74.

  9. 9.

    Roger of Wendover’s Flowers of History Comprising The History of England From the Descent of the Saxons to A.D. 1235, Formerly Ascribed to Matthew Paris, trans. and ed. John Allen Giles, 2 vols. (London, 1892), 2:95.

  10. 10.

    The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes of the Time of King Richard the First, trans. and ed. John T. Appleby (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1963), 25; The Annals of Roger de Hovenden Comprising the History of England and of Other Countries of Europe from A.D. 732 to A.D. 1201, trans. and ed. Henry Thomas Riley, 2 vols. (London, 1853), 2:193, 196; Wendover, 2:95.

  11. 11.

    Gabrielle Storey, “Berengaria of Navarre and Joanna of Sicily as Crusading Queens: Manipulation, Reputation, and Agency,” in Forgotten Queens in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Political Agency, Myth-Making, and Patronage, ed. Valerie Schutte and Estelle Paranque (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018), 48–50.

  12. 12.

    Roger de Hovenden, 2:204; Wendover, 2:103.

  13. 13.

    Roger de Hovenden, 2:204.

  14. 14.

    In John’s reign, Eleanor appears to have been keen to retire and withdraw from political life. See: Jane Martindale, “Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Last Years,” in King John: New Interpretations, ed. Stephen D. Church (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1999), 136–164; Ralph V. Turner, “Eleanor of Aquitaine in the Governments of Her Sons Richard and John,” in Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady, ed. Bonnie Wheeler and John Carmi Parsons (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 77–95.

  15. 15.

    Ivan Cloulas, “Le douaire de Bérengère de Navarre, veuve de Richard Cœur de Lion, et sa retraite au Mans,” in La Cour Plantagenêt (1154–1204): Actes du Colloque tenu à Thouars du 30 avril au 2 mai 1999, ed. Martin Aurell, (Poitiers: Université de Poitiers, 2000), 89.

  16. 16.

    Cloulas, “Le douaire,” 89–90.

  17. 17.

    Marie Hivergneaux, “Aliénor d’Aquitaine: le pouvoir d’une femme à la lumière de ses chartes (1152–1204),” in La Cour Plantagênet, 78.

  18. 18.

    Archives Départmentales de Seine-Maritime, Cote 7H57 (1193); James Horace Round, ed., Calendar of Documents preserved in France Illustrative of the History of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 vols. (London, 1899), 1:94 (no. 278).

  19. 19.

    “Berengaria dei gratia regina Anglorum, ducissa Normannorum et Aquitannorum, comitissa Andegavorum,” AD Seine-Maritime, Cote 7H57.

  20. 20.

    “ad preces nostras sub nostro testimonio fideiussorum,” AD Seine-Maritime, Cote 7H57.

  21. 21.

    Round, Calendar of Documents, 1:94 (no. 278).

  22. 22.

    Of Berengaria’s relationship with Joanna we know little. They spent a substantial amount of time together during their journeys to and from the Holy Land; however, there are no surviving letters between the pair to indicate whether a close relationship had been formed. Indeed, of Joanna’s life we know as little as Berengaria’s: she was married first to William, King of Sicily, and then to Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, before dying in childbirth in 1199. For more on Joanna, see: Colette Bowie, The Daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014).

  23. 23.

    For further discussion of Berengaria’s titles, see: Gabrielle Storey, “Co-Operation, Co-Rulership and Competition: Queenship in the Angevin Domains, 1135–1230” (PhD thesis, University of Winchester, 2020), chap. 5.

  24. 24.

    “humilis quondam Angliae Regina.” Anne Crawford, ed., Letters of the Queens of England, 1100–1547 (Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1994), 46–47.

  25. 25.

    Crawford, Letters, 51, 59.

  26. 26.

    Trindade, Berengaria, 118.

  27. 27.

    Roger de Hovenden, 2:356–357.

  28. 28.

    Trindade, Berengaria, 112–113.

  29. 29.

    Doris Mary Stenton, ed., The Chancellor’s Roll for the Eighth Year of the Reign of King Richard the First: Michaelmas 1196 (Burlington: TannerRitchie, 2016), 150; Doris Mary Stenton, ed., The Great Roll of the Pipe for the 9th Year of the Reign of King Richard the First (Burlington: TannerRitchie, 2016), 8; Doris Mary Stenton, ed., The Great Roll of the Pipe for the 10th Year of the Reign of King Richard the First (Burlington: TannerRitchie, 2016), 180; The Great Roll of the Pipe for the First Year of the Reign of King John: Michaelmas 1199 (Burlington: TannerRitchie, 2015), 57, 190; Doris Mary Stenton, ed., The Great Rolls of the Pipe for the 2nd to 4th Years of the Reign of King John, 3 vols. (Burlington: TannerRitchie, 2016), 2:227; 3:218; 4:247; The Great Roll of the Pipe for the Fifth Year of the Reign of King John: Michaelmas 1203 (Burlington: TannerRitchie, 2015), 73.

  30. 30.

    Frank McLynn, Lionheart and Lackland: King Richard, King John and the Wars of Conquest (London: Jonathan Cape, 2006), 275.

  31. 31.

    Archives Nationales, MS J460, Fondations, i, no. 4.

  32. 32.

    Speculation as to why Berengaria and Richard’s relationship failed to produce any heirs will not be discussed here. See: Storey, “Co-Operation, Co-Rulership and Competition,” chap. 3.

  33. 33.

    Thomas Rymer, ed., Foedera (London, 1727), 1:124.

  34. 34.

    Roger de Hovenden, 2:530–531; Registres de Philippe-Auguste, 1:488–490.

  35. 35.

    Registers de Philippe-Auguste, 1:54–55 (three charters documenting the value of Berengaria’s lands); 1:493–494; 2:416, 419–420.

  36. 36.

    Registres de Philippe-Auguste, 1:493–494.

  37. 37.

    Registres de Philippe-Auguste, 2:416.

  38. 38.

    Registres de Philippe-Auguste, 2:420.

  39. 39.

    Foedera, 1:194, 141.

  40. 40.

    Foedera, 1:138.

  41. 41.

    Rotuli Chartarum in Turri Londoniensi, 128; Nicholas Vincent, “Isabella of Angoulême: John’s Jezebel,” in King John: New Interpretations, 186–187. Isabella’s original dower charter issued in 1200 was superseded by the 1204 charter; however, upon John’s death, Isabella sought to claim both sets of lands.

  42. 42.

    Henry Churchill Maxwell Lyte, ed., Patent Rolls of the Reign of Henry III. A.D. 1216–25 (London: HMSO, 1901), 179.

  43. 43.

    Patent Roll of the Reign of Henry III, 179.

  44. 44.

    W.W. Shirley, ed., Royal and Other Historical Letters Illustrative of the Reign of Henry III (London: Longman, 1862), 273–274.

  45. 45.

    “mille marcas sterlingorum, quas nobis debetis in hoc festo Omnium Sanctorum, de compositione nostri dotalitio, inter vos et nos solemniter celebrate.” Shirley, Royal and Other Historical Letters, 273.

  46. 46.

    TNA, E368/3/2; David Carpenter, Henry III: The Rise to Power and Personal Rule, 1207–1258 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020), 179.

  47. 47.

    Trindade, Berengaria, 162–163.

  48. 48.

    Samuel Georges Maurice Menjot D’Elbenne and Louis Denis, eds. Archives Historiques du Maine, Tome IV. Cartulaire du Chapitre Royale de St. Pierre de la Cour (Le Mans: Siège de la Société, 1907). For further analysis on the relationship between Berengaria and St. Pierre, see: Storey, “Co-Operation, Co-Rulership and Competition,” chap. 4.

  49. 49.

    Cartulaire du St. Pierre-de-la Cour, no. 49.

  50. 50.

    André Chédville, ed., Liber Controversiarum Sancti Vincentii Cenomannensis ou Second Cartulaire de l’Abbaye de Saint-Vincent du Mans (Paris: Institut de Recherches Historiques de Rennes, 1968), 97.

  51. 51.

    Marie Hivergneaux, “Queen Eleanor and Aquitaine, 1137–1189,” in Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady, 63–65.

  52. 52.

    Félix Bourquelot, ed., “Fragments de comptes du XIIIe siècle,” in Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes, Volume IV, ed. René de Lespinasse (Paris: Alb. L. Herold, 1863), 51–79. Accessed 4 June 2020. https://www.persee.fr/doc/bec_0373-6237_1863_num_24_1_445869.

  53. 53.

    Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS Latin 17124, 29.

  54. 54.

    Trindade, Berengaria, 186.

  55. 55.

    Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS Latin 17124, 5–7.

  56. 56.

    Archives Départmentales de la Sarthe, Cartulaire de l’abbaye de l’Épau, no. 941.

  57. 57.

    Kathleen Nolan, “Symbolic Geography in the Tomb and Seal of Berengaria of Navarre, Queen of England,” in Moving Women, Moving Objects (400–1500), ed. Tracy Chapman Hamilton and Mariah Proctor-Tiffany (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 68.

  58. 58.

    Nolan, “Symbolic Geography in the Tomb and Seal of Berengaria of Navarre,” 73.

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  1. Southampton, UK

    Gabrielle Storey

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  1. Gabrielle Storey
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  1. University Campus North Lincolnshire, England, UK

    Aidan Norrie

  2. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Carolyn Harris

  3. University of Reading, Reading, UK

    J.L. Laynesmith

  4. York, UK

    Danna R. Messer

  5. University of Winchester, Winchester, UK

    Elena Woodacre

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Storey, G. (2023). Berengaria of Navarre: Overshadowed Consort. In: Norrie, A., Harris, C., Laynesmith, J., Messer, D.R., Woodacre, E. (eds) Norman to Early Plantagenet Consorts. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21068-6_9

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