Queens Consort: England's Medieval Queens by Lisa Hilton

Author:Lisa Hilton [Hilton, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: History
ISBN: 9780297857495
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2010-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

PHILIPPA OF HAINAULT

‘Good angel of Edward and of England’

Philippa of Hainault’s queenship had a difficult beginning. Her arrival in London in December 1327 was marred by the mood in the wake of Edward II’s funeral, which had taken place four days earlier, and her wedding, held at the unfinished, leaking cathedral church of St William, York, on 30 January 1328, was a shabby affair, redeemed only by the bride’s money. The Londoners had put on a good show, presenting her with a valuable gift of plate during her four days’ residence at Ely Place, Holborn, but her long, icy journey north was a lonely one for the young woman who had left her family far away in Valenciennes. Since Lent intervened, Edward and Philippa did not fully celebrate, or consummate, their marriage until Easter, and although Philippa’s new mother-in-law staged three weeks of festivities, the presence at the wedding of a hundred Scots who had come to negotiate the ‘shameful peace’ was a reminder that her adopted country was deeply troubled and divided and that her husband was still the instrument of his adulterous mother and her lover.

Froissart gives a touching account of the first meeting between Edward III and his betrothed during Queen Isabella’s visit to Valenciennes in the summer of 1326, but there is some doubt as to whether Edward did in fact accompany his mother to the Count of Hainault’s court. If not, then Philippa met her husband for the first time just before their wedding at York, where she stayed for a week at Isabella’s lodgings. There is also some uncertainty about her age, her birth year being variously given as 1311 or 1314. Back in 1319, when an alliance with Hainault was first discussed, Walter Stapledon visited Valenciennes and left a detailed pen portrait of the ‘daughter of the Count of Hainault’1 he had been sent to inspect. The girl was reported as being ‘nine years old on St John’s day to come, as her mother says’, which would tally with the earlier date. In 1326, the Count and Countess had three unmarried daughters, Philippa, Isabelle and Jeanne, as well as a son, but their eldest girl, Sybella, had died some time between 1319 and 1326, and it is possible that Stapledon’s description applies to her, in which case the 1314 date would be more plausible. His examination of the prospective bride is notable for the attention given to every physical feature: hair, forehead, eyes, nose, lips, teeth (her adult teeth are whiter than her milk teeth) and her ‘brown’ complexion; his assessment of her figure, which, ‘so far as a man may see’, was acceptable, suggests that the bishop was required to take his investigations as far as modesty would permit. If this checklist applies to Sybella, then it cannot of course be assumed that Philippa possessed her sister’s black hair, dark eyes and satisfactory figure, but the girl was ‘well taught in all that becomes her rank’, and upbringing and education was presumably one attribute that was shared by both girls and their sisters.

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