Marriage and Children
Married on 14 January 1236, Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, Kent, to Eleanor of Provence, with at least five children born:
- Edward I (b. 17 June 1239 – d. 7 July 1307)
- Margaret (b. 29 September 1240 – d. 26 February 1275), married King Alexander III of Scotland
- Beatrice of England (b. 25 June 1242 – d. 24 March 1275), married to John II, Duke of Brittany
- Edmund Crouchback (16 January 1245 – d. 5 June 1296)
- Katherine (b. 25 November 1253 – d. 3 May 1257), deaf and mute from birth, though her deafness may not have been discovered until age 2.
There is reason to doubt the existence of several attributed children of Henry and Eleanor.
- Richard (b. after 1247 – d. before 1256),
- John (b. after 1250 – d. before 1256), and
- Henry (b. after 1253 – d. young)
are known only from a 14th century addition made to a manuscript of Flores Historiarum, and are nowhere contemporaneously recorded.
- William (b. and d. ca. 1258) is an error for the nephew of Henry's half-brother, William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke.
Another daughter, Matilda, is found only in the Hayles Abbey chronicle, alongside such other fictitious children as a son named William for King John, and an illegitimate son named John for King Edward I. Matilda's existence is doubtful, at best. For further details, see Margaret Howell, The Children of King Henry III and Eleanor of Provence (1992).
Read more about this topic: Henry III Of England
Famous quotes containing the words marriage and, marriage and/or children:
“Christianity as an organized religion has not always had a harmonious relationship with the family. Unlike Judaism, it kept almost no rituals that took place in private homes. The esteem that monasticism and priestly celibacy enjoyed implied a denigration of marriage and parenthood.”
—Beatrice Gottlieb, U.S. historian. The Family in the Western World from the Black Death to the Industrial Age, ch. 12, Oxford University Press (1993)
“The parent who loves his child dearly but asks for nothing in return might qualify as a saint, but he will not qualify as a parent. For a child who can claim love without meeting any of the obligations of love will be a self-centered child and many such children have grown up in our time to become petulant lovers and sullen marriage partners because the promise of unconditional love has not been fulfilled.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“Seeing their children touched and seared and wounded by race prejudice is one of the heaviest crosses which colored women have to bear.”
—Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954)