Alexander II – History… the interesting bits!

Ermengarde de Beaumont, Queen of Scots

04/10/202503/10/2025Sharon Bennett Connolly4 Comments

History... the Interesting Bits — *William I the Lion, King of Scots*

Unusually for a king in medieval times, by 1185 William the Lion, King of Scots had been on the throne for 20 years, was past 40 and was still unmarried, despite having several illegitimate children. Until he married, William’s heir was his younger brother, David. Ironically, William’s mother, Ada de Warenne, who had been so keen to find a bride for her oldest son Malcolm IV that she was not above putting suitable girls in his bed, does not seem to have had the same sense of urgency with William. There’s no evidence that she pressured him to marry as she had his older brother. Though, I suppose, at least William had shown an interest in women and had the bastards to prove it.

And William was looking for a bride. Henry II, always happy to remind William that he was the Scots king’s overlord, exercised his right to choose William’s wife.

In May 1186, during a council at Woodstock, King Henry suggested Ermengarde de Beaumont as a bride for William. Ermengarde was the daughter of Richard, Vicomte de Beaumont-sur- Sarthe, who was himself the son of Constance, one of the many illegitimate daughters of King Henry I of England. With such diluted royal blood, she was hardly a prestigious match for the king of Scots. William felt slighted but he reluctantly accepted the marriage after consulting his advisers, the offer sweetened by a generous payment for the wedding celebrations and the return of two forfeited Scottish castles, as a wedding present.

We have, of course, no record of Ermengarde’s thoughts on the marriage, nor of whether she was aware of the fact it was seen as an insult to the Scots king. The wedding was celebrated at Woodstock, conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 5 September 1186,

‘with great magnificence, on the nones of September [5th Sept.] (being the sixth day of the week [Friday], the moon being in her eighteenth day), in the royal chapel in the park at Woodstock, in the presence of the king himself.’¹

Following the ceremony, King Henry hosted 4 days of festivities. Although we do not know Ermengarde’s birth date, at the time of the marriage, she was described as ‘a girl’, suggesting that she may have only just reached the age of 12, the minimum legal age girls could marry. It has been suggested that Ermengarde’s tender age may also have been the reason for William’s reluctance to marry her.

We do not know the year of birth of Ermengarde’s first child, a daughter named Margaret, but it was sometime between 1187 and 1195. Another daughter, Isabella, was born a year or two later. If Ermengarde gave birth to Margaret the year after her marriage, it seems highly likely that she was at least fourteen or fifteen years old at the time of her wedding. However, a later birthdate, in the 1190s would suggest that Ermengarde was younger at the time of her marriage and was given time to mature before bearing children. The king’s growing need for an heir would, perhaps, indicate that Ermengarde was old enough to bear children at the time of their marriage, and that describing the bride as ‘a girl’ was alluding to her youth, but not her actual age. Unfortunately, the vagaries of chroniclers means that we cannot say for certain

In the spring of 1195 King William fell gravely ill at Clackmannan, causing a succession crisis, the sum of his legitimate children being one, possibly two, daughters at this time – and no son. The Scottish barons deliberated a number of options, such as recognising William’s oldest legitimate daughter, Margaret, as his heir. They also considered marrying Margaret to Otto, Duke of Saxony, grandson of Henry II, and allowing Otto to succeed to the throne. The earl of Dunbar led a faction who claimed that both solutions were contrary to the custom of the land, so long as the king had a brother who could succeed him. Traditionally, the Scots throne had passed to the oldest, legitimate, male member of the royal family, rather than by primogeniture.

This must have been a worrying time for Ermengarde, not only for the health of her husband, but for her own status in Scotland, should her daughter be disinherited. Not to mention the concern that Margaret, then aged only 8 at the most, might be married at such a young age to secure the succession. In the event, the discussion was moot as the king recovered from his illness and three years later the queen gave birth to Alexander, the much-desired son and heir.

Chronicler John of Fordun described the relief and celebration felt throughout the country at the birth of the heir to the Scots throne:

‘Now this most fortunate king of Scotland, William, had, nearly twelve years ago, with great splendour and rejoicings, taken to wife Ermyngarde, daughter of the Viscount of Beaumont… By her he had a son, named Alexander, — to the great gladness of his people, and the refreshment of the whole kingdom of the Scots, as the after course of these annals will show forth. He was born at Haddington, on Saint Bartholomew’s Day, in the year 1198. In every place in the whole country, the common folk used to forsake their menial work on this day, wherein they first heard tidings of his birth, and spend it in joy; while priests and churchmen donned the alb, and walked in procession, with loud voice glorifying God in hymns and canticles, and humbly praising Him.’

Although she does not act as a witness on any of King William’s extant charters, Queen Ermengarde appears to have played an active role in Scotland, with William allowing her an increasingly influential part in public affairs. One disgruntled canon, in 1207, complained that Walter, a royal chaplain, had obtained the bishopric of Glasgow by not only bribing the king’s chamberlain, but also Queen Ermengarde. The queen may also have offered patronage to relatives, including one Richard de Beaumont, perhaps a brother or cousin, who received substantial lands in Crail. As the king’s health declined in old age – he was already 46 when he married Ermengarde – the queen took on more responsibilities, especially where her children were concerned.

Relations with England had changed in 1199, with the accession of King John, the youngest son of Henry II. During the reign of King Richard, William had agreed with the justiciar, William Longchamp, and supported Arthur of Brittany as the king’s heir. However, it was John who succeeded Richard and he may well have remembered William’s stance. Soon after John’s accession, King William asked for the return of Northumberland. The two kings met at Lincoln in 1200, with William doing homage for his English lands but getting no satisfaction in his claim to Northumberland. In subsequent meetings, John continued to prevaricate, leaving the dispute unresolved.

In the meantime, the death of the bishop of Durham meant John took over the vacant see and set about building a castle at Tweedmouth. The Scots, saw this as a direct threat to Berwick and destroyed the building works. Matters reached a crisis point in 1209.

After many threats, and with both sides building up their armies, the two kings met at Norham, Northumberland, in the last week of July and first week of August 1209. The Scots were in a desperate position, with an ailing and ageing king, and a 10-year-old boy as heir, whilst the English, with their Welsh allies and foreign mercenaries, had an army big enough to force a Scottish submission. Queen Ermengarde appears to have acted as a mediator between the two kings, although the subsequent treaty, agreed at Norham on 7 August, was humiliating for the Scots it did, at least, prevent a war. The Scots agreed to pay 15,000 marks for peace and to surrender hostages, including the king’s two oldest legitimate daughters, Margaret and Isabella. As a sweetener, John promised to marry the Margaret to one of his sons; although Henry was only 2 years old at the time and Richard was just 8 months, whilst the girls were already in their mid teens, at least. It was agreed that Isabella would be married to an English noble of suitable rank, an earl at least.

The king’s daughters and the other Scottish hostages were handed into the custody of England’s justiciar, at Carlisle on 16 August.

How the girls, or their parents, thought about this turn of events, we know not. Given John’s proven record of prevarication and perfidy, King William may have hoped that the promised marriages would occur in good time but may also have expected that John would find a way out of the pledges he had made. William and John met again at Durham in February 1212, a meeting in which ‘The queen of Scotland was present and acted as mediator, an extraordinary woman, gifted with a charming and witty eloquence.’³ The queen’s efforts bore fruit and peace between the two countries was renewed, as ‘There in the presence of the nobles of both kingdoms and the revered lady the queen of the Scots a formula for achieving peace and love, to be observed between the kingdoms and their kings for ever, was worked out anew and confirmed by charters given by both parties.’⁴

It was also agreed that the Scottish prince, Alexander, should be given an English wife. With at least one of the prince’s older sisters already intended for a son of King John, marrying Alexander to one of John’s daughters would further bind the Scots to the Plantagenet cause. Prince Alexander, now aged 14, would be knighted by King John, the ceremony taking place at Clerkenwell on 4 March 1212.

Ermengarde may have taken a more prominent role in the negotiations of 1212 as King William’s health began to fail. Their son, Alexander, was still only a teenager and so it would have fallen to the queen to take the lead in the talks. William was a physically active king almost to the very last moment. In January and February 1213, when both the Scots and English kings were close to the border, a meeting was proposed, but William resisted and could not be persuaded to meet with John. In his 70th year, he was probably already very ill.

As William’s health failed, Queen Ermengarde appears to have taken on more responsibilities and exerted her influence on the court. The king rallied in 1214, so that he was well enough to travel to Elgin in the summer, where he came to an accord with John, the new earl of Caithness, and received the earl’s unnamed daughter as a hostage. The journey took its toll on the king, and he suffered some sort of collapse. He was taken, in easy stages, to the royal castle at Stirling, where he saw his lords for the last time. With the queen in attendance, William urged his barons and bishops to accept Alexander, now 16 years old, as king. King William I, later known as William the Lion, died on 4 December 1214, aged about seventy-one, having reigned for a total of forty-nine years, almost to the day.

On the morning after her husband’s death, Queen Ermengarde was ‘in a state of extreme mourning and worn out with grief.’⁵ The prelates and nobles attempted to rouse the queen from her melancholy by asking that she arrange the late king’s funeral, but the queen would not be moved. They left Ermengarde with her grief and took the young king to Scone, where he was crowned as King Alexander II on 6 December. King William was then buried at Arbroath on 10 December. The new king and his mother then presided over the royal Christmas feast at Forfar but returned to Stirling in January 1215, before visiting Arbroath, to see the tomb of King William.

Queen Ermengarde had been much younger than her husband, possibly by as much as thirty years. She would, therefore, continue to live for many years into her son’s reign.

King Alexander II sided with the English barons in their struggle against the tyranny of King John, making an alliance with the northern barons, who agreed to press for a decision on the future of Alexander’s sisters, and a resolution of the lordship of the northern counties. He raided the northern English earldoms, exploiting the unrest in England to renew Scottish claims to these counties, besieging Norham in October 1215 and receiving the homage of the leading men of Northumberland. And when a French force joined the fight on the side of the rebels, the papal legate pronounced a sentence of excommunication on the rebels and their French and Scottish allies; it even extended to Queen Ermengarde. Scotland put under interdict. Following John’s death in October 1216 and the defeat of the French rebel army at Lincoln in May 1217, Alexander’s position in England became precarious.

The Scots king surrendered Carlisle Castle at Berwick on 1 December 1217 and submitted to England’s boy-king Henry III at Northampton later in the same month. Alexander’s sentence of excommunication was lifted by the archbishop of York, while the bishop of Durham absolved his mother, Queen Ermengarde.

With King Alexander’s submission, there followed an unprecedented almost 80 years of unbroken peace between England and Scotland, sealed by his marriage – in York – with Joan, Henry III’s sister in June 1221. Another marriage soon followed, when, in London on 30 October, Alexander’s oldest sister, Margaret, was married to Hubert de Burgh.

Queen Ermengarde must have felt relief that her son had found a bride, and hoped that an heir would soon follow. She may also have been satisfied that her eldest daughter, Margaret, once thought of as the heir to the Scots throne, was also finally settled in matrimony. Though there was complaint from some sides that Margaret had been pressed into a disparaging marriage when she had been promised a prince as a bridegroom. Hubert de Burgh was King Henry III’s justiciar, but was of minor nobility. He only receive his earldom of Kent after his marriage to Margaret. As for Margaret’s sister Isabella, she returned to Scotland, still unmarried. She eventually married Roger Bigod, the young Earl of Norfolk, in 1225. The wedding took place at Alnwick, in Northumberland, which may mean that Queen Ermengarde was able to attend.

Queen Ermengarde devoted her later years to founding an abbey at Balmerino, with the help of Alexander. A parish in the district of Cupar in county of Fife, it was an area she regularly visited for the benefit of her health. The dowager queen raised the money to found the Cistercian abbey, paying 1,000 merks to purchase the land and acting as overseer to the building project. The abbey was built in red stone, quarried locally. Dedicated to Saint Edward the Confessor, Balmerino was populated by monks from Melrose Abbey. Queen Ermengarde appears to have had a particular veneration for the sainted English king as the only other religious gift we can attribute to her was to the hospital of St Edward at Berwick.

The queen had lived long enough to see three of her four children settled in marriage, and may have met her first grandchild, a daughter born to Princess Margaret in 1227, also named Margaret. In the same year, Henry III’s brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, arrived in Scotland to speak with Queen Ermengarde. The object of the discussions was his possible marriage to the queen’s youngest daughter, Marjory. The earl’s proposals were attractive to neither the Scots nor his brother and negotiations came to naught, but the fact that it was Ermengarde that Richard approached, rather than the king, clearly demonstrates the queen’s continuing influence on her family. Her youngest daughter was not married until August 1235, when she married Gilbert Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, at Berwick.

The queen did not live to see the wedding as in February 1233 Ermengarde de Beaumont died. She was buried before the high altar of the abbey to which she had dedicated her years of widowhood, Balmerino. Although the surviving records hint at the queen enjoying substantial authority in Scotland, especially where her family were concerned, we have few specifics. That she was entrusted with negotiating with the English emissaries, in 1209 and again in 1212, suggests that she possessed impressive diplomatic skills, and that King William had considerable confidence in his wife’s abilities. Furthermore, the queen’s evident grief at her husband’s death attests to a deep affection within the union, an affection that not only defined the marriage, but also the whole family, with the queen continuing to exert her influence on the relationships of her children in the years after her husband’s death.

Having served Scotland as queen for 28 years and as its dowager queen for a further 19 years, Ermengarde de Beaumont defined the role of Queen of Scots for subsequent royal consorts. Her memory cast a long shadow.

Images:

Notes:

1. Mediaeval chronicles of Scotland, translated by Joseph Stephenson; 2. John of Fordun’s Chronicle of the Scottish Nation; 3. Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, V 4; 4. ibid; 5. Rosalind K. Marshall, Scottish Queens 1034–1714

Bibliography:

Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, V 4; Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history, edited by W. F. Skene; fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/SCOTLAND; John of Fordun’s Chronicle of the Scottish Nation, edited by W. F. Skene, Edinburgh, Edmonston and Douglas; Rosalind K. Marshall, Scottish Queens 1034–1714; Mediaeval chronicles of Scotland: the chronicles of Melrose and Holyrood, translated by Joseph Stephenson; Richard Oram, editor, The Kings and Queens of Scotland; The annals of Roger de Hoveden. Comprising the history of England and of other countries of Europe from A.D. 732 to A.D. 1201, edited by Henry T. Riley; David Ross, Scotland, History of a Nation; W.W. Scott, Ermengarde [Ermengarde de Beaumont], oxforddnb.com; W.W. Scott, William I [known as William the Lion] (c. 1142–1214), oxforddnb.com

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Guest Post: Philip Lovell, a career in royal service by Monika E Simon

31/07/202121/07/2021Sharon Bennett Connolly1 Comment

Today it is a pleasure to welcome author Monika E Simon back to the blog, with an article looking at one particular member of the Lovell family. Monika’s book, From Robber Barons to Courtiers: The Changing World of the Lovells of Titchmarsh, has just been released in the UK. Over to Monika:

Philip Lovell, a career in royal service

Parish church of St James the Great, Hanslope, Buckinghamshire

Philip Lovell was the younger son of William Lovell II and his wife Isabel (family unknown). He was the only member of the Lovell family who entered the church and had a successful if chequered career as a clerk and administrator in royal service, culminating in his appointment as Treasurer of England in 1252. He is also the first Lovell who left a significant trail in the royal records.Nonetheless, little is known about Philip Lovell’s early life. When his father William Lovell II died in 1212/13, Philip’s elder brother John Lovell I was still underage and King John granted his wardship to his supporter Alan Basset. As younger brother, Philip must have been underage as well. Unlike others who made their career in the church, Philip Lovell did not set his feet on this path as a young man. He married at an unknown time the widow of Alexander de Arsic whose name unfortunately is also unknown. They had three children, two sons, Philip Lovell the younger and Henry Lovell, and one daughter Amicia who married Richard de Curzon of Derbyshire. It is also not known when Philip Lovell’s wife died.

After his wife’s death Philip Lovell entered the church and in 1231/32 was ordained subdeacon and given the living in Lutterworth (Leicestershire) by Nicholas de Verdun. It may have also been Nicholas de Verdun who introduced Philip to Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester and Constable of Scotland, whose service Philip entered. Again the information is vague but Philip was witnessing the earl’s charters before 1240 and eventually became the earl’s steward for his English estates. During this period, Philip Lovell frequently travelled to Scotland where he earned the friendship of King Alexander II and second his wife Marie de Coucy, as Mathew Paris reports.

Philip Lovell must have worked efficiently and without causing trouble as otherwise Roger de Quincy would not have employed him as a steward or at least retained him in that position.

Over time Philip Lovell gained several positions in the church. He was as rector of Stanground (Huntingdonshire), Rock (Worcestershire), canon of London, and holding the living of Hanslope.

After about ten years in the service of Roger de Quincy and, no doubt using the contacts he had made for example with William Mauduit, Chamberlain of the Exchequer, entered the service of Henry III. In 1249 Philip Lovell was appointed a justiciary of the Jews through the influence of another influential man, John Mansel. Mansel was an ambitious and highly successful administrator whom Mathew Paris described as Henry III chief or special councillor. Perhaps he felt responsible for the man, he had introduced to royal service but he remained a firm supporter of Philip Lovell throughout his time in royal service.

At first everything went well for Philip Lovell and in 1250 he was styled a clerk and counsellor of the king. But a year later, Philip was disgraced for allegedly taking bribes from wealthy Jews in return for reducing the amount of tallage they had to pay. It is possible that the charges were trumped up by his rival and colleague, Robert de la Ho, as chronicles imply.

John Mansel and Alexander III of Scotland put in a good word with Henry III and Philip was restored to favour. John Mansel arranged for Alexander III to petition Henry III to restore Philip to favour, which he did remembering his parents friendship with Philip. Philip Lovell must have made a very good and lasting impression on Alexander II and his queen for his son to petition Henry III. John Mansel himself paid the fine of 10 marks of gold (a substantial sum) that Philip had offered. Even if Mansel felt responsible for the man he had been instrumental to gain the position as justiciar of the Jews it seems unlikely to me he would have gone to such length if he had thought that Philip was completely hopeless.

Philip Lovell’s restoration to favour was complete and swift. Not even a year after his dismissal from office, on 27 August 1252, he was appointed Treasurer of England. As a key figure in the administration of the country, his name appears constantly in the government records. The Patent Rolls, Close Rolls, and the Liberate Rolls of this period contain a multitude of references to his work which was incredibly varied.

The Liberate Rolls are the records of the writs ordering money to be paid out of the treasury. The work of the treasurer was varied and often hands-on. Most often, Philip Lovell was the person to authorise the payment. For example when the sheriffs of London were to be repaid for the lead they had purchased for building works in Windsor and on another occasion for the transport of the gear of the king’s pavilion in Westminster to Portsmouth. On other occasions the sheriff of Surrey and Sussex had transported the king’s treasure from London to Portsmouth. The sheriff of Kent was paid back the money he had spent on the reception of the Barsias Martini, the elect of Toledo and his household in Dover and on their travels to the New Temple in London.

Money was also paid out to Eleanor of England, Countess of Leicester for her dower. In 1256, Philip Lovell received 1,600 marks from Margaret de Lascy, Countess of Lincoln, a part payment of the arrears of the money she owned as her share of the dower payments to Eleanor of England.

Philip himself was often purchasing items for the royal court. For example, he bought 30 gold-wrought cloths for Queen Eleanor or wax for the king’s children in Windsor.

The purchases also shed a light on the sheer size of the royal household. In 1253, Philip Lovell and two colleagues purchased 82 gold buckles, 277 precious rings of gold, 15 girdles, 89 ‘massive’ rings of gold, and 14 ‘massive’ buckles of gold to the tune of £250 17s. 5d. In 1254, 600 ells of linen were bought to make napkins for the feast of St Edward. Another large purchase, in 1255, was of various spices: 385 pounds of pepper, 386 pounds of ginger, 4 pounds of mace, 12 pounds of setwall (valerian), and 16 pound of sugar ‘of Alexandria’. Sheep, boars and fowl were sent from the sheriff of Buckinghamshire to Westminster for the Feast of St Edward in 1255. Wine was also bought for the king. On several occasions Philip Lovell himself bought the wine and transported it to where the royal household was at the time.

Another frequent expense was for gift of the king to a church or cleric. In 1255, for example, five gold-wrought cloths, a piece of red sandal (a light silk material), and another piece of green sandal were bought for a cloth for St Peter’s in Westminster. In 1256, Philip Lovell bought an embroidered cope to give to the church of St Edmund. A year later he bought another embroidered cope that was a gift by the king to Westminster in honour of St Edward. It was not only vestments and cloth that was given to churches, in 1257 Philip bought a gold buckle for 10 marks to give to the feretory of St Edmund of Pontigny.

Hoard of Anglo-Saxon rings found at Leeds, West Yorkshire

For his service to the king, Philip Lovell was to be given ecclesiastical benefices, dignities or prebends to the amount of 200 marks per year. He was granted free pasture in the forest of Whittlewood and received gifts of trees on several occasions. He also often received grants of deer from the royal forests. In 1250, he simply took a hind and a doe in Sherwood Forest without asking prior permission. His pardon by the king for this offence must be regarded as a further sign of the good favour he stood in. Philip Lovell was also granted the wardship and marriage of the heirs of Vivian de Staundon.

Not all of Henry III attempts to promote his treasurer were successful. In 1257 he tried to persuade the monks of Coventry to make Philip Lovell bishop of Lichfield and Coventry but without success.

In the late 1250s, the dissatisfaction of the barons of England increased and with the charismatic leadership of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester the demands for changes in the government grew louder. Philip Lovell was one of the men they wanted to remove from office. He had been too harsh in his attempts to find revenue for the treasury, as in 1255 when he was making an inquiry into the king’s revenues and rights in eight midland counties. Simon de Montfort had his private complaints against the king and his treasurer as the payments of his wife’s dower were a constant problem. The critics were eventually successful. Philip Lovell was accused of plundering the forest of Whittlewood, charges that were trumped up according to Nicholas Vincent in his biography of Philip Lovell in the ODNB. Nonetheless, Philip was dismissed from service and replaced by John de Crachale, archdeacon of Bedford.

Philip Lovell retired to Hanslope where he died on 29 December 1258 of grief that the king, whom he had served so faithfully, would not forgive him. His estates, which included lands in Little Brickhill (Buckinghamshire), Littlebury (Essex), and Snotescombe (Northamptonshire), were at first confiscated but later divided between his three children and his nephew John Lovell II.

Philip Lovell was a controversial figure. He lost his position as he was thoroughly disliked by many barons. Being responsible for collecting taxes and guarding the king’s financial rights and income is, if done thoroughly, not a job that is likely to make a person popular with those whose money he took. Modern historians are also critical. J.R. Maddicot describes him as ‘a man with a bad reputation for corrupt and oppressive behaviour’. Matthew Paris by contrast calls him a prudent, eloquent and magnanimous man.

Philip Lovell’s nephew, John Lovell II also entered royal service though he choose the more traditional route for a noblemen: service in war. It is possible that his uncle’s position at court helped him in this respect. However, John Lovell II’s maternal uncles, the Bassets, were a stronger influence that his paternal uncle Philip. Several brothers of John Lovell II’s mother Katherine were high-ranking members of the royal administration. The fact that John Lovell II decided to adapt the Basset coat of arms to become that used by the Lovell family speaks for a close link between the two families.