Alys, Countess of the VexinThe Vexin is a historical county of northwestern France. It covers a verdant plateau on the right bank of the Seine comprising an area east-to-west between Pontoise and Romilly-sur-Andelle , and north-to-south between Auneuil and the Seine near Vernon...
(4 October 1160 – c. 1220) was the daughter of King
Louis VII of FranceLouis VII was King of France, the son and successor of Louis VI . He ruled from 1137 until his death. He was a member of the House of Capet. His reign was dominated by feudal struggles , and saw the beginning of the long rivalry between France and England...
and his second wife Constance of Castile.
Life
Alys was the half-sister of
Marie de ChampagneMarie of France , Countess of Champagne was the elder daughter of Louis VII of France and his first wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine.- Family :Marie's younger sister was Alix of France....
and
Alix of FranceAlix of France was the second daughter born to King Louis VII of France and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.- Childhood :...
, Louis's children by
Eleanor of AquitaineEleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. As well as being Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she was queen consort of France and of England...
, and the younger sister of
Marguerite of FranceMargaret of France was the eldest daughter of Louis VII of France by his second wife Constance of Castile....
. Just five weeks after Constance died giving birth to Alys, Louis married
Adèle of ChampagneAdèle of Champagne , also known as Adelaide and Alix, was the third wife of Louis VII of France and the mother of his only male heir, the future Philip II...
, by whom he had two further children, including the future
Philip II of FrancePhilip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...
.
In January 1169, Louis and
Henry II of EnglandHenry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
signed a contract for the marriage between Alys and Henry's son
RichardRichard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
. The 8 year-old Alys was then sent to England as Henry's ward.
In 1177, Cardinal Peter of
Saint ChrysogonusSaint Chrysogonus is a saint and martyr of ancient Rome venerated by the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.-Life:Chrysogonus was martyred at Aquileia, probably during the Persecution of Diocletian, was buried there, and publicly venerated by the faithful of that region. He is the...
, on behalf of
Pope Alexander IIIPope Alexander III , born Rolando of Siena, was Pope from 1159 to 1181. He is noted in history for laying the foundation stone for the Notre Dame de Paris.-Church career:...
, threatened to place England's continental possessions under an
interdictThe term Interdict may refer to:* Court order enforcing or prohibiting a certain action* Injunction, such as a restraining order...
if Henry did not proceed with the marriage. There were widespread rumors that Henry had not only made Alys his mistress, but that she had borne him a child. Henry died in 1189. Richard married
Berengaria of NavarreBerengaria of Navarre was Queen of the English as the wife of King Richard I of England. She was the eldest daughter of King Sancho VI of Navarre and Sancha of Castile. As is the case with many of the medieval queens consort of the Kingdom of England, relatively little is known of her life...
on 12 May 1191, while still officially engaged to Alys.
Philip had offered Alys to
Prince JohnJohn , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
, but Eleanor prevented the match. Alys married
William IV TalvasWilliam III Talvas was William III, Count of Ponthieu and William IV . He was Count of Ponthieu, ruler of a small province in northern France that fell under the suzerainty of the dukes of Normandy since at least the mid 11th century...
,
Count of PonthieuThe County of Ponthieu , centered on the mouth of the Somme, became a member of the Norman group of vassal states when Count Guy submitted to William of Normandy after the battle of Mortemer.....
, on 20 August 1195, and had three daughters: Jean (
stillbornA stillbirth occurs when a fetus has died in the uterus. The Australian definition specifies that fetal death is termed a stillbirth after 20 weeks gestation or the fetus weighs more than . Once the fetus has died the mother still has contractions and remains undelivered. The term is often used in...
),
Marie, Countess of PonthieuMarie of Ponthieu was the Countess of Ponthieu and Countess of Montreuil, ruling from 1221 to 1251.-Biography:Marie was the daughter of William IV of Ponthieu and Alys, Countess of the Vexin, and granddaughter of King Louis VII of France by his second wife Constance of Castile...
, and Isabelle. Marie was the grandmother of
Eleanor of CastileEleanor of Castile was the first queen consort of Edward I of England. She was also Countess of Ponthieu in her own right from 1279 until her death in 1290, succeeding her mother and ruling together with her husband.-Birth:...
, queen of
Edward I of EnglandEdward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
and so ultimately Alys became ancestor of the English royal family.
Portrayals in fiction
As "Alasia of France", she appears in
Eleanor Anne PordenEleanor Anne Porden was a British Romantic poet and the first wife of the explorer John Franklin.She was born in London, the younger surviving daughter of the architect William Porden and his wife Mary Plowman...
's 1822 epic poem
Cœur de Lion. In it, Alys joins the army of
SaladinṢalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
during the
Third CrusadeThe Third Crusade , also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin...
to avenge herself on
RichardRichard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
for rejecting her.
Alys has a minor role in
Sharon Kay PenmanSharon Kay Penman is an American historical novelist, published in the UK as Sharon Penman. She is best known for the Welsh Princes trilogy and the Plantagenet series. In addition, she has written four medieval mysteries, the first of which, The Queen's Man, was a finalist in 1996 for the Best...
's novels,
Time and Chance and
Devil's Brood. In Judith Koll Healey's novel
The Canterbury Papers, Alys is sent on a mission to England to retrieve some letters from
Canterbury CathedralCanterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....
for Eleanor of Aquitaine. In Healey’s second novel, “The Rebel Princess,” Princess Alys confronts corrupt court officials and religious fanatics in the pursuit of her disappeared illegitimate son Francis, whose very existence could unsettle the thrones of England and France. In Christy English's novel "The Queen's Pawn," Alais comes to England to marry Prince Richard only to become the mistress of King Henry II.
Alys (spelt "Alais" in the play) is Henry's lover in
James GoldmanJames Goldman was an American screenwriter and playwright, and the brother of screenwriter and novelist William Goldman.He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up primarily in Highland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb...
's play
The Lion in Winter-Synopsis:Set during Christmas 1183 at Henry II of England's château in Chinon, Anjou, Angevin Empire, the play opens with the arrival of Henry's wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whom he has had imprisoned since 1173...
. She was played by
Jane MerrowJane Merrow is a British actress, born in London to an English mother and German refugee, who was active in the 1960s and 1970s in England and the US. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art...
in the
1968 film adaptationThe Lion in Winter is a 1968 historical drama made by Avco Embassy Pictures, based on the Broadway play by James Goldman. It was directed by Anthony Harvey and produced by Joseph E...
, by Yuliya Vysotskaya in the
2003 TV adaptationThe Lion in Winter is a 2003 made-for-television remake of the 1968 film of the same name.A television production of The Lion in Winter was first shown on December 26, 2003 in the U.K.. It starred Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close, and was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky...
and by Sonya Cassidy in the 2011 London theatre production.
She was played by
Katherine DeMilleKatherine DeMille was a Canadian-born American film actress.She was born Katherine Lester in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was orphaned as a child by the death of her father, an officer in the Canadian Army who died in World War I combat and loss of her mother to tuberculosis in 1920...
in
The Crusades- Plot :Mostly taking elements from the Third Crusade, King Richard is enlisted in a crusade to bring Jerusalem back into Christian hands in order to get out of a betrothal with Alice, the Princess of France. En route, Richard meets Berengaria the Princess of Navarre and marries her in exchange...
; by
Susan ShawSusan Shaw was an English actress.Shaw began her film career in 1946 when she was signed to a contract by the J. Arthur Rank Organisation...
in the 1963 British children's TV series
Richard the Lionheart; and by
Lorna CharlesLorna Yabsley is a British former actress and photographer who pioneered the "reportage" style of wedding photography during the early 1990s and founded the photographic company known as "bangwallop"....
and
Lucy GutteridgeLucy Karima Gutteridge is an English actress.Gutteridge was born in London, the eldest daughter of Bernard Hugh Gutteridge by his marriage to Nabila Farah Karima Halim, the daughter of Prince Muhammad Said Bey Halim of Egypt and his British second wife, Nabila Malika...
in
The Devil's CrownThe Devil's Crown was a BBC television series which dramatised the reigns of three medieval Kings of England: Henry II and his sons Richard I and John....
.
Sources
- Churchill, Winston. A History of the English Speaking People.
- Poole, A.L.
Austin Lane Poole was a British mediaevalist.Poole came from an academic lineage, being the son of Reginald Lane Poole , the nephew of Stanley Lane Poole , and the grandson of Reginald Stuart Poole .Austin Poole...
Domesday Book to Magna Carta.
- Ralph of Diceto
- Roger of Hovedon
- Benedict of Peterborough
- Gerald of Wales