The year of the three queens

From Sunday Belgium will have three queens.  Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant will become Queen of the Belgians and assume the consort's role.  Her husband's aunt remains Queen Dowager Fabiola.  And Mathilde's mother in law, Paola, stays as queen though in a role no one else has ever occupied, a kind of retired consort.

 

It's usually three kings at Christmas but in front of this tree are the three queens - Fabiola in blue, Paola in gold and Mathilde in pink

 

It's certainly a record in modern Europe.  And not only will Belgium have three living queens there will also be two living kings - five live monarchs is a pretty impressive haul by anyone's standards.

Albert and Paola are about to make way for Philippe and Mathilde

But it's not the first time that three queen consorts have been alive at the same time.  It has happened in England before but only once and a very long time ago.  And if we really stretch things we could make it four.  But maybe a hattrick should be enough.

In 1200, England had a Queen Eleanor, a Queen Berengaria and a Queen Isabella.  Eleanor had been queen for 46 years, first wearing the English crown in 1154 when her then brand new husband became Henry II.  She played a massive part in his regime to the point, in later years, where she opposed her king's rule and ended up imprisoned as a result. Some historians argue that the division between Henry and Eleanor came about because of his intention to replace her as queen consort after falling in love with Rosamund Clifford.  But Rosamund died in 1176, rumours swirling that Eleanor had poisoned her.  Henry lived another seven years and still relied on his hugely powerful queen to help him.  But he kept her under guard until his death in 1183.

Eleanor was mistress of all she surveyed  and there was no retiring to a back seat when her time as queen consort came to an end

 

The loss of her king turned the prisoner queen from a consort to a dowager but that meant nothing to Eleanor.  Her husband was succeeded by their eldest surviving son, Richard, whose first act was to get mum out of jail.  The new king was unmarried - not that the presence of another queen would have made much difference to Eleanor who set about ruling England for her son while he was away in Europe preparing for the Third Crusade.

And when it was pointed out that every king needs a queen, just as mum sorted out affairs of state she set about tidying up affairs of the heart.  So in 1191 England got a second queen in Berengaria of Navarre.  Rich and pretty, she was a great box office bride for a king who was becoming a bit of a heart throb legend in Europe and her dad was a useful ally for Eleanor and Richard when it came to keeping the southern fringes of their empire intact.

Seeing double....Berengaria of Navarre became queen consort of England in 1191 but still played second fiddle in the queen stakes to dowager Eleanor

 

Berengaria never set foot in England.  She may have been queen consort but with her mother in law as regent and the whole of western Europe at her disposal she preferred the continent to her adopted country.  When her husband was captured and held to ransom on his way back from the Crusade in 1192 she finally saw a role for herself and set about raising money for his release only to find Eleanor one step ahead and already on her way to Germany to negotiate his release.

Richard the Lion Heart was a king with two queensbut there was no doubt which one wielded the most power

 

Richard died unexpectedly in 1199 leaving his throne to his younger brother, John.  Suddenly England had two queen dowagers.  And while King John was good to his mother he wasn't too keen on paying his sister in law the pensions she was owed as a queen dowager of England.  Berengaria fought John for that money for the whole of his reign. 

John had a wife, very briefly, at the beginning of his reign but within a month of becoming king she had been divorced and went very quietly even though hubby kept most of her land and money as well.  Isabelle of Gloucester, sometimes called Hawise, is never recognized as a queen of England but she was the wife of a king for a month of his reign and could technically have laid claim to the title.

No images survive of Isabella of Gloucester, the first wife of John and still his spouse when he became king.  But there are images of him with his mother, Eleanor, who was still queen dowager at the start of his reign. 

 

But she was marital history by 1200 although still alive.  And while Eleanor, queen dowager, still wielded considerable power in John's England she didn't get nearly as much input into his choice of wife.  John needed a queen consort to provide heirs - he had no children with Isabella.  But in this instance, and perhaps for the first time since the Conquest, the king didn't think with his head when choosing a bride.  According to chroniclers of the time, he was overcome with desire for the daughter of the count of Angouleme.  The small matter of this young girl, another Isabella, being engaged to someone else was of no consequence and on August 24th 1200 they married and England got a third queen.

Isabella of Angouleme became consort of England in 1200 - meaning the country had three living queens for the first time in its history

 

 

The hattrick was complete.  And if Isabella of Gloucester is counted then that's four queens alive at one time in the country.  A pretty impressive haul.  Queen Eleanor lived another four years although she retired to the convent at Fontevraud Abbey soon after John's marriage after suffering exhaustion and illness as she sought to keep John on the throne against the claim of her grandson, Arthur of Brittany. 

 

Her death in 1204 brought to an end the era of the three queens.  Berengaria also became a nun and died in 1230 while Isabella, once widowed, married the son of the fiancé she had rejected to become queen of England.  Hubby number two had been engaged to her own daughter at the time of John's death but again Isabella broke all the rules of courtly marriage and very happy she seemed about it too.  England has so far never had three queen consorts at the same time again.

 

 

Eleanor of Aquitaine saw off one queen consort but gave up fighting for power in England when her own grandson besieged her as part of his battle for the crown

 

Another trio of royal ladies all laid claim to the title Queen of England 750 years later but only two were consorts.  When George VI died in 1952 his mother, Queen Mary, was still alive.  She had been dowager queen since 1936 and was now joined in that role by George's widow, Queen Elizabeth, who became known as the Queen Mother.  The third queen was of course his successor, Queen Regnant Elizabeth II.  In the famous photo of the three queens in mourning for their lost king she stands in the background, behind her predecessor's widow and mother.

 

 

King George VI's widow, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, with the king's mother, Queen Mary, and the new Queen Regnant, Elizabeth II

Belgium's triumvirate of female monarchs is another interesting chapter in that rarest of royal tales - the story of the three queens.