Name of Thrones

If you want to know what really mattered to a medieval king or queen, look at what they called their children. The names given to royal offspring reveal rebellious, pious and pretentious parents.

The lives of the kings and queens of England are among the best documented of the medieval period. Yet though we might be familiar with the objective details of a monarch’s reign – the battles they fought, the alliances they forged, even the intrigues of their courts – insights into what mattered to them personally are often elusive.

Naming a child then, as now, was a highly personal and symbolic gesture – and, with knowledge of a name’s context – a revealing one, too. The names that medieval monarchs chose for their children can show us what they wanted to convey about their family and their dynasty; what their relationships with their extended families were like; the literature that mattered to them; which saints they felt close to; and whether they were conformists or rebels.

Breaking with the Past
Consider Henry III, who became king of England at the age of just nine in 1216. Henry would become England’s fourth-longest ruling monarch, but the country he inherited was mired in civil war and dangerously close to military defeat by Prince Louis of France, later Louis VIII, who invaded England and even captured Winchester in 1216. During the first 16 years of Henry’s reign, his kingdom was controlled by courtiers, first Hubert de Burgh and then Peter des Roches, culminating in a turbulent period in which Henry combatted – and put down – a brief revolt led by Richard Marshal, son of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.

In 1234 Henry began his personal rule. Two years later, in 1236, he married Eleanor of Provence, a union which gave him access to influential figures in mainland Europe; Louis IX of France was now his brother-in-law, and his new extended family had a strong relationship with the Pope. Henry was 28 at the time of the wedding; Eleanor was 12.


https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/name-thrones

Nice!