ELEANORA OF PROVENCI ûmn nf USrarjj tjii Cljirir. CHAPTER I. Parentage and beauty of Eleanora—Her talents—She sends a poem, twitim by her* self to Earl Richard—The Earl advises Henry the Third to marry Iter—Henry's unsuccessful efforts to procure a consort—He agrees to marry Eleanora without a dower—Her journey to England—Marriage—Coronation—Eress—Jewels—The Pope approves of her marriage—Extravagance and early difficulties of Henry the Third—His partiality for foreigners—Doings of Italian ecclesiastics—Henry's religious devotion, and extravagant liberality to Eleanora's foreign relations—The Earl of Leicester marries the Countess of Pembroke—Earl Richard advises the King to discard his foreign councillors, LEANORA OE PROVENCE, surnamed La Belle, from her exquisite beauty, was the second of the five fair daughters of the illustrious Raymond Berengcr, Count of Provence. This Count Raymond was alike celebrated as a poet and a warrior, but being fond of battle strife, he, by continual wars, had so wasted Ms money, that his poverty had become proverbial. His consort, Beatrice, daughter of Thomas, Count of Savoy, was remarkable for beauty, wit, and high accomplishments. Born in that land of sunshine and song, the south of France, the birthplace of the most renowned troubadours of the middle ages, and where the language spoken was remarkable for its grace, elegance, and superior fitness for poetical comnosition. Eleanora imbibed a snark of the poet's fire, and whilst scarcely yet in her teens, penned that really creditable heroic poem on the lore adventures of Blandin of Cornwall, which is still preserved in the royal library of Turin, and which, singular to relate, won for her the crown matrimonial of England. The poem completed, she, by the desire of her father, who, it appears, was counselled to the course by his far-seeing confidant, the poet Romeo, sent it with many compliments to King Henry's brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall. Earl Richard was then at Poitou, preparing for a crusade ; but feeling nattered by this mark of respect from the peerless maiden, and being himself already married to a fair daughter of the Earl of Pembroke, the Protector, he wrote on the instant a long epistle to Ms brother Henry the Third, in which, after lavishly praising her beauty, her accomplishments, and, above all, her romantic rhymes, he concludes by earnestly entreating the King