Eleanor of Brittany
The treatment of his elder cousin Eleanor of Brittany, who was 23 years his senior (and older than his mother), was a difficult problem for Henry.
Eleanor was the daughter of Duke Geoffrey II of Brittany, elder brother of King John, which meant that she had a better claim to the English throne than John and Henry according to Primogeniture, thus should have been queen regnant in 1203. But in 1202 John captured Eleanor at Mirebeau. When John died, the barons passed her over and crowned Henry, leaving the beautiful and defiant princess still imprisoned at Corfe Castle at Dorset, guarded by Peter de Maulay.
Viewing her claim to England and Aquitaine, though with little baronial support for her sex, as a threat, the regents, later Henry himself, viewed Eleanor as "state prisoner" and kept her in a state of semi-captivity, or "under a gentle house arrest", and never permitted her to marry. Before Henry held real power, it was alleged that there was a plot to spirit Eleanor away and deliver her to the king of France; de Maulay was accused of the plot and fell out of favour. However, many believed such a plot was just an excuse aiming to discredit de Maulay and Peter des Roches, who would also fall out of favour in spring 1234. Shortly after the plot was discovered, Eleanor was moved away from coast and transferred between Gloucester, Marlborough and Bristol Castle. To prevent her from liberation, the princess was under strict custody and always closely guarded, even after child-bearing years. But on the other side, Henry also showed his generosity to his cousin. He styled Eleanor, who had been left no title, as "king's kinswoman", referred her as "our cousin", and it was recorded that she lived as comfortably as a royal princess who received generous gifts from royal family. Henry himself once gave Eleanor a saddle, suggesting that she was probably a horsewoman, and was not always confined in her apartment. On another occasion, Henry sent her 50 yards of linen cloth, three wimples, 50 pounds of almonds and raisins respectively and a basket of figs. In November 1237 at Woodstock, Henry met a healthy Eleanor. Then the princess was again taken captive to Gloucester under the custody of William Talbot, and the sheriff there paid for her expenses. In the final years of her life Eleanor was moved to Bristol, and Henry ordered the mayor and bailiff there to increase her household. The governor there exhibited her to the public annually, in case there might be rumours that the royal captive had been injured. The fact might suggest that English people were sympathetic to her.
On 10 August 1241 Eleanor died, and was buried at Amesbury. In the Chronicle of Lanercost there was a legend saying that before her death, the remorseful Henry gave her a gold crown, which would be donated to his young son Edward three days later. Another version of events stated that Eleanor returned the crown after wearing it for only one day. After his cousin, who actually never gave up her rights and claim, finally died an unmarried prisoner, Henry was now indisputably the rightful king of England, although years later he was still unwilling to admit that Eleanor had preceded him in English succession line.
In 1268 Henry donated a manor in Melksham, a place that Eleanor had shown her interest in, to Amesbury for the souls of Eleanor and her younger brother Arthur, who was captured along with his sister and disappeared mysteriously the next year, it being widely believed that John had him murdered.
Read more about this topic: Henry III Of England