Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany

Eleanor of Brittany
Alyenore la Brette in a 13th-century genealogy (British Library)
Born	c. 1182–4
Died	10 August 1241(1241-08-10) (aged c. 57–59) Bristol Castle (or Corfe Castle, Dorset)
Burial	Amesbury Abbey, Wiltshire
House	Plantagenet
Father	Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany
Mother	Constance, Duchess of Brittany
Religion	Roman Catholic

Eleanor Fair Maid of Brittany (c. 1184 – 10 August 1241), also known as Damsel of Brittany, Pearl of Brittany, or Beauty of Brittany, was the eldest daughter of Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany, the fourth son of King Henry II of England, and Constance, Duchess of Brittany. After the presumed death in 1203 of her imprisoned younger brother, Arthur, she was heiress to vast lands including England, Anjou, and Aquitaine as well as Brittany, realms where the Salic Law barring the accession of females did not apply. Her uncle John, King of England was the fifth son of Henry II, and Eleanor inherited Arthur's claim to the throne as child of John's elder brother Geoffrey. Thus she posed a potential threat to John, and following his death in 1216, equally to her cousin, Henry III of England. She was imprisoned from 1202, and thus became the longest-imprisoned member of an English royal family. As a prisoner she was also unable to press her claim to the Duchy of Brittany as her mother's heiress.

Like Empress Matilda and Elizabeth of York, her claim to the English throne gained little support from the barons, due to the expectation that the monarch should be male, despite legal provision for a female monarch. Some historians have commented that her imprisonment was "the most unjustifiable act of King John".

Eleanor became fatherless at the age of two and was brought up by her uncle King Richard I of England and grandmother Eleanor of Aquitaine. However, Richard's ward also meant that she was under Angevin custody, and thus even her mother Constance never considered her a potential heir to Brittany, which weakened her later claim to the duchy. As her younger brother Arthur was the heir presumptive to England and Brittany, she was one of the most marriagable princesses at that time. In 1190, after Richard failed to marry his younger sister Joan to Al-Adil I, brother of Saladin, he proposed that Eleanor should be the bride instead, but the negotiation was also in vain, as Al-Adil showed no interest in Christianity. In 1193, she was engaged to Frederick, son of Leopold V, Duke of Austria, as part of the conditions to release Richard, who had been taken prisoner by Emperor Henry VI. However, when she was on the way to Austria with Baldwin of Bethune the next year, the duke died, so the marriage never took place, and under order of Pope Celestine III she returned to England, accompanied by her grandmother Eleanor.