Princess Alice FRANCE

   Other names for Alice were Alix and Adela.

   Ancestral File Number: 8XJJ-78. User ID: 18909759.

   General Notes:

Princess of FRANCE.

BOOKS
The Political History of England, Vol II, George Burton Adams Longmans Green and Co, 1905, Ch XV
p331: "...The king of France was pressing for the promised marriage of Adela and Richard, and it was understood that the legate, Cardinal Peter of Pavia, had authority to lay all Henry's dominions under an interdict if he did not consent to an immediate marriage..."
Ch XVI, p348: [1187] "...[Henry] wrote a letter to Philip porposing that Adela should be married to John, who should then be invested with all the French fiefs held by the house of Anjou except Normandy, which with the kingdom of England should remain to Richard. If Henry was blind enough to suppose that the Duke of Aquitaine could be reconciled to such an arrangement, Philip saw at once what the effect of the proposal would be, and he sent the letter to Richard...
"...The ultimate result of Philip's cunning was that Richard deserted his father and went home with the king of France, and together they lived for a time in the greatestintimacy..."
Ch XVII, p372:
[1191] "...Repulsed in an attempt to get the advantage of the seneschal of Normandy he applied to John, perhaps with more hope of success, offering him the hand of the ungortunate Adela with the invesitureof all the French fiefs. John was, of course, already married, but that was a small matter either to Philip, or to him. He was ready to listen to the temptation, and was preparing to cross to discuss the proposition with Philip when his planswere interrupted by his mother. She had heard of what was going on and hastily went over to England to interfere, where with difficulty John was forced to give up the idea..."

A History of The Plantagenets, Vol II, The Magnificent Century, Thomas B Costain, 1951, Doubleday & Co.
p327: "...[Eleanor of Castile's] quite unusual attractiveness may have been due to the mixture of blood in her veins. Her grandmother had been the Alice of France who was affianced to Richard of the Lion Heart and whose charms had won the affections of Richard's father, Henry II..."

A History of the Plantagenets, Vol I, The Conquering Family, Thomas B Costain, 1949, Doubleday & Co.
p118: "After Richard became King, Philip tried to force him to carry out the old arrangement and marry Alice. Richard refused on the ground that she had been his father's mistress and had borne him a son. If such were the case, the child was born abroad, for there are no records of it in England,and must, moreover, have died in infancy. Philip did not dipute the statement. He finally agreed to a cancellation of the betrothal, and Richard married Princess Berengaria of Navarre instead. Philip then gave his unfortunate sister in marriageto a nobleman of France; a sorry conclusion for her...but this was after the death of Henry. As long as he lived, he refused to give Princess Alice up. She was thirty-two when he died and for seventeen years had been the object of his infatuated attachment."

Eleanor of Aquitaine the Mother Queen, Desmond Seward, 1978, Dorset Press
p62: "Alice Daughter of Constance of CASTILE and Louis VII King of FRANCE, Betrothed to Richard I King of ENGLAND, Married 1195 William III Count of PONTHIEU."
p145: "[Philip II] complained about the delay in solemnizing the marriage between Richard and Philip's half-sister, Alice of France, knowing very well that Richard was reluctant to marry her; the reason, according to Gerald of Wales (who was probably right), was that the old king had seduced the girl during her long stay at his court. Whe Henry proposed that she should marry John instead and be duchess of Aquitaine, Philip slyly revealed the plan to Richard. The latter was so infuriated that he agreed to co-operate in the war against his father."
p157: "Early in the summer of 1190 king Richard and king Philip met at Gisors to discuss the final details of their joint crusade. Philip insisted on discussing the position of his half-sister Alice, demanding that Richard should marry her before setting out on an expedition from which he might possibly never return. The English king stalled. He refused to surrender either Alice or her dowry..." p191: "One beneficiary from the peace negotiations during 1196 was Richard's former betrothed, Alice of France, who was still unmarried at thirty- three in an era when royal princesses usually became brides at twelve or thirteen. She had been moved from her prison at Rouen to various castles, in case of any attempt at rescue. Her half-brother Philip, moved by considerations of strategy rather than affection, at last obtained her release and married her to count William of Ponthieu, whose county lay between Flanders and the northern Plantagenet lands; he was a usefully placed ally should king Richard and Baldwin of Planders try to join forces. But at least Alice had acquired a husband whose rank was worthy of her. One cannot but suspect that Eleanor's withdrawal from affairs of state at this time had saved Alice from perpetual imprisonment."

A History of the English Seaking People Winston S Churchill Vol I The Birth of Britain Dodd Mead & Co 1956 p133 "...[Richard] had promised Philip of France to marry his sister Alice, about whom, except for her looks, the tales were none too good. Philip claimed that Richard had tried to seduce her, and there was bad feeling between the monarchs. However that may be, after he rested for the winter, his mother brought out to him Berengaria, daughter of the King of Navarre, whom he had known and admired, and now resolved to marry. It was fitting that the `Lion-heart' should marry for love and not for policy, but the rejection of Alice prevented a tie between the Kings of France and England which had been deemed essential to their comradship in the Crusade..."

ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.10 8XJJ-78 Alix Princess of FRANCE, TPHE Adela.

   Marriage Information:

Alice married Count William PONTHIEU, III, son of Count Jean De PONTHIEU, I and Countess Beatrice De Saint Pol PONTHIEU, on 20 Aug 1195 in , Castile, Spain. (Count William PONTHIEU, III was born in 1179 in , Ponthieu, France and died in 1221 in , , France.)