Henry of Almain

Henry of Almain (2 November 1235 Haughley Castle – 13 March 1271 Viterbo), so called because of his father's German connections as king of the Romans (Almain is derived from Alemagne, Germany), was the son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall and Isabel Marshal.

As a nephew of both Henry III and Simon de Montfort he wavered between the two at the beginning of the Barons' War, but finally took the royalist side and was among the prisoners taken by Montfort at the Battle of Lewes (1264), was held at Wallingford Castle and later released.

In 1268 he took the cross with his cousin Edward, who, however, sent him back from Sicily to pacify the unruly province of Gascony. Henry took the land route with Louis IX of France and Charles I of Sicily.

While attending mass at Viterbo on 13 March 1271), he was attacked by his cousins Guy and Simon the younger de Montfort, sons of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, and killed in revenge for the brutal deaths of their father and older brother at the Battle of Evesham. The deed is mentioned by Dante Alighieri, who took it upon himself to place Guy de Montfort in the seventh circle of hell in his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, which was written at least 40 years after Henry's death.

Henry was buried at Hailes Abbey.

Marriage

Henry was married to Constance of Montcada (d. 1299), daughter of Gaston VII of Montcada, Viscount of Béarn, on 5 May 1269 at Windsor Castle. No children came of this union. And thus his half brother, Edmund, became the heir apparent of their father.

References

See WH Blaauws "The Barons' War" (ed. 1871); Ch. Bmont1 "Simon de Montfort" (1884)
*1911