Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall - Just some info

November 23, 1243 - Marriage: Richard PLANTAGENET & Sancha de PROVENCE were married in Westminster Abbey, London, England. Sancha and her 3 sisters all married kings! The eldest of the 4 sisters was Margaret who married Louis IX (St. Louis) and became Queen of France. Next was Eleanor who married Henry III and became Queen of England. Sancha married Richard Earl of Cornwall who was the younger brother of Henry III of England. They became king and queen of the Germans. Beatrice, the baby, married Charles I of the house of Capet (he was the younger brother of Louis IX. They became king and queen of Sicily. These 4 girls were the children of Raymond Berenger IV, Count of Provence and Beatrice of Savoy. They were all beauties.

In 1240 Richard, Earl of Cornwall departed for the Holy Land. He fought no battles but managed to negotiate for the release of prisoners and the burials of Crusaders killed at a battle in Gaza in 1239. He also refortified Ascalon, which had been demolished by Saladin. On his return from the Holy Land, Richard visited his sister Isabella, the empress of Frederick II.
After the birth of prince Edward in 1239, provisions were made in case of the king's death, which favoured the Queen and her Savoyard relatives and excluded Richard. To keep him from becoming discontented King Henry and Queen Eleanor brought up the idea of a marriage with Eleanor's sister Sanchia shortly after his return on 28 January 1242. On his journey to the Holy Land, Richard had met her in the Provence, where he was warmly welcomed by her father Raymond Berenger IV and had fallen in love with this beautiful girl. Richard and Sanchia (whom the English called Cynthia) married at Westminster in November 1243.
This marriage tied him closely to the royal party. He joined King Henry in fighting against Simon de Montfort's rebels in the Second Barons' War (1264–67). After the shattering royalist defeat at the Battle of Lewes, Richard took refuge in a windmill, was discovered, and was imprisoned until September 1265.
In December 1271, he had a stroke. His right side was paralysed and he lost the ability to speak. On 2 April 1272, Richard died at Berkhamsted Castle in Hertfordshire. He was buried next to his second wife Sanchia of Provence and Henry of Almain, his son by his first wife, at Hailes Abbey, which he had founded.
After his death, a power struggle ensued in Germany, which only ended in 1273 with the emergence of a new Roman King, Rudolph I of Habsburg, the first scion of a long-lasting noble family to rule the empire. In Cornwall, Richard was succeeded by Edmund, son of his second wife Sanchia. (source Ky White)