Infanta doña LEONOR de Castilla y León (1240-Herdeby, Lincolnshire 29 Nov 1290, bur Westminster Abbey)
d/o FERNANDO III “el Santo” King of Castile & Jeanne de Dammartin-Ponthieu
x EDWARD Earl of Chester aka EDWARD I “Longshanks”
16 children:
1.KATHERINE 2.JOAN 3.JOHN 4.HENRY 5.ELEANOR 6.dau 7.JOAN 8.ALFONSO 9.ISABELLA 10.MARGARET 11.BERENGARIA 12.MARY 13.ELIZABETH 14.EDWARD 15.?BEATRIX 16.?BLANCHE

• https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/CASTILE.htm#Leonordied1290MEdwardI...
• https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLAND,%20Kings%201066-1603.htm#E...
• https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonor_de_Castilla

Eleanor of Castile

From Medlands:

King Edward I & his first wife had sixteen children:

1. KATHERINE ([1261/64]-5 Sep 1264). The Liberate Rolls record the order of cloths of gold “for the use of Katherine the deceased daughter of Edward the king´s firstborn” dated Oct 1264[743]. The necrology of Canterbury Christ Church records the death 5 Sep of “Katherine daughter of King Edward”[744].

2. JOAN (Paris or Abbeville, Ponthieu early 1265-before 7 Sep 1265, bur Westminster Abbey). The Close Rolls record the order for a gold cloth for the tomb of “Johanne filie Edwardi primogeniti regis nuper defuncte et in ecclesia Westmonasterii sepulti” dated 7 Sep 1265[745].

3. JOHN [of Winchester] ([Windsor or Winchester] 10 Jul 1266-before 8 Aug 1271, bur Westminster Abbey). The Cronica Maiorum et Vicecomitum Londoniarum records that “uxor domini Edwardi” gave birth “II Id Jul...apud Windleshores” to “filium suum primogenitum”, dated to 1266 from the context[746]. The Annales Cambriæ record the death in 1271 of "Johannes filius Edwardi primogenitus" and his burial "apud Westmonasterium", stating that he was "in custodia domini regis Alemanniæ" (presumably indicating his paternal uncle Richard Earl of Cornwall)[747]. The Annals of Osney record the death “apud Walingeford circa gulam Augusti” in 1271 of “dominus Johannes primogenitus domini Edwardi” and his burial “apud Westmonasterium”[748]. The Chronicle of John de Oxenedes records the burial “VI Id Aug...apud Westmonasterium” of “dominus J. de Wincestria primogenitus domini Ædwardi domini Henrici regis Angliæ primogeniti”, dated to 1271 from the context[749].

4. HENRY (Windsor Castle 13 Jul [1267/68]-Merton, Surrey or Guildford Castle, Surrey 14 Oct 1274, bur Westminster Abbey). The Liberate Rolls record a payment to “Aymenin yeoman of Eleanor wife of Edward the king´s son” for bringing news to the king “about her childbearing”, dated 6 May 1268[750]. The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the burial at Westminster "XIII Kal Nov" 20 Oct [1274] of "dominus Henricus domini Edwardi filius"[751]. The Chronicle of Thomas Wykes records the death “circa festum Sancti Calixti Papæ” in 1274 of “Henricus filius regis Edwardi secundo genitus” and his burial “apud Westmonasterium…X Kal Nov”[752]. The Chronicle of John de Oxenedes records the burial “apud Westmonasterium XIII Kal Nov” of “dominus Henricus domini Ædwardi filius”, dated to 1273 from the context[753]. Betrothed (1 Sep 1273) to JEANNE de Champagne, Infanta doña JUANA de Navarra, daughter of ENRIQUE I King of Navarre [HENRI III Comte de Champagne] & his wife Blanche d'Artois [Capet] (Bar-sur-Seine 14 Jan 1273-Château de Vincennes 31 Mar or 2 Apr 1305, bur Paris église des Cordeliers). A charter dated 1 Sep 1273 records the agreement between "Edbbardus…rex Anglie" and "Henricus…rex Navarre, Campanie et Brie, comes palatinus" for the marriage of "Henricus rex…Johannam filiam nostrum et heredem" and "Henrico filio primogenitor et heredi…Edbbardi regis Anglie"[754].

5. ELEANOR (Windsor Castle before 17 Jun 1269-Ghent 12 Oct 1297, bur Westminster Abbey). The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the birth "apud Wyndleshores" of "filiam…Alienoram" to "Alienora uxor domini Eadwardi regis primogeniti"[755]. The Chronicle of John de Oxenedes records that “Alianora uxor domini Ædwardi domini regis primogeniti” gave birth “apud Wyndleshores” to “filiam...Alianoram”, dated to 1269 from the context[756]. The Patent Rolls include an order dated 17 Jun 1269 granting a reward to “John de Beaumes yeoman of Eleanor consort of Edward the king´s son for bringing the good news of the birth of her daughter Eleanor”[757]. The marriage contract between “Edwardus...rex Angliæ...filiam suam majorem” and “infans Petrus...regis Aragonum primogenitus” is dated 8 Oct 1272[758]. Despite the error of name, it is likely that this betrothal relates to the king´s known eldest son Alfonso, whom Eleanor later married, rather than an otherwise unrecorded older son named Pedro: no case has been found in the family of the kings of Aragon where the oldest son of the king was named after his father. A charter dated 19 Jun 1281 confirmed the marriage contract between “rex...filiæ nostræ” and “rege Aragoniæ...primogeniti sui”[759]. The Chronicle of Ramon Muntaner records that Edward I King of England sent "Jean d´Agrilli" to Barcelona to negotiate the marriage of his daughter to Alfonso III King of Aragon, dated to 1286, and records the betrothal later the same year[760]. The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the marriage "apud Bristoll vigilia S Matthaæi Apostoli" 20 Sep [1293] of "Alienora regis Angliæ flia primogenita" and "domino Henrico comitis de Baroduc"[761]. The Oude Kronik van Brabant records the marriage in 1294 of "comes de Barri" and "filiam primogenitam Eduardi regis Anglorum"[762]. [Poull gives no death date for Eleanor, but says that she returned to England after her husband died and that 8 May 1304 her father started negotiations for her marriage with Robert, son of Othon Comte Palatin de Bourgogne & his wife Mathilde Ctss d'Artois[763]. This seems unlikely to be correct as Robert de Bourgogne was born in 1300, so was over 30 years younger than Eleanor. It appears more probable that these marriages negotiations refer to the king´s daughter of the same name who was born to his second marriage (see below).] m firstly (Betrothed [1286], by proxy Westminster Abbey 15 Aug 1290, not consummated) ALFONSO III "el Liberal" King of Aragon, son of PEDRO III "el Grande" King of Aragon & his wife Constanza of Sicily [Hohenstaufen] (Valencia 4 Nov 1265-Barcelona 18 Jun 1291, bur Barcelona Franciscan Monastery). m secondly (Bristol 20 Sep 1293) HENRI III Comte de Bar, son of THIBAUT II Comte de Bar & his second wife Jeanne de Toucy ([1255/60]-Naples Sep 1302).

6. daughter ([Acre], Palestine [May] 1271-Palestine 29 May [1271/72], bur [Bordeaux Dominican Priory]). The Cronica Maiorum et Vicecomitum Londoniarum records that “due filie” were born to Edward “in Terra Sancta”, adding that “quarum una mortua est et altera venit cum eo et cum regina usque in Vasconiam”, dated to 1271 from the context[764]. Assuming that the two daughters were not twins, the birth of the older daughter would be placed in 1271. Queen Eleanor provided a gold cloth for the anniversary of her daughter 29 May at the Dominican priory in Bordeaux where the child was buried[765]. This burial could refer to this unnamed daughter, whose body would have been transported back from Palestine, or to another otherwise unrecorded daughter.

7. JOAN "of Acre" (Acre, Palestine Spring 1272-Clare Manor, Suffolk 23 Apr 1307, bur 26 Apr 1307 Priory Church of the Austin Friars, Clare, Suffolk). The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the birth at Acre in [1272] of "filiam…Johannam" to "Alienor uxor domini Eadwardi"[766]. The Annales Hospitalis Argentinenses record that "comes Hartmannus [filius reginæ uxoris Rudolfi Regis]" was betrothed to "filia regis Anglie"[767]. This betrothal was arranged by King Rudolf to exploit Anglo/French rivalry. Two charters dated 1276 record negotiations for the marriage between “dominus rex Alemaniæ...filium suum Hartmannum” and “filiam regis Angliæ Johannam”[768]. A charter dated Dec 1278 records the agreement that the marriage between “R. Romanorum rex...Hartmannum comitem de Habspurg et de Kyburg, Alsatiæ langravium natum suum” and “Johannæ...Edwardi...regis Angliæ...filiæ”, already betrothed, should be celebrated[769]. The marriage was postponed. The dispensation for the marriage of “Gileberto comiti Gloverniæ et Hertfordiæ” and “Johanna nata...Edvardi regis Angliæ”, dated 16 Nov 1289, records the 2o and 3o affinity between the parties illustrated by the 2o and 3o consanguinity between “Aliciam natam quondam...Hugonis comitis Marchiæ” [the bridegroom´s first wife] and “prædictam Johannam”[770]. The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the marriage "ultimo die mensis Aprilis apud Westmonasterium" of "Gilbertus de Clare comes Gloverniæ" and "dominam Johannam dicta de Acra…filium regis Angliæ"[771]. The Chronica de Fundatoribus et Fundatione of Tewkesbury Abbey records the marriage of “Gilbertus secundus” and “Johanna de Acres, filia regis Edwardi primi”[772]. The Annals of Dunstable record that “Edwardus rex…Johannam filiam suam secundo genitam” married “Gilberto comiti Gloverniæ” in 1290[773]. The Annals of Dunstable record that “comitissa Gloverniæ, filia domini regis” married “cuidam militia sine assensu regio” in 1296[774]. The primary source which confirms her second marriage more precisely has not yet been identified. Her second marriage was clandestine. The king, her father, did not know that Joan was already married when he agreed 16 Mar 1297 her marriage to Amédée Comte de Savoie. He confiscated Joan's lands 3 Jul 1297 when he found out about the marriage, but pardoned her 2 Aug 1297[775]. A manuscript history of the foundation of Dunmow Priory records the death in 1307 of “Johanna de Acres comitissa de Clare” and her burial “in ecclesia fratrum S. Augustini apud Clare”[776]. Betrothed to HARTMANN von Habsburg Graf von Kiburg, son of RUDOLF I Graf von Habsburg King of Germany & his first wife Gertrud [Anna] von Hohenberg [Zollern] (Rheinfelden 1263-drowned between Breisach and Strasbourg 21 Dec 1281, bur Basel Münster). m firstly (Papal dispensation 16 Nov 1289, Westminster Abbey 30 Apr 1290) as his second wife, GILBERT de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford "the Red Earl", son of RICHARD de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Hertford & his second wife Maud de Lacy (Christchurch, Hampshire 2 Sep 1243-Monmouth Castle 7 Dec 1295, bur 22 Dec 1295 Tewkesbury). m secondly (secretly early 1297 or [12 May/3 Jul] 1297) as his first wife, RALPH de Monthermer, son of --- (-5 Apr 1325, bur Salisbury, Grey Friars church). He was a member of the household of her first husband. He was imprisoned by the King at Bristol when he learned of his marriage, but pardoned at Eltham 2 Aug 1297[777]. He used the title Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, in right of his wife, but does not seem to have been so created.

8. ALFONSO (Bayonne or Bordeaux or in Maine 24 Nov [1273]-Windsor Castle 19 Aug 1284, bur Westminster Abbey). The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the birth "apud Baunam in Gasconia…subsequente diem S Clemente" 24 Nov [1273] of "filius…Aldephonsum" to "domino Edwardo"[778]. The Chronicle of John de Oxenedes records the birth “apud Baunam in Guasconia nocte subsequente diem Sancti Clementis” of “domino Ædwardo...filius...Aldephonsum”, dated to 1273 from the context[779]. The Annals of Waverley records the birth “apud Baionam in Vasconia…Novembri…in vigilia beatæ Katerinæ virginis” in 1275 of “domina Alianora regina Angliæ filium…Alfonsus”[780]. The probable birth dates of the other children of King Edward I suggest 1273 as the more likely birth date of Alfonso. He is said to have been designated Earl of Chester in 1284[781]. The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the death "apud Windleshores die S Magni Martyris" 19 Aug [1284] of "dominus Aldephonsus domini regis Angliæ filius"[782]. The Chronicle of Thomas Wykes records the death “XIV Kal Sep” in 1284 of “dominus Alfonsus filius domini regis Angliæ” and his burial “apud Westmonasterium die Sabbati proxima post festum Sancti Bartholomæi”[783]. A manuscript, maybe of Welsh origin and which names Henry VI at the end so can presumably be dated to his reign, names “...Alicia quæ moritur ætate XII an. et jacet apud Westmonasterium...” among the children of King Edward I[784]. No other primary source record has been found of a daughter of the king named Alice. The age at death suggests that the entry may be an error for Alfonso (who is otherwise omitted from the list). Betrothed (5 Jul 1281) to MARGARETA of Holland, daughter FLORIS V Count of Holland & his wife Beatrix de Flandre (-after 12 Aug 1284). The Chronologia Johannes de Beke names (in order) "Theodricum, Florencium, Wilhelmum, Ottonem, Wilhelmum, Florencium et Iohannem Hollandie comitem, Beatricem, Machtildim, Elizabeth et Margaretam Anglie reginam" as children of Count Floris & his wife[785], the reference to “Anglie reginam” being explained by her betrothal. Floris V Count of Holland betrothed "Margaretam filiam nostram" to “domino Edwardo...regi Anglie...domino Alfonso eius filio” by charter dated 5 Jul 1281[786]. Floris V Count of Holland agreed the dowry for the marriage of "Edwardi regis Anglorum...dominum Alfonsum dicti domini regis primogenitum" and “Margaretam filiam nostram” by charter dated 12 Aug 1283, which also provides for the marriage between “Johannis filii nostri” and “eius filiam”[787].

9. ISABELLA (Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire or Windsor Castle or Marlborough Castle, Wiltshire [12/15] Mar 1274-

10. MARGARET (Windsor Castle 11 Sep [1275]-1318 or after 11 Mar 1333, bur Brussels, Saints Michael and Gudula). The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the birth in 1275 at Windsor of "filiam…Margaret" to "Alienora uxor regis, regina Angliæ"[790]. A charter dated 6 Jan 1278 (O.S.?) records negotiations for the marriage between “E....roi d´Engleterre...vestre fille” and “Johan. duk de Lother. et Braibant...mon fiz”[791]. The marriage contract between “Johan...duc de Lother. et de Braibant...Johan nostre eisne fiz” and “Edw...roi d´Engleterre...Margarete fille le roi” is dated Jan 1278 (O.S.?)[792]. The Annales Halesiensibus record the marriage "1290 XVII Id Iul" of "Margaretam filiam regis" and "Iohannes filius et heres ducis Brabantie"[793]. The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the marriage "VI Id Jul" at Westminster of "Johannes filius et hæres Johannis ducis Brabantiæ" and "Margaretam filiam regis Anglie"[794]. The Annales Londonienses record the marriage "VII Id Iul" in 1290 of "domina Margareta…regis Angliæ filia" and "Johanni filio ducis Brabantiæ"[795]. The Oude Kronik van Brabant records that "Johannes secundus…dux Lotharingie, Brabancie et Lymburgie marchioque Sacri Imperii" married "Margaretam filiam Eduardi primi regis Anglie"[796]. m (contract Jan 1278 or 1279, Westminster Abbey 8 Jul 1290) JEAN de Brabant, son of JEAN I Duke of Brabant & his second wife Marguerite de Flandre (27 Sep 1275-Château de Tervueren 27 Oct 1312, Brussels Saints Michael and Gudula). He succeeded his father in 1294 as JEAN II Duke of Brabant.

11. BERENGARIA (Kennington Palace, Surrey 1 May [1276 or 1277]-young). The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the birth in 1276 of "filiam…Berengariam" to "Alienor regina"[797]. The Annals of Winchester record the birth “Kal Mai…apud Kenyngtone” in 1276 of “Alianora regina domino Edwardi regi Angliæ…filiam…---”[798]. The Chronicle of John de Oxenedes records that “Alianora regina” gave birth to “filiam...Berengarium”, dated to 1276 from the context[799]. If the birth of Margaret is correctly recorded in 1275 as shown above, Berengaria must have been born prematurely if born in 1276. An alternative possibility is that the year was incorrectly recorded and should have been 1277.

12. MARY (Windsor Castle 12 Mar or 22 Apr 1279-Amesbury Abbey before 8 Jul 1332, bur Amesbury Abbey). The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the birth "vigilie S Gregorii apud Windleshores" 11 Mar [1279] of "filiam…Mariam" to "Alienora regina Anglie"[800]. The Chronicle of John de Oxenedes records that “Alianora regina Angliæ” gave birth “vigilia sancti Gregorii apud Windleshorem” 1279 to “filiam...Mariam”[801]. The Annals of Worcester record the birth “IV Id Mar” of “regina Angliæ…filiam apud Woodstock…vocata est ---”[802]. She became a nun at Amesbury Abbey, Wiltshire 15 Aug 1285. The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records that "Maria filia regis Angliæ" became a nun at Amesbury "die Nativitatis beatæ Mariæ" 8 Sep[803]. A charter dated 2 Jan 1292 records that “rex...filiæ nostræ Mariæ” became a nun “apud Ambresburiam”[804].

13. ELIZABETH (Rhuddlan Castle, Flintshire Aug 1282-Quendon, Essex [5] May 1316, bur Walden Abbey, Essex). The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the birth "apud Rothelan" in 1282 of "filiam…Elizabetham" to "Alienora regina Angliæ"[805]. Floris V Count of Holland agreed the dowry for the marriage of "Edwardi regis Anglorum...dominum Alfonsum dicti domini regis primogenitum" and “Margaretam filiam nostram” by charter dated 12 Aug 1283, which also provides for the marriage between “Johannis filii nostri” and “eius filiam”[806]. The marriage contract between "Edwardum...regem Anglie...filie sue Elizabethe" and “dominum Florentium comitem Hollandie...Johannis filii sui primogeniti” is dated 1285[807]. The Chronologia Johannes de Beke records the marriage of Count Jan and "Elizabeth…Eduardi regis filia", recording in a later passage that she returned to England after her husband died and married (secondly) "comes Erffordie"[808]. The dispensation for the marriage of “Humfrido comiti Herefordensi” and “Elizabetæ natæ...Edvardi regis Angliæ...relictæ quondam Johannis comitis Hollandiæ” is dated 10 Aug 1302[809]. The Annales Londonienses record the marriage "in festo Sanctæ Katerinæ…apud Caversham juxta Redyng" in 1302 of "Margareta filia regis Angliæ, comitissa Hoylandiæ et Salondiæ" and "domino Humfrido de Bohun comiti Herefordiæ"[810]. A manuscript which narrates the descents of the founders of Lanthony Abbey records that “Humfredus octavus de Bohun, comes Herefordiæ et Essex, constabularius Angliæ et dominus Breconiæ” married “Elizabetham filiam regis Edwardi filii regis Henrici tertii”, adding that she was buried “apud Waldene”[811]. The History of the foundation of Walden abbey records the birth “apud Quenden” of “quædam filia” to “Humfridus de Bohun” and his wife “Elizabethæ…regis Angliæ Edwardi…filiæ” during whose birth her mother died, and in a later passage her burial at Waldon[812]. m firstly (Betrothed 1285, Ipswich Priory Church, Suffolk 18 Jan 1297) JAN I Count of Holland and Zeeland, son of FLORIS V Count of Holland & his wife Béatrice de Flandre [Dampierre] (before 12 Aug 1283-10 Nov 1299). m secondly (Papal dispensation 10 Aug 1302, Westminster Abbey 14 Nov 1302) HUMPHREY [VIII] de Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex, son of HUMPHREY [VII] de Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex & his wife Mathilde de Fiennes ([1276]-killed in battle Boroughbridge 16 Mar 1322, bur York, church of the Friars Preachers). He succeeded his father in 1298 as Earl of Hereford and Essex, Constable of England.

14. EDWARD "of Caernarvon" (Caernarvon Castle 25 Apr 1284-murdered Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire 21 Sep 1327, bur Gloucester Cathedral). The Continuator of Florence of Worcester records the birth "die S Marci Evangelistæ" 25 Apr [1284] at Caernarvon of "domini regi Angliæ filius…Eadwardus"[813]. He succeeded his father in 1307 as EDWARD II King of England.

15. [BEATRIX (-young). A manuscript, maybe of Welsh origin and which names Henry VI at the end so can presumably be dated to his reign, names “...Beatrix quæ moritur puella, Blanchia quæ moritur puella” at the end of a list of children of King Edward I[814]. Inaccuracies are noted elsewhere in this document, so its historical value is difficult to assess. The existence of these daughters Beatrix and Blanche has not been corroborated in other primary source documents.]

16. [BLANCHE (-young). A manuscript, maybe of Welsh origin and which names Henry VI at the end so can presumably be dated to his reign, names “...Beatrix quæ moritur puella, Blanchia quæ moritur puella” at the end of a list of children of King Edward I[815]. Inaccuracies are noted elsewhere in this document, so its historical value is difficult to assess. The existence of these daughters Beatrix and Blanche has not been corroborated in other primary source documents.]

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Eleanor of Castile (1241 – 28 November 1290) was the first queen consort of Edward I of England. She was also Countess of Ponthieu in her own right from 1279 until her death in 1290, succeeding her mother and ruling together with her husband. Eleanor was born in Castile, now Spain, daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile and Joan, Countess of Ponthieu. Her Castilian name, Leonor, became Alienor or Alianor in England, and Eleanor in modern English. She was named after her great-grandmother, Eleanor of England. Eleanor was the second of five children born to Ferdinand and Joan. Her elder brother Ferdinand was born in 1239/40, her younger brother Louis in 1242/43; two sons born after Louis died young. For the ceremonies in 1291 marking the first anniversary of Eleanor's death, 49 candlebearers were paid to walk in the public procession to commemorate each year of her life. This would date her birth to the year 1241. Since her parents were apart from each other for 13 months while King Ferdinand conducted a military campaign in Andalusia from which he returned to the north of Spain only in February 1241, Eleanor was probably born toward the end of that year. Both the court of her father and her half-brother Alfonso X of Castile were known for its literary atmosphere. Growing up in such an environment probably influenced her later literary activities as queen. She was said to have been at her father's deathbed in Seville in 1252. Prospective bride to Theobald II of Navarre: Eleanor's marriage in 1254 to the future Edward I of England was not the first marriage her family planned for her. The kings of Castile had long made the flimsy claim to be paramount lords of the Kingdom of Navarre in the Pyrenees, and from 1250 Ferdinand III and his heir, Eleanor's half-brother Alfonso X of Castile, hoped she would marry Theobald II of Navarre. To avoid Castilian control, Margaret of Bourbon (mother to Theobald II) in 1252 allied with James I of Aragon instead, and as part of that treaty solemnly promised that Theobald would never marry Eleanor. Marriage: Then, in 1252, Alfonso X resurrected another flimsy ancestral claim, this time to the duchy of Gascony, in the south of Aquitaine, last possession of the Kings of England in France. Henry III of England swiftly countered Alfonso's claims with both diplomatic and military moves. Early in 1254 the two kings began to negotiate; after haggling over the financial provision for Eleanor, Henry and Alfonso agreed she would marry Henry's son Edward, and Alfonso would transfer his Gascon claims to Edward. Henry was so anxious for the marriage to take place that he willingly abandoned elaborate preparations already made for Edward's knighting in England, and agreed that Alfonso would knight Edward before the wedding took place. The young couple married at the monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos on 1 November 1254. Edward and Eleanor were second cousins once removed, as Eleanor's great-grandmother Eleanor of England was a daughter of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Henry III took pride in resolving the Gascon crisis so decisively, but his English subjects feared that the marriage would bring Eleanor's kinfolk and countrymen to live off Henry's ruinous generosity. Several of her relatives did come to England soon after her marriage. She was too young to stop them or prevent Henry III from paying for them, but she was blamed anyway and her marriage was unpopular. Interestingly enough, Eleanor's mother had been spurned in marriage by Henry III and her great-grandmother, Alys, Countess of the Vexin, had been spurned in marriage by Richard I. However, the presence of more English, Frank and Norman soldiers of fortune and opportunists in the recently reconquered Seville and Cordoba Moorish Kingdoms would be increased, thanks to this alliance between royal houses, until the advent of the later Hundred Years War when it would be symptomatic of extended hostilities between the French and the English for peninsular support. Second Barons' War: There is little record of Eleanor's life in England until the 1260s, when the Second Barons' War, between Henry III and his barons, divided the kingdom. During this time Eleanor actively supported Edward's interests, importing archers from her mother's county of Ponthieu in France. It is untrue, however, that she was sent to France to escape danger during the war; she was in England throughout the struggle. Rumours that she was seeking fresh troops from Castile led the baronial leader, Simon de Montfort, to order her removal from Windsor Castle in June 1264 after the royalist army had been defeated at the Battle of Lewes. Edward was captured at Lewes and imprisoned, and Eleanor was honourably confined at Westminster Palace. After Edward and Henry's army defeated the baronial army at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, Edward took a major role in reforming the government and Eleanor rose to prominence at his side. Her position was greatly improved in July 1266 when, after she had borne three short-lived daughters, she finally gave birth to a son, John, who was followed by a second, Henry, in the spring of 1268, and in 1269 by a healthy daughter, Eleanor. Crusade: By 1270, the kingdom was pacified and Edward and Eleanor left to join his uncle Louis IX of France on the Eighth Crusade. Louis died at Carthage before they arrived, however, and after they spent the winter in Sicily, the couple went on to Acre in Palestine, where they arrived in May 1271. Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, known as "Joanna of Acre" for her birthplace. The crusade was militarily unsuccessful, but Baibars of the Bahri dynasty was worried enough by Edward's presence at Acre that an assassination attempt was made on the English heir in June 1272. He was wounded in the arm by a dagger that was thought to be poisoned. The wound soon became seriously inflamed, and an English surgeon saved him by cutting away the diseased flesh, but only after Eleanor was led from his bed, "weeping and wailing." Later storytellers embellished this incident, claiming Eleanor sucked poison from the wound, but this fanciful tale has no foundation. They left Palestine in September 1272 and in Sicily that December they learned of Henry III's death (on 16 November 1272). Edward and Eleanor returned to England and were crowned together on 19 August 1274. Queen consort of England: Arranged royal marriages in the Middle Ages were not always happy, but available evidence indicates that Eleanor and Edward were devoted to each other. Edward is among the few medieval English kings not known to have conducted extramarital affairs or fathered children out of wedlock. The couple were rarely apart; she accompanied him on military campaigns in Wales, famously giving birth to their son Edward on 25 April 1284 in a temporary dwelling erected for her amid the construction of Caernarfon Castle. Their household records witness incidents that imply a comfortable, even humorous, relationship. Each year on Easter Monday, Edward let Eleanor's ladies trap him in his bed and paid them a token ransom so he could go to her bedroom on the first day after Lent; so important was this custom to him that in 1291, on the first Easter Monday after Eleanor's death, he gave her ladies the money he would have given them had she been alive. Edward disliked ceremonies and in 1290 refused to attend the marriage of Earl Marshal Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk; Eleanor thoughtfully (or resignedly) paid minstrels to play for him while he sat alone during the wedding. That Edward remained single until he wed Marguerite of France in 1299 is often cited to prove he cherished Eleanor's memory. In fact he considered a second marriage as early as 1293, but this does not mean he did not mourn Eleanor. Eloquent testimony is found in his letter to the abbot of Cluny in France (January 1291), seeking prayers for the soul of the wife "whom living we dearly cherished, and whom dead we cannot cease to love." In her memory, Edward ordered the construction of twelve elaborate stone crosses (of which three survive, almost intact) between 1291 and 1294, marking the route of her funeral procession between Lincoln and London. However, only one of Eleanor's four sons survived childhood and, even before she died, Edward worried over the succession: if that son died, their daughters' husbands might cause a succession war. Despite personal grief, Edward faced his duty and married again. He delighted in the sons his new wife bore, but attended memorial services for Eleanor to the end of his life, Marguerite at his side on at least one occasion. Popularity: Eleanor is warmly remembered by history as the queen who inspired the Eleanor crosses, but she was not so loved in her own time. The English saw her as a greedy foreigner. Walter of Guisborough preserves a contemporary poem: "The king desires to get our gold/the queen, our manors fair to hold." John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury warned Eleanor that her activities in the land market caused outcry, gossip, rumour and scandal across the realm. Her often aggressive acquisition of lands was an unusual degree of economic activity for any medieval noblewoman, let alone a queen: between 1274 and 1290 she acquired estates worth above £2500 yearly. In fact, Edward himself initiated this process and his ministers helped her. He wanted the queen to hold lands sufficient for her financial needs without drawing on funds needed for government. One of his methods to help Eleanor acquire land was to give her debts Christian landlords owed Jewish moneylenders; she foreclosed on lands pledged for the debts. The debtors were often glad to rid themselves of the debts and also profited from the favour Eleanor showed them afterwards. But her reputation in England was further blighted by association with the highly unpopular moneylenders. Peckham also warned of complaints against her officials' demands upon her tenants. On her deathbed, Eleanor asked Edward to name justices to examine her officials' actions and make reparations. The surviving proceedings from this inquest do reveal a pattern of ruthless exactions, often without the queen's knowledge. She righted such wrongs when she heard of them, but not often enough to prevent a third warning from Peckham that many in England thought she urged Edward to rule harshly. In fact Edward allowed her little political influence, but her officials' demands were ascribed to her imagined personal severity, which was used to explain the king's administrative strictness. In other words, the queen was made to wear the king's unpopular mask. It was always safer to blame a foreign-born queen than to criticise a king, and easier to believe he was misled by a meddling wife. Eleanor was neither the first queen nor the last to be blamed for a king's actions, but in her case the unsavory conduct of her own administration made it even easier to shift such blame to her. Limited political influence: Contemporary evidence shows clearly that Eleanor had no impact on the political history of Edward's reign. Even in diplomatic matters her role was minor, though Edward did heed her advice on the age at which their daughters could marry foreign rulers. Otherwise she merely bestowed gifts on visiting princes or envoys. Edward always honoured his obligations to Alfonso X, but even when Alfonso's need was desperate in the early 1280s, Edward did not send English knights to Castile; he sent only knights from Gascony, which was closer to Castile. In England, Eleanor did mediate disputes of a minor nature between Edward's subjects, but only with Edward's consent and only with the help of ranking members of his council. Edward was prepared to resist her demands, or to stop her, if he felt she was going too far in any of her activities, and expected his ministers to do likewise. If she was allowed no effective official role, Eleanor was an intelligent and cultured woman and found other satisfying outlets for her energies. She was an active patroness of vernacular literature, with scribes and an illuminator in her household to copy books for her. Some of these were apparently vernacular romances and saints' lives, but Eleanor's tastes ranged far more widely than that. The number and variety of new works written for her show that her interests were broad and sophisticated. On Crusade in 1272, she had De Re Militari by Vegetius translated for Edward. After she succeeded her mother as countess of Ponthieu in 1279, a romance was written for her about the life of a supposed 9th century count of Ponthieu. In the 1280s, Archbishop Peckham wrote a work for her to explain what angels were and what they did. In January 1286 she thanked the abbot of Cerne for lending her a book—possibly a treatise on chess known to have been written at Cerne in the late thirteenth century—and her accounts reveal her in 1290 corresponding with an Oxford master about one of her books. The queen was a devoted patron of Dominican Order friars, founding several priories in England and supporting their work at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. Not surprisingly, Eleanor's piety was of an intellectual stamp; apart from her religious foundations she was not given to good works, and she left it to her chaplains to distribute alms for her. She patronised many relatives, though given foreigners' unpopularity in England and the criticism of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence's generosity to them, she was cautious as queen to choose which cousins to support. Rather than marry her male cousins to English heiresses, which would put English wealth in foreign hands, she arranged marriages for her female cousins to English barons. Edward strongly supported these endeavours. Death: In the autumn of 1290, news reached Edward that Margaret, the Maid of Norway, heiress of Scotland, had died. He had just held a parliament at Clipstone in Nottinghamshire, and continued to linger in those parts, presumably to await news of further developments in Scotland. Eleanor followed him at a leisurely pace as she was unwell with a feverish illness, probably a quartan fever first reported in 1287. After the couple left Clipstone they travelled slowly toward the city of Lincoln, a destination Eleanor would never reach. Her condition worsened when they reached the village of Harby, Nottinghamshire, less than 22 miles (35 km) from Lincoln. The journey was abandoned, and the queen was lodged in the house of Richard de Weston, the foundations of which can still be seen near Harby's parish church. After piously receiving the Church's last rites, she died there on the evening of the 28 November 1290, aged 49 and after 36 years of marriage. Edward was at her bedside to hear her final requests. Procession, burial and monuments: Edward followed her body to burial in Westminster Abbey, and erected memorial crosses at the site of each overnight stop between Lincoln and Westminster. Based on crosses in France marking Louis IX's funeral procession, these artistically significant monuments enhanced the image of Edward's kingship as well as witnessing his grief. The "Eleanor crosses" stood at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans, Waltham, Westcheap, and Charing – only 3 survive, none in entirety. The best preserved is that at Geddington. All 3 have lost the crosses "of immense height" that originally surmounted them; only the lower stages remain. The Waltham cross has been heavily restored and to prevent further deterioration, its original statues of the queen are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The Waltham and Northampton crosses have been moved to locations different from their original sites. The monument now known as "Charing Cross" in London, in front of the railway station of that name, was built in 1865 to publicise the railway hotel at Charing station. The original Charing cross was at the top of Whitehall, on the south side of Trafalgar Square, but was destroyed in 1647 and later replaced by a statue of Charles I. In the thirteenth century, embalming involved evisceration. Eleanor's viscera were buried in Lincoln Cathedral, where Edward placed a duplicate of the Westminster tomb. The Lincoln tomb's original stone chest survives; its effigy was destroyed in the 17th century and replaced with a 19th-century copy. On the outside of Lincoln Cathedral are two statues often identified as Edward and Eleanor, but these images were heavily restored and given new heads in the 19th century; probably they were not originally intended to depict the couple. The queen's heart was taken with the body to London and was buried in the Dominican priory at Blackfriars in London. The accounts of her executors show that the monument constructed there to commemorate her heart burial was richly elaborate, including wall paintings as well as an angelic statue in metal that apparently stood under a carved stone canopy. It was destroyed in the 16th century during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Eleanor's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey on 17 December 1290. Her body was placed in a grave near the high altar that had originally contained the coffin of Edward the Confessor and, more recently, that of King Henry III until his remains were removed to his new tomb in 1290. Eleanor's body remained in this grave until the completion of her own tomb. She had probably ordered that tomb before her death. It consists of a marble chest with carved mouldings and shields (originally painted) of the arms of England, Castile, and Ponthieu. The chest is surmounted by William Torel's superb gilt-bronze effigy, showing Eleanor in the same pose as the image on her great seal. When Edward remarried a decade after her death, he and his second wife Margaret of France, named their only daughter Eleanor in honour of her. Legacy: Eleanor of Castile's queenship is significant in English history for the evolution of a stable financial system for the king's wife, and for the honing this process gave the queen-consort's prerogatives. The estates Eleanor assembled became the nucleus for dower assignments made to later queens of England into the 15th century, and her involvement in this process solidly established a queen-consort's freedom to engage in such transactions. Few later queens exerted themselves in economic activity to the extent Eleanor did, but their ability to do so rested on the precedents settled in her lifetime. Historical reputation: Despite her unpopularity in her own day, Eleanor of Castile has had a positive reputation since the 16th century. The antiquarian William Camden first published in England the tale that Eleanor saved Edward's life at Acre by sucking his wound. Camden then went on to ascribe construction of the Eleanor crosses to Edward's grief at the loss of a heroic wife who had selflessly risked her own life to save his. Camden's discussion of the crosses reflected the religious history of his time; the crosses were in fact intended to attract prayers for Eleanor's soul from passersby, but the Protestant Reformation in England had officially ended the practice of praying for the souls of the dead, so Camden instead ascribed Edward's commemorations of his wife to her alleged heroism in saving Edward's life at the risk of her own. Historians in the 17th and 18th centuries uncritically repeated Camden's information wholesale, and in the 19th century the self-styled historian Agnes Strickland used Camden to paint the rosiest of all pictures of Eleanor. None of these writers, however, used contemporary chronicles or records to provide accurate information about Eleanor's life. Such documents became widely available in the late 19th century, but even when historians began to cite them to suggest Eleanor was not the perfect queen Strickland praised, many rejected the correction, often expressing indignant disbelief that anything negative was said about Eleanor. Only in recent decades have historians studied queenship in its own right and regarded medieval queens as worthy of attention. These decades produced a sizeable body of historical work that allows Eleanor's life to be scrutinized in the terms of her own day, not those of the 17th or 19th centuries. The evolution of her reputation is a case study in the maxim that each age creates its own history. If Eleanor of Castile can no longer be seen as a paradigm of queenly virtues, her career can now be examined as the achievement of an intelligent and determined woman who was able to meet the challenges of an exceptionally demanding life. Issue of Queen Eleanor and King Edward I: 1.Daughter, stillborn in May 1255 in Bordeaux, France. 2.Katherine, (before 17 June 1264 – 5 September 1264) and buried at Westminster Abbey. 3.Joan, born January 1265, buried at Westminster Abbey before 7 September 1265. 4.John, (13 July 1266 – 3 August 1271) at Wallingford, in the custody of his granduncle, Richard, Earl of Cornwall. Buried at Westminster Abbey. 5.Henry of England, (before 6 May 1268 – 16 October 1274). 6.Eleanor, (18 June 1269 – 29 August 1298). Buried 12 October 1298. She was long betrothed to Alfonso III of Aragon, who died in 1291 before the marriage could take place, and in 1293 she married Count Henry III of Bar, by whom she had one son and two daughters. 7.Daughter, (28 May 1271 Palestine – 5 September 1271). Some sources call her Juliana, but there is no contemporary evidence for her name. 8.Joan of Acre (April 1272 – 7 April 1307). She married (1) in 1290 Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, who died in 1295, and (2)in 1297 Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer. She had four children by each marriage. 9.Alphonso, Earl of Chester, born 24 November 1273, died 19 August 1284, buried in Westminster Abbey. He is sometimes accorded the title "Earl of Chester" by modern popular writers, but there is no contemporary evidence that that title, or any other, was ever conferred upon him. 10.Margaret Plantagenet, (15 March 1275 – after 1333). In 1290 she married John II of Brabant, who died in 1318. They had one son. 11.Berengaria, (1 May 1276 – before 27 June 1278), buried in Westminster Abbey. 12.Daughter, died shortly after birth at Westminster, on or about 3 January 1278. There is no contemporary evidence for her name. 13.Mary of Woodstock, (11 March 1279 – 29 May 1332), a Benedictine nun in Amesbury, Wiltshire (England), where she was probably buried. 14.A son, born in 1280 or 1281 who died very shortly after birth. There is no contemporary evidence for his name. 15.Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, (7 August 1282 – 5 May 1316). She married (1) in 1297 John I, Count of Holland, (2) in 1302 Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford & 3rd Earl of Essex. The first marriage was childless; by Bohun, Elizabeth had ten children. 16.Edward II of England, also known as Edward of Caernarvon, (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327). In 1308 he married Isabella of France. Eleanor as a mother: It has been suggested that Eleanor and Edward were more devoted to each other than to their children. As king and queen, however, it was impossible for them to spend much time in one place, and when they were very young, the children could not travel constantly with their parents. The children had a household staffed with attendants carefully chosen for competence and loyalty, with whom the parents corresponded regularly. The children lived in this comfortable establishment until they were about seven years old; then they began to accompany their parents for important occasions, and by their teens they were with the king and queen much of the time. In 1290, Eleanor sent one of her scribes to join this household, presumably to share in her children's education, and in 1306 Edward sharply scolded the woman in charge of his children because she had not kept him informed of their health. Two incidents cited to imply Eleanor's lack of interest in her children are easily explained in the contexts of royal childrearing in general, and of particular events surrounding Edward and Eleanor's family. When their six-year-old son Henry lay dying at Guildford in 1274, neither parent made the short journey from London to see him; but he was tended by Edward's mother Eleanor of Provence, who had raised the boy during the four years his parents were on Crusade. The grandmother was thus at that moment more familiar to him than his parents, and the better able to comfort him in his illness. Since Henry was always sickly, the gravity of his illness was perhaps not realised until it was too late for his parents to reach him. Similarly, Edward and Eleanor allowed her mother, Joan of Dammartin, to raise their daughter Joan in Ponthieu (1274–78). This implies no parental lack of interest in the girl; the practice of fostering noble children in other households of sufficient dignity was not unknown and Eleanor's mother was, of course, dowager queen of Castile. Her household was thus safe and dignified, but it does appear that Edward and Eleanor had cause to regret their generosity in allowing Joan of Dammartin to foster young Joan. When the girl reached England in 1278, aged six, it turned out that she had been badly spoiled. She was spirited and often defiant throughout childhood, and in adulthood remained a handful for Edward, defying his plans for a prestigious second marriage for her by secretly marrying one of her late first husband's squires. When the marriage had to be revealed because Joan was pregnant, Edward was infuriated that his dignity had been insulted by her marriage to a commoner of no importance. Joan, at twenty-five, reportedly defended her conduct to her redoubtable father by saying that nobody saw anything wrong if a great earl married a poor woman, so there could be nothing wrong with a countess marrying a promising young man. Whether or not her retort ultimately changed his mind, Edward restored to Joan all the lands he had confiscated when he learned of her secret marriage, and accepted her new husband as a son-in-law in good standing. Joan marked her restoration to favour by having masses celebrated for the soul of her mother, Queen Eleanor.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10962820

Name

Eleanora De Castile, queen of England

Suffix

queen of England

Born

1240

of Burgos, Castile, Spain [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Gender

Female

Name 

De Castile

Name

Eleanor Of Castile

Died

29 Nov 1290

Herdeby near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England [4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13]

Buried

16 Dec 1290

Westminster Abbey, Westminster, Middlesex, England

Age

50 years

Father

Saint Ferdinand III De Castile, king of Castile and León, b. 1199, Castile, Spain , d. 30 May 1252, Seville, Sevilla, Spain – Age: 53 years

Mother

Johanna De Dammartin, countess de Ponthieu, b. 1216, Abbeville, Picardy, Ponthieu, France , d. 15 Mar 1278-1279, Abbeville, Picardy, Ponthieu, France – Age: 63 years

Married

1237

Burgos, Castile, Spain

Family

Edward I "Longshanks" Plantagenet, king of England, b. 16 Jun 1239, Westminster Palace, Westminster, London, Middlesex, England , d. 7 Jul 1307, Burgh-On-The-Sands, near Carlisle, Cumberland, England – Age: 68 years

Married

18 Oct 1254

Las Huelgas Monastery, Burgos, Burgos, Spain [4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17]

◦Henry III ran afoul of his barons (again) when he requested a large amount of money to aid him in putting down Gaston de Béarn's 2nd rebellion in Gascony, saying that de Béarn's ally St. Ferdinand III King of Castile was going to invade Gascony, but just as he said this, Simon de Montfort returned to England & told the barons that Henry was actually negotiating with the St. Ferdinand III to marry his daughter Eleanor to Henry's son Crown Prince Edward "Longshanks" (de Montfort's commetns were true).

Sealed S (LDS)

15 May 1933

SLAKE - Salt Lake

Children

1. Joan "of Acre" Plantagenet, princess of England, countess of Gloucester, b. 1272, Acre, Akko, Hazafon, Israel , d. 23 Apr 1307, Clare, Suffolk, England – Age: 35 years

Last Modified

17 Aug 2010

Born - 1240 - of Burgos, Castile, Spain

Married - 18 Oct 1254 - Las Huelgas Monastery, Burgos, Burgos, Spain

Child - Joan "of Acre" Plantagenet, princess of England, countess of Gloucester - 1272 - Acre, Akko, Hazafon, Israel

Died - 29 Nov 1290 - Herdeby near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England

Buried - 16 Dec 1290 - Westminster Abbey, Westminster, Middlesex, England

Sealed S (LDS) - 15 May 1933 - SLAKE - Salt Lake

Notes 

◦Fled To France In Immediate Aftermath Of Lewes With Daughter Eleanor.

Queen Of England, .

!#EWH Langer, 211;

Sources

1.[S2401] Jerusalem Kings.

2.[S1659] Human Family Project, Mary Slawson, Chair, (Copyright January 2006).

3.[S1534] Joseph Smith, Sr. & Lucy Mack Foundation, Mike Kennedy, ((http://www.josephsmithsr.com : 31 Oct 2008)).
4.[S1282] Some Royal Descents of President Washington.
5.[S2498] Another Royal Descent of President Washington from Edward I, King of England.
6.[S2506] Descent of President Lincoln from Edward I, King of England.
7.[S1208] University of Hull Royal Database England, Brian Tompsett, Dept of Computer Science, (copyright 1996 , , Repository: WWW, University of Hull, Hull, UK HU6 7RX bct@tardis.ed.ac.uk usually reliable but sometimes includes hypothetical lines, mythological figures, etc).
8.[S1199] Mann Database, Ed Mann, (Repository: edmann@commnections.com Contributor on soc.genealogy.medieval).
9.[S1201] Ahnentafel for Margery Arundell, Marlyn Lewis, (08 Oct 1997 ,).
10.[S1266] The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, Ronny O. Bodine.
11.[S1262] The Reckoning, Sharon Kay Penman, (Ballantine Books, New York, 1991 ,).
12.[S1266] The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, Ronny O. Bodine, p 107 (Reliability: 0).
13.[S1200] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America bef 1760, Frederick Lewis Weis, (7th ed Genealogical Publishing, Baltimore 1992 , , Repository: J.H. Garner Same ref source as earlier ed, "Ancestral Roots of 60 Colonists who Came to New England 1623-1650" ed 1-6 good to very good).
14.[S1224] Plantagenet Ancestry of 17th Century Colonists, David Faris, (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1996 , , Repository: J.H. Garner good to very good), 1st ed, p. 274, "Washington" (Reliability: 0).
15.[S1224] Plantagenet Ancestry of 17th Century Colonists, David Faris, (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1996 , , Repository: J.H. Garner good to very good), 1st ed, p 233, "Pole" (Reliability: 0).
16.[S1224] Plantagenet Ancestry of 17th Century Colonists, David Faris, (Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1996 , , Repository: J.H. Garner good to very good), 1st ed, p 98-99 "Elsing" (Reliability: 0).
17.[S1200] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America bef 1760, Frederick Lewis Weis, (7th ed Genealogical Publishing, Baltimore 1992 , , Repository: J.H. Garner Same ref source as earlier ed, "Ancestral Roots of 60 Colonists who Came to New England 1623-1650" ed 1-6 good to very good), line 1 pp 1-4 (Reliability: 0).
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Eleanor of Castile (1241 – 28 November 1290) was the first queen consort of Edward I of England. She was also Countess of Ponthieu in her own right from 1279 until her death in 1290, succeeding her mother and ruling together with her husband. Eleanor was born in Castile, now Spain, daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile and Joan, Countess of Ponthieu. Her Castilian name, Leonor, became Alienor or Alianor in England, and Eleanor in modern English. She was named after her great-grandmother, Eleanor of England. Eleanor was the second of five children born to Ferdinand and Joan. Her elder brother Ferdinand was born in 1239/40, her younger brother Louis in 1242/43; two sons born after Louis died young. For the ceremonies in 1291 marking the first anniversary of Eleanor's death, 49 candlebearers were paid to walk in the public procession to commemorate each year of her life. This would date her birth to the year 1241. Since her parents were apart from each other for 13 months while King Ferdinand conducted a military campaign in Andalusia from which he returned to the north of Spain only in February 1241, Eleanor was probably born toward the end of that year. Both the court of her father and her half-brother Alfonso X of Castile were known for its literary atmosphere. Growing up in such an environment probably influenced her later literary activities as queen. She was said to have been at her father's deathbed in Seville in 1252. Prospective bride to Theobald II of Navarre: Eleanor's marriage in 1254 to the future Edward I of England was not the first marriage her family planned for her. The kings of Castile had long made the flimsy claim to be paramount lords of the Kingdom of Navarre in the Pyrenees, and from 1250 Ferdinand III and his heir, Eleanor's half-brother Alfonso X of Castile, hoped she would marry Theobald II of Navarre. To avoid Castilian control, Margaret of Bourbon (mother to Theobald II) in 1252 allied with James I of Aragon instead, and as part of that treaty solemnly promised that Theobald would never marry Eleanor. Marriage: Then, in 1252, Alfonso X resurrected another flimsy ancestral claim, this time to the duchy of Gascony, in the south of Aquitaine, last possession of the Kings of England in France. Henry III of England swiftly countered Alfonso's claims with both diplomatic and military moves. Early in 1254 the two kings began to negotiate; after haggling over the financial provision for Eleanor, Henry and Alfonso agreed she would marry Henry's son Edward, and Alfonso would transfer his Gascon claims to Edward. Henry was so anxious for the marriage to take place that he willingly abandoned elaborate preparations already made for Edward's knighting in England, and agreed that Alfonso would knight Edward before the wedding took place. The young couple married at the monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos on 1 November 1254. Edward and Eleanor were second cousins once removed, as Eleanor's great-grandmother Eleanor of England was a daughter of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Henry III took pride in resolving the Gascon crisis so decisively, but his English subjects feared that the marriage would bring Eleanor's kinfolk and countrymen to live off Henry's ruinous generosity. Several of her relatives did come to England soon after her marriage. She was too young to stop them or prevent Henry III from paying for them, but she was blamed anyway and her marriage was unpopular. Interestingly enough, Eleanor's mother had been spurned in marriage by Henry III and her great-grandmother, Alys, Countess of the Vexin, had been spurned in marriage by Richard I. However, the presence of more English, Frank and Norman soldiers of fortune and opportunists in the recently reconquered Seville and Cordoba Moorish Kingdoms would be increased, thanks to this alliance between royal houses, until the advent of the later Hundred Years War when it would be symptomatic of extended hostilities between the French and the English for peninsular support. Second Barons' War: There is little record of Eleanor's life in England until the 1260s, when the Second Barons' War, between Henry III and his barons, divided the kingdom. During this time Eleanor actively supported Edward's interests, importing archers from her mother's county of Ponthieu in France. It is untrue, however, that she was sent to France to escape danger during the war; she was in England throughout the struggle. Rumours that she was seeking fresh troops from Castile led the baronial leader, Simon de Montfort, to order her removal from Windsor Castle in June 1264 after the royalist army had been defeated at the Battle of Lewes. Edward was captured at Lewes and imprisoned, and Eleanor was honourably confined at Westminster Palace. After Edward and Henry's army defeated the baronial army at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, Edward took a major role in reforming the government and Eleanor rose to prominence at his side. Her position was greatly improved in July 1266 when, after she had borne three short-lived daughters, she finally gave birth to a son, John, who was followed by a second, Henry, in the spring of 1268, and in 1269 by a healthy daughter, Eleanor. Crusade: By 1270, the kingdom was pacified and Edward and Eleanor left to join his uncle Louis IX of France on the Eighth Crusade. Louis died at Carthage before they arrived, however, and after they spent the winter in Sicily, the couple went on to Acre in Palestine, where they arrived in May 1271. Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, known as "Joanna of Acre" for her birthplace. The crusade was militarily unsuccessful, but Baibars of the Bahri dynasty was worried enough by Edward's presence at Acre that an assassination attempt was made on the English heir in June 1272. He was wounded in the arm by a dagger that was thought to be poisoned. The wound soon became seriously inflamed, and an English surgeon saved him by cutting away the diseased flesh, but only after Eleanor was led from his bed, "weeping and wailing." Later storytellers embellished this incident, claiming Eleanor sucked poison from the wound, but this fanciful tale has no foundation. They left Palestine in September 1272 and in Sicily that December they learned of Henry III's death (on 16 November 1272). Edward and Eleanor returned to England and were crowned together on 19 August 1274. Queen consort of England: Arranged royal marriages in the Middle Ages were not always happy, but available evidence indicates that Eleanor and Edward were devoted to each other. Edward is among the few medieval English kings not known to have conducted extramarital affairs or fathered children out of wedlock. The couple were rarely apart; she accompanied him on military campaigns in Wales, famously giving birth to their son Edward on 25 April 1284 in a temporary dwelling erected for her amid the construction of Caernarfon Castle. Their household records witness incidents that imply a comfortable, even humorous, relationship. Each year on Easter Monday, Edward let Eleanor's ladies trap him in his bed and paid them a token ransom so he could go to her bedroom on the first day after Lent; so important was this custom to him that in 1291, on the first Easter Monday after Eleanor's death, he gave her ladies the money he would have given them had she been alive. Edward disliked ceremonies and in 1290 refused to attend the marriage of Earl Marshal Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk; Eleanor thoughtfully (or resignedly) paid minstrels to play for him while he sat alone during the wedding. That Edward remained single until he wed Marguerite of France in 1299 is often cited to prove he cherished Eleanor's memory. In fact he considered a second marriage as early as 1293, but this does not mean he did not mourn Eleanor. Eloquent testimony is found in his letter to the abbot of Cluny in France (January 1291), seeking prayers for the soul of the wife "whom living we dearly cherished, and whom dead we cannot cease to love." In her memory, Edward ordered the construction of twelve elaborate stone crosses (of which three survive, almost intact) between 1291 and 1294, marking the route of her funeral procession between Lincoln and London. However, only one of Eleanor's four sons survived childhood and, even before she died, Edward worried over the succession: if that son died, their daughters' husbands might cause a succession war. Despite personal grief, Edward faced his duty and married again. He delighted in the sons his new wife bore, but attended memorial services for Eleanor to the end of his life, Marguerite at his side on at least one occasion. Popularity: Eleanor is warmly remembered by history as the queen who inspired the Eleanor crosses, but she was not so loved in her own time. The English saw her as a greedy foreigner. Walter of Guisborough preserves a contemporary poem: "The king desires to get our gold/the queen, our manors fair to hold." John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury warned Eleanor that her activities in the land market caused outcry, gossip, rumour and scandal across the realm. Her often aggressive acquisition of lands was an unusual degree of economic activity for any medieval noblewoman, let alone a queen: between 1274 and 1290 she acquired estates worth above £2500 yearly. In fact, Edward himself initiated this process and his ministers helped her. He wanted the queen to hold lands sufficient for her financial needs without drawing on funds needed for government. One of his methods to help Eleanor acquire land was to give her debts Christian landlords owed Jewish moneylenders; she foreclosed on lands pledged for the debts. The debtors were often glad to rid themselves of the debts and also profited from the favour Eleanor showed them afterwards. But her reputation in England was further blighted by association with the highly unpopular moneylenders. Peckham also warned of complaints against her officials' demands upon her tenants. On her deathbed, Eleanor asked Edward to name justices to examine her officials' actions and make reparations. The surviving proceedings from this inquest do reveal a pattern of ruthless exactions, often without the queen's knowledge. She righted such wrongs when she heard of them, but not often enough to prevent a third warning from Peckham that many in England thought she urged Edward to rule harshly. In fact Edward allowed her little political influence, but her officials' demands were ascribed to her imagined personal severity, which was used to explain the king's administrative strictness. In other words, the queen was made to wear the king's unpopular mask. It was always safer to blame a foreign-born queen than to criticise a king, and easier to believe he was misled by a meddling wife. Eleanor was neither the first queen nor the last to be blamed for a king's actions, but in her case the unsavory conduct of her own administration made it even easier to shift such blame to her. Limited political influence: Contemporary evidence shows clearly that Eleanor had no impact on the political history of Edward's reign. Even in diplomatic matters her role was minor, though Edward did heed her advice on the age at which their daughters could marry foreign rulers. Otherwise she merely bestowed gifts on visiting princes or envoys. Edward always honoured his obligations to Alfonso X, but even when Alfonso's need was desperate in the early 1280s, Edward did not send English knights to Castile; he sent only knights from Gascony, which was closer to Castile. In England, Eleanor did mediate disputes of a minor nature between Edward's subjects, but only with Edward's consent and only with the help of ranking members of his council. Edward was prepared to resist her demands, or to stop her, if he felt she was going too far in any of her activities, and expected his ministers to do likewise. If she was allowed no effective official role, Eleanor was an intelligent and cultured woman and found other satisfying outlets for her energies. She was an active patroness of vernacular literature, with scribes and an illuminator in her household to copy books for her. Some of these were apparently vernacular romances and saints' lives, but Eleanor's tastes ranged far more widely than that. The number and variety of new works written for her show that her interests were broad and sophisticated. On Crusade in 1272, she had De Re Militari by Vegetius translated for Edward. After she succeeded her mother as countess of Ponthieu in 1279, a romance was written for her about the life of a supposed 9th century count of Ponthieu. In the 1280s, Archbishop Peckham wrote a work for her to explain what angels were and what they did. In January 1286 she thanked the abbot of Cerne for lending her a book—possibly a treatise on chess known to have been written at Cerne in the late thirteenth century—and her accounts reveal her in 1290 corresponding with an Oxford master about one of her books. The queen was a devoted patron of Dominican Order friars, founding several priories in England and supporting their work at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. Not surprisingly, Eleanor's piety was of an intellectual stamp; apart from her religious foundations she was not given to good works, and she left it to her chaplains to distribute alms for her. She patronised many relatives, though given foreigners' unpopularity in England and the criticism of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence's generosity to them, she was cautious as queen to choose which cousins to support. Rather than marry her male cousins to English heiresses, which would put English wealth in foreign hands, she arranged marriages for her female cousins to English barons. Edward strongly supported these endeavours. Death: In the autumn of 1290, news reached Edward that Margaret, the Maid of Norway, heiress of Scotland, had died. He had just held a parliament at Clipstone in Nottinghamshire, and continued to linger in those parts, presumably to await news of further developments in Scotland. Eleanor followed him at a leisurely pace as she was unwell with a feverish illness, probably a quartan fever first reported in 1287. After the couple left Clipstone they travelled slowly toward the city of Lincoln, a destination Eleanor would never reach. Her condition worsened when they reached the village of Harby, Nottinghamshire, less than 22 miles (35 km) from Lincoln. The journey was abandoned, and the queen was lodged in the house of Richard de Weston, the foundations of which can still be seen near Harby's parish church. After piously receiving the Church's last rites, she died there on the evening of the 28 November 1290, aged 49 and after 36 years of marriage. Edward was at her bedside to hear her final requests. Procession, burial and monuments: Edward followed her body to burial in Westminster Abbey, and erected memorial crosses at the site of each overnight stop between Lincoln and Westminster. Based on crosses in France marking Louis IX's funeral procession, these artistically significant monuments enhanced the image of Edward's kingship as well as witnessing his grief. The "Eleanor crosses" stood at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans, Waltham, Westcheap, and Charing – only 3 survive, none in entirety. The best preserved is that at Geddington. All 3 have lost the crosses "of immense height" that originally surmounted them; only the lower stages remain. The Waltham cross has been heavily restored and to prevent further deterioration, its original statues of the queen are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The Waltham and Northampton crosses have been moved to locations different from their original sites. The monument now known as "Charing Cross" in London, in front of the railway station of that name, was built in 1865 to publicise the railway hotel at Charing station. The original Charing cross was at the top of Whitehall, on the south side of Trafalgar Square, but was destroyed in 1647 and later replaced by a statue of Charles I. In the thirteenth century, embalming involved evisceration. Eleanor's viscera were buried in Lincoln Cathedral, where Edward placed a duplicate of the Westminster tomb. The Lincoln tomb's original stone chest survives; its effigy was destroyed in the 17th century and replaced with a 19th-century copy. On the outside of Lincoln Cathedral are two statues often identified as Edward and Eleanor, but these images were heavily restored and given new heads in the 19th century; probably they were not originally intended to depict the couple. The queen's heart was taken with the body to London and was buried in the Dominican priory at Blackfriars in London. The accounts of her executors show that the monument constructed there to commemorate her heart burial was richly elaborate, including wall paintings as well as an angelic statue in metal that apparently stood under a carved stone canopy. It was destroyed in the 16th century during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Eleanor's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey on 17 December 1290. Her body was placed in a grave near the high altar that had originally contained the coffin of Edward the Confessor and, more recently, that of King Henry III until his remains were removed to his new tomb in 1290. Eleanor's body remained in this grave until the completion of her own tomb. She had probably ordered that tomb before her death. It consists of a marble chest with carved mouldings and shields (originally painted) of the arms of England, Castile, and Ponthieu. The chest is surmounted by William Torel's superb gilt-bronze effigy, showing Eleanor in the same pose as the image on her great seal. When Edward remarried a decade after her death, he and his second wife Margaret of France, named their only daughter Eleanor in honour of her. Legacy: Eleanor of Castile's queenship is significant in English history for the evolution of a stable financial system for the king's wife, and for the honing this process gave the queen-consort's prerogatives. The estates Eleanor assembled became the nucleus for dower assignments made to later queens of England into the 15th century, and her involvement in this process solidly established a queen-consort's freedom to engage in such transactions. Few later queens exerted themselves in economic activity to the extent Eleanor did, but their ability to do so rested on the precedents settled in her lifetime. Historical reputation: Despite her unpopularity in her own day, Eleanor of Castile has had a positive reputation since the 16th century. The antiquarian William Camden first published in England the tale that Eleanor saved Edward's life at Acre by sucking his wound. Camden then went on to ascribe construction of the Eleanor crosses to Edward's grief at the loss of a heroic wife who had selflessly risked her own life to save his. Camden's discussion of the crosses reflected the religious history of his time; the crosses were in fact intended to attract prayers for Eleanor's soul from passersby, but the Protestant Reformation in England had officially ended the practice of praying for the souls of the dead, so Camden instead ascribed Edward's commemorations of his wife to her alleged heroism in saving Edward's life at the risk of her own. Historians in the 17th and 18th centuries uncritically repeated Camden's information wholesale, and in the 19th century the self-styled historian Agnes Strickland used Camden to paint the rosiest of all pictures of Eleanor. None of these writers, however, used contemporary chronicles or records to provide accurate information about Eleanor's life. Such documents became widely available in the late 19th century, but even when historians began to cite them to suggest Eleanor was not the perfect queen Strickland praised, many rejected the correction, often expressing indignant disbelief that anything negative was said about Eleanor. Only in recent decades have historians studied queenship in its own right and regarded medieval queens as worthy of attention. These decades produced a sizeable body of historical work that allows Eleanor's life to be scrutinized in the terms of her own day, not those of the 17th or 19th centuries. The evolution of her reputation is a case study in the maxim that each age creates its own history. If Eleanor of Castile can no longer be seen as a paradigm of queenly virtues, her career can now be examined as the achievement of an intelligent and determined woman who was able to meet the challenges of an exceptionally demanding life. Issue of Queen Eleanor and King Edward I: 1.Daughter, stillborn in May 1255 in Bordeaux, France. 2.Katherine, (before 17 June 1264 – 5 September 1264) and buried at Westminster Abbey. 3.Joan, born January 1265, buried at Westminster Abbey before 7 September 1265. 4.John, (13 July 1266 – 3 August 1271) at Wallingford, in the custody of his granduncle, Richard, Earl of Cornwall. Buried at Westminster Abbey. 5.Henry of England, (before 6 May 1268 – 16 October 1274). 6.Eleanor, (18 June 1269 – 29 August 1298). Buried 12 October 1298. She was long betrothed to Alfonso III of Aragon, who died in 1291 before the marriage could take place, and in 1293 she married Count Henry III of Bar, by whom she had one son and two daughters. 7.Daughter, (28 May 1271 Palestine – 5 September 1271). Some sources call her Juliana, but there is no contemporary evidence for her name. 8.Joan of Acre (April 1272 – 7 April 1307). She married (1) in 1290 Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, who died in 1295, and (2)in 1297 Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer. She had four children by each marriage. 9.Alphonso, Earl of Chester, born 24 November 1273, died 19 August 1284, buried in Westminster Abbey. He is sometimes accorded the title "Earl of Chester" by modern popular writers, but there is no contemporary evidence that that title, or any other, was ever conferred upon him. 10.Margaret Plantagenet, (15 March 1275 – after 1333). In 1290 she married John II of Brabant, who died in 1318. They had one son. 11.Berengaria, (1 May 1276 – before 27 June 1278), buried in Westminster Abbey. 12.Daughter, died shortly after birth at Westminster, on or about 3 January 1278. There is no contemporary evidence for her name. 13.Mary of Woodstock, (11 March 1279 – 29 May 1332), a Benedictine nun in Amesbury, Wiltshire (England), where she was probably buried. 14.A son, born in 1280 or 1281 who died very shortly after birth. There is no contemporary evidence for his name. 15.Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, (7 August 1282 – 5 May 1316). She married (1) in 1297 John I, Count of Holland, (2) in 1302 Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford & 3rd Earl of Essex. The first marriage was childless; by Bohun, Elizabeth had ten children. 16.Edward II of England, also known as Edward of Caernarvon, (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327). In 1308 he married Isabella of France. Eleanor as a mother: It has been suggested that Eleanor and Edward were more devoted to each other than to their children. As king and queen, however, it was impossible for them to spend much time in one place, and when they were very young, the children could not travel constantly with their parents. The children had a household staffed with attendants carefully chosen for competence and loyalty, with whom the parents corresponded regularly. The children lived in this comfortable establishment until they were about seven years old; then they began to accompany their parents for important occasions, and by their teens they were with the king and queen much of the time. In 1290, Eleanor sent one of her scribes to join this household, presumably to share in her children's education, and in 1306 Edward sharply scolded the woman in charge of his children because she had not kept him informed of their health. Two incidents cited to imply Eleanor's lack of interest in her children are easily explained in the contexts of royal childrearing in general, and of particular events surrounding Edward and Eleanor's family. When their six-year-old son Henry lay dying at Guildford in 1274, neither parent made the short journey from London to see him; but he was tended by Edward's mother Eleanor of Provence, who had raised the boy during the four years his parents were on Crusade. The grandmother was thus at that moment more familiar to him than his parents, and the better able to comfort him in his illness. Since Henry was always sickly, the gravity of his illness was perhaps not realised until it was too late for his parents to reach him. Similarly, Edward and Eleanor allowed her mother, Joan of Dammartin, to raise their daughter Joan in Ponthieu (1274–78). This implies no parental lack of interest in the girl; the practice of fostering noble children in other households of sufficient dignity was not unknown and Eleanor's mother was, of course, dowager queen of Castile. Her household was thus safe and dignified, but it does appear that Edward and Eleanor had cause to regret their generosity in allowing Joan of Dammartin to foster young Joan. When the girl reached England in 1278, aged six, it turned out that she had been badly spoiled. She was spirited and often defiant throughout childhood, and in adulthood remained a handful for Edward, defying his plans for a prestigious second marriage for her by secretly marrying one of her late first husband's squires. When the marriage had to be revealed because Joan was pregnant, Edward was infuriated that his dignity had been insulted by her marriage to a commoner of no importance. Joan, at twenty-five, reportedly defended her conduct to her redoubtable father by saying that nobody saw anything wrong if a great earl married a poor woman, so there could be nothing wrong with a countess marrying a promising young man. Whether or not her retort ultimately changed his mind, Edward restored to Joan all the lands he had confiscated when he learned of her secret marriage, and accepted her new husband as a son-in-law in good standing. Joan marked her restoration to favour by having masses celebrated for the soul of her mother, Queen Eleanor

Eleanor of Castile (1241 – 28 November 1290) was the first queen consort of Edward I of England. She was also Countess of Ponthieu in her own right from 1279 until her death in 1290, succeeding her mother and ruling together with her husband.

Birth [edit] Eleanor was born in Castile, Spain, daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile and Joan, Countess of Ponthieu. Her Castilian name, Leonor, became Alienor or Alianor in England, and Eleanor in modern English. She was named after her great-grandmother, Eleanor of England. Eleanor was the second of five children born to Ferdinand and Joan. Her elder brother Ferdinand was born in 1239/40, her younger brother Louis in 1242/43; two sons born after Louis died young. For the ceremonies in 1291 marking the first anniversary of Eleanor's death, 49 candlebearers were paid to walk in the public procession to commemorate each year of her life. This would date her birth to the year 1241. Since her parents were apart from each other for 13 months while King Ferdinand conducted a military campaign in Andalusia from which he returned to the north of Spain only in February 1241, Eleanor was probably born toward the end of that year. Both the court of her father and her half-brother Alfonso X of Castile were known for its literary atmosphere. Growing up in such an environment probably influenced her later literary activities as queen. She was said to have been at her father's deathbed in Seville in 1252.[1] Prospective bride to Theobald II of Navarre [edit] Eleanor's marriage in 1254 to the future Edward I of England was not the first marriage her family planned for her. The kings of Castile had long made the tenuous claim to be paramount lords of the Kingdom of Navarre in the Pyrenees, and from 1250 Ferdinand III and his heir, Eleanor's half-brother Alfonso X of Castile, hoped she would marry Theobald II of Navarre. To avoid Castilian control, Margaret of Bourbon (mother to Theobald II) in 1252 allied with James I of Aragon instead, and as part of that treaty solemnly promised that Theobald would never marry Eleanor. Marriage [edit] Then, in 1252, Alfonso X resurrected another flimsy ancestral claim, this time to the duchy of Gascony, in the south of Aquitaine, last possession of the Kings of England in France. Henry III of England swiftly countered Alfonso's claims with both diplomatic and military moves. Early in 1254 the two kings began to negotiate; after haggling over the financial provision for Eleanor, Henry and Alfonso agreed she would marry Henry's son Edward, and Alfonso would transfer his Gascon claims to Edward. Henry was so anxious for the marriage to take place that he willingly abandoned elaborate preparations already made for Edward's knighting in England, and agreed that Alfonso would knight Edward before the wedding took place. The young couple married at the monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos, on 1 November 1254. Edward and Eleanor were second cousins once removed, as Eleanor's great-grandmother Eleanor of England was a daughter of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Henry III took pride in resolving the Gascon crisis so decisively, but his English subjects feared that the marriage would bring Eleanor's kinfolk and countrymen to live off Henry's ruinous generosity. Several of her relatives did come to England soon after her marriage. She was too young to stop them or prevent Henry III from paying for them, but she was blamed anyway and her marriage was unpopular. Interestingly enough, Eleanor's mother had been spurned in marriage by Henry III and her great-grandmother, Alys, Countess of the Vexin, had been spurned in marriage by Richard I. However, the presence of more English, Frank and Norman soldiers of fortune and opportunists in the recently reconquered Seville and Cordoba Moorish Kingdoms would be increased, thanks to this alliance between royal houses, until the advent of the later Hundred Years War when it would be symptomatic of extended hostilities between the French and the English for peninsular support.

Second Barons' War [edit] There is little record of Eleanor's life in England until the 1260s, when the Second Barons' War, between Henry III and his barons, divided the kingdom. During this time Eleanor actively supported Edward's interests, importing archers from her mother's county of Ponthieu in France. It is untrue, however, that she was sent to France to escape danger during the war; she was in England throughout the struggle. Rumours that she was seeking fresh troops from Castile led the baronial leader, Simon de Montfort, to order her removal from Windsor Castle in June 1264 after the royalist army had been defeated at the Battle of Lewes. Edward was captured at Lewes and imprisoned, and Eleanor was honourably confined at Westminster Palace. After Edward and Henry's army defeated the baronial army at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, Edward took a major role in reforming the government and Eleanor rose to prominence at his side. Her position was greatly improved in July 1266 when, after she had borne three short-lived daughters, she finally gave birth to a son, John, who was followed by a second, Henry, in the spring of 1268, and in 1269 by a healthy daughter, Eleanor.

Crusade [edit] By 1270, the kingdom was pacified and Edward and Eleanor left to join his uncle Louis IX of France on the Eighth Crusade. Louis died at Carthage before they arrived, however, and after they spent the winter in Sicily, the couple went on to Acre in Palestine, where they arrived in May 1271. Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, known as "Joanna of Acre" for her birthplace. The crusade was militarily unsuccessful, but Baibars of the Bahri dynasty was worried enough by Edward's presence at Acre that an assassination attempt was made on the English heir in June 1272. He was wounded in the arm by a dagger that was thought to be poisoned. The wound soon became seriously inflamed, and an English surgeon saved him by cutting away the diseased flesh, but only after Eleanor was led from his bed, "weeping and wailing."[citation needed] Later storytellers embellished this incident, claiming Eleanor sucked poison from the wound, but this fanciful tale has no foundation. They left Palestine in September 1272 and in Sicily that December they learned of Henry III's death (on 16 November 1272). Edward and Eleanor returned to England and were crowned together on 19 August 1274. Queen consort of England [edit] Arranged royal marriages in the Middle Ages were not always happy, but available evidence indicates that Eleanor and Edward were devoted to each other. Edward is among the few medieval English kings not known to have conducted extramarital affairs or fathered children out of wedlock. The couple were rarely apart; she accompanied him on military campaigns in Wales, famously giving birth to their son Edward on 25 April 1284 in a temporary dwelling erected for her amid the construction of Caernarfon Castle. Their household records witness incidents that imply a comfortable, even humorous, relationship. Each year on Easter Monday, Edward let Eleanor's ladies trap him in his bed and paid them a token ransom so he could go to her bedroom on the first day after Lent; so important was this custom to him that in 1291, on the first Easter Monday after Eleanor's death, he gave her ladies the money he would have given them had she been alive. Edward disliked ceremonies and in 1290 refused to attend the marriage of Earl Marshal Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk; Eleanor thoughtfully (or resignedly) paid minstrels to play for him while he sat alone during the wedding. That Edward remained single until he wed Marguerite of France in 1299 is often cited to prove he cherished Eleanor's memory. In fact he considered a second marriage as early as 1293, but this does not mean he did not mourn Eleanor. Eloquent testimony is found in his letter to the abbot of Cluny in France (January 1291), seeking prayers for the soul of the wife "whom living we dearly cherished, and whom dead we cannot cease to love." In her memory, Edward ordered the construction of twelve elaborate stone crosses (of which three survive, almost intact) between 1291 and 1294, marking the route of her funeral procession between Lincoln and London. (See "Procession, burial and monuments" section below). However, only one of Eleanor's four sons survived childhood and, even before she died, Edward worried over the succession: if that son died, their daughters' husbands might cause a succession war. Despite personal grief, Edward faced his duty and married again. He delighted in the sons his new wife bore, but attended memorial services for Eleanor to the end of his life, Marguerite at his side on at least one occasion. Popularity [edit] Eleanor is warmly remembered by history as the queen who inspired the Eleanor crosses, but she was not so loved in her own time. The English saw her as a greedy foreigner. Walter of Guisborough preserves a contemporary poem: "The king desires to get our gold/the queen, our manors fair to hold..." John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury warned Eleanor that her activities in the land market caused outcry, gossip, rumour and scandal across the realm. Her often aggressive acquisition of lands was an unusual degree of economic activity for any medieval noblewoman, let alone a queen: between 1274 and 1290 she acquired estates worth above £2500 yearly. In fact, Edward himself initiated this process and his ministers helped her. He wanted the queen to hold lands sufficient for her financial needs without drawing on funds needed for government. One of his methods to help Eleanor acquire land was to give her debts Christian landlords owed Jewish moneylenders; she foreclosed on lands pledged for the debts. The debtors were often glad to rid themselves of the debts and also profited from the favour Eleanor showed them afterwards. But her reputation in England was further blighted by association with the highly unpopular moneylenders. Peckham also warned of complaints against her officials' demands upon her tenants. On her deathbed, Eleanor asked Edward to name justices to examine her officials' actions and make reparations. The surviving proceedings from this inquest do reveal a pattern of ruthless exactions, often without the queen's knowledge. She righted such wrongs when she heard of them, but not often enough to prevent a third warning from Peckham that many in England thought she urged Edward to rule harshly. In fact Edward allowed her little political influence, but her officials' demands were ascribed to her imagined personal severity, which was used to explain the king's administrative strictness. In other words, the queen was made to wear the king's unpopular mask. It was always safer to blame a foreign-born queen than to criticise a king, and easier to believe he was misled by a meddling wife. Eleanor was neither the first queen nor the last to be blamed for a king's actions, but in her case the unsavory conduct of her own administration made it even easier to shift such blame to her. Limited political influence [edit] Contemporary evidence shows clearly that Eleanor had no impact on the political history of Edward's reign. Even in diplomatic matters her role was minor, though Edward did heed her advice on the age at which their daughters could marry foreign rulers. Otherwise she merely bestowed gifts on visiting princes or envoys. Edward always honoured his obligations to Alfonso X, but even when Alfonso's need was desperate in the early 1280s, Edward did not send English knights to Castile; he sent only knights from Gascony, which was closer to Castile. In England, Eleanor did mediate disputes of a minor nature between Edward's subjects, but only with Edward's consent and only with the help of ranking members of his council. Edward was prepared to resist her demands, or to stop her, if he felt she was going too far in any of her activities, and expected his ministers to do likewise. If she was allowed no effective official role, Eleanor was an intelligent and cultured woman and found other satisfying outlets for her energies. She was an active patroness of vernacular literature, with scribes and an illuminator in her household to copy books for her. Some of these were apparently vernacular romances and saints' lives, but Eleanor's tastes ranged far more widely than that. The number and variety of new works written for her show that her interests were broad and sophisticated. On Crusade in 1272, she had De Re Militari by Vegetius translated for Edward. After she succeeded her mother as countess of Ponthieu in 1279, a romance was written for her about the life of a supposed 9th century count of Ponthieu. In the 1280s, Archbishop Peckham wrote a work for her to explain what angels were and what they did. In January 1286 she thanked the abbot of Cerne for lending her a book—possibly a treatise on chess known to have been written at Cerne in the late thirteenth century—and her accounts reveal her in 1290 corresponding with an Oxford master about one of her books. The queen was a devoted patron of Dominican Order friars, founding several priories in England and supporting their work at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. Not surprisingly, Eleanor's piety was of an intellectual stamp; apart from her religious foundations she was not given to good works, and she left it to her chaplains to distribute alms for her. She patronised many relatives, though given foreigners' unpopularity in England and the criticism of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence's generosity to them, she was cautious as queen to choose which cousins to support. Rather than marry her male cousins to English heiresses, which would put English wealth in foreign hands, she arranged marriages for her female cousins to English barons. Edward strongly supported these endeavours. Death [edit] Further information: Eleanor cross Eleanor was presumably a healthy woman for most of her life; that she survived sixteen pregnancies does not suggest that she was frail. Shortly after the birth of her last child, however, financial accounts from Edward's household and her own begin to record frequent payments for medicines to the queen's use. The nature of the medicines is not specified, so it is impossible to know what ailments were troubling her until, later in 1287 while she was in Gascony with Edward, a letter to England from a member of the royal entourage states that the queen had a double quartan fever, probably a strain of malaria. The disease is not fatal of itself, but leaves its victims weak and vulnerable to opportunistic infections. Among other complications, the liver and spleen become enlarged, brittle, and highly susceptible to injury which may cause death from internal bleeding. In the autumn of 1290, news reached Edward that Margaret, the Maid of Norway, heiress of Scotland, had died. He had just held a parliament at Clipstone in Nottinghamshire, and continued to linger in those parts, presumably to await news of further developments in Scotland. Eleanor followed him at a leisurely pace as she was unwell with a feverish illness, probably the quartan reported in 1287. After the couple left Clipstone they travelled slowly toward the city of Lincoln, a destination Eleanor would never reach. Her condition worsened as they reached the village of Harby, Nottinghamshire, less than 22 miles (35 km) from Lincoln.[2] The journey was abandoned, and the queen was lodged in the house of Richard de Weston, the foundations of which can still be seen near Harby's parish church. After piously receiving the Church's last rites, she died there on the evening of the 28 November 1290, aged 49 and after 36 years of marriage. Edward was at her bedside to hear her final requests. For three days afterward, the machinery of government came to a halt and no writs were sealed. Procession, burial and monuments Edward followed her body to burial in Westminster Abbey, and erected memorial crosses at the site of each overnight stop between Lincoln and Westminster. Based on crosses in France marking Louis IX's funeral procession, these artistically significant monuments enhanced the image of Edward's kingship as well as witnessing his grief. The "Eleanor crosses" stood at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans, Waltham, Westcheap, and Charing – only 3 survive, none in entirety. The best preserved is that at Geddington. All 3 have lost the crosses "of immense height" that originally surmounted them; only the lower stages remain. The Waltham cross has been heavily restored and to prevent further deterioration, its original statues of the queen are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The Waltham and Northampton crosses have been moved to locations different from their original sites. The monument now known as "Charing Cross" in London, in front of the railway station of that name, was built in 1865 to publicise the railway hotel at Charing station. The original Charing cross was at the top of Whitehall, on the south side of Trafalgar Square, but was destroyed in 1647 and later replaced by a statue of Charles I. In the thirteenth century, embalming involved evisceration. Eleanor's viscera were buried in Lincoln Cathedral, where Edward placed a duplicate of the Westminster tomb. The Lincoln tomb's original stone chest survives; its effigy was destroyed in the 17th century and replaced with a 19th-century copy. On the outside of Lincoln Cathedral are two statues often identified as Edward and Eleanor, but these images were heavily restored and given new heads in the 19th century; probably they were not originally intended to depict the couple.[1] The queen's heart was taken with the body to London and was buried in the Dominican priory at Blackfriars in London. The accounts of her executors show that the monument constructed there to commemorate her heart burial was richly elaborate, including wall paintings as well as an angelic statue in metal that apparently stood under a carved stone canopy. It was destroyed in the 16th century during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Eleanor's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey on 17 December 1290. Her body was placed in a grave near the high altar that had originally contained the coffin of Edward the Confessor and, more recently, that of King Henry III until his remains were removed to his new tomb in 1290. Eleanor's body remained in this grave until the completion of her own tomb. She had probably ordered that tomb before her death. It consists of a marble chest with carved mouldings and shields (originally painted) of the arms of England, Castile, and Ponthieu. The chest is surmounted by William Torel's superb gilt-bronze effigy, showing Eleanor in the same pose as the image on her great seal. When Edward remarried a decade after her death, he and his second wife Margaret of France, named their only daughter Eleanor in honour of her. Legacy [edit]

Eleanor of Castile's queenship is significant in English history for the evolution of a stable financial system for the king's wife, and for the honing this process gave the queen-consort's prerogatives. The estates Eleanor assembled became the nucleus for dower assignments made to later queens of England into the 15th century, and her involvement in this process solidly established a queen-consort's freedom to engage in such transactions. Few later queens exerted themselves in economic activity to the extent Eleanor did, but their ability to do so rested on the precedents settled in her lifetime. Historical reputation [edit]

Despite her unpopularity in her own day, Eleanor of Castile has had a positive reputation since the 16th century. The antiquarian William Camden first published in England the tale that Eleanor saved Edward's life at Acre by sucking his wound. Camden then went on to ascribe construction of the Eleanor crosses to Edward's grief at the loss of a heroic wife who had selflessly risked her own life to save his. Camden's discussion of the crosses reflected the religious history of his time; the crosses were in fact intended to attract prayers for Eleanor's soul from passersby, but the Protestant Reformation in England had officially ended the practice of praying for the souls of the dead, so Camden instead ascribed Edward's commemorations of his wife to her alleged heroism in saving Edward's life at the risk of her own. Historians in the 17th and 18th centuries uncritically repeated Camden's information wholesale, and in the 19th century the self-styled historian Agnes Strickland used Camden to paint the rosiest of all pictures of Eleanor. None of these writers, however, used contemporary chronicles or records to provide accurate information about Eleanor's life. Such documents became widely available in the late 19th century, but even when historians began to cite them to suggest Eleanor was not the perfect queen Strickland praised, many rejected the correction, often expressing indignant disbelief that anything negative was said about Eleanor. Only in recent decades have historians studied queenship in its own right and regarded medieval queens as worthy of attention. These decades produced a sizeable body of historical work that allows Eleanor's life to be scrutinized in the terms of her own day, not those of the 17th or 19th centuries. The evolution of her reputation is a case