Search

The Online Encyclopedia and Dictionary

 
     
 

Encyclopedia

Dictionary

Quotes

 

Eleanor of Castile (1241-1290)

Eleanor of Castile (1241 - 28 November,1290) was the first queen consort of Edward I of England. Eleanor was born in Castile, Spain, the daughter of Fernando III, King of Castile and Leon and his second wife, Jeanne, Countess of Ponthieu . Her given name was Leonor (she was called Eleanor in England). Her birthdate is not certainly known, but it is known that she was the second of the three children born to Fernando and Jeanne. Her elder brother Fernando was born 1239/40 and her younger brother Luis was born 1242/43. For the ceremonies in 1291 marking the first anniversary of Eleanor's death, 49 candlebearers appear, each candle commemorating one year of her life. This would place her birth in 1241.

She married Edward, the son of Henry III of England, in October 1254 at Burgos and became queen in 1272 when his father died and he became king. Theirs was one of the most successful royal marriages of all time, and she often accompanied her husband on his military campaigns, giving birth to his fourth son (later King Edward II of England) at Caernarfon in 1284, immediately after the conquest of Wales. She gave birth to fifteen children all told, six of whom survived into adulthood, but only two or three of whom outlived their parents.

Eleanor is remembered warmly by history as the queen who inspired the Eleanor crosses, but she was not so loved in her own time. Her English subjects considered her to be too foreign and greedy. Walter of Guisborough preserves the following poem:

"The king desires to get our gold/the queen, our manors fair to hold..."

She and Edward seemed to have been more devoted to one another than to their offspring. Their daughter Joan was left to be raised by her grandmother in Ponthieu for much of her childhood. When their son Henry lay dying at Guildford, neither of his royal parents undertook the short journey from London to see him.

Eleanor died on November 28, 1290, at Nottingham (believed actually Harby, Nottinghamshire rather than the city), and her body was returned to London for burial at Westminster Abbey. Such was Edward's devotion to her that he erected memorial crosses at each overnight stop. Three of these "Eleanor crosses" are still landmarks today, although the most famous at Charing Cross (from which its name derives) is a copy. He did not remarry for nine years, to Marguerite of France, in 1299.

The locations of the 12 crosses were as follows: Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans, Waltham , Westcheap , and Charing.

Children of Queen Eleanor and King Edward I

  1. Daughter, stillborn in May 1255 in Bordeaux, France.
  2. Katherine, living June 17 1264, died September 5 1264 and buried at Westminster Abbey.
  3. Eleanor, born 18 June 1264 and died 12 October 1297. She married (1) Alfonso III of Aragon, (2) Count Henry III of Bar .
  4. Joan, born January 1265, buried at Westminster Abbey before September 7 1265.
  5. John, born July 13 1266, died August 3 1271 at Wallingford, in the custody of his great-uncle, Richard, Earl of Cornwall. Buried at Westminster Abbey.
  6. Henry, born before May 6 1268, died October 16 1274.
  7. Daughter, born May 1271 in Palestine and died before September 1271.
  8. Joan of Acre born May 1271 and died April 7 1307. She married (1) Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford, (2) Ralph Morthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer .
  9. Alphonso, Earl of Chester, born 24 November 1273, died 19 August 1284, buried in Westminster Abbey
  10. Margaret, born March 15 1275 and died after 1333. She married John II of Brabant.
  11. Berengaria, born 1 May 1276 and died before June 27 1278, buried in Westminster Abbey.
  12. Daughter, died shortly after birth, January 1278.
  13. Mary, born 11 March 1279 and died 29 May 1332, a nun in Amesbury, Wiltshire (England).
  14. Elizabeth of Rhuddlan , born August 1281 at Rhuddlan, died 5 May 1316. She married (1) John I, Count of Holland, (2) Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford & 3rd Earl of Essex
  15. Edward of Caernavon, born 25 April 1284 at Caernarvon, died 21 September 1327. He married Isabella of France

Sources

  • Parsons, John Carmi. Eleanor of Castile: Queen and Society in Thirteenth Century England, 1995.
  • Parsons, John Carmi, "The Year of Eleanor of Castile's Birth and Her Children by Edward I," Mediaeval Studies 46 (1984): 245-65, esp. 246 n. 3.
Last updated: 06-03-2005 02:50:47
The contents of this article are licensed from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. How to see transparent copy