History Sunday: Eleanor of Castile (II)

Leonor, anglicised at the time as Alienor, and in modern English, Eleanor, was now Queen consort of England and had already completed her role as consort by giving Edward I his son and heir, at this time, Alfonso.  But there were more children to come.  Alfonso, created Earl of Chester, was born in roughly 1273 in Gascony and  became his father's heir after the deaths of his older brothers; John (1266-1271) and Henry (1268-1274).  As I said previously she gave birth an estimated sixteen times but only a handful survived infancy or childhood.
Katherine (1261-1264), Joanna (b/d.1265), Juliana (may have been unnamed)(d.1271), Berengaria (1276-1278), unnamed daughter (1277-1278) were all daughters who died in early infancy, as well as John, Henry and Alphonso who all predeceased their father.  Now her surviving children:
Eleanor (1269-1298), the eldest surviving child and daughter married Henry, Count of Bar, and had issue.
Joan of Acre (1272-1307), married firstly Gilbert de Clare and then Ralph de Monthermer, producing offspring from both marriages.
Margaret (1273-1333) married John II of Brabant and had one son.
Mary (1279-1332) a Benedictine Nun and Amesbury.
Elizabeth (1282-1316), married firstly John, Count of Holland, and secondly, Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, and had issue.
Edward of Caernarvon (1284-1327), the ill-fated Edward II of England.

As you can see it was all daughters that survived childhood with only one son, Edward, becoming his father's heir.  I always feel for families at the time, especially ones like Eleanor's because despite their rank she cared a lot for her children.  Having os many of her offspring die before she did must have been heart wrenching.  According to sources the couple took the death of Alphonso particularly hard.

Eleanor Cross

I actually love Edward and Eleanor's marriage.  There's a story which I hope to God is true.  Since the church was very strict on when, how and where people could have sex, it was forbidden during Lent.  Edward I was a pious king and never shared his wife's bed during this holy time.  Every Easter Monday, at the end of Lent, he would pay Eleanor's ladies to trap him in his chambers so he would have to pay a ransom to be set free and visit Eleanor's rooms.  I love this story so much because it's not really a usual tale about medieval monarchs who always seem steeped in this fog like seriousness.  What is truly touching is that when Eleanor died, the next Easter Monday after her death he still paid her ladies the ransom.
There are many instances like this one that proves Edward and Eleanor's marriage was a successful one by any terms.  Edward is never recorded to have fathered any illegitimate children and by all accounts seems to have been faithful to his wife.  Another example is that when she died he erected the famous Eleanor crosses wherever her funeral entourage stopped and a few can still be seen today.
The final story I will tell here is that when the Earl of Norfolk was getting married, Edward I refused to attend, and so Eleanor paid minstrels to play for him.  Their marriage definitely held true affection that every historian and medievalist is surprised, if not impressed by.  Edward was a brutal, intimating and fearsome man, but Eleanor seemed to be his retainer, his literal better half, much like Matilda of Flanders was for William the Conqueror.  It is said after her death Edward seemed to become more temperamental and harsh.

Surprisingly Eleanor was not popular in her own time, in fact any foreign Queen had to make a grand gesture of some kind to be popular in England,  With foreign consorts came their many, many foreign relatives, and in true English style, the people of England despised them.  After Edward and Eleanor's recall to England by Henry III, her relatives came over with her and immediately garnered unpopularity from the commons because they were lavished with land, power and position.  This wasn't the first or the last time when a Queen's relatives would harm her popularity with her subjects, in fact Eleanor of Provence, consort of Henry III, was even more unpopular.  Eleanor, although a devoted wife and loving mother, was disliked by her subjects because they thought her a grasping foreigner.  There is some foundation to their reasons though as Eleanor had a lot of land as queen consort and made possibly unwise business transactions.

Although their relationship was loving and respectful Eleanor had limited influence over her husband, but she was consulted about her daughter's age of marriage, as is only right.  She had some influence in other political decisions her husband made but they were few and far between.

To get back to her education Eleanor really ran with the writing culture of the day having the only scriptorium in northern Europe open and copying and illuminiating manuscripts for her.  Books about the lives of saints and many more things from the time are all because of Eleanor who was a major patroness of literature in the day.

Eleanor died in Nottinghamshire in November 1290 at the age of 49 with Edward, her husband of 39 years, at her bedside.  I think this is heartbreaking because of the affection they held for one another which was further proven with the spectacle Edward made of her funeral procession.
Fortunately Eleanor died before things between her husband and only surviving son would get really bad, but its perhaps unfortunate for the younger Edward that he didn't have his mother around for surely she would have intervened on his behalf, as most royal mothers before her had.
Edward I remarried in 1299 to Margaret of France and the couple had two children together.  Although it did take 9 years for King Edward to remarry I don't think it was because of his grief; apparently as early as 1293 he was searching for a new bride.  He died in 1307, a somewhat resented king and angry man, leaving his son with debt, border strifes and political problems.

I like Eleanor of Castile just because she didn't do anything scandalous.  Isabella of France, the daughter-in-law she never met, overthrew her husband, and many more Queens of the age were scandalous, but Eleanor of Castile was just a normal consort who bore a ridiculous amount of children and who had the undying faitihfulness and respect of her husband.  She must have been quite a woman to garner the affection of the fearsome Edward Longshanks, bear as many offsring as she did and travel everywhere with her husband (which was somewhat unusual at the time).  Although she was disliked during her own time she's had a positive, if not easily forgotten, opinion since the 17th Century.  Unfortunately I think she's easy to forget, I always find people like Eleanor of Aquitaine, Empress Matilda and Isabella of France are the centre for novels because they're supposed to be these empowered females, but I have greater respect for women like Eleanor of Castile because they lived their life with grace and accomplishment.

Unfortuntely I've never read a novel about Eleanor or her husband, or even of her time period in history; they seem to be a bit thin on the ground or perhaps I'm just not looking in the right place.  All novels centre on the numerous battles between England and Scotland during her lifetime which I dislike.

As for sources; thanks Wikipedia!