Leonor (Castilla) of Castile (abt. 1241 - 1290)

Born about 1241 in Castile, Spain

Ancestors

Wife of Edward Plantagenet — married 18 Oct 1254 (to 1290) in Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas, Burgos, Castile

Descendants

Died 28 Nov 1290 at about age 49 in Harby, Nottinghamshire, England

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Biography

Eleanor (Castilla) of Castile is a member of the House of Plantagenet.

Birth

Eleanor of Castile (in Spanish Leonor de Castilla) was probably the second child and only daughter of Ferdinand III, King of Castile and Leon, and his second wife, Jeanne de Dammartin, later Countess of Ponthieu and Aumale.^[1][2][3]

Her birth date is not recorded in any source, and it has often been thought to be about 1244, as she is described as still a child in a number of chronicles of the time, when she married in 1254; perhaps aged about 10.^[4]

However she was definitely born before 31 March 1243, as she is mentioned in a Spanish chronicle, and unusually mentioned as the second of the then three children of Ferdinand III and Jeanne, after her brother Ferdinand but before her brother Louis. As generally all the sons were mentioned before the daughters, this probably indicates she was actually the second child.^[2]

As it seems likely that Eleanor's elder full-brother was born about late 1239 or early 1240, and her brother Louis, late 1242 or early 1243, then Eleanor can only have been born about 1240 or 1241. The accounts for the expenses of the ceremony marking the first anniversary of her death include 49 candle bearers, and this is possibly related to how old she was when she died, which again would indicate a birth date in late 1241.^[2]

Eleanor's birth place is also not stated, though it was probably in the north of Castile (Old Castile). Her father was based at Valladolid in the winter of 1241/1242, but her birth may have taken place elsewhere.^[2] The Wikipedia article for Eleanor, indicates she was born in Burgos, but the source for this statement is not clear.

Other events

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. It is untrue that she was sent to France to escape danger during the war; she was in England throughout the struggle ... supporting Edward. She even imported archers from her mother's county of Ponthieu.

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, while Eleanor was 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 greatly improved in July 1266 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.

Vitals

"Castile and Leon" is the English translation for a governmental authority, within the country of Spain, which was created by statute in 1983. So, the place is correct (my bad - sorry!). At least it pinpoints the city of her birth and identifies it as it is known today. I think, however, that the consensus on the G2G discussions has been to name places as they were at the time of the event in the language the people who lived there spoke. True or not true? Personally, when I run into the issue...and trust me - I have a TON of profiles that uploaded with present day geographical locations that are now waiting to be changed...I try to list the historic name and add a parenthetic suffix that says "(present day Name Of Location)". Burgos was founded in 884AD as an outpost castle and today is a Spanish city of around 180,000 in population. The region around it became known as Castile which became, by the 11th century, the "Reino de Castilla" (in Spanish) or "Regnum Castellae" (in Latin) and we know it in English as the Kingdom of Castile. BUT the kingdom was disestablished in 1230 - just before the date of birth on Eleanor's WikiTree profile. According to the online sources listed, "circa 1244" may be 'good enough' as a d.o.b.

Alfonzo VII, Emporer of Spain (House of Ivrea) split his kingdom between his sons. Sancho III became King of Castile while his brother Ferdinand II became King of Leon. The kingdoms became and remained rivals while the tradition of dividing the kingdom between royal children continued. In 1217, Eleanor's grandfather, Alfonzo IX received Castile from his mother. In 1230, he received Leon from his father. He merged the two courts and added areas conquered from the Moors including Cordoba, Murcia, Jaen and Seville. The result became "Corona de Castilla" in Spanish or "Corona Castellae" in Latin or the (Crown of Castile as we know it in English) with Burgos as its capital.

So, if I were modifying the profile, I'd say she was born in Burgos, Castilla (present day Burgos, Province of Burgos, Castile and Leon, Spain). BTW, the Peerage website says she was born circa 1244 but but Wikipedia says it was1241. The Encyclopedia Brittanica, on its website www.brittanica.com, says it was 1246. Did any of the more authoritative sources listed on her profile state a date more specific. Regards,

Michele Britten Camera

Eleanor de Castilla^[5]

b. c. 1244 Castile

p. Fernando III, Rey de Castilla y León and Jeanne d'Aumale, Comtesse de Ponthieu

m. Edward I 'Longshanks' of England 18 Oct 1254 Abbey of Las Huelgas, Burgos, Castile, Spain.

d. 28 Nov 1290 Harby, Nottinghamshire

bur. Westminster Abbey.

Titles

• Eleanor "Leonora" de Castilla (EN: Eleanor of Castile)
• 19 Aug 1274: Queen Consort of England
• Mar 1279: Comtesse de Montreuil
• Mar 1279: Comtesse de Ponthieu

Marriage and Children

m. 1254 Edward I of England Burgos, Burgos.^[3] Issue:

Joan

Henry

Margaret

Elizabeth

Joan of Acre

Alphonso Chester

Edward II

Berengaria

Julianna

Isabel

Alice

Eleanor

Crusades

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 Nov 1272). Edward and Eleanor returned to England and were crowned together on 19 August 1274.

Death

Location: 'Harby' (near Lincoln)

'Eleanor Crosses': Thirteen once existed, but only those of Northampton & Waltham survive.^[6]

Eleonor lies at the feet of Henry III. Her heart is buried in Blackfriars Church, London; and her entrails buried at Lincoln Cathedral.

Death and burial of Eleanor of Castile

(Royal Tombs of Medieval England) Eleanor died at Harby (Nottinghamshire) on 28 November 1290. Her remains were interred in three locations - body at Westminster, entrails (viscera) at Lincoln Cathedral and heart at Blackfriars priory in London. In addition, twelve commemorative crosses were erected to mark to journey of the queen's body from Lincoln to Westminster.

Her burial at Westminster. (Royal Tombs of Medieval England) Her embalmed remains arrived at Charing in London on 14 December 1290. Two days later Eleanor was interred in Westminster Abbey wearing a crown and bearing a scepter, her brow and chest sprinkled with gold-leaf in the shape of a cross. In 1291 Edward I commissioned gilt-bronze effigies for Eleanor's tombs at Westminster and Lincoln, together with a gilt-bronze effigy for his father Henry III's recently completed tomb at Westminster. In 1292 Edward I founded a chantry at Westminster for the queen's weekly and yearly anniversary prayers. Eleanor's Westminster tomb effigy was installed by spring 1293 and depicts the queen crowned, wearing a tunic and mantle, the left hand clasping the mantle cord, and the right holding a scepter, since lost.

Eleanor's viscera tomb at Lincoln. (Royal tombs of Medieval England) Eleanor's Lincoln tomb stood in the Lady Chapel near the new shrine of St. Hugh. It was demolished by (Cromwell's) Parliamentarian troops in mid-17th century but was recorded by William Sedgwick around 1641 as having a gilt-bronze effigy and arcaded heraldic tomb-chest.

Eleanor's heart burial at Blackfriars London. (Royal Tombs of Medieval England) Her heart monument at Blackfriars featured a 'casket' (cista) supplied by the mason, William de Hoo, and had three gilt images and figure of an angel holding a heart. There are no other records of the monument, which was most likely stripped when the priory church became a parish church around 1550 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Eleanor's commemorative crosses. (Royal Tombs of Medieval England) Eleanor's twelve commemorative stone crosses were erected along the processional route of the queen's coffin between Lincoln and Westminster. They stood at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Hardingstone, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, Waltham, Cheapside and Charing. Only the Hardingstone, Geddington and Waltham crosses survive, together with fragments of the Charing monument. The three surviving crosses share a common format in which statues of the queen stand before a central shaft terminating in a cross, above a pedestal bearing shields with her arms.

Sources

1. ↑ Parsons, John Carmi. 1998. Eleanor of Castile: Queen and society in thirteenth-century England. New York: St Martins Press.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Parsons, John Carmi, 'Eleanor of Castile', soc.genealogy.medieval, discussion list, 4 September 1998, http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-MEDIEVAL/1998-09/0904927642 : viewed 8 January 2017. Based on his own 1984 article, ' The year of Eleanor of Castile's birth and her children by Edward I', Medieval Studies, 46, 245-65.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} G. W. Watson, "The Seize Quartiers of Eleanor (of Castile) Queen Consort to Edward I." The Genealogist New Series XI (1895) Internet Archive Table XIII p. 31, Additions to table XIII pp. 34-36
4. ↑ Strickland, Agnes. 1902(?), Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest. Vol 2. Philadelphia: George Barrie & Sons. Digital image. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/cu31924087994103
5. ↑ Wikipedia: Eleanor of Castile; thepeerage.com
6. ↑ Eleanor Cross: funeral procession art; Burke's Peerage; Chamber's Biographical Dictionary

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