Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

by Sara Cockerill

  As to her role as a property developer and manager, the challenge which her formal job as queen and mother to the royal children would have imposed on her routine was considerable. Every pregnancy meant a period of ‘lying in’, during which her access to business would have been restricted. This may be one reason why Eleanor appears to have broken with tradition and, at least with her girls, lain in not for the usual forty days but only for twenty-nine – and even, on occasion, less. One can see all these factors coming together in 1275 with the birth of Margaret.

  So Eleanor undertook a tour of her lands late in her pregnancy, arriving back at Windsor not long before Margaret was born. Yet by at least 17 April she was back on her travels – this time at Bury St Edmunds, where a local chronicler notes her presence. Yet Bury is a good long way from Windsor, and Edward, at least, had proceeded there gradually via Cippenham (now part of Maidenhead), Risborough, Aylesbury, Weston and Royston. The conclusion seems inescapable that Eleanor left Windsor with Edward, and the only accommodation made for this was a slightly slower-paced journey than would otherwise have been the case – the stops were very moderately spaced. If Margaret was indeed born on 15 March, this would equate to a very short lying-in indeed. Rather more likely is that Margaret was actually born in mid-February, shortly after the arrival at Windsor; but even so the lying-in would have been considerably short of the traditional forty days. Perhaps the imminent end of Lent drove this move – the royal couple would certainly not have wanted to be parted at this point in the year. Another likely factor in this particular year will have been Eleanor’s determination to get on top of her day job – the 1275 royal progress was closely linked to Eleanor’s property interests and in particular the settling of her increased dower.

  On other occasions, though, Eleanor maintained a fairly normal lying-in; Edward’s itinerary shows him moving from Kempton, where their next child, Berengaria, was born in April/May 1276, to Westminster just days after her birth. Eleanor will have joined him later in the Westminster stay, around 29 May, giving time for preparations before the party set off into Sussex, Essex and Kent. And in early 1278, following Eleanor giving birth to a stillborn child, Edward undertook a short tour in Kent while she lay in for twenty-nine days, sending her venison to aid her recovery. Parsons hypothesises that Eleanor lay in for twenty-nine days for a girl and forty for a boy, but the material available does not provide firm support for this conjecture. What seems likely is that around thirty days was taken if convenient, but a full lying-in period was dispensed with if Eleanor considered other business more pressing. So in 1275 a short lying-in was probably taken. The final documented babies, Elizabeth and Edward, attracted full lyings-in, since Eleanor was on both occasions static in Wales while Edward campaigned there.5

  As for her role as mother, we have seen earlier that Eleanor was not an overly fond mother to her very young offspring. To what extent that was innate, in that she was someone who found small children rather boring, and to what extent it was defensive, given the high mortality rate for young children, we cannot know. What seems quite likely, given her active memorialising of the first baby, her avoidance of or at best fleeting attendance at young Henry’s deathbed, and ‘farming out’ of young Joan, is that it was at least in some measure a defensive and learned response, prompted by the trauma of the loss of the first baby. However, whichever is the case, there is much more evidence of her interest and concern for her children as they grew older, both in terms of their interests, their education and their future prospects.

  Until about the age of seven the children lived in what was effectively a separate nursery establishment, which housed not just the royal children but wards and children of members of the household. To this establishment can be traced such a variety of people as the mentally deficient Walerand heirs, the children of Eleanor’s ladies, the young Earl of Hereford, some of Eleanor’s young de Beaumont relatives, some of the children of Edward’s sister Beatrice and a number of Eleanor’s wards, such as young Nicholas Burdon. The ages ranged from the very young, accompanied by their wet nurses or nurses, to the older children being prepared for military and court life or a career in the Church. Thus, the staff of Edward of Caernarfon’s household included seven knights and nine sergeants and it was headed up by an ex-Crusader companion of Edward and Eleanor. It was, effectively, a small boarding school governed by rules such as those we have seen earlier about the number of servants, and amount of food, beer and candles to be provided to each child. As can be imagined, its provisioning requirements were considerable and even provoked negative comment in the chronicles. These problems were not assisted by the requirements of one member of the ménage – the King’s Langley camel, for whom bushels of barley were required rather frequently.

  Eleanor kept in close touch with the nursery establishment by messenger and sent treats to them – such as the salmon pies sent to young Edward in spring 1290. Toys were also sent: Alphonso, during the Welsh wars, was gifted with a detailed model castle – a complement for the toy soldiers of the era found at the Tower and now on display there. Young Henry had had toy arrows, a coronet and a toy trumpet. She also sent tutors – who were doubtless much less welcome. So in 1290, Eleanor arranged for Dominican friars and one of her scribes to join the household of young Edward of Caernarfon (then five and a half years old) to ensure his spiritual and intellectual formation. The nursery establishment was frequently uprooted in its entirety to place it more conveniently within reach of the king and queen – so while the Welsh campaign went on, the children were brought north. Likewise, in Eleanor’s last months the nursery establishment moved north to Clipstone. Even when it was settled, it was not short of visitors – young Edward’s household seems to have attracted distinguished visitors roughly once a week, including relations, other nobles, bishops and foreign dignitaries.

  The middle children, and in particular Alphonso and Margaret, born in the mid-1270s, probably saw rather more of their parents than their older and younger siblings. The period from the return to England until the departure of Eleanor and Edward for Gascony in 1286 had a degree of stability about it; every year there were two lengthy stays in London. The main court would be housed at Westminster, but it appears that the nursery section was brought at the same time to the Tower. This was, of course, a very easy distance from Westminster, and it seems likely that Eleanor and Edward would make the trip across at least a few times a week, if not daily. Moreover, this period also sees fairly lengthy stays a few times a year at locations which were suitable for the younger royals to be part of the party. Windsor, of course, was well established as a location for the royal nursery, and Langley, under Eleanor’s careful development, was to become the preferred base of young Edward of Caernarfon. However, Woodstock, Clarendon and Marlborough all have form as locations for the younger royal family under Eleanor of Provence, and still featured regularly in the royal itinerary; thus they too may have involved ‘joined-up’ parties of the whole family, adults and children.

  As the children grew older, they were in fact tacked on to the court for at least some of the time as it moved. So in 1293 young Edward visited Westminster, Mortlake, Kennington, Canterbury, Windsor, Winchester, Salisbury, Bath, Clarendon, Melksham and Devizes. Thus, it seems likely that Eleanor did build close bonds with her children as they grew: Eleanora, Joan and Margaret were at court almost constantly once they had reached a good age to travel with the court, and even young Mary, who became a nun, came to court fairly frequently.6

  A glimpse of how the regime worked can be gained by following the eldest surviving child, Eleanora. She seems to have joined the court in about 1276–7 – her age at this point was around eight, and she was already engaged to the prince of Aragon. Her mother would therefore have much to teach her in terms of the language and culture which she could expect to encounter, as well as the political issues of the Iberian peninsula. However, presence at court still did not denote constant proximity to her mother. She had an entire household of h
er own from 1277 – a chamberlain, keeper of the hall, groom of the bedchamber, and a sumpterer (seconded from her mother’s household) among others. So in 1278 we find Eleanora and her household joining her royal parents at Devizes, and then proceeding with them to Easter at Glastonbury, and on to London in May. Furthermore, Eleanora maintained a close relationship with her grandmother Eleanor of Provence, interspersing her visits to court with stays with her grandmother until Eleanor of Provence took the veil in 1286. In 1282, Eleanora accompanied her mother to Wales, and by this point she had been joined at court by young Joan (now about nine or ten), returned from Ponthieu. By late 1284, the royal princesses at court numbered three, for Margaret (nine) had now joined the circle at court.7

  Of course, the practice of bringing the children to court as they grew up does not necessarily reveal any strong affection for them on Eleanor’s part; this might simply be done because it was deemed the best way to educate them. However, the story of Mary’s veiling suggests differently. Mary became a nun at Amesbury as a companion to her grandmother Eleanor of Provence in August 1285 at the age of six. It is clear from the sources that Eleanor objected to this plan fairly strongly: the Chronicle of Nicholas Trivet, dedicated to the princess, notes that she was veiled by her sire, at the wish of her grandmother, and with the ‘assent’ of her mother. One very credible explanation for Eleanor’s reluctance to go along with Eleanor of Provence’s plan in 1285 for young Mary to join her as a nun there may be that Eleanor was reluctant to lose her daughter just at the stage of life when she would expect to be building a meaningful relationship with her. Certainly it seems unlikely that she objected to the project of Mary taking the veil per se, since a good deal of correspondence had already been conducted between Edward and the Abbey of Fontevrault as early as 1282 with a view to Mary ultimately becoming a nun there.

  Fortunately for Eleanor, it is also clear that Mary’s veiling was not a complete renunciation of the world; she paid a visit to her family in March 1286, and another in May of that year, which probably lasted a month. Mary was then at court again in early 1290, very probably again for about a month, culminating in the marriage of her older sister Joan. That she spent enough time with her mother to regard Eleanor with strong affection despite her enclosure is demonstrated by the decision of Mary and her younger sister Elizabeth to pay for a special Mass in honour of their mother in 1297.8

  Further evidence for the affection in which Eleanora and her sisters were held by Eleanor as they grew up can perhaps be seen in Eleanor’s attempts (in partnership with her mother-in-law) to delay the marriage of Eleanora in 1281 when she was rising twelve – the canonical minimum age for marriage, and the age at which Eleanor herself had been married. There are also records of her purchasing small items of jewellery for them in Paris, sending back to them other pieces gifted to her, and making offerings for their health at many of the major shrines visited.

  However, although Eleanor was plainly fond of them and influential in their later upbringing, the sense of true closeness is missing; and Eleanora’s choice to visit her grandmother at regular intervals, including in the run-up to the anticipated marriage in 1281, suggests that, certainly for her, emotional closeness lay more with the grandmother who had seen her through her early years than with her focussed and driven mother. Edward, who plainly did enjoy a very good relationship with his daughters in later years, seems to have purchased more personal presents for the girls, and to have been held in more demonstrative regard by them. All in all, it is fair to say that there is a flavour in the slim records which remain of Eleanor being fond of her children, but much more focussed on her marriage and her work.

  There is also a sense that Eleanor was by some way the more disciplinarian parent – keen for the children to progress in the education to which none of them seems to have been very strongly inclined. Eleanor herself was, as we know, book mad, and unlike any of the English kings prior to Richard II she could write – that is the inescapable conclusion from her brother’s view as to the utility of writing, the purchase which she made of writing tablets for Eleanora, and the despatch, shortly before her death, of a scriptor to help educate young Edward. Thus, either directly or indirectly, Eleanor saw that her daughter was, like herself, educated very much above the level of most educated noble men.

  Eleanor’s influence can be felt when Eleanora’s abilities are contrasted with the youngest of the brood, Edward of Caernarfon, who was born too close to his mother’s death to benefit much from her encouragement. In his case, there is no evidence of any primer being bought for him until his sixteenth year, he demonstrated no great fondness for books and there are certainly questions over the extent of his linguistic abilities, particularly as regards his ability to read Latin with facility. But we can see, from the despatch of the Dominicans and the scribe to Langley in the months before Eleanor’s death, that she would certainly have had him commence serious study at an early age.

  The difference of even a few years of influence can be seen when we compare young Edward to his sister Elizabeth of Rhuddlan, two years his senior, who was born in mid-1282 and was therefore just over eight when her mother died. Elizabeth is in some respects exceptional, appearing to have been the only child that Eleanor kept with her in the very early years – she either stayed with Eleanor full time or visited her frequently in her first two years, and was with her mother at Caernarfon when Edward was born. She nonetheless spent much of her childhood prior to her mother’s death in her brother’s establishment and received the basic education which would have been provided under Eleanor’s running of that household. She would have come to court more or less on Eleanor’s return from Gascony and thus have come under Eleanor’s eye slightly more in that period, but even so, she spent a good proportion of her time still with her brother’s household; she spent most of the summer of 1290 touring the countryside with him, rather than with the court, except for the royal weddings.

  There is therefore relatively little ground for hypothesising any exceptionally close tie of affection or influence between mother and daughter; and this is reflected in the fact that Elizabeth was to call her first child after her stepmother. However, Elizabeth seems to have had a real fondness for books – service books are recorded as part of her marriage goods on her first marriage to the Count of Holland, and the Alphonso Psalter can be traced into her ownership at a later date.

  As for Joan, while she herself offers very little evidence of academic attainments, a generation later her daughter Elizabeth de Clare/de Burgh was to become possibly the pre-eminent female artistic patron of the fourteenth century, inferentially inspired by a fairly full education organised by her mother.

  Thus we can see that Eleanor did attempt to ensure that her children received a fine education, as she had done. But it is fair to say that the ground was a little stony: the daughters of Eleanor seem to have imbibed more of her taste for domestic finery than her appetite for books and scholarship. The surviving records of all the princesses describe a myriad of purchases of the kinds of luxurious small items which were such a feature of their mother’s housekeeping – and no book purchases.9

  So we can safely dispose of the myth that Eleanor had little contact with her children; though at the same time it is clear that her relations with them were less intense and more distant than the modern idiom expects. But this does not bring to a close a consideration of those whom Eleanor would have counted as family. The surviving Liber Garderobe for the 1289–90 period gives a vivid, though necessarily partial, indication of the members of her family with whom Eleanor corresponded. Relations with Eleanor of Provence were not notably affectionate – as can be seen from the fact that the older Eleanor was relatively seldom at court after her widowhood commenced and that the tone of her letters to Edward is obviously loving and warm, whereas the exchanges between the two Eleanors seem to have been confined to administrative detail, such as the loan of staff. But Eleanor had a wealth of other correspondents; for instance, within the
immediate royal family, Eleanor corresponded with and sent gifts to her brother-in-law Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, and his second wife, Blanche of Navarre.10

  Nor were her own brothers neglected. Eleanor maintained close contact with Alfonso until his death in April 1284 and with Enrique until hers (for all their contrasting fates, one suspects Enrique’s letters were more fun than Alfonso’s). For all his brilliance, Alfonso’s story was not a happy one. Distracted, like Henry III, into a range of expensive sideshows at home and abroad, he bred discontent among his prominent nobles and, as we shall see, ultimately reaped the whirlwind. However, Eleanor continued to correspond with him and to fulfil her role by trying to persuade Edward to support him, or at least to let him down gently. Thus we see, in 1275, Edward writing very politely to Alfonso, who had sought his help against the Moors, explaining that if he were to go on Crusade he had already been asked by the Pope to go again to the aid of the Holy Land, far from the Moors, but that while he could not help personally he was very content for his subjects in Bayonne to help if they were so minded, and following this up with letters to the Mayor of Bayonne offering ships for anyone who wished to serve. Even after his death, Eleanor maintained at least one of his illegitimate children in her household: Martin Alfonso, later Abbot of Valladolid, was with her throughout the Gascon stay of 1286–9. Another possible son of Alfonso is the gentleman known as Rotheric de Yspannia who was granted a legacy of £20 by Eleanor’s executors in 1291 and who was acknowledged as a kinsman by Edward II. More likely, however, is that the latter was an illegitimate son of Fadrique, who did not return to Spain with his father and brother in 1272. These gentlemen were openly acknowledged as relations, albeit as ‘cousins’.11

  Further afield, Eleanor seems to have corresponded with a number of her female relatives on her mother’s side.