It therefore appears likely that Eleanor’s birth took place at Valladolid, where Ferdinand was staying in the winter of 1241/42. One thing we do know, however: Eleanor was named after her English great-grandmother Eleanor of England, wife of Alfonso VIII and daughter and namesake of Eleanor of Aquitaine.4
The political backdrop to Eleanor’s childhood, and particularly her early childhood before the death of her father, was indubitably predominantly the reconquest of Spain. This was an issue which informed all aspects of life in the Iberian peninsula at this time. Ferdinand’s progress in the 1220s and 1230s has already been outlined. Following Eleanor’s birth, the work of the reconquest still continued apace.
The immediate target in Eleanor’s first years was Murcia, which was taken in 1243 with Alfonso (and likely a good selection of the family) attending for a solemn entry into the city and consecration of the city’s mosque as a cathedral. Thereafter Ferdinand visited Palencia and Toledo, dealing with complaints and abuses raised by their citizens, before returning to Burgos in September for the veiling of his only other daughter, Berengaria, as a nun at the abbey of Las Huelgas.
The next year he was back on campaign, leading the attack on the territories round Jaén and besieging Arjona, which fell, along with Mula and Lorca, in the course of the year. During the course of campaigning he broke off to visit Andjar to see Queen Jeanne and escort her to Cordoba, where she lived during the Siege of Jaén, which continued until 1246. In 1245, with the siege still ongoing, Ferdinand took Cartagena. Jaén itself was finally taken in April 1246 and Ferdinand was substantially based there for eight months afterwards, ‘ensuring the prosperity and security’ of the newly conquered territory.5
Meanwhile, the formidable Berengaria died in early November 1246. She was buried alongside her parents, Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of England, and in the sight of her eldest granddaughter at the abbey of Las Huelgas. Eleanor will almost certainly have attended her deathbed and funeral, and while (still being aged under five) her personal memories of her grandmother will have been vague, the honour in which Berengaria continued to be held by the entire royal family will have ensured that she was presented to Eleanor throughout her childhood as a paradigm of what a Castilian princess should be: intelligent, capable, astute, regardless of self in her devotion to her duty and fiercely loyal to her family. For instance, Berengaria is recalled in the Primera Cronica General as ‘a very wise lady and a great expert and sharp in political affairs and [who] understood the risks of government’.6
Once Jaén was settled, the primary focus for Ferdinand and his elder sons, who had by now joined him on campaign, was the conquest of Seville. This occupied the majority of attention throughout 1247, although Guillena and Gerena were taken in 1247 with the support of the Emir of Granada, now a vassal of Castile. Seville was at this time the largest, most populous and best-defended town in Spain, with a ring of defensive fortresses and state-of-the-art twelfth-century walls and moats. Consequently its conquest was a long and bitter fight. For the defenders there were all the horrors of famine within the city as the siege tightened; accounts describe the defenders eating leather once all food had run out, and emerging with their health utterly shattered. And, lest anyone think that in Ferdinand’s family campaigning was a spectator sport, the accounts left by Alfonso X of his own direct involvement are supported by the death, during the fighting for Seville, of Ferdinand’s third son, the twenty-three-year-old Fernando.
By the latter months of 1248, however, the end was in sight. On 23 November 1248, terms of capitulation were signed. This was probably deliberately timed to coincide with Alfonso’s twenty-seventh birthday, but it is possible that it also coincided with Eleanor’s seventh birthday, which must have fallen very close indeed to this date. On 22 December, Ferdinand, carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary, made his formal entry into the city – symbolically and again doubtless designedly, on the feast day of the translation of St Isidore, Seville’s patron saint. The entire royal family and Peter, the brother of the King of Portugal, were present for the procession to the mosque. Like the mosque at Cordoba, this was now reconsecrated as a cathedral. This day, marking her father’s great triumph and attended by the entirety of her family, will undoubtedly have been one of the high points of Eleanor’s childhood.
Following the conquest of Seville Ferdinand made that city his base, superintending the works which he had in hand there and, in essence, attempting to remake this major city as an equally affluent Christian city. This was a considerable administrative process involving legal reforms (to which we shall return), granting houses and lands to suitable settlers and bringing artisans to work there, as well as building bridges with the existing community and the flourishing resident Jewish community there.7
At the start of December 1249, Eleanor’s eldest brother, Alfonso, was married to Yolande/Violante of Aragon at Valladolid. For future reference the latter name, which seems to suit her temperament better, will be used. This was an event at which Ferdinand was accompanied by Queen Jeanne. It is likely that Eleanor, too, will have been present on this occasion.
The year 1250 marked a return to campaigning; Ferdinand and his troops took swathes of towns near the Guadalquivir and Guadalete rivers. By winter he was starting to plan a North African Crusade, since, with the treaty of truce and co-operation concluded with the Emir of Granada and functioning well, there essentially remained nothing to conquer at home. Ferdinand was again generally in Seville for the years 1248–51, except when dealing with the pacification and security of the towns recently taken. It seems very probable that Queen Jeanne was likewise based there and that between the ages of seven and ten Eleanor, now of an age to be more at court, will likewise have spent the majority of her time there.
However, in the spring of 1252 King Ferdinand became ill with dropsy, which apparently progressed rapidly. The cause of these dropsical symptoms is unknown, but with heart problems evidenced in the Castilian royal family this seems a likely cause. By the end of May Ferdinand was plainly nearing his death and the entire family was called to his deathbed at Seville. Alfonso X left a detailed account of this event, which he says was attended by all Ferdinand’s children except Sancho, the nineteen-year-old Archbishop of Toledo, who was unable to attend; possibly because he was still studying at university in Paris. The Primera Cronica General actually mentions Eleanor and her brothers by name as being present.8
Ferdinand was confessed and then asked to be stripped of the trappings of royalty and to adopt a penitent’s clothing. Having done that, he called his queen and children around him. Ferdinand blessed Alfonso first and then each of his other children in order of age, making the sign of the cross over them and making them answer ‘Amen’ to his blessing. To Alfonso he gave a more detailed charges than to the rest. Three points in his instructions are of particular interest. First, he urged him to stand in place of a father to his siblings and to procure for each an establishment worthy of their birth. Secondly, he exhorted him to hold Queen Jeanne in the same affection and respect as if she were his own mother and give her all honours due to her; a pointed injunction which reflected certain disputes which had already arisen between the two.
He thirdly, and again rather pointedly, gave his charge for the future to Alfonso, saying,
I leave you all the lands on this side of the sea which the Moors won … one part of it conquered and one part laid under tribute. If you should manage to hold it all … then you are as good a king as I; and if you should enlarge it, you are better than I; and if you should lose any of it, you are not as good as I.
Ferdinand died on 30 May 1252. On 1 June his body was transferred from the Alcazar of Seville to the church of Santa Maria, where it was buried two days later beneath the statue of the Virgin Mary which he had carried into the city on his triumphal entry in 1248. On the same day Alfonso was acclaimed as King Alfonso X of Spain and accession celebrations were held in the Alcazar.9
The mourning for Ferdinand was widespread and seems
to have been very genuine. The successes which he had achieved in the reconquest placed him at the forefront of Spanish warlike kings – indeed, of warlike kings worldwide. His respect for justice and his personal affability made him well respected even by those who had been his enemies, such as the Emir of Granada, who had become his loyal ally. Formally, he was remembered annually with a memorial service. Informally, it appears that his memory was constantly in the minds of his family.
The main events of Eleanor’s childhood thus have a predominant theme – war – and a predominant figure – her father. The death of Ferdinand offers a good perspective from which to judge the way in which he would have been seen by his daughter and the influence he would have on her as she grew up. The victories which he won were the fabric of her childhood. They should by no means be understated; they certainly were not by contemporaries or by historians. The achievements of Ferdinand as a campaigner were very significant indeed. He is still regarded as one of the great soldier kings of history, particularly in Spain where his feast day is still observed on the anniversary of his death, and his beatification was at least in part as a Crusader, the reconquest having been given Crusade status.
In practical terms his conquests added enormously to the size and the prestige of Castile; in effect, on his watch Castile expanded from covering a seventh of the peninsula to sprawling across the larger part of it, including gaining a corridor to the Mediterranean at Murcia. As for the national impact of the reconquest which Ferdinand achieved, even the somewhat terse Primera Cronica General confirms the sense of national fulfilment in the detail with which it recounts the entry into Seville and the terms in which it lauds the ‘sancto et noble et bienauenturado rey’. Further confirmation of the international repute which Ferdinand gained as a result of his conquests comes from the lips of the usually tart English chronicler Matthew Paris, who declared of Ferdinand ‘that king has done more for the honour and profit of Christ’s church than the pope and all his Crusaders … and all the Templars and Hospitallers’.
It is therefore inevitable that Ferdinand’s achievements, revered not just throughout his country but through Europe, would have been impressed on Eleanor from a young age. Equally it seems certain that, coming from a country with a warlike past and present and with a father famed around the world as a military leader, she would regard the business of war as being a central part of a king’s job.
Ferdinand’s influence will not have stopped there. Aside from his qualities as a warrior, Ferdinand was plainly an impressive personality. A Muslim writer, who obviously had no cause to think well of Ferdinand, described him as ‘a kind man with great political sense’. Alfonso, whose relationship with his father was not always smooth, described him as a handsome man with truly regal presence, well spoken and courtly as well as decisive, knowing the moment to act. The reference to his regal presence may well refer in part to his height; certainly at least one of his grandsons overtopped six feet two.10
Alfonso’s verdict also speaks to his good manners; but Alfonso’s experience of him, as well as that of his opponents, pays eloquent testimony to the iron fist in the velvet glove. A good example is the deathbed exchange recorded between the two above; Ferdinand’s guidance to his son was interesting and somewhat chilling. It shows a clear sense that goals had to be set and aspired to and that even kings had to be judged by their achievements.
This brings us to the second aspect of the life which Eleanor lived as a child: her opportunities to study the business of kingship at close range. One respect in which Ferdinand appears to have excelled as a ruler is in understanding the limits of military success unless consolidated with a view to peace. In this there is a surprising contrast with his bookish son Alfonso, who might rather be expected to emphasise this aspect. As can be seen from the outline above, each conquest made by Ferdinand appears to have been followed by a period of administrative activity while the new conquest was resettled and brought somewhat into line with the existing territories. Thus, after the conquest of Jaén he spent eight months there, turning the mosque into a cathedral, repairing fortifications, planning the next stage of the campaign and establishing privileges for Christian colonists. After the conquest of the important city of Seville, he spent at least a year on the business of resettlement and made it his base for the remainder of his life. At each of these administrative halts it is inevitable the court and his family would have assembled and spent time in the new location. Eleanor would thus have had a front-row seat to appreciate how the administrative business of kingship and conquest might be done.
What would Eleanor have seen? Under Ferdinand, the business of administration proceeded on a twofold basis. The first and most pressing part concerned the defence and population of the added lands. His technique here was to act quickly to place fortified sites – as well as certain civic and strategic buildings – under royal control, to increase or improve on their defensive capabilities where necessary, to distribute land among a range of his victorious troops and to introduce laws and incentives designed to facilitate permanent settlement by the Castilians in his train and other future economic migrants.11
The second part related to attempting to bring the legal systems in the various territories onto a similar footing to that in his existing Castilian lands. It would appear that Ferdinand appreciated that this was a matter which had to be approached sensitively, and it is here, in particular, that his sense seems to have exceeded that of his son. The law prevailing in the Iberian peninsula at the time had its source in the survival, after the Muslim invasion, of a modified version of the Visigothic Liber Judiciorum, which, crucially, appeared under different variations in different regions. Ferdinand’s technique was to grant (or impose) a specific fuero (a code or charter of privileges) to localities that lacked a known juridical tradition or whose laws were confused. But – and this is a key point – he would tend to select the fuero to be applied so as to reflect differences required by local circumstances. Thus, while limiting the degree of legal disparity among the various municipal codes, he made the imposition of new laws easier to swallow by respecting certain local aspects of the existing laws. So there were in operation in different localities the Fuero Juzgo as operated at Toledo, the Fuero Cuenca and the fuero of Cordoba.12
Ferdinand was also a thinker on the subject of the role and duties of kingship. He was the initiator and probable part author of the Setenario or ‘mirror for princes’ which was the forerunner of Alfonso’s more famous Siete Partidas. Both reflect an elevated view of the role of kingship and of the duties of a king, being intended as a didactic tool to assist the king in doing good and avoiding evil. After his death Alfonso continued his father’s work, writing extensively on the duties of a king. In particular he describes justice as the ‘mother of all good’, which unites men and says that a king should not desire to do anything contrary to law, referencing Justinian – ‘whatever he could do with justice constituted his power’ – and Solomon – ‘ a king who is just and loves justice governs his country and he who is too covetous destroys it’. Therefore during the course of her childhood Eleanor will have heard plenty of discussion on the subject of the nature of and requirements of kingship and will have imbibed the views that a king should be actively engaged in the promotion of justice, that he should do nothing contrary to right and that he should be involved in the making of good laws designed to promote the prosperity of the realm.13
The debate about legal systems and modes of kingship was a manifestation of a more fundamental aspect of life in Castile, which was in stark contrast to the world which Eleanor would find when she left the country on her marriage. In England and France stable boundaries and relatively peaceful times had enabled the development of a more structured society. The Iberian peninsula, by contrast, had been a mass of shifting borders for centuries. Castile, which had become an independent country fairly recently in the course of the struggle, was particularly geared to constant warfare and shifting of frontiers. It has in f
act been repeatedly described as ‘a society organised for war’. Indeed, it was the castles which accompanied the warfare in the peninsula which gave Castile its name – and its coat of arms. Big, brutal red-brick and stone castles of the most functional variety were common, and while some were essentially trading and administrative bases, many were built for defence, or to mark the attacking line of the war as Castile advanced.
Reflecting this warlike emphasis, the kings of Castile thought also about military theory; in particular, in Part II of the Siete Partidas they set out a series of injunctions about military practice, which demonstrate that the work of the Roman writer Vegetius, whose work De Re Militarii was a handbook of best military practice probably compiled for the Emperor Theodosius, had been thoroughly studied and approved in Castilian military circles.14
Another effect of the pre-eminence of warfare was that in a number of respects Castilian society was much more fluid than was the case in other European monarchies. While noble rank and privileges were, here as elsewhere, largely for the warrior caste, the fact that more of the population was involved in warfare enabled more people to have access to joining the noble caste. In addition, the process of reconquest and its economic imperatives had forced the Catholics of Spain into close contact with Muslims and Jews and enabled them to see at first hand that these religious minorities were about as far from being ignorant or uncivilised as it was possible to be.
Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen Page 5