Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

by Sara Cockerill

  That is not, however, to say that the preparations went without a hitch – as at any major event, there were disputes as to people’s roles – and, as with Eleanor of Provence’s coronation, a court had to be established to consider these disputes. The role of Edmund of Lancaster was controversial; he claimed the right to carry the ceremonial sword Curtana. His right to do so was rejected, and it seems likely that he boycotted the ceremony in a fit of pique – which may have been heightened by a row which had developed between him and Edward over the division of Gregory X’s crusading subsidy. It is likely that the ever-touchy Gloucester, who had to be rewarded for his good behaviour in Edward’s absence, won the Curtana fight. Then there were fights between the archbishops of York and Canterbury about York’s role in the ceremony – resolved with York either being excluded or playing no active role in the ceremony. Meanwhile, the great and good of the kingdom – and many from elsewhere – made their way to London to participate in the coronation. While Edward and Eleanor brought his sister Beatrice and her husband John in their train, his sister Margaret and her husband Alexander travelled down from Scotland to be part of the great occasion.19

  Coronation day was 19 August 1274. The day before this, Edward and Eleanor made a triumphal entry into London, which had pulled out all the stops to bedeck itself for the occasion. The accounts which are left to us are not as helpful as they might be – simply telling us that everything was grand or impressive beyond description – but the fragments which do make their way into the accounts, and the fuller accounts which the Tudors left us of similar occasions, give some idea of the kind of event which might have been expected.

  We know that on coronation day the conduit at Cheapside ran with red and white wine for all to drink, and it takes no genius to infer from this that the crowd would have been loud and boisterous. This feature became a commonplace in later coronations, and was then accompanied by formal receptions of the royal party, with speeches and tableaux of welcome and congratulation. There were, apparently, ‘multifarious inventions’. While the more extreme forms of these (Holbein’s designs for a tableau of Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus for Anne Boleyn’s coronation springs to mind) are probably later accretions, they give some idea of the kinds of thing which greeted the couple. There will likely have been formal receptions by the mayor or guilds of London, with polite speeches in both directions, and possibly gifts to the new monarchs. For example, at the coronations of Mary Tudor and Anne Boleyn, the Recorder of London read out a speech professing the loyalty of the people of London and he gave a gold thread purse that contained a thousand gold coins.

  The route would take in Cheapside, then St Paul’s, Temple Bar and the Strand before heading to Westminster. All along the route, the streets were hung with rich cloths – and in places with cloth of gold – and so as not to let the spectacle down, the streets had actually been cleaned – a mammoth undertaking.

  It would appear that the royal couple’s necessary entrance to London, as they had been away for the entire lead-up to the event, was the very first such coronation procession, and set the precedent for the future. It became de rigueur for the king or queen to head, usually from Westminster, to the Tower along the river in order to be in the right starting position for the traditional procession from the City. However, while they were setting a precedent for coronations, they were keeping firmly to the Henry III book of extravaganzas – earlier such events, like Eleanor’s own arrival in London, and the reception for the Scottish royals, have been described earlier and all featured some form of parade through the City. So too would Eleanor’s own funeral procession.

  One need only walk the journey now to see what a massive undertaking the parade was, how tiring it must have been for the ceremonially dressed participants, and how great an opportunity it afforded the much smaller population of medieval London of seeing their monarch. The route covers well over three miles, and effectively took the royal party in person through the heart of the thirteenth-century city.

  The day will have ended with a great feast, and then Edward, at least, was expected to hold a vigil in his father’s old room, appropriately decorated with a coronation scene, to prepare himself for the next day. Eleanor will meanwhile have taken over the luxurious rooms of the queen – formerly those of Eleanor of Provence – where the sad portrayal of winter was very out of keeping both with the festive mood and the time of year.20

  On the day itself, there was a procession from the palace to the abbey for the first coronation to take place in the new church. Magnates and clergy all had places in the procession and – after doubtless countless disputes over precedence – very firmly fixed places. Edward and Eleanor were dressed in simple, flowing unbelted robes to evoke the continuity of kingship; these will coincidentally have hidden any signs of Eleanor’s latest pregnancy. They processed over either the same carpet or a replica of the carpet used at Eleanor of Provence’s coronation – a blue ray cloth, preceded by three earls bearing the swords of state, followed by the treasurer in a dalmatic carrying the paten (gold or silver plate) to be used in the coronation Mass, and the chancellor wearing full pontificals carrying the special stone chalice with the king’s regalia. It is not clear to whom fell the job of carrying the queen’s regalia. Two knights followed carrying sceptres – one for each of the king and the queen. Edward and Eleanor each walked under a silk canopy secured on silver lances, with a silver gilt bell at each corner, each lance being carried by a baron of the Cinque Ports. Unusually, Eleanor would have worn her hair loose, with just a circlet of gold to keep it in order.

  At the door of the abbey came the first prayer. Although the heart of the coronation service was traditional, and had changed little since William the Conqueror, Henry III and his advisers, in planning for this event, had added new twists to improve the ceremony as theatre and bring it in tune with the new church. So, while Edward made the traditional promises to protect the Church, to do good justice and to suppress evil laws and customs, and the more recent innovation of protecting the rights of the Crown, new features appeared. For example, in order to increase visibility, much of the coronation spectacle took place at the crossing of the church where a huge stage was built – large enough for the magnates to ride under, for those whose roles required that they entered the church on horseback. Offerings were made at the altar of figures of St John the Evangelist and St Edward the Confessor.

  In terms of order, the making of vows probably came first in time, followed by the anointing. For this, there was a further procession to the high altar, where the couple made their offerings and prostrated themselves on the beautiful new pavement, while a further prayer was said. The gold circlets were removed from their heads and then the king and queen were anointed with holy oil, or unction, which was deemed to exalt them to a new status and confer spiritual gifts. Edward was partially disrobed for this part of the event, so he could be anointed on the breast, shoulders and elbows, prior to being anointed with chrism on his head; Eleanor will only have received anointing on her head. This reflects the different roles which were evoked in the coronation. For Edward, his hereditary right to rule was evoked by analogies to biblical kings and patriarchs. Eleanor’s role, however, was anchored in citations of Esther, the Blessed Virgin and the more fecund patriarchal wives. Nor was she blessed as a partner in royal power, as had been done in the eleventh century; the modern idiom was for exhortations and prayers to guide and limit her influence with the king.

  It is then likely that the (re-dressed) king and the queen proceeded back to the stage for the coronation proper – the assumption of the coronation rings, the placing of a crown – golden lilies for Eleanor, the alleged crown of Edward the Confessor for Edward, and the bestowal of the sceptre and virge. Here, too, there was a difference in Eleanor’s investiture – the purely ceremonial nature of the power she was supposed to wield was signified by the handing to her of the sceptre in silence and the requirement that she then bow to the king to honour his royal ma
jesty. Her place, too, was at his left, not the traditional site of power on the right. The ‘Laudes Regiae’, an acclamation of Christ triumphant, was sung once those formalities had been completed, followed by acclamations of the established powers as vicars of God.21

  The main point of novelty, however, was not one carefully planned by Henry III but one introduced by Edward. According to the chroniclers (who, of course, were unlikely to have been there in person), as soon as the crown was placed on Edward’s head, he removed it, saying that ‘he would never take it up again until he had recovered the lands given away by his father to the earls, barons and knights of England and to aliens’. While it seems implausible that this is exactly when Edward said – the idea of actually recovering all such lands was too provocative – it is a very interesting starting point for the reign. It seems likely that the reported speech amalgamates a broad statement of intent regarding lands – for certainly Edward had plans on this front – and a more specific statement regarding rights alienated by his father. This latter would tie in with his coronation oath to defend the Crown’s rights, and also tie in with some of the legislation which Edward was later to introduce – in particular the inquiries into magnates’ rights known as the quo warranto inquiries.

  But the reference to regaining lands, if indeed it was made, does also chime with Edward and Eleanor’s quieter agenda of reinvigorating the Crown’s stock of lands. Some of this Edward did on his own account – and not always with the utmost scrupulousness – but much of it was left in Eleanor’s hands; as we shall see, to great effect.

  Meanwhile, after the coronation London’s populace partied in the streets, and a major celebration was held at Westminster. The feast was of epic proportions, as the preparations suggested. However, at least according to a later tale of the event, it also had the jolly feel of a party headed up by the younger generation – Edward, Eleanor and their friends were all in their early thirties – right in the prime of life. According to this story, Alexander of Scotland (perhaps inspired by the riding of horses into the abbey?) arranged for one hundred mounted knights to ride into the hall, and then release their horses, to be taken by anyone who could catch them. This prompted a number of English earls, including Gilbert de Clare, to do likewise, in a classic piece of keeping up with the Joneses. While the veracity of the story must be open to serious doubt – at least in its scale – it does convey the impression of a vibrant celebration among a group of young friends.22

  Another fact which testifies to the scale of upheaval and jollification is that, immediately after the hangovers settled, on 21 August, Edward and Eleanor and probably a good party of their friends decamped to Kempton near the river south-west of London – probably around the site of the modern racecourse, where there was a lavish royal residence, much updated and improved by Henry III and Eleanor of Provence; and appropriately featuring a statue of a crowned king on the roof. After a few days there, they moved on to Windsor where they remained, probably with the children, for some weeks, apart from a short visit to Eleanor of Provence.

  In early October, they moved back to London where Edward had much to do in seeing to the commencement of the Hundred Rolls survey, by which commissioners went everywhere in England inquiring into ‘the deeds and behaviour of all our sheriffs and bailiffs’. The idea was to inquire into the rectitude of all royal servants, but also to get a picture of the broader governance of the country, since people were asked to report issues with their lords or their lord’s stewards and bailiffs. This was a masterstroke for the commencement of the reign, welcomed by the chroniclers as a sign that the king would come down on all those who were corrupt and that law and order generally would improve under the new king.23

  But at the same time a terrible blow fell. Within months of the return, and the greeting of young Henry and Eleanora at Canterbury, Henry – the heir to the throne – was gravely ill. The nature of his illness does not appear in the sources, but it seems that he had been unwell for some time, with payments made for candles to be burnt for his recovery and for widows to pray for him through the night. He died, aged six and a half, in October 1274 at Guildford with his grandmother. It is generally accepted that neither Edward nor Eleanor visited him, although there is a real possibility (based on the dating of a letter from one of the queens Eleanor to Robert Burnell, reproduced in Appendix 1) that Eleanor at least saw him in the final days before his death. The absence (if there was one) is a fact which is often invoked as evidence of the couple as uncaring parents, but it must be remembered that they had hardly seen the boy since his birth, owing to their absence on Crusade, and one of the reasons for separating younger children from their parents was to prevent suffering when, as was too often the case, those in their early years died.

  It is possible, too, that Edward and Eleanor knew that he was dying and had said their farewells already; it is likely that he was with them for at least some of the month they spent at Windsor. For Eleanor, who was in the early months of another pregnancy, there may have been advice to avoid the sickroom. Certainly she should not be accused of indifference: she sent repeatedly to ask after Henry’s health in the final months of his life, and, poignantly, in his last weeks sent him a white palfrey, which he was never to ride. Henry’s body was brought to London and buried in Westminster Abbey along with all but the first of Eleanor and Edward’s lost children – Katherine, Joan the first and John. England had a new king and queen, but was without an heir.24

  10

  The Queen’s Work

  With Eleanor installed as queen, the sources for her life become slightly more forthcoming. But this in itself presents a problem, as the years which were to follow were so crowded with a variety of events and interests that a chronological treatment cannot hope to do justice to the evidence which emerges. Left only in that format, it is hard for the woman and her interests to emerge from the welter of detail. The next three chapters therefore consider in turn three key aspects of Eleanor’s life as queen: her work, her own personality and interests, and her family. This should enable the reader to see key themes which run through the remaining fabric of her life, and appreciate how they come together, when the story returns to a chronological format.

  The story which this chapter tells is how Eleanor, more or less uniquely among English queens, managed to combine her day job as queen with carrying on another full-time professional job as a businesswoman dealing in property. In flat contrast to her later reputation as a modest and retiring queen, she was, in effect, an essential member of Edward’s cabinet, dealing with an important and discrete job on his behalf. In so doing, she worked incredibly hard, driving her team mercilessly, and gained a reputation for being an implacable person who should not be flouted.

  As this story takes us so far from the preconceived notion of Eleanor, it is obviously important to make the case good from the evidence; and herein lies a problem, for while a huge amount of material relating to the details of Eleanor’s properties and dealings has been uncovered and analysed (principally by John Carmi Parsons in his magisterial Eleanor of Castile, Queen and Society in Thirteenth Century England), the details do not easily illustrate the overall picture. Each transaction is too small to be significant, but in getting into the details of the transactions, the overall picture recedes. One therefore has to effectively pan in and out from the detailed picture over a period of time to provide a synthesised perspective.

  The best starting point for considering Eleanor’s work is probably to step back and look at what she achieved overall and how she was perceived by contemporaries at the time. As to this, the bottom line is simple. The funds available to thirteenth-century queens had fallen way below the amounts which were required. Eleanor instituted a programme of land acquisition and management which effectively balanced the books, more than doubling the revenue available.

  Eleanor and Edward had, of course, been plagued by financial difficulties since their marriage, and one might imagine that once he had acceded to the throne all
such worries would be over. However, this was far from the case. The loss of the Angevin lands in France was a major blow to the financial position of the English monarchy, which had led to a pressing need to increase revenues from England. At the same time, Crown spending had increased sharply. Henry III had acquired a number of earldoms of greater or lesser financial use, but had granted them all away to family members. Edward himself, despite a highly aggressive policy of land acquisition in his own right, still had revenues in the 1280s of less than £19,000 per year and simply could not afford to follow the traditional route of allowing Eleanor to hold her dower lands during his lifetime.1

  The difficulties facing them are illustrated by the fact that, even with Eleanor turning her attention actively to revenue generation and even as queen, it can be seen that from time to time she had recourse to the standard expedients to help her cash flow. So in June 1290 we find her selling a cup and a brooch, and in 1289 she borrowed funds from friends to cover some of her building works. Moreover we can see that she assigned debts and made substantial payments (over £2,000 between 1286 and 1290) to Edward’s preferred bankers, the Ricciardi, which suggests that she had debts to them.

  Why was Eleanor short of money? Some extent of the scale of the funds a Queen of England required can be seen by a consideration of Eleanor of Provence’s position; even with her somewhat controversial and remunerative use of grants of wardship, Henry III still had to subsidise her heavily during his reign and acknowledged the kinds of amounts she would need (albeit on the smaller scale of a widow) by increasing her dower assignment to £4,000 per annum. This suggests that, as queen, with a greater household and responsibilities, Eleanor would be likely to need a larger sum even than that. Parsons suggests the figure required was somewhere in the region of £6,000 to £8,000 per annum and calculates her 1289–90 expenditure as being £8,800 once wardrobe expenses, alms, wages, household expenses and other miscellaneous payments are counted. While 1289–90 was probably an atypically expensive year, and the expenditure figures may be open to some argument, the material does suggest that some thousands of pounds per annum were required.2