Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

by Sara Cockerill

  The possibility of this being the favoured royal hunting location is supported by the fact that there were also fairly regular stops in November or December (albeit usually only for two to three days) and the fact that it was unlikely that it was the most comfortable of the locations chosen for court stays. Quenington was not a royal manor but a preceptory for the Knights Hospitallers of St John, the manor having been given to them by the de Lucy family late in the twelfth century. It was therefore likely to offer a very good level of comfort in very congenial surroundings, but it would not be amenable to Eleanor’s own preferences. There must therefore have been a very good reason for its favoured status, and hunting would seem the obvious answer.18

  Eleanor was plainly a keen horsewoman, with her wardrobe records, especially those in Gascony, liberally featuring purchases of horses and harness and other riding impedimenta. She was also interested in the breeding of horses. This probably reflects her Spanish heritage, as horse breeding was taken very seriously there, with some monasteries applying a very scholarly approach to the subject; and Spanish horses had long been highly prized elsewhere in Europe. Thus, Eleanor employed a stud manager from Spain, one Garcia, and had studs at Hampton, Horsington (using this manor for this purpose was very possibly Eleanor’s idea of a joke), Woodstock and Estwood. Tolley suggests that the employment of a Spaniard as stud manager reflects her use of Spanish jennets, which had a reputation for speed, strength and beauty through the cross breeding of European stock with the Arab horse, with which the Iberian countries were of course familiar as a consequence of the Muslim invasion.

  Whether, as he also suggests, such high-status horses were used by Eleanor as mounts for her messengers may be more doubtful. However, as a good judge of horseflesh it is no surprise that her messengers had horses which could achieve the speedy correspondence shown in the records. She does seem to have promoted the use of Spanish horses by Edward’s key supporters: most of his close circle purchased horses from Spain after the time of the marriage. Eleanor’s influence can probably also be seen in Edward’s introduction of studs for selective breeding: a younger Garcia was then employed in the studs of Edward II and Edward III.19

  There is also considerable evidence that Eleanor was very fond of birds – a large aviary was included in the 1279 refurbishment of the Westminster gardens, and there are references in her accounts to swans, Sicilian parrots and nightingales. She also bought birds in Ponthieu and had them sent back to England. There are records of a further aviary at Leeds Castle. This taste is evidenced by the lavish use made of illustrations of birds in the Alphonso Psalter; as Yapp points out, it is unlikely that the artist would have gone this far unless requested to do so by the commissioner of the work. Looking at the illustrations, one suspects it was a taste which Eleanor shared with Alphonso or a taste of Alphonso’s which she wanted to indulge, as the pictures seem designed to appeal to a child. Thus, a hunting scene is observed by an elegant crane, the royal coats of arms are separated by a very lifelike and rather comic seagull, a vivid woodpecker perches beside the text and one page is adorned by a most beautiful pair of peacocks being harassed by what appears to be a common or garden cockerel. Likewise in the Bird Psalter, also commenced for Alphonso’s anticipated marriage, which cannot be directly proved to be commissioned by Eleanor but is probably linked to her, there are twenty-seven different species of birds carefully depicted. Again humour is notable in the pictures, such as the seagull who is managing to hide beneath a very large butterfly.

  It seems likely that this taste for birds, aside from his hunting them, was shared by Edward too, since a reference to Eleanor’s bird catcher has him taking birds ‘for the king’s amusement’. For those hunting birds, of course, Edward had his own lavish mews at Charing (approximately where Trafalgar Square now lies), with a lead bath for the birds and running water via the leopard’s head fountain referred to above. He also had a probably even larger mews in Bicknor in Kent, where the chief falconer, John de Bicknor, lived.20

  Turning away from outside pursuits, Eleanor had a documented enthusiasm for chess, and is likely to have gained it in childhood, her brother Alfonso being a noted chess patron, even being depicted playing chess. Her taste involved her in sending for a handbook of chess tactics from Alfonso. In 1286, Edward gave her a set of chessmen made of jasper and crystal, probably in her favourite colours of red and green, which seems to have had strong sentimental associations – he reclaimed it from her effects after her death and probably passed it to one of her children. Inferentially, her tastes influenced her children and other descendants: Edward III and his sister are both documented as possessing jasper-and-crystal chess sets. If she gambled on her chess games (as Edward did at least on some occasions) it would appear she was a good player, since, unlike him, her wardrobe accounts note very few losses. Aside from chess, Eleanor also played backgammon, or ‘tables’ as it was then known, and ‘the game of four kings’, which may well have been a four-hand chess variation.21

  One other thing of which we can be quite certain is that Eleanor was very bookish indeed by the standards of her day. That is proved conclusively by the fact that she ran, as part of her household, a scriptorium wherein books she wished to read could be copied. This scriptorium – the only one documented for any royal court in Northern Europe in this period (even St Louis lacked one) speaks of a very powerful appetite for books indeed – way beyond the interests even among highly educated royal men of the time. Funding a scriptorium was, in essence, the act of a book addict and scholar. That it was Eleanor’s own very personal interest and perhaps regarded as somewhat eccentric is demonstrated by the fact that it was disbanded by Edward on her death. In it were employed two scribes, Roger and Philip, and a ‘pictor’, Godfrey, who seems to have travelled with her, at least to Gascony. Another ‘scriptor’, Hugh of Hibernia, is also mentioned in the records. The staff of the scriptorium purchased a full range of materials needed to produce books: vellum, ink, quills, colours, gold leaf, boards for binding books, glue and mucilage. This, and casual references to their productions in the accounts – vellum being purchased specifically for a life of St Thomas Becket, for example – prove conclusively that it was a true scriptorium and not a mere correspondence office which was being maintained. The importance which Eleanor attached to her books is further shown by the fact that a chamber specifically for the scriptorium was constructed at Westminster in 1289.22

  Ironically, the existence of the scriptorium is in some sense a handicap to ascertaining Eleanor’s reading interests, because no correspondence remains in relation to its works, which is not the case for commissions outside the scriptorium. Thus we simply do not know how many books the scriptorium produced, or what they were. But two commissions do remain, and indicate a high degree of education on Eleanor’s part. The first is the commission for the copy of Vegetius’ classic Roman military handbook De Re Miltarii as a gift for Edward. The fact of the commission shows that Eleanor knew what the contents of the book were, and her familiarity with it is further evidenced by the comment inserted into the commissioned work comparing his action at Evesham to the relevant portion of the text. Apparently her education in Castile had covered Vegetius (in Latin), and it had stuck in her mind as useful knowledge for her solider husband. The other known commission is for a copy from her brother of a translation of an Arabic chess manual, again a notably highbrow choice.

  In addition, among the forty-seven letters of Eleanor’s which survive, of which forty-six concern her administration and property empire, there is one which is a letter of thanks to the Abbot of Cerne thanking him for sending her a copy of a book which she wished to borrow. Again, it seems almost certain that this book was a serious work, probably of theology. This evidence for Eleanor reading and studying serious academic works is also supported by one of her final recorded pieces of correspondence, which was with an academic at Oxford about a point of theology, and by Archbishop Pecham’s exposition for her in his ‘Jerarchie’ of the Hierar
chia of Pseudo-Dionysius. The latter was a work of neo-Platonic mystical theology which was influential on the scholastic approach to theology and which, having been translated by Robert Grosseteste in the early 1240s, was a subject for debate in the latter part of the century. Pecham’s work, which compares the hierarchy of angels to the ranks of the king’s officials, demonstrates that he appreciated that Eleanor sought this work for her own information, and that his analogy was chosen to be one which she would find familiar and useful. Her considerable interest in theology is also indicated by her intimacy with the renowned theologian William of Hotham.23

  We can also see hints of Eleanor’s love of learning even in her staffing of her office. It seems quite likely, for example, that Eleanor’s strong taste for the academic was accountable for her appointment in 1277 of Geoffrey de Aspale as her wardrobe keeper – effectively her most senior household officer. He will have been familiar to her from the Crusade, which he joined in 1270, but is better known as a distinguished scholar of Aristotle, in particular his scientific works. Given the absence of any known qualifications for a financial career, and the fact that he left her accounts in considerable disarray when he died in 1287, it is unlikely that he was recruited for his skills as a financial manager. Rather, there is a sense that Eleanor’s respect for his academic attainments, and possibly pleasure in discussing such subjects with him, encouraged her to admit him to a job for which he was not the most qualified candidate.

  However, while relishing academic reading, there is evidence of a playful humour even in that; the amusing nature of the illustrations in the Alphonso Psalter have been alluded to above. Likewise, the copy of Vegetius now in the Cambridge Fitzwilliam Museum (which is probably a later copy of the original) features illustrations showing Lord Edward and his knights assembled at the feet of Vegetius, and of a lively sea fight involving different types of weapon. The Douce Apocalypse also shows signs of private jokes being inserted in the use of the arms of Simon de Montfort and Gilbert of Gloucester amongst the forces of the Antichrist.24

  Nor was Eleanor’s reading all highbrow. Certainly, it was not centred on the lighter Arthurian romances preferred by Eleanor of Provence, but it should by no means be assumed that Eleanor was above such interests. The wardrobe records show a purchase of a coffer per romanciis regine (in essence, for the queen’s novels) which demonstrates that she liked to have some lighter reading to hand on her travels. Likewise, the fact that while on Crusade Edward gave Rustichello di Pisa a large volume of romance as the basis for the new work Meliadus suggests that he (and inevitably Eleanor too) had read Palamedes or the Prose Tristan, where the Meliadus story is touched upon.

  But there are also two very interesting commissions by her. She was the dedicatee of Girard of Amiens’ Escanor, and is specifically said by the author not only to have commissioned the work but also to have told him the outline of the story. The book is a very minor Arthurian work but its theme is not uninteresting, involving a Northumbrian princess and the enmity-turned-friendship between Escanor and Sir Gawain. The fact that Escanor appears to describe paintings of the royal palaces, which Girard would probably not have seen, tends to confirm his story of her positive input. If it is true that Eleanor told the story to Girard, it suggests a very thorough knowledge of the genre, and an interest in local variations of the canon. Moreover, that regional flavour suggests it may have been intended as a present for one or both of John or Isabelle de Vescy – or for their marriage; a particularly thoughtful present.25

  The other fascinating commission is an illustrated copy of ‘un romanz de Isembart’ from France in 1281. Isembart was the hero of a French chanson de geste based on legends arising from the Battle of Saucourt in 881, and had been recently asserted by French historians to be a local Ponthevin hero, probably a count or duke of Ponthieu. In the tale, Isembart features as a rebellious young French lord who allies himself with a Saracen king, Gormont, renouncing his Christianity, and fights against the French king. There was an obvious family resonance for Eleanor, aside from the geographical association, given the Dammartin side of her family’s history of opposition to the French king, and it is even possible that the commission had a political motive reflecting this. Certainly there are other commissions of essentially anti-Capetian work, notably translations of the Historia Caroli Magna (also known as the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle) which are traceable to Renaud of Dammartin or his intimates; there is one by Renaud of Dammartin’s chaplain and another commissioned by a Ponthevin lord taken prisoner with Simon of Dammartin at Bouvines. And again, the local link suggests someone had researched the local history. The Isembart song, but not the historical association with Ponthieu, is mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth; thus the inspiration for the commission cannot have come from there alone. This apparently light work therefore provides grounds for supposing Eleanor to have been familiar not just with the chanson de geste, but with what was then recent historical research; this would of course make sense, coming as she did from the Castilian court, which was enthusiastic about the historical record. It also provides some grounds for supposing that she knew of the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle and the propaganda uses to which it had been put by her relations in the near vicinity of Ponthieu.26

  Overall, there seem to be good grounds to suppose that Eleanor was an enthusiastic reader of light fiction, especially Arthurian, and of history as well as of more weighty works. The Arthurian enthusiasm was probably shared in some measure by Edward, brought up on Eleanor of Provence’s Arthurian tales.

  With her brother Alfonso, there appears to have been the lively give and take to be expected between two bookworms. Eleanor sent a copy of Rusticiano’s Meliadus, which Edward commissioned while on Crusade, to Alfonso, and it then went on to influence the Arthurian tradition in Castile, in particular Tristan de Leonis, the first Arthurian Castilian romance. From him, in turn, she seems to have received at least a manual on chess, a very early copy of the first part of the Siete Partidas, and The Ladder of Mohammed, which had been translated from Arabic to Spanish by Alfonso’s Jewish doctor Abraham and thence to French by Alfonso’s clerk Buonaventura de Siena. It is also considered likely that she brought with her on her first arrival in England the Primera Cronica General, since this book was later found in her son’s possession. The existence of this book in England, and the knowledge that another court was ensuring an ‘authorised history’, has been suggested to have influenced the ‘official’ continuation under Edward II of the Flores Historiarum.27

  Certainly Eleanor seems to have been the intellectual driving force of Edward’s court; as Binski notes, every book recorded in Edward’s possession or that of his family can be traced back to Eleanor. Moreover, under her aegis, the entire thrust of literary production at court moved away from the rather ‘vanilla’ devotional verse and lives of the saints favoured by Henry III and Eleanor of Provence towards a genuine historical interest, sometimes in instructive prose works and sometimes in the forms of chivalric romances.28

  Lives of the saints also appear to have figured in Eleanor’s library – when a payment was made in 1288 for repairs to some of her novels and books, the ones specified are lives of St Thomas Becket and St Edward the Confessor (the latter presumably the copy given her as a gift on her arrival in England). But they are alone; there is no particular sign of enthusiasm for this portion of Eleanor’s library. Eleanor also purchased religious works – records remain of her buying a ‘portiferium’ (akin to a breviary) in 1278 and a psalter and seven primers from Cambridge in 1289. She has also been credibly linked to the commissioning of two psalters – the Alphonso and Bird psalters – and to two Apocalypses – the Douce and the Trinity. The latter certainly shows signs of having been influenced by a Castilian-styled Apocalypse, which it seems may have formed part of her library on her marriage.29

  As for the practice of religion, the simple approach would be to record Eleanor’s charities and her extensive patronage of the Dominicans. However, if one digs a little deeper, an a
ltogether more interesting picture emerges. A good place to start is with those basic facts. Eleanor was a very considerable religious and charitable patron. Of course charitable giving was absolutely expected of a queen, but there is evidence that Eleanor’s contributions were over and above expectation. Thus, there was a set amount allowed in the king’s accounts for almsgiving by the queen – 2s daily for distribution while travelling and 7s for oblations at religious shrines – but Eleanor’s donations exceeded this and are recorded in her own Liber Garderobe. There are also a number of records in the king’s expenses of his making extra donations at Eleanor’s instance. So in winter of 1283–4, Eleanor asked Edward to feed extra poor men and women over the coldest weeks of the year and she asked for extra donations to be made on certain saints’ days. No definitive reckoning can be made from the sources owing to their incompleteness, but Parsons has calculated that between April 1289 and November 1290 (the period of the surviving Liber Garderobe) Eleanor provided meals for 9,306 paupers at a cost of 1½d per meal. In other words, she was feeding about fifteen poor people a day. Overall, it would seem that Eleanor exceeded by a considerable factor the expected level of donation; for example, Eleanor de Montfort has been calculated to give 4d per day to Eleanor’s approximate 60d (ignoring her donations while travelling).30

  Secondly, Eleanor was a devoted patron of the Dominican Order, and has been called the ‘nursing mother’ and a devoted friend of the Dominican Order in England. There are ample records of donations to the friars at most of their English locations. Specifically one sees gifts of land to the Dominicans in Chichester, and substantial gifts to the Rhuddlan priory while she was in Wales. She is recorded as foundress or co-foundress of the Dominican priories at London (where her heart was to be buried), Chichester and Rhuddlan and she planned to settle Dominican nuns at Langley, though that plan was thwarted by her death. She enriched other houses such as Northampton, Salisbury and Saint-Sever in Gascony. She was also very generous to the Oxford chapter of the Dominicans; the wardrobe accounts for 1289–90 show that she provided money for food and drink at their provincial chapters of 1289 and 1290, sent salmon to the Oxford priory in Lent 1290, and provided food and drink there and at the Oxford Franciscans’ priory for the anniversary of her brother’s death in 1290. Indeed, so generous were her benefactions there that, in 1280, the Oxford chapter admitted Eleanor and her children to spiritual participation in the order’s good works. While she also gave gifts to members of the Franciscan orders, to the Benedictine nunneries at Amesbury and Cheshunt and to two nuns at the Benedictine priory of Huntingdon St James, there is no doubt that the vast majority of her religious patronage went to the Dominicans; as such, Parsons has described her as being the most active royal foundress since Edith-Matilda, wife of Henry I.31