It was apparently either in July or at Michaelmas that the first famous Round Table, that of Kenilworth, was held. Although it is often reported that Edward was present at this event, which was organised by his brother and sister-in-law and was designed to honour Roger Mortimer, who was retiring from tourneying, his presence and that of Eleanor seems unlikely. In July, the itinerary shows a succession of orders of business conducted at Windsor throughout late July and a progress thereafter through Buckinghamshire. At Michaelmas, the royal party are vouched for in Essex. No stop at or near Kenilworth appears. Moreover, the contemporaneous chronicler mentions the presence of innumerable knights at this ‘famosissimus’ tournament staged at the most profuse expense, but fails to mention any appearance by king or queen. One may doubt whether, after the carefully staged reburial of Arthur the previous year, either approved an event which was predicated on the supposed Welsh descent of Mortimer from Arthur.41
In August, Eleanor was back at work on her Buckinghamshire properties, using as a base the Confessor’s palace of Brill. This lay at the heart of the royal hunting forest of Bernwood, which extended almost to Oxford, and therefore would provide good hunting for those with leisure. The manor and forest were part of Eleanor’s dower assignment. Little is now known of this palace, but from the fact that Henry III, on his visit, brought at least thirteen carts and over forty packhorses, it was plainly a sizeable palace; and a few records remain which indicate that he modernised it considerably. Brill was also almost exactly equidistant between Eleanor’s two very recent acquisitions in Oxfordshire: Thrupp, where Eleanor had acquired a share of a wardship, and Godington, where she had acquired a manor.
The party then moved on via Buckingham to territory familiar from the 1274 trip: from Silverstone and Overstone to Geddington and Eleanor’s dower property of Rockingham, near the Leicestershire and Market Harborough properties. Then to Liddington and Oakham, near the Apethorpe dower properties, and Buckden, near her Brampton and St Ives properties in Huntingdonshire. While in the area, she was able to deal with a troublesome tenant at Gartree near Market Harborough: having failed to pay his dues to Eleanor, the property was repossessed at this time. Again, direct correspondence with Eleanor shows that she was personally concerned in the business.42
The autumn was again spent largely at Westminster, where Parliament was sitting until November. However, in September, Eleanor managed to seize a few days to visit her dower properties in Essex and inspect new acquisitions made that year nearby at Barstable, Fobbing and Shenfield. The former was an acquisition made from the Giffard family. The latter was part of the lands of the Camville family and was one of Eleanor’s last dealings in Jewish debt.
Meanwhile, as Eleanor’s position went from strength to strength, Alfonso’s position in Spain kept getting worse. Sancho obtained his mother’s defection from the de la Cerda cause by offering to pay her enormous debts. Since he did not have the money himself, he procured one of Alfonso’s tax gatherers to divert to him money intended for a siege at Algeciras. Queen Violante returned to Castile; but the diversion of the funds led to the failure of the siege. Enraged, Alfonso committed another public relations disaster by having the tax collector dragged to his death, with Sancho as witness to the execution. Despite this, he still continued to support Sancho as heir; consequently, war with France was hovering. In June 1279 he had sought reassurances of support from Edward, which were sent, along with some grey gerfalcons. More helpfully, Edward despatched William de Valence and Jean de Grailly to negotiate with France, getting Alfonso a year’s truce.43
The decision to spend Christmas 1279 at Winchester probably reflects the imminent demise of its bishop and the royal desire to procure the support of the monks for Robert Burnell as his successor. On the death of the bishop in early February, the nomination of Burnell was speedily made, duly approved by the diocese and referred to the Pope with strong support from Edward and Eleanor. However, the Pope was again unwilling to see Burnell advanced further and the nomination was quashed. The question of a replacement then hung fire for some years, with John of Pontoise finally being enthroned late in 1282.
This episcopal mess might not seem to have much relevance to Eleanor, but again it provides an interesting glimpse of her hard at work. Within three days of the death of the bishop, she had had a manor at Ringwood (neighbouring her holdings there) granted to her by Edward at pleasure ‘during the voidance of the see of Winchester’. It was still in her hands at her death. This single transaction offers a characteristic picture of not a moment being wasted to identify and acquire a suitable property, and a reluctance to part with that property, regardless of the terms of the grant.44
The remainder of 1280 was, in English domestic terms, a quiet year, but financial questions continued to hover. It would seem that most of the proceeds of the 1275 vote of funds had been spent by now – doubtless assisted by the cost of the Welsh war. A substantial payment on account of the crusading debt to the French Crown had been made in 1279, and was due to be completed by 1281. There seemed little prospect of this, unless the crusading tenth ordered in 1274 could somehow be tapped. Edward was obviously not in a position to go himself for some time to come, and in 1276 he had written to Pope John XXI promising that if he could not go, he would send his brother in his place. With the matter becoming urgent, in July 1280 Otho de Grandison was despatched to the papal curia to try to get agreement to this arrangement – only to find himself awaiting a new papal election, as Nicholas III died before he arrived.45
Meanwhile, the problems of Alfonso were never far from the agenda of Edward and Eleanor. It was agreed that Alfonso and Philip should meet, under Edward’s aegis, if not in his presence, in Gascony in 1280. Instead, in July 1280, Alfonso authorised Charles of Salerno, with his closer French connections, to act for him. By the end of the year, he had come up with a proposal which was to cause him trouble on both sides: the ceding of the territory of Jaén to Alfonso de la Cerda. This was not considered sufficient by Philip, while Sancho opposed any partition of Castile. With Alfonso in a worse mess than ever, Edward agreed to meet him on the Gascon–Castilian border at around Easter 1281.
For some reason, this plan never got off the ground. Certainly Edward was not in Gascony – much of the early part of 1281 before the May parliament was spent in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. Another odd point is that in this period the court, quite atypically, never moved any very great distance for over three months. This therefore is a very likely date for the delivery of the stillborn son which Parsons hypothesises for some time in the 1280–81 period. It is therefore quite probable that Edward was kept from his plan to help Alfonso by a traumatic stillbirth or a late miscarriage which left Eleanor below par for a considerable period.46
However, Eleanor was certainly sufficiently recovered to make a very interesting appearance in partnership with Robert Burnell in early June 1281. The Close Rolls reveal that she acted with Burnell as an arbitrator appointed to decide disputes between Edward’s cousin Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, and Walter Brunscombe, the Bishop of Exeter. The disputes seem to have been part of a complicated and long-standing feud, with writs flying in each direction and a dash of cattle rustling. The importance of the event, however, is that it demonstrates Eleanor being looked to by two of the most powerful men in England as a figure of authority and a person capable of mastering the intricacies of a difficult dispute. It also demonstrates her taking on a role in active justice making, which was highly unusual for a queen consort. Her abilities and her stature among England’s executive powers are both implicitly recognised by this event.47
The main feature of the year in terms of touring was the most extensive Northern tour yet, which took place from July to October. This took the court via the usual route through Eleanor’s holdings in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to York, where there was a stay sufficient to enable Eleanor to inspect some recent acquisitions which she had made in 1279 in that town. Thereaf
ter the court performed a loop, proceeding via the Bowes Moor Road to Carlisle before coming back across to Newcastle and Durham, before returning south to Westminster for the October parliament.
This northernmost loop will have had two justifications. The first is that Edward will have wanted to inspect the state of affairs in the far North in company with John de Vescy, who had joined a Scots expedition to put down an uprising on the Isle of Man in 1275. The second is that the wedding of John de Vescy to Eleanor’s cousin Isabella de Beaumont took place at this time, and as part of the arrangements for that wedding Edward granted John lands in Northumberland, to add to his existing patrimony. This journey will also, however, have afforded Eleanor the opportunity to inspect her northernmost dower property – Corbridge in Northumberland. After the November parliament, the end of the year was spent predominantly in Norfolk, particularly near Eleanor’s new acquisitions around Burgh, to which she actually added further during the stay, acquiring on 5 January 1281 a package of lands in and around Scottow. Another trip to Walsingham was also fitted in, before the court moved off into Suffolk and thence into Gloucester to enjoy the Cotswold spring and hunting.48
In this period the children’s marriages were also under consideration. First was young Alphonso, betrothed in July 1281. The bride selected for him was Margaret of Holland, daughter of Floris, Count of Holland, and Beatrix of Flanders. But the question of young Eleanora’s marriage also moved to the fore. She, of course, had been engaged to the son of Pedro of Aragon in 1273, but in early 1281 she was now approaching twelve, the age when both her mother and grandmother had been married. An alliance with Aragon was now, of course, a somewhat vexed question, given Aragon’s intervention in the Castilian succession issue. It may even be this political dimension, as much as concern over Eleanora’s youth, which led to Eleanor and her mother-in-law staging the famous intercession with Edward, asking that Eleanora’s marriage be delayed on account of her youth: ‘The queen her mother and our dearest mother are unwilling to grant that she may pass over earlier on account of her tender age.’ John de Vescy and Anthony Bek were charged with the difficult job of keeping the marriage on the cards, while procuring a delay of at least a year and a half, and preferably two and a half years, before the marriage took place.49
Nor should it be supposed that Eleanor’s property empire slept in this notionally quiet time: during 1280 and 1281 Eleanor acquired properties in twelve different counties, including additions to her core property areas in Northampton, Gloucestershire, Southampton and Norfolk, but also including a new outpost in Kent, a farm at Westcliffe which was presumably convenient as a victualling point for trips to Ponthieu or Gascony, being only a couple of miles from Dover Castle. Other acquisitions included Headington, on the edge of Oxford, and Weymouth, Lyme Regis and the Cobb.
The process of these acquisitions and the activity which surrounded them again bears eloquent testimony to the professionalism of the outfit which Eleanor was heading up. In the first place, a number of these transactions take place on the same days in November 1280 or July 1281. This indicates a portfolio being presented for completion at one time. Secondly, the movements of the court can often be seen to reflect these acquisitions. The coincidence of timing of the Norfolk stay with Norfolk acquisitions has already been remarked. But the long Gloucestershire stay in early to mid-1280, too, was followed by the addition of three new Gloucestershire properties (including the Burdon lands) and two in the nearby Wiltshire grouping. The slightly earlier Bristol stay, near the northern Somerset group, is followed by an acquisition at nearby Uphill. The later Hampshire stay offered an opportunity to inspect the dower property of Odiham and acquisitions in Hampshire in early 1280. In 1281, recent acquisitions at Fobbing and Shenfield could be viewed from Havering-atte-Bower in July.50
Further, Ponthieu required attention, and its affairs were not left entirely to Edward. Throughout the rest of her life, Eleanor sent a succession of letters of credit to Ponthieu to finance further purchases and make good the shortfalls in the revenue from the county.
In general, though, all seemed to be progressing well. There was time for a further visit to monitor progress at Leeds, and also one to Langley, which Eleanor had acquired in 1275 and was likewise transforming, though on a less extravagant scale. There was time for a lengthy autumn stay in the New Forest, and after Parliament concluded in November, the royal party spent the late part of 1281 and the early part of 1282 in the slightly unusual surroundings of Pershore and Worcester, before proceeding for the usual Quenington spring break.51
This period therefore reverts to the image of the royal family with which the chapter commenced – peaceful, prosperous and enjoying their business. But by this stage storm clouds were in view on the horizon. Both sides of the family were providing cause for concern. Alfonso’s position continued to deteriorate, putting Edward under unwelcome pressure to support him. While Aragon and Castile had signed a treaty of friendship in March 1281, it had not brought an end to Alfonso’s problems. He remained under pressure from Philip of France and a rift was opening up between him and Sancho as to the best way to manage the de la Cerdas. By November, Sancho was starting to drum up support within Castile, which by spring 1282 resulted in his calling an assembly at Valladolid – with a full cast of the disaffected, including Alfonso’s estranged Queen Violante, Alfonso’s brother Manuel (up to this time one of the king’s most trusted advisers) and discontented nobles. The stage was set for civil war.52
Meanwhile, dowager Queen Marguerite of France, ably supported by her sister Eleanor of Provence was stirring up trouble with the family of Charles of Anjou in relation to her claims to Provence. The presence of Edmund of Cornwall and Edward’s Gascon seneschal at a meeting concerning this issue led to a formal complaint from Charles of Salerno to Edward. Edward was forced to issue a letter, effectively outing his mother’s involvement and explaining the difficulty of his position given his own closeness to his mother. Further tension was probably felt in the relationship owing to Eleanora’s engagement to the heir of Aragon; her betrothed’s father, Pedro, married to the most immediate heir to the Sicilian throne and himself a claimant through an older line of succession, was stirring up trouble for the Angevins in their other territory, the Kingdom of Sicily.
Then, right at the end of 1281, there came the tragic news, via Otho de Grandison’s brother, the Bishop of Verdun, that Joan’s fiancé had been killed in a boating accident on 21 December. Setting off to visit his father in a thick fog, Hartmann’s boat struck a rock midstream and he and most of his companions were drowned.53
Finally, perhaps unnoticed by the royal party amid the whirl of foreign diplomatic letters and pleas of assistance from both sides of the family, was perhaps the real reason behind the period spent in Worcester: a cloud was gathering above Wales.
14
The Welsh Years
The years 1282 to 1285 have to be known as the Welsh years, because Welsh affairs were to dominate them, and Eleanor herself was to spend a very large proportion of her time in that principality. But as with the late 1270s, the summary fails to do justice to the range of Eleanor’s experience – or to the other issues which required attention from her during that time.
Two themes in particular run through these years, in partnership with the dominant Welsh one. The first is the continuing crisis endured by her beloved brother Alfonso, now seriously ill and at odds not just with the King of France but also with his own family. In spring 1282, a staged Cortes would depose him from his throne and launch a civil war which would see each side desert the Reconquista and take Muslim allies to defeat the other.
The second theme, which was to last out Eleanor’s life, was the affairs of Aragon’s monarchy – Eleonora’s future family. Here, a shocking turn of events in Sicily created a problem which was to convulse Europe. On Easter Monday, 30 March 1282, just before Vespers, a major uprising began. Discontent about Charles of Anjou’s autocratic style of government and wider ambitions had been
fostered for some time both by the Byzantine Emperor and Pedro of Aragon – who had his own claims to Sicily. As is often the case with this sort of event, a small row escalated unimaginably. Thus, in most traditions, the sparking point was disrespect shown by a French soldier to a Sicilian girl, which resulted in fatal violence on the part of the girl’s protector or husband. The indubitable outcome of these ‘Sicilian Vespers’ was days of slaughter, the seizure of the island, and the destruction of Charles’ fleet at Messina. By the end of May, Ferrante of Aragon was reporting that ‘five Sicilian cities have risen against King Charles and killed all the French living in them’. By mid-June, the accounts which were reaching the English court from Orvieto suggested that Aragon planned to go to the support of the people of Sicily, while Charles, supported by the Pope, was gathering a large force at Naples. Shortly afterwards, Pedro of Aragon confirmed that he had been offered the crown of Sicily by the people – and he intended to take it.1
But these major events elsewhere in Europe could only be second and third themes for the English royals, who were faced with a major rising of their own in Wales. The upheaval slightly predated both European convulsions and, for all its sudden manifestation, had been long in the making. It had much to do with the day-to-day conditions which were imposed on the Welsh following the terms of the 1277 peace, particularly in the border regions. Border trespasses, disputes about fugitives in both directions, and attempts to assert English jurisdiction over Welsh residents all formed part of these complaints. The most immediate cause which can be found was a spat between Llywelyn and his neighbour Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn over the county of Arwystli, which had been rumbling on for years. The reason for the persistence of both sides was doubtless partly historic, but also, although it mostly consisted of moorland unsuitable for raising crops, it was a strategic route between Mid Wales and the Marches.
Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen Page 42