Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

by Sara Cockerill

  Despite Eleanor’s frailty, after a short stop in London the party was off again in mid-October, again via locations convenient for Eleanor’s properties – but again at a rather slower pace than of yore, and with a long stop in early November at Clarendon. There, on 6 November 1289, Edward of Caernarfon’s fate was decided at a meeting with Norwegian and Scottish representatives: he would marry Margaret of Norway within twelve months. In late November, Eleanor made a visit to her sick friend Ermintrude de Sackville in Dorset. The court then headed back to Westminster for the Christmas period via Lyndhurst, part of Eleanor’s New Forest property, and Odiham, part of Eleanor’s dower assignment. Then, in the February of 1290, the court was off again for what was to be Eleanor’s final stay at Quenington.3

  It seems probable that by this stage Eleanor and those who surrounded her suspected that her illness was terminal. Her hunting expenses, until now regularly incurred, cease altogether in February 1290. She would appear to have been constantly taking medicines for some time – in April 1289 the queen’s wardrobe provided Peter of Portugal, who was attending her, with a silver vessel ‘wherein to place the queen’s syrups’, a phrase indicating that use of syrups was now habitual. Further, Peter of Portugal himself seems to have been brought back to England on the return from Gascony. By February 1290, a court goldsmith was making images in the queen’s likeness for intercession when she was ill. Tellingly, too, Eleanor gave £100 to have a chapel prepared for the burial of her heart at the London Dominican priory and arranged for the purchase of stone for her tomb – steps which plainly intimate that she was considering that they might be needed in the near future. Parsons suggests credibly that the number of other donations to religious houses in the same year tell the same story: land given to the canons of Chatham to enlarge their garden in May, land and advowsons in Kent to Christ Church Canterbury in June, and two manors to Holy Trinity Canterbury in the same month.4

  Interestingly, the Liber Garderobe lets slip these facts almost grudgingly. With hindsight, we can know that Eleanor was ill and had been so for some time. But there is no overt mention of her illness until almost the day of her death, only administrative arrangements for dealing with it and contingency planning for her death. This, together with her continued travels with the king, and still more her travels by reference to her properties, indicate that Eleanor refused to have a fuss made. She soldiered on.

  Another indication that there was an awareness of her impending death can be read in the fact that not only were arrangements for young Edward’s marriage being expedited, but two of the princesses were married in this period, after weddings had hung fire for some time. Joan’s wedding to the Earl of Gloucester had been arranged in 1283, and by spring 1290 Joan was well over the customary age of marriage, being nearly eighteen. Similarly, Margaret’s match with the heir to the Duke of Brabant had been in preparation since 1278, when Margaret was only three years old, and her groom had been resident in the kingdom for five years already in 1290 – notionally completing his education, but from the evidence of the wardrobe books, principally hunting and spending money.

  There is therefore a sense that Eleanor wanted to see her children settled before she died and hurried on the marriages. This would explain the rather startling fact, remarked on by Green, that at Joan’s wedding on 30 April 1290 Joan and her sisters did not have new dresses for the occasion – rather their dresses had required nine days of work in the mending.

  Whether the weddings were at Eleanor’s wish or not, the bustle and stress surrounding them was probably no great help to her health; and these weddings were certainly not without their stresses and strains. Joan, for example, in the run-up to her wedding took exception to the fact that she had fewer attendants than her older sister. While this was dealt with by the expedient of hiring in temporary staff, one can envisage the family scene which led up to this solution. Nor was this the only row which surrounded the weddings. After her wedding, Joan initially refused to stay at court for Margaret’s, and retired to her husband’s estates. Enraged at her decision, Edward and Eleanor took back seven dresses she was to have had from them, and decided to make them part of Margaret’s trousseau instead. It would therefore appear that tempers were running high all round.5

  After the Cotswolds spring stay the court was off again, this time into Worcestershire, to Eleanor’s new acquisition of the forest of Feckenham (resigned to her by Eleanor of Provence in 1286 on her taking the veil) before a return in early April to Woodstock, where Edward of Caernarfon was then based.

  After a ten-day stop here, there was time for a quick review of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Wiltshire properties, before a stop at Amesbury, where Gilbert de Clare’s pre-marriage oath to uphold the succession was taken. The location was probably chosen for a variety of reasons: the previous movements of the king and queen, a natural desire to see Eleanor of Provence prior to Joan’s wedding and to pick Mary up for her visit to court for the wedding. At the same time, plans for Edward of Caernarfon’s projected marriage to Margaret of Norway were being moved on, with Edward writing to Norway asking for Margaret to be sent to England without delay. Again, this reinforces the impression that Eleanor was keen to see her children settled as quickly as possible.

  After Amesbury, there was no simple return to court. First, the Hampshire properties were taken in review via Winchester, where a celebration in honour of the various weddings was held. As usual, the return to Westminster was therefore rushed, with the royals arriving just two days before the wedding. Despite Joan’s bridal nerves, the wedding seems to have been an enjoyable occasion. Although she was dressed in a second-hand dress, Edward and Eleanor gifted her with a ‘magnificent zone [belt], all of gold with emeralds and rubies’ and a matching headdress, sent for from France. While the wedding was private, the wedding party was held in a temporary hall lined throughout with cloth – perhaps a nod to Eleanor’s taste, and an obvious precursor to modern faux silk-lined marquees – and one guest enjoyed himself so much he broke several tables (sadly history does not relate quite how).6

  The family then appears to have been fixed in Westminster for some time. Part of this was due to the fact that, for most of May, Parliament was in session. In part this was due to the fact that it was during this period, on Ascension Day, 11 May 1290, that the translation of Henry III at Westminster took place, moving his body from his temporary grave in the old grave of Edward the Confessor to its current resting place alongside the Confessor’s shrine. It was here that his descendants, and Eleanor, were to rest with him. It was reported that the king’s body appeared intact, with a luxuriant beard. During this period, Eleanor seems to have attended yet another wedding – that of the daughter of the king’s steward to John de la Mare.

  The fact that the royal party then remained in London throughout the rest of May and most of June may indicate that Eleanor was again unwell. Certainly when they moved it was not far – only to Havering-atte-Bower, Brentwood and Thurrock in Essex – close to those of Eleanor’s properties in Essex which had not been particularly convenient for the earlier Essex circuit. There is another resonance at Thurrock, however. It was the home of a family by the name of Torel – and it was William Torel who produced the image of Eleanor for the Westminster Abbey tomb. It thus seems quite likely that Eleanor, aware of impending death, was making her own arrangements for her memorials. Some further indication of ill health may be taken from the uncharacteristic length of time then spent at Havering. Usually Eleanor’s stays were no more than a day or two; but the Havering stay was nearly two weeks. It also featured a further wedding, that of the Earl of Norfolk, Roger Bigod to Alix of Hainault, a member of a family closely associated with both the Brabant and Holland families. In relation to this wedding, Edward seems to have reached the end of his tolerance for company – he refused to attend the service and we find Eleanor, the amused and long-suffering wife, arranging for some minstrels to keep him happy, while the rest of the family did the polite thing and attend
ed the service. It also appears from the wardrobe records that the marriage of Margaret was privately celebrated – and consummated – here on 2 July.7

  In July came the formal wedding of Margaret, and once again Edward and Eleanor arrived at the last moment – reaching London the day before the wedding. This wedding was well covered by the chroniclers and seems to have been an altogether bigger affair than Joan’s – with a distinct ‘royal wedding’ flavour. Again there was a zone and headdress of gold – in this case of pearls and rubies, with the royal leopards in sapphires. Another headdress, studded with 300 emeralds, formed part of her trousseau. Her sister Eleanora, attending her down the aisle, wore a costume decorated with ‘fifty-three dozen’ (in other words 636) silver buttons, which Green rightly points out sounds rather heavy. Edward of Caernarfon attended with eighty knights, while the Earl of Gloucester (possibly put up to this by Joan) was accompanied by 103 knights (but only six ladies). Edmund, Earl of Cornwall also limited himself to six ladies, but brought 100 knights. The groom, on the other hand, brought sixty ladies and only eight knights, and set a precedent for the more extravagant modern brides by changing his outfit three times in the course of the day. An additional 700 knights and ladies formed a mobile party, at first assisting the celebrations at the palace and then moving off to join the citizens partying in the streets. For those in the palace, there were plenty of fools and minstrels, harlequins, harpists, trumpeters and violinists. For the wider populace, there was a massive illumination for which it had taken four days to prepare the candles. Meanwhile, Edward again seems to have been on a somewhat short fuse, perhaps angry at the toll which the constant round of socialising was taking on Eleanor: at this wedding he is recorded as having struck and injured a squire.

  After the wedding, Archbishop Pecham preached the cross and many nobles and bishops pledged to go, including Gloucester and Joan. Also taking the cross was Otho de Grandison, now nearing his sixties. He, as an experienced Crusader, diplomat and trusted friend, was to go as advance guard for the Crusade and make on-the-spot preparations. He would return only after Eleanor’s death and the fall of Acre.8

  The royal family remained in London for another two weeks. With the tail end of wedding celebrations, various political affairs and the presence of the Duke of Brabant, there would clearly have been a huge amount going on. In addition, the Avagour–de Vescy wedding was celebrated at this time, on 16 July 1290. And while we know from the records of Sandwich that Eleanor was continuing to work at her property business, her health was still giving concern – Edward of Caernarfon sent ‘medicinal waters’ to his mother. It may be partly because of concerns over Eleanor’s health that Margaret and her new husband did not yet depart.

  These weeks also saw the passing of the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews from England. This was hardly a surprising move, given the expulsion from Gascony in 1287, Edward’s financial crisis and the fact that the compromise promoted by the Statute of Jewry had not paid off in financial terms for the Crown. At this point there was more to be gained from expelling the Jewish population, which would ease a grant of taxation from Parliament, than from keeping them. There is no sign that on this occasion Eleanor interceded for the Jewish people, with whom she had done so much business. As noted earlier, her relations with them had been based purely on economic considerations; if there was no economic case to be made, she was not the person to resist the tide. Moreover, as she made her preparations for death, it is more than likely that the advisability of aligning herself with Church teaching began to loom larger.

  At the end of the month there was a week’s stay at Eleanor’s manor of Langley – the administrative centre for Eleanor’s properties in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire as well as Hertfordshire and Essex. It may be that this visit doubled as a chance to see Edward of Caernarfon, whose favoured residence it was, although Edward’s wardrobe books suggest that he returned to Woodstock; Elizabeth of Rhuddlan accompanied her parents as far as St Albans, where she, her father and her sisters Eleanora and Margaret all made offerings at the shrine and relics of the abbey church of St Albans.9

  In the closing days of July, Eleanor’s final journey commenced. Since this trip took in the Clipstone parliament of October to November 1290, it is tempting to say that the journey was made with this in mind. But it actually seems unlikely that Parliament had been summoned as early as this; summonses under Edward were usually no longer than about a month and a half in advance of the session. Further, the Clipstone parliament is unique in not taking place in a city. Clipstone was a hunting lodge in the middle of Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, and was apparently ill adapted for holding a parliament, with attendees being lodged in every nearby abbey and great house and clerks being stationed as far afield as Warsop.10

  It is therefore likely that the summoning of Parliament to Clipstone was an afterthought and the journey was commenced with some other purpose. A number of writers, puzzling over the Clipstone venue, have suggested that Edward was there on his way to harass the Scots – or that he was journeying north to meet Margaret of Norway. But harassing the Scots was off the menu given the impending marriage, and Margaret’s arrival was not imminent. She was initially bound for the Norwegian territory of Orkney, before a formal entry into Scotland. Consequently, neither of the popular theories provides a satisfactory explanation.

  But with our greater familiarity with the modus operandi of the court under Edward and Eleanor, and the locations of her properties as well as the stops along the way, one purpose is clear. The journey was one of Eleanor’s property-monitoring trips, and was commenced at her instance. Thus, the party, including Eleanora and Margaret and her husband, set off immediately after the wedding for a review of her extensive properties in the North. The itinerary shows the usual ceaseless round of work: a trip to Ashridge in the middle of her southern Buckinghamshire properties during the Langley stay, then on to Leighton Buzzard, well placed for the northern Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire properties, before a month spent around the properties in Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Derbyshire and Chester.

  The itinerary also shows clearly that the tradition which had Eleanor lying ill for several weeks at Harby, where she later died, is completely wrong. The confusion is caused by the fact that there were two stops at two different places called Harby. Harby in Leicestershire was visited in September, en route between the Midlands properties and those in Derbyshire and Chester. Following the Clipstone parliament, Eleanor reached the other Harby in Nottinghamshire (on the border of Lincolnshire) only in late November.11

  But by autumn, Eleanor was certainly ill. It may even be this factor which led to Parliament being summoned to Clipstone rather than London; Eleanor was simply too unwell to travel at anything like their usual speed, or to face a trip back to London and then another north to meet Margaret of Norway later on in the year. As early as the start of August, the party seem to have required a stop at Silverstone even to get as far as Northampton from Leighton – and they remained there some days.

  By this stage, Edward and those used to travelling with Eleanor must have been becoming very concerned. This may well explain the rather peculiar passage in Edward’s wardrobe records which show him making some thoroughly over-the-top donations – feeding of 300 poor men and additional alms to be distributed by John of Brabant – to make up for Margaret and her husband failing to attend Mass on 6 August at Silverstone. Things did not improve, however; the moderate eighteen-mile leg from Northampton to Geddington required a stop at Pytchley. The longer Rockingham-to-Nottingham leg now took three days and required stops at unfamiliar houses, including Newstead Abbey, without any apparent reason in the property portfolio. By 23 September, Eleanor’s health had deteriorated to the extent that Peter of Portugal was sent for; but she still set off for a further excursion into her Derbyshire and Chester properties on about the same date, returning in mid-October for Parliament.12

  During the course of the Clipstone parliament, news reached the roy
al party that Margaret of Norway, who had set off by boat a few weeks earlier, had died on her journey. This was a blow to Eleanor’s hopes to see young Edward married. But Eleanor will doubtless have been interested to know that, with no clear successor to the Scottish throne, one of the main contenders, John Balliol, was not only a loyal supporter of Edward’s family, his father having fought at the Battle of Lewes; he was also a lord of Ponthieu, his family hailing originally from Ballieul-en-Vimeu, near Abbeville. Indeed, he himself seems to have spent rather more time in Ponthieu than in Scotland.

  Further medicines were purchased for Eleanor at Lincoln on 28 October. Joan appears to have been summoned to see her mother; she came north in November under the escort of her wayfarer Robert, with her expenses paid for by the king. This strongly suggests that those around Eleanor considered it likely she would never reach London again. So too does the fact that the younger children were summoned north – a plan which drew a protest from Eleanor of Provence, on account of the risk to the children’s health. It was, however, proceeded with – Edward and Elizabeth are recorded at Clipstone in October.13

  By the end of the parliament, the deterioration in Eleanor’s health can be pretty clearly reckoned by the court’s slow progress. Leaving Clipstone on 13 November to travel the fifteen to twenty miles to Lincoln – usually a short day’s journey and, tellingly, a considerably shorter distance than some of those covered by her funeral procession, they made it as far as Laxton (roughly halfway) on the first day, and were obliged to stay there until 17 November. The desperation of the situation is made clear when one sees that they then proceeded only a couple of miles up the road to Marnham, a manor in the family of Eleanor’s former chaplain Payn de Chaworth, where another two days were passed. Still the queen was working, sending a letter to the Bishop of Rochester, concerning a disputed advowson granted to her by the priory of Canterbury, in exchange for the Sandwich port revenues. While she worked, however, it would seem the household surrounding her were distraught – this letter was not recorded in her own records, surviving only in the Canterbury archives.