Queens of the Crusades, page 49
The following April, they made a triumphant entry into London to mark Edward’s conquest of Wales and received a rousing reception. On May 4, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury holding aloft the captured sacred Cross of Neith, which was believed to enshrine a piece of the True Cross, they walked in solemn procession, with all the barons and fourteen bishops, from the Tower to Westminster Abbey, where the cross was offered at the high altar.
On July 1, Edward, Eleanor, the Lord Edward and the five princesses spent six days sailing down the Thames, then traveled overland to Canterbury on a pilgrimage to Becket’s shrine, which Edward enriched with bejeweled gold statues, while Eleanor offered gold. The family stayed at Canterbury for a fortnight, then visited Dover and spent a week at Leeds Castle, which Eleanor had acquired in 1278 from William, the son of Roger Leyburn. She had purchased a large debt he owed to a Jew and accepted the castle as security, giving Leyburn little in compensation.
Set on two islands in a lake, Leeds was to pass from Eleanor to succeeding queens of England, and is today regarded as one of the most beautiful castles in the world. Eleanor carried out extensive building works there. On the smaller island, she reconstructed the keep, or gloriette—the word meant a “little room” or pavilion in a sumptuous residence or park. She built a great hall on the ground floor of the gloriette, and a chapel and chambers on two floors. Running water was fed into the castle via a conduit. The King’s chambers were in the tower across the barbican bridge connecting the two islands, which were linked to the shore by another bridge protected by a barbican and gatehouse. The surrounding park, where Eleanor hunted, contained gardens, fishponds, a mill and vines. She grew black grapes at Leeds, from which she had wine made in 1290.
That summer, Edward and Eleanor rode to Amesbury to visit Queen Alienor, who was unwell. Eleanor of Brittany had been admitted to the convent in March (she would become abbess of Fontevraud in 1304), and Alienor had persuaded Edward that it was now time for Mary to enter the community. Her strong will prevailed even upon Eleanor, who assented only “with difficulty” and not without protest, for her daughter was just six. On August 15, 1285, the feast of the Assumption, Mary and thirteen other girls of noble birth, all robed in white, were dedicated to God in the presence of the King and Queen, Queen Alienor and all the royal children. Edward gave each girl a sapphire ring. Eleanor seems to have felt the loss of this daughter keenly, and was resentful. She would allow her officers to despoil Amesbury of its forest rights, as she had despoiled other religious houses of lands and entitlements.
Edward settled £100 (£74,000) a year and a dress allowance on Mary. He provided her with firewood, wine and even jewels. She was given her own apartment in the priory, where her father was to visit her several times. She begged him, for the ease of her heart, to send her news of him by every messenger.
For now, Mary would complete her education under the guidance of the nuns. She would not take her final vows until December 1291, when she was twelve, the youngest age at which a religious could be professed. She grew up to be a very worldly nun who clearly had no vocation, loved gambling and often left her cloister to visit the court and her family. When Edward and Eleanor moved on to Winchester after her dedication, and the King met with his barons and held a tournament and a round table, Mary joined them.
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Eleanor and Edward kept Christmas at Exeter with their daughters Eleonore, Joan and Margaret. At New Year 1286, Edward gave Eleanor a gold cup and a gold pitcher decorated with enamel and precious stones. It was by far the most expensive purchase of goldsmith’s work that he made that year.
On January 23, 1286, on their way back to London, the family visited Alienor and Mary at Amesbury. Mary may have looked on enviously at her sisters’ silk gowns and silver buttons, the kind of finery that was forbidden her now. During the visit, Edward promised his mother that, if she herself entered any religious order, she could retain all her possessions in England and Gascony until Michaelmas 1287 and have for life various castles, lands and tenements.
Edward now turned his attention to the affairs of Gascony. It was seven years since he had visited the duchy, having been occupied with the Welsh war. Now Philip IV, the new King of France, was urging him to do so, in the interests of maintaining peace. Judging that England and Wales were in a sufficiently settled state, Edward resolved to base himself in Gascony for a time and rule from there. Eleanor was to accompany him, but their children would be left behind, the Lord Edward in his own household and his sisters in the care of Eustache Hatch, who served both the King and Queen.
Eleanor was again unwell that winter, when medicines were purchased for her. In February, she and Edward visited their children at Langley before returning to London. Later that month, she was still poorly. In March, she sent a wax candle of her own height to be burned at a saint’s shrine, in the hope that holy intercessions would restore her to health.
After the spring sojourn at Quenington, Edward visited Amesbury in March. When he left, he took Mary with him and she stayed with the court at Winchester for a month. Possibly she was finding it hard to adjust to her new life for, in May, she spent another month with her family, this time journeying to Dover. When it was time for her to return to Amesbury, her mother arranged for her to have 50 marks (about £24,500) annually to supplement her income.
The King and Queen returned to Westminster, where Edmund of Cornwall was invested as regent. Eleanor, now forty-four, was pregnant again when, on May 13, with a great train, she and Edward embarked at Dover. Alienor had planned to cross the sea with them and visit her relatives in Savoy before taking the veil, but there is no record of her doing so, although she had come with her granddaughters to bid the King and Queen farewell.
The royal fleet docked at Wissant. At the end of May, the very handsome Philip IV welcomed them at Amiens, where Edward paid homage for Gascony. Philip escorted the couple to Paris, where they stayed for two months at the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The kings feasted each other, and Eleanor bought jewelry for her daughters and sent it home to them with a crown and other gifts she had received in France. In July, she was again unwell, which may have delayed her and Edward’s departure for Gascony.
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On July 7, 1286, “that generous and religious virago, Alienor, Queen of England, mother of the King, took the veil and religious habit at Amesbury on the day of the translation of St. Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury.”2 “She deposed the diadem from her head and the precious purple from her shoulders, and with them all worldly ambition.”3 She took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, although her vow of poverty would not be too onerous, for she had asked the Pope “for a special dispensation to free her from the duty of embracing poverty” and “obtained leave of [him] to keep possession of her dower in perpetuity, according to her wish.”4 This attracted some criticism from monastic chroniclers, but Alienor still had enormous debts. Edward would continue to pay her dower until her death. From now on, she would write to him and others as “Alienor, humble nun of the Order of Fontevraud.”
Her conduct in the religious life was exemplary. “She filled her hands with good works. She spent her whole time in orisons, vigils and works of piety. She was a mother to the neighbouring poor, especially to orphans, widows and monks, and her praise ought to resound above that of all other women. Besides other large charities, she distributed every Friday £5 [£3,470] in silver to the neighbouring poor.”5 Yet she continued to interest herself in worldly affairs and would remain a fervent persecutor of the Jews, urging the King to take harsh measures against them.
Alienor proved useful to her order. She wrote once to Edward:
Sweetest son, our Abbess of Fontevraud has prayed us that we would entreat the King of Sicily to guard and preserve the franchises of her house, which some people wish to damage; and, because we know well that he will do much more for your prayer than for ours, for you have better deserved it, we pray you, good son, that, for love of us, you will request and especially require this thing from him, that he would command that the things which the Abbess holds in his lordship may be in his protection and guard, and that neither she nor hers may be molested or grieved. Good son, we wish you health in the sweet Jesus, to Whom we commend you.6
Early in August, the King and Queen left Paris and began a leisurely progress south to Gascony, probably because Eleanor was convalescent. Their route took them to the abbey of Fontevraud, where they saw the tombs of the early Plantagenets. In September and October, they sojourned in Saintonge. There, Eleanor gave birth to a short-lived child called Beatrice. When she and Edward resumed their journey, she was ill again, and was bought medicines and syrups, which were then used to treat a wide variety of ailments.
The King and Queen followed the course of the Dordogne toward the Agenais. Late in October, they were at the bastide of Libourne, built by Roger Leyburn in 1270. On November 15, they were in Agen, where they remained for almost a month, because Eleanor was still unwell. Not until the middle of December did they reach Gascony, where there were further purchases of medication.
They spent the Christmas of 1286 in the priory of Saint-Macaire, not far from Bordeaux. The court feasted in a hall brilliant with candles, to the strains of 125 minstrels. Gaston de Béarn was among the guests and presented Edward with a noble charger. Edmund of Lancaster brought Brie cheese.
In January, the court finally reached Bordeaux. February found Edward touring the Médoc and hunting wolves. In March, he and Eleanor visited Langon and Bazas, where they made offerings in the cathedral, in which was venerated the handkerchief of St. Veronica, used to wipe Christ’s sweat as He staggered under the weight of His cross.
In March 1287, Edward himself fell ill at the royal fortress of Blanquefort on the Gironde, a residence much favored by him and Eleanor. There were fears for his life, but his strong constitution aided his recovery, and he was back in Bordeaux on April 2 to celebrate Easter, when he and Eleanor were entertained by a little boy who played the bagpipes and a damsel who danced for them. But, on Easter Sunday, the King was nearly killed when the floor of a tower room crumbled beneath him and sent him and his lords crashing eighty feet to the ground. He was lucky to escape with just a broken collarbone.
In June, Edward returned to Blanquefort and again took the cross, intending to go on another crusade sometime in the future. For the next sixteen months, he and Eleanor remained in Gascony, residing chiefly at Bordeaux or Blanquefort. From there, Edward governed his distant kingdom and his duchy, and life was relatively peaceful. That they missed their children is evident from the many gifts they sent home, especially to their daughter Eleonore, whose coming marriage was much on their minds. On May 29, Eleanor observed the obit of her first child in the church of the Friars Preachers in Bordeaux.
On June 22, the King and Queen set out by boat for Oléron to meet with Eleonore’s betrothed, Alfonso III, now King of Aragon. Edward had arranged ten days of feasting and entertainments in honor of his future son-in-law. The marriage had been forbidden by the Pope, with whom Alfonso was at odds, but Edward promised to press for a dispensation. Even though Eleanor was unwell, and vigils were kept for her at the chapel of St. Thomas in Bordeaux, she was involved in preparations for the meeting and buying gifts. Plans were made for the wedding, which was to take place in England the following summer.
On August 5, Alfonso accompanied Edward and Eleanor to Mauléon, where the Queen had a herb garden. There were jousts and feasts in his honor. In September, the royal party moved on to the great Romanesque abbey of Saint-Sever in Les Landes, where Eleanor asked her knight, Richard de Bures, to make a pilgrimage on her behalf to the shrine of St. James at Compostela, a journey of more than 500 miles, which she was not well enough to undertake herself. It is clear that she was hoping for a cure for her illness.
On November 21, Edward and Eleanor returned to Blanquefort, where they spent Christmas. That December, Eleanor was unwell again with “a double quartan fever,” a type of malaria that struck for two days then offered a day’s respite before flaring up again.
The spring of 1288 found them camping by a building site at the confluence of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers, where Edward was building a new bastide, begun in January and named Burgus Reginae (Queenburgh)—another statement of his love for Eleanor. The dearth of written evidence on Burgos Reginae indicates that the project was abandoned early on, and today it is impossible to locate its actual site.
In July, Edward and Eleanor began a leisurely journey south for another meeting with King Alfonso. In August, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, Eleanor became sick again and her physician, Peter of Portugal, who was traveling with her, had to obtain medicines and syrups from Bayonne, 73 miles away. In September, Edward was obliged to go on ahead, crossing the Pyrenees to Jaca, where he and Alfonso negotiated a new settlement. On October 28, at Canfran, they concluded a treaty.
On Edward’s return, he and Eleanor retired to the fortified bastide of Bonnegarde, where they kept Christmas. When Edward crossed the Pyrenees to meet again with Alfonso, Eleanor traveled to Oloron-Sainte-Marie to receive the corpse of Edward’s friend, John de Vesci, who had died on February 10 at Montpellier. The Queen must have been instrumental in arranging for his body to be sent back to England and for masses to be said for his soul. She and Edward kept in touch by letter and he sent her preserved ginger, which was regarded as a sovereign remedy for many ailments. Edward’s loyal knight, Otto de Grandison, sent Eleanor gifts of a lion and a lynx, which were dispatched with their keeper to the menagerie in the Tower of London.
In March, Edward joined Eleanor and they returned to Bordeaux. They remained in Gascony from April to July 1289, by which time the King had been away from England for more than three years. It had “seemed too long to both him and his,” observed the scholarly Dominican William of Hotham, who was in Edward’s household. It probably seemed long to Eleanor, who apparently suffered a recurrence of fever in April, when Peter of Portugal was provided with a silver vessel for her syrups, which she was clearly taking regularly.
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On March 19, 1286, Alexander III, King of Scots, had been killed when his horse fell from a cliff during a storm. His sons having died, his sole heir was his three-year-old granddaughter Margaret, “the Maid of Norway,” the only child of his daughter Margaret, who had married Erik II, King of Norway. The crown of Scotland was immediately claimed by Robert le Brus and John Balliol, who were both descended from the royal line, but the guardians of Scotland rejected them.
In May 1289, Edward proposed that the Lord Edward marry the Maid of Norway. Such a marriage would unite England and Scotland and bring Scotland under English rule, which couldn’t have suited Edward better. Because the two children were close cousins, the King applied to the Pope for a dispensation. He urged that Margaret cross to England to be brought up in Queen Eleanor’s court; he would return her to Scotland when she was older and the country was in a more stable state.
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In July, the King and Queen set off on a slow progress back to England that took them through France, where they visited shrines, made offerings for their children and perhaps prayed for a cure for Eleanor. They spent a fortnight at Abbeville and the abbey of La Gard in Ponthieu.
On August 12, their flotilla sailed from Wissant and made land at Dover the same day. There on the quayside stood the five-year-old Lord Edward and his sisters, Eleonore, Joan, Margaret, Elizabeth and Mary. Edward would barely have remembered his parents; he had been two when they went to Gascony. He had been summoned from the royal manor of Langley, now called King’s Langley, where he had spent much of his short life. The princesses had been staying at the Palace of Westminster in chambers called “the Maiden Hall.” Elizabeth, who had inherited her mother’s love of books, was only seven and she too must have regarded her parents as near strangers. From now on, Eleonore, Joan, and Margaret, the three eldest princesses, all lively and headstrong, would live mainly at court.
From Dover, the King traveled with his family to Canterbury and Leeds Castle, staying there for over a week. He left Eleanor there while he went hunting in Essex, but they were together again for a progress through East Anglia, during which they made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Many went there hoping for miraculous cures, and Eleanor may have been seeking the Virgin’s intercession for her restoration to health. It is possible that she was pregnant once again, or recovering from a confinement; she bore her last child, the short-lived Blanche, in 1289 or 1290. This birth may have finally wrecked her health, undermining her immunity from malaria. She was in her late forties and had had eighteen children, more than any other English queen.
On October 12, the royal party returned to the Palace of Westminster. Three days later, they were at Amesbury, visiting Alienor and Mary, and stayed for two weeks. At Salisbury, Edward met the ambassadors of the King of Norway and concluded the marriage alliance between his son Edward and the little Queen of Scots. The wedding was to take place within the next year. In March 1290, when the Scots ratified the treaty, it was agreed that the young couple would be married as soon as Margaret arrived in England, and that the Lord Edward would become king of Scots in her right. Edward promised that Scotland would “remain free in itself, and without subjection from the kingdom of England.”
