Eleanor of England | |
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Queen consort of Castile and Toledo | |
Tenure | September 1170 – 5 October 1214 |
Born | c. 1161 Domfront Castle, Normandy |
Died | 31 October 1214 (aged 53) Burgos, Castile |
Burial | |
Spouse | |
Issue more... | Berengaria I, Queen of Castile Urraca, Queen of Portugal Blanche, Queen of France Eleanor, Queen of Aragon Henry I, King of Castile |
House | Plantagenet / Angevin [lower-alpha 1] |
Father | Henry II, King of England |
Mother | Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine |
Eleanor of England (Spanish : Leonor; c. 1161 [1] – 31 October 1214 [2] [3] ), was Queen of Castile and Toledo [4] as wife of Alfonso VIII of Castile. [5] [6] She was the sixth child and second daughter of Henry II, King of England, and Eleanor of Aquitaine. [7] [8]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(November 2022) |
Eleanor was born in the castle at Domfront, Normandy c. 1161, [1] as the second daughter of King Henry II of England and his wife Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, and was baptised by Henry of Marcy. Her half-siblings were Countess Marie of Champagne and Countess Alix of Blois. Her full siblings were Henry the Young King, Duchess Matilda of Saxony, King Richard I, Duke Geoffrey II of Brittany, Queen Joan of Sicily and King John. Eleanor had an older brother, William (17 August 1153 –April 1156), the first son of Henry II, and Eleanor of Aquitaine, who died of a seizure at Wallingford Castle, and was buried in Reading Abbey at the feet of his great-grandfather Henry I.
In 1170 Eleanor married King Alfonso VIII of Castile in Burgos at the age of 12. [1] Her parents' purpose in arranging the marriage was to secure Aquitaine's Pyrenean border, while Alfonso sought an ally in his struggles with Sancho VI of Navarre. In 1177, this led to Henry overseeing arbitration of the border dispute. [9]
Around 1200, Alfonso began to claim that the duchy of Gascony was part of Eleanor's dowry, but there is no documented foundation for that claim. It is highly unlikely that Henry II would have parted with so significant a portion of his domains. At most, Gascony may have been pledged as security for the full payment of his daughter's dowry. Her husband went so far on this claim as to invade Gascony in her name in 1205. In 1206, her brother John granted her safe passage to visit him, perhaps to try opening peace negotiations. In 1208, Alfonso yielded on the claim. [10] Decades later, their great-grandson Alfonso X of Castile would claim the duchy on the grounds that her dowry had never been fully paid.
Of all Eleanor of Aquitaine's daughters, her namesake was the only one who was enabled, by political circumstances, to wield the kind of influence her mother had exercised. [11] In her marriage treaty, and in the first marriage treaty for her daughter Berengaria, Eleanor was given direct control of many lands, towns, and castles throughout the kingdom. [12] She was almost as powerful as Alfonso, who specified in his will in 1204 that she was to rule alongside their son in the event of his death, including taking responsibility for paying his debts and executing his will. [13] It was she who persuaded him to marry their daughter Berengaria to Alfonso IX of León. Troubadours and sages were regularly present in Alfonso VIII's court due to Eleanor's patronage. [14]
Eleanor took a particular interest in supporting religious institutions. In 1179, she took responsibility to support and maintain a shrine to St. Thomas Becket in the cathedral of Toledo. She also created and supported the Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas, which served as a refuge and tomb for her family for generations, and its affiliated hospital. [15]
When Alfonso died, Eleanor was reportedly so devastated with grief that she was unable to preside over the burial. Their eldest daughter Berengaria instead performed these honours. Eleanor later became sick and died only twenty-six days after her husband, and was buried at Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas. [16]
Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
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Berengaria | Burgos, 1 January/ June 1180 | Las Huelgas near Burgos, 8 November 1246 | Married firstly in Seligenstadt on 23 April 1188 with Duke Conrad II of Swabia, but the union (only by contract and never solemnised) was later annulled. Married in Valladolid between 1/16 December 1197 with King Alfonso IX of León as his second wife. [17] After their marriage was dissolved on grounds of consanguinity in 1204, she returned to her homeland and became regent of her minor brother King Henry I. Although Queen of Castile in her own right, after the death of Henry I in 1217, Berengaria quickly abdicated in favour of her son Ferdinand III of Castile who would re-unite the kingdoms of Castile and León. |
Sancho | Burgos, 5 April 1181 | 26 July 1181 | Robert of Torigny records the birth "circa Pascha" in 1181 of "filium Sancius" to "Alienor filia regis Anglorum uxor Anfulsi regis de Castella". [18] "Aldefonsus...Rex Castellæ et Toleti...cum uxore mea Alienor Regina et cum filio meo Rege Sancio" donated property to the bishop of Segovia by charter dated 31 May 1181. [19] "Adefonsus...Rex Castellæ et Toleti...cum uxore mea Alienor Regina et cum filio meo Rege Sancio" donated property to the monastery of Rocamador by charter dated 13 July 1181. [20] |
Sancha | 20/28 March 1182 | 3 February 1184/ 16 October 1185 | King Alfonso VIII "cum uxore mea Alionor regina et cum filiabus meis Berengaria et Sancia Infantissis" exchanged property with the Templars by charter dated 26 January 1183. [21] |
Henry | before July 1182 | before January 1184 | The dating clause of a charter dated July 1182 records "regnante el Rey D. Alfonso...con su mugier Doña Lionor, con su fijo D. Anric". [22] The dating of the document in which his sister Sancha is named suggests that they may have been twins. |
Ferdinand | before January 1184 | Died young, ca. 1184? | The dating clause of a charter dated January 1184 ("V Kal Feb Era 1222") records "regnante rege Alfonso cum uxore sua regina Eleonor et filio suo Fernando". [23] |
Urraca | 1186/ 28 May 1187 | Coimbra, 3 November 1220 | Married in 1206 to Infante dom Afonso of Portugal, who succeeded his father as King Afonso II on 26 March 1212. |
Blanche | Palencia, 4 March 1188 | Paris, 27 November 1252 | Married on 23 May 1200 to Prince Louis of France, who succeeded his father as King Louis VIII on 14 July 1223. Crowned Queen at Saint-Denis with her husband on 6 August 1223. Regent of the Kingdom of France during 1226–1234 (minority of her son) and during 1248–1252 (absence of her son on Crusade). |
Ferdinand | Cuenca, 29 September 1189 | Madrid, 14 October 1211 | Heir of the throne since his birth. On whose behalf Diego of Acebo and the future Saint Dominic travelled to Denmark in 1203 to secure a bride. [24] Ferdinand was returning through the San Vicente mountains from a campaign against the Muslims when he contracted a fever and died. [25] |
Mafalda | Plasencia, 1191 | Salamanca, 1204 | Szabolcs de Vajay says that she "died at the point of becoming the fiancée of the Infante Fernando of León" (without citing the primary source on which this information is based) and refers to her burial at Salamanca Cathedral. [26] Betrothed in 1204 to Infante Ferdinand of Leon, eldest son of Alfonso IX and stepson of her oldest sister. |
Eleanor | 1200 [27] | Las Huelgas, 1244 | Married on 6 February 1221 with King James I of Aragon. They became separated on April 1229 on grounds of consanguinity. |
Constance | c. 1202 [27] | Las Huelgas, 1243 | A nun at the Cistercian monastery of Santa María la Real at Las Huelgas in 1217, she became known as the Lady of Las Huelgas, a title shared with later royal family members who joined the community. [27] |
Henry | Valladolid, 14 April 1204 | Palencia, 6 June 1217 | Only surviving son, he succeeded his father in 1214 aged ten under the regency firstly of his mother and later his oldest sister. He was killed when he was struck by a tile falling from a roof. [28] |
Eleanor was praised for her beauty and regal nature by the poet Ramón Vidal de Besalú after her death. [29] Her great-grandson Alfonso X referred to her as "noble and much loved". [30]
Eleanor was played by actress Ida Norden in the silent film The Jewess of Toledo .[ citation needed ]
Ferdinand III, called the Saint, was King of Castile from 1217 and King of León from 1230 as well as King of Galicia from 1231. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile. Through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale. Ferdinand III was one of the most successful kings of Castile, securing not only the permanent union of the crowns of Castile and León, but also masterminding the most expansive southward territorial expansion campaign yet in the Guadalquivir Valley, in which Islamic rule was in disarray in the wake of the decline of the Almohad presence in the Iberian Peninsula.
Henry I of Castile was king of Castile. He was the son of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile. He was the brother of Berenguela and Mafalda of Castile.
Alfonso IX was King of León and Galicia from the death of his father Ferdinand II in 1188 until his own death.
Alfonso VIII, called the Noble or the one of Las Navas, was King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. After having suffered a great defeat with his own army at Alarcos against the Almohads in 1195, he led the coalition of Christian princes and foreign crusaders who broke the power of the Almohads in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, an event which marked the arrival of a tide of Christian supremacy on the Iberian peninsula.
Henry II, called Henry of Trastámara or the Fratricidal, was the first King of Castile and León from the House of Trastámara. He became king in 1369 by defeating his half-brother Peter the Cruel, after numerous rebellions and battles. As king he was involved in the Fernandine Wars and the Hundred Years' War.
Berengaria was reigning Queen of Castile for a brief time in 1217, and Queen of León from 1197 to 1204 as the second wife of King Alfonso IX. As the eldest child and heir presumptive of Alfonso VIII of Castile, she was a sought after bride, and was engaged to Conrad, the son of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. After his death, she married her cousin, Alfonso IX of León, to secure the peace between him and her father. She had five children with him before their marriage was voided by Pope Innocent III.
Sancho III, called the Desired, was King of Castile and Toledo for one year, from 1157 to 1158. He was the son of Alfonso VII of León and Castile and his wife Berengaria of Barcelona, and was succeeded by his son Alfonso VIII. His nickname was due to his position as the first child of his parents, born after eight years of childless marriage.
Alfonso of León, Lord of Molina was an infante (prince) of León and Castile, the son of King Alfonso IX of León and his second wife Queen Berengaria of Castile. He was the brother of King Ferdinand III of Castile and León, and father of Queen Maria of Molina, wife of King Sancho IV. He became Lord of Molina and Mesa after his first marriage to Mafalda González de Lara, the heiress of those lands.
Leonor (Eleanor) de Guzmán y Ponce de León (1310–1351) was a Castilian noblewoman. After roughly 1330, she became the long-term mistress and favourite of Alfonso XI, with whom she had the illegitimate Henry "the Fratricidal", future first monarch of the House of Trastámara. She held the lordship of Medina-Sidonia until she fell from grace in the wake of Alfonso's death in 1350. She was thus ensuingly executed by her enemies.
Urraca of Castile was a daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England. Her maternal grandparents were Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
María Alfonso Téllez de Meneses, known as María de Molina, was queen consort of Castile and León from 1284 to 1295 by marriage to Sancho IV of Castile, and served as regent for her minor son Ferdinand IV and later her grandson Alfonso XI of Castile (1312-1321).
Elisabeth of Swabia, was a member of the House of Hohenstaufen who became Queen of Castile and Leon by marriage to Ferdinand III.
The Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas is a monastery of Cistercian nuns located approximately 1.5 km west of the city of Burgos in Spain. The word huelgas, which usually refers to "labour strikes" in modern Spanish, refers in this case to land which had been left fallow. Historically, the monastery has been the site of many weddings of royal families, both foreign and Spanish, including that of Edward I of England to Eleanor of Castile in 1254, for example. The defensive tower of the Abbey is also the birthplace of King Peter of Castile.
Eleanor of Castile (1200—1244) was Queen of Aragon by her marriage to King James I of Aragon.
Blanche of Castile was by birth a member of the Castilian House of Burgundy. She was the only child of Infante Peter of Castile, Lord of Los Cameros and Infanta Maria of Aragon.
Lope Díaz II de Haro "Cabeza Brava" was a Spanish noble of the House of Haro, the sixth Lord of Biscay, and founder of the municipality of Plentzia. He was the eldest son of Diego López II de Haro and his wife, María Manrique. Lope was also a member of the Order of Santiago.
Berengaria of Castile, Infanta of Castile and Lady of Guadalajara in her own right. She was the eldest child of King Alfonso X of Castile and Violante of Aragon. She was probably named after her paternal great-grandmother, Queen Berengaria of Castile.
Gonzalo Rodríguez Girón, also known as Gonzalo Ruiz Girón, firstborn son of Rodrigo Gutiérrez Girón and María de Guzmán, was one of Castile's wealthiest and most powerful nobles. He was based in Tierra de Campos, and was among the most loyal supporters of King Alfonso VIII of Castile, Berengaria of Castile, and later of King Ferdinand III.
Álvaro Núñez de Lara was a Castilian nobleman who played a key role, along with other members of the House of Lara, in the political and military affairs of the Kingdoms of León and Castile around the turn of the 13th century. He was made a count in 1214, served as alférez to King Alfonso VIII of Castile, was the regent during the minority of King Henry I of Castile, and was mayordomo (steward) to King Alfonso IX of León. He opposed Queen Berengaria of Castile and her son King Ferdinand III and supported the King of León during the war between the two countries of 1217–1218. At the end of his life he was a knight of the Order of Santiago, in whose Monastery of Uclés he was buried.
Mafalda de Castilla (1191—1204) was an Infanta of Castile and daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of England and sister of Henry I of Castile and Berenguela of Castile.