Queen Alienor of Castile - Part II

August 19, 1274: Edward I has been crowned king of England and Alienor of Castile is the queen. By every account, their happiness as a coupled continued unabated. There are no records of Edward siring any bastard offspring; a clear indication that he did not stray from Alienor. Another sign of their marital fidelity was Alienor's almost continuous pregnancies. Scarcely a year passed in the following decade where their reign was not marked with a royal birth. 

In Myself: A Dawning, Alienor is portrayed as fun-loving and highly energetic; traits that endear her to Isabeau in the guise of the queen's cousin, Isabella. Alienor was also kind and generous to her family and friends. There are many grants on the king's property roles that substantiate her influence on Edward's largesse.

Highly literate and intelligent, Alienor was fluent in several languages and maintained the only royal scriptorium in northern Europe at the time. She was very interested in architectural design, prompting the renovation of many royal residences such as Leeds Castle in Kent. Her many passions ranged from garden design to the hunt, each pursued with a flair and passion that endeared her to her virile husband.

Regrettably, the esteem in which Alienor was held by her husband and her friends was not shared by many at court or even the common people. Her acquisition of manors and estates across the breath of England was criticized as avaricial. A 14th century chronicler, William of Guisborough, wrote:

‘The King would like to get our gold, The queen our manors fair to hold’

The queen's involvement in property ownership did not end with the purchase. She was highly involved in the administrative details of the operation of her estates, carrying on frequent correspondence with her appointed regional bailiffs and taking every opportunity to assess the properties directly during royal processions. Her abilities as an astute business-person were unheard of for a medieval woman, drawing the ire of those nobles who and later chroniclers who felt she should contend herself with needlework and prayer.

Alienor was also criticized for the her heavy dispensation of patronage. Cunningly, she largely ignored her continental male relatives; choosing instead to focus on arranging matches between a seemingly unending supply of young female cousins and English noblemen to ally them more closely to the court. Obviously, Isabella de Beaumont's engagement to Baron John de Vesci in Myself: A Dawning is one such example.

A final testament to Edward's love for Alienor occurred after her untimely death on November 28th, 1290. She was 49 and had been married to the king for 36 years. Edward accompanied the love of his life on her funeral procession south from Lincoln to her final resting place at Westminster Abbey. At each stop along the way, the king ordered the erection of stone memorial crosses; twelve in all, attesting to his life-long love and high esteem for the remarkable woman he married.