Edward I – the king who defeated Braveheart – could never be regarded as a particularly sentimental man but when it came to his wife, he was a clearly a very devoted husband. The procession of her body after death was marked with monuments called Eleanor Crosses.
Eleanor of Castile, King Edward and the Eleanor Crosses
Eleanor of Castile was the great great granddaughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the feisty queen of Henry II. Castile was an emerging European power as it pushed back the Islamic realm of southern Spain and originally, Eleanor was intended to be married in to the royal family of the neighbouring Christian kingdom of Navarre.
However, Edward I’s father – King Henry III – was troubled by the claims Castile was making to the duchy of Aquitaine, then still under English control, and decided the best way to deal with that problem was to marry his son to the Castilian princess.
Eleanor was no shrinking violet and in the wars that her husband, as king, would have to fight against the English barons and external foes – she proved to be a very strong support for him. However, her life would be cut short – though not at a remarkably young age by the standards of the time. Journeying with Edward towards Lincoln, she caught a fever and died at the age of 49.
DISCOVER: Eleanor of Aquitaine – a fiery queen!
Location of the Eleanor Crosses
This clearly devastated the king who erected twelve ‘Eleanor Crosses’ at the staging points on her slow procession back to London. This included crosses – initially in wood and later in stone – at Lincoln, Northamption, St Albans, Waltham and Westcheap and then finally at Charing. The last cross was in a small hamlet near the city of Westminster, the centre of royal power.
The cross was in place there from the 1290s to the Cromwellian period in the mid-17th century but was then demolished as part of another wave of anti-idolatrous as well as anti-monarchist sentiment. It stood more or less where the statue of king Charles I now stands at the end of Trafalgar Square, by Admiralty Arch. The cross you can now see outside Charing Cross station is a Victorian confection.
Then again so does Washington Irving, because of his novel (mostly) most people still think Medieval people believed the earth was flat. They didn’t btw. Even William Shakespeare does not soem extent. Rant over.
This is a great post. I knew about the Eleanor crosses that Edward built, and that he truly loved Queen Eleanor and was devastated at her death. It seems there is evidence that he loved his daughters as well, though his son Edward seems to have caused him no small annoyance, not least because of an acquaintance with a certain Piers Gaveston.
Not that Gaveston actually got thrown out of any windows of course, nor indeed did Edward’s daughter in law Isabella (the ‘she wolf’ of France) actually’ have an affair with one William Wallace.
Your Braveheart observations are totally right of course – that Mel Gibson has so much to answer for! Gaveston was more than likely beheaded and his body was left by the roadside.
Right, Gaveston was beheaded on the orders of the Earl of Lancaster. Edward II’s cousin. I can’t remember the date, but it was certainly after Edward Longshanks had died.
Yes, that Gibson has a lot to answer for. Misleading people and misinforming thier view of history for over 10 years. How many people have I met that still believe that film is true?
First of all may I humbly put you right one one thing?
This is that Braveheart was the nickname given to Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, and not to William Wallace. It was never even associated with the Latter until a certain movie came out. Of course now most people believe that Wallace was called Braveheart, shows how influential movies can be.