Eleanor of England (; – 31 October 1214), was Queen of Castile and Toledo as the wife of Alfonso VIII of Castile. She was the sixth child and second daughter of Henry II, King of England, and Eleanor of Aquitaine. She served as Regent of Castile during the minority of her son Henry I for 26 days between the death of her husband and her own death in 1214. Her great-granddaughter and namesake, Eleanor of Castile, married the future Edward I of England in 1254.

Early life and family

Eleanor was born in the castle at Domfront, Normandy , as the second daughter of King Henry II of England and his wife Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, who she was named after. Her reign was not to be long, however; she was reportedly not in good enough health and left most of the affairs of state to her daughter, which created fear and opposition among the nobles that she was planning to leave the regency to her daughter.

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.

Children

{| class="wikitable"

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!Name!!Birth!!Death!!Notes

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|Berengaria||Burgos,<br /> 1 January/<br />June 1180||Las Huelgas near Burgos,<br /> 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. 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,<br /> 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". "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. "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.

|-

|Sancha||20/28 March 1182||3 February 1184/<br />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.

|-

|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". 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".

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|Urraca||1186/<br />28 May 1187||Coimbra,<br /> 3 November 1220||Married in 1206 to Infante dom Afonso of Portugal, who succeeded his father as King Afonso II on 26 March 1212.

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|Blanche||Palencia,<br /> 4 March 1188||Paris,<br /> 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,<br /> 29 September 1189||Madrid,<br /> 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. Ferdinand was returning through the San Vicente mountains from a campaign against the Muslims when he contracted a fever and died.

|-

|Mafalda||Plasencia,<br /> 1191||Salamanca,<br /> 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. Betrothed in 1204 to Infante Ferdinand of Leon, eldest son of Alfonso IX and stepson of her oldest sister.

|-

|Eleanor||1200||Las Huelgas,<br /> 1244||Married on 6 February 1221 with King James I of Aragon. They became separated in April 1229 on grounds of consanguinity.

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|Constance||c. 1202||Las Huelgas,<br /> 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.

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|Henry ||Valladolid,<br /> 14 April 1204||Palencia,<br /> 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.

|}

Later depictions

Eleanor was praised for her beauty and regal nature by the poet Ramón Vidal de Besalú after her death. Her great-grandson Alfonso X referred to her as "noble and much loved".

Eleanor was played by actress Ida Norden in the silent film The Jewess of Toledo.

Notes

References

Sources

  • Andrews, J.F. (2023) The Families of Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Female Network of Power in the Middle Ages (The History Press, )
  • Bowie, Colette (2014), The Daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine (Brepols, )
  • Cerda, José Manuel (2011), La dot gasconne d'Aliénor d'Angleterre. Entre royaume de Castille, royaume de France et royaume d'Angleterre, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, ISSN 0007-9731, Vol. 54, Nº 215, 2011.
  • Cerda, José Manuel (2013), "The marriage of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonor Plantagenet : the first bond between Spain and England in the Middle Ages", Les stratégies matrimoniales dans l'aristocratie (xe-xiiie siècles), ed. Martin Aurell.
  • Cerda, José Manuel (2016), "Matrimonio y patrimonio. La carta de arras de Leonor Plantagenet, reina consorte de Castilla", Anuario de Estudios Medievales, vol. 46.
  • Cerda, José Manuel (2016), Leonor Plantagenet and the cult of Thomas Becket in Castile, The cult of St Thomas Becket in the Plantagenet World, ed. P. Webster and M.P. Gelin, Boydell Press.
  • Cerda, José Manuel (2018), "Diplomacia, mecenazgo e identidad dinástica. La consorte Leonor y el influjo de la cultura Plantagenet en la Castilla de Alfonso VIII", Los modelos anglonormandos en la cultura letrada de Castilla, ed. Amaia Arizaleta y Francisco Bautista (Toulouse).
  • Cerda, José Manuel (2019), "Un documento inédito y desconocido de la cancillería de la reina Leonor Plantagenet", En la España Medieval, vol. 42.
  • Cerda, José Manuel (2021), Leonor de Inglaterra. La reina Plantagenet de Castilla (1161-1214), Gijón, Trea ediciones.
  • Rada Jiménez, Rodrigo. Historia de los hechos de España.
  • Adrian Fletcher's Paradoxplace – Leonora's Tomb in the Cistercian Nunnery of Santa Maria de Real Huelgas in Burgos, Spain
  • Eight hundredth anniversary of Alfonso and Leonor's deaths