Eleanor of Castile

1241 – 1290 · Generation XIV

Eleanor of Castile (1241–1290). Married Edward I Longshanks in 1254. One of their children is recorded in this archive. A daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile and Joan of Ponthieu, she was married at thirteen in the monastery of Las Huelgas at Burgos — a match through which her half-brother Alfonso X transferred his claim to Gascony to the English prince. In the barons’ war she held Windsor Castle for Edward until Simon de Montfort had her removed and confined at Westminster. She later went with him on crusade, bearing a daughter, Joan, at Acre and being led weeping from his bedside after an assassin’s dagger wounded him in 1272; their son Edward, the future king, was born at Caernarfon in 1284. Her acquisition of land, partly by buying up at low cost the debts owed to Jewish lenders, made her disliked. After her death near Lincoln in 1290, Edward set up a cross at each overnight stop of her funeral journey to London — the Eleanor crosses.

Place in the family

Eleanor of Castile was a 6× great-grandmother of King Henry VIII.
The archive records 139 of her descendants, across 26 generations.

Partners

Married King Edward I Longshanks (1239 – 1307) in 1254 — one child together

Children

King Edward II (1284 – 1327)

Life

1241 — Born
1254 — Married Edward I Longshanks
1290 — Died