Eleanor Of Castile: The Shadow Queen

Eleanor Of Castile: The Shadow Queen

Eleanor of Castile, the remarkable woman behind Englandâ€™s greatest medieval king, Edward I, has been effectively airbrushed from history; yet she had one of the most fascinating lives of any of Englandâ€™s queens. Her childhood was spent in the centre of the Spanish reconquest and was dominated by her military hero of a father (St Ferdinand) and her prodigiously clever brother (King Alfonso X the Learned). Married at the age of twelve and a mother at thirteen, she gave birth to at least sixteen children, most of whom died young. She was a prisoner for a year amid a civil war in which her husbandâ€™s life was in acute danger. Devoted to Edward, she accompanied him everywhere. All in all, she was to live for extended periods in five different countries.Eleanor was a highly dynamic, forceful personality who acted as part of Edwardâ€™s innermost circle of advisers, and successfully accumulated a vast property empire for the English Crown. In cultural terms her influence in architecture and design â€“ and even gardening â€“ can be discerned to this day, while her idealised image still speaks to us from Edwardâ€™s beautiful memorials to her, the Eleanor crosses. This book reveals her untold story.

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