Status Updates From Eduardo I

‘It was true that Mary of Caernarvon, Edward’s Welsh nurse, guarded him like a dragon and put him right outside the Princess’s rule. He was a spoilt little boy anyway and thought the whole world had been created for him. Eleanor was angry that so much fuss should be made of him because he was a boy. And she would never forget either that merely by arriving he had ruined her dreams.’

‘The King returned. They stared at him in astonishment for in his arms he carried a baby.
‘You asked me for a Prince of Wales,’ he cried. ‘Here he is. I give him to you. He has been born in your country. His character is beyond reproach. He cannot speak either French or English and if you wish it the first words he shall speak shall be in Welsh.’’

‘Poor Mary the baby would never marry. She was going into a convent. How did they know that? Joanna asked. Mary was a baby as yet. What did she know of convents? The Queen Grandmother had said so. It was to please God who had given their mother so many babies who had not liver and two of them boys at that. Alfonso was weak too, and it was Eleanor’s opinion that he would never be the King’

‘He could not suppress a sly smile when his mother passed in the procession and an almost sullen silence fell on the crowd. Dear lady, he thought indulgently, she could never see that the people blamed her for everything that had gone wrong because she would bring her poor relations into the country. She could so easily have won their approval. But she simply had not bothered to do so.’