Eleanor of Castile Quotes

“This can be seen again when in 1281 (following another Norfolk trip) Eleanor added supplementary lands around Great Hautbois as the former owner’s affairs went from bad to worse, following another acquisition of his debts owed to the Jewry in May 1275. Later still, in 1288, Witchingham and Alderford, lying to the south of Cawston, were added to the group. Eleanor also acquired some strategically placed wardships nearby in 1284 and 1285.”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“designed”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“She was a woman who was highly intellectual and who promoted intellectual and artistic endeavour; England would not see another queen of similar abilities until the Tudors sat on the throne. She was a woman who ran”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“Eleanor of Castile had experience of far more countries, both to live in (Castile, Gascony, England, Wales, Sicily, the Holy Land) and to visit (Scotland, Aragon, France, Italy, Tunisia). She”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“heart wrung by such devotion, the evil sultan supplies an antidote in the last few minutes of the play.”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“This version features a haughty Eleanor, who delays the coronation by a desire for Spanish-made gowns which will need over twenty weeks to make and says she will keep the English in a ‘Spanish yoke’. And these are simply her milder”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“weeks to make and says she will keep the English in a ‘Spanish yoke’. And these are simply her milder”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“At more or less the same time as Camden’s Britannia, a dramatist called George Peele, now best known as the possible author of parts of Titus Andronicus, was penning his play Edward the First.”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“Enrique of Castile was finally released from prison by Charles of Salerno in 1291 – one would like to think in recognition of the kindness shown him by Eleanor and Edward. Ironically, he did in fact come to exercise power in Castile, some fifty years after he had first challenged Alfonso. In the turbulent minority of King Ferdinand IV, Enrique became regent along with the king’s mother, until his own death in 1204.4 The”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“Aside from these major political issues, some have seen in Edward’s latter reign a loss of the deftness of political touch which marked the years before Eleanor’s death and, given the closeness between the two throughout their marriage, it is hardly too much to see a causative relationship there. The advice of Eleanor, for so long an integral part of Edward’s inner circle, was bound to be felt. In her, more, perhaps, than any of his other advisers,”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“The clear picture is that Eleanor herself was the person deputed to deal with the details of this, and authorised to effectively state terms agreeable to the Crown, with Edward ratifying the decision at a later date.”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“Limoges, the viscountess’s administration was continuing, like Gaston, to create troubles; and matters were put on hold pending a reference to King Philip or her marriage into the friendly Brittany family.15 Towards the end of their Continental peregrinations, Eleanor and Edward found themselves in Ponthieu, her mother’s county, with correspondence dating from Montreuil-sur-Mer in June and July of 1274. It may well have been the first time that Eleanor and her mother had met since the wedding, fourteen years before, though she may well have become acquainted with her new stepfather, Jean de Nesle, at Tunis, where he had fought under Louis’ banner. A stay”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“It seems possible that it is to this time, too, that we can trace the first evidence of Eleanor acting as a mediator or arbitrator in disputes between noble houses. A letter from Gaston de Béarn dating from around this time refers to her intervention in his dispute with Fortulus Ameravi. Apparently Eleanor was establishing her own reputation, at least outside England.24 Edward, Eleanor and their entourage remained in Gascony until February”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“May 1252 and Alfonso X, new to the throne and with his father’s dying challenge ringing in his ears, was not slow to pick up the baton in this regard, very possibly encouraged by Gaston de Béarn, who will have been well placed to tell tales of Henry’s weakness. Straight after de Montfort’s trial, Alfonso accepted the homage of Gascon families alienated by de Montfort’s harsh policies – including the influential Gaston, who, although cousin to Eleanor of Provence, was never averse to mischief making for the Crown. Soon word began to filter through that Gascon wine merchants were seeking out new markets in Castile – doubtless also with the encouragement of Alfonso and Gaston.2”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“He appointed de Montfort to Gascony in 1248 to protect the area for Edward and yet refused to back his actions there, instead embracing the chief noble of the region, Gaston de Béarn, whom de Montfort had sent to England in chains, recalling de Montfort and putting him on trial. The result was that de Montfort was acquitted in circumstances which were humiliating to Henry. And yet, even after this, in the run-up to the wedding of Edward and Eleanor, Henry was again asking for help from de Montfort, which de Montfort gave – as was his way, at a price.19”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“Business came to join them there, in the form of Gaston de Béarn, who was committed to the custody of Sir Stephen de Pencestre,”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“preceded by three earls bearing the swords of state, followed by the treasurer in a dalmatic carrying the paten (gold or silver plate) to be”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“Eleanor wrote to Edward for assistance, which was duly sent, and while he remained in Paris until early August, these troops – possibly under Eleanor’s direction – gained a”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“At the latter stop Edmund of Cornwall, Edward’s double cousin – Richard of Cornwall’s son by Eleanor of Provence’s sister – was placed in charge of the realm. Then, after stops at”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“Edward had been seeking to boost the numbers of men taking up the status of knighthood, following a drastic fall in knights, from around 4,000 at the start of the century, to somewhere around 1,500 in the 1280s – of whom only a minority were actual fighting knights. To achieve this,”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“King of Aragon on Alfonso’s behalf, and persuaded Edward, despite his own needs, to arrange for Gaston de Béarn to take a hundred Gascon knights to Alfonso’s assistance. Even so, Alfonso continued to seek assistance.6”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“had been passed from one debtor to the other, it obviously needed plenty of work doing to it to make it a suitable venue for the court. In all likelihood, it was still very substantially a building site in 1279 when the visit was made. After the break at Leeds, there was a stay in London for the summer parliament and then a lengthy stop at Windsor Castle, presumably with the children, for the rest of July.”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“Nor was she the only captive making her appearance at court at this time – Gaston de Béarn returned to make his submission to Edward and to be released. It is doubtful, however, whether anyone present thought that this was the”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“in it Edward had spent considerable sums of money refurbishing the gardens of the Tower: at least 13,000 turves were laid and pear trees, rose trees and lily bulbs were all deployed.11”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“Thus we see, in 1275, Edward writing very politely to Alfonso, who had sought his help against the Moors, explaining that if he were to go on Crusade he had already been asked by the Pope to go again to the aid of the Holy Land, far from the Moors, but that while he could not help personally he was very content for his subjects in Bayonne to help if they were so minded, and following this up with letters to the Mayor of Bayonne offering ships for anyone who wished to serve.”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“Instead of relying upon moral and religious guidance from a spiritual director or adviser, Eleanor made her own study of theology and formed her own views. Both of these are, of course, entirely consistent with her upbringing under the Dominicans and the intellectual approach to religion which Alfonso X advocates in the Siete Partidas.”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“There are therefore distinct signs that Eleanor effectively rejected the established model for a queen’s involvement in religion. Instead of building relationships with prominent bishops, she did so with the Dominican Order (which encouraged an intellectual approach to religion) generally, and particularly notably with their Oxford chapter, where some of their most distinguished and controversial theologians were based.”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“Moreover, under her aegis, the entire thrust of literary production at court moved away from the rather ‘vanilla’ devotional verse and lives of the saints favoured by Henry III and Eleanor of Provence towards a genuine historical interest, sometimes in instructive prose works and sometimes in the forms of chivalric romances.28 Lives of the saints also appear to have figured in Eleanor’s library – when a payment was made in 1288 for repairs to some of her novels and books, the ones specified are lives of St Thomas Becket and St Edward the Confessor (the latter presumably the copy given her as a gift on her arrival in England).”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“, led by Thomas Aquinas and supported by Hotham, led the way. Given Eleanor’s education, her employment of a prominent Aristotelian thinker in Geoffrey de Aspale, and her intimacy with Hotham, it seems hugely likely that she followed this debate closely, and sided with the Dominicans – against Pecham.”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen

“every book recorded in Edward’s possession or that of his family can be traced back to Eleanor.”
― Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen