Eleanor of Castile: The Queen of Crusade

The Crusading Spirit of the Medieval Era

Crusade was not just war or a pilgrimage, it was an idea. As a cultural movement, crusading found its way into almost every facet of Western life and society. Holy war was celebrated and talked about in all corners, championed in poetry, song, literature and art. By the thirteenth century, the royalty and nobility of Latin Christendom felt that it was an ever-present mission that they had to continue.

Some monarchs went above and beyond to achieve that ideal – and queens were no exception. Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England (d.1290) was one European ruler who felt a constant affinity with holy war, like many of noble and royal women of her age. In many ways, her life orbited crusading, from her up-brining in Spain during the Reconquista, her journeys to Egypt and the Levant in the 1270s with the armies of King Louis IX of France and, even nearing her own death, she sponsored a crusading knight to go to Jerusalem in her stead. Eleanor even had the latter event commemorated in a painting on her tomb in Westminster Abbey.

Eleanor’s life and predilection for holy war is emblematic of her era, and the ubiquitous way in which one of the medieval world’s greatest conflicts reared its head in so much of daily life.

Eleanor’s Early Life

Eleanor of Castile

Eleanor’s background was rooted in the crusade movement. She was born in Burgos in 1241, in the Kingdom of Castile in modern-day Spain. She was named after one of her ancestors, Eleanor of Aquitaine – who joined her husband Loui VII of France on a crusade in the 1140s. Eleanor’s mother was the French noble Joan of Dammartin (d.1279), and her father was King Ferdinand III of Castile (d.1252). Ferdinand was famed for his tenacity in the crusading theatres of Spain. As Almohad power waned in al-Andalus, Ferdinand was one of many Christian leaders and warlords who grew steadily stronger taking fortresses and towns across Iberia in the 1230s and 40s.

Eleanor had even loftier links to the crusade amongst her wider family. Her uncle was John of Brienne (d.1237), a Champenois nobleman who had risen to become the King of Jerusalem itself in 1210. Later in life, he was elected Latin Emperor of Constantinople in 1229 – the epic Byzantine city, and much of their empire, having fallen to the armies of the Fourth Crusade back in 1204.[1] Stories of these forebears may well have conditioned the young Eleanor’s interest in crusading, and that would not be unusual for many growing up in the great houses of Christendom at the time.

When she was still only thirteen, Eleanor was sent to marry the fifteen-year-old Lord Edward, son of King Henry III of England – the future King Edward I. In England, the Spanish princess was witness to one of the most destructive conflicts in the island’s recent history. Simon de Montfort led a group of dissatisfied barons into open rebellion against Henry III, and what would later be known as the Second Barons’ War (1264-1267) turned into an ugly and bitter civil war. Eleanor’s husband, Edward, was heavily involved in the fighting and was even captured at the Battle of Lewes (1264) and spent the better part of a year in captivity before escaping to lead Royalist forces to a bloody victory at the Battle of Evesham (1265).[2]

The Doomed Crusade

The Eighth Crusade and siege of Tunis, 1270

The civil war in England came to a violent crescendo, and the rebels who took part were mercilessly put down. Eleanor and Edward had a couple of years of recovery from the chaos of war before news arrived that Louis IX was preparing for a campaign on an international scale. King Louis had led a vast crusading army nearly 20 years before – the Seventh Crusade (1248-1254) – where he met defeat and capture in Egypt. The crushing defeat, and the extortionate ransom he was forced to pay, were not forgotten. Now, the Christian territories of the Holy Land were slowly being taken by Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari, better known in the West as Sultan Baybars. Louis readied to lead a renewed effort in holy war. He assembled his vassals and spread word of his mission to the knights and nobles of Christendom. Eleanor and Edward decided to join this crusade together. Edward was set to lead the English contingent of who would join this Christian army. But, the princess and her husband took their vows as crusaders together, in 1267, in a show of clear partnership. Eleanor was bound for North Africa.[3]

Louis’s venture is known to history as the Eighth Crusade, sometimes simply as Louis’ Second Crusade, or the Tunis Crusade. The latter name gives away the crucial place. The Latin army was bound for this North African city and laid siege in 1270. Eleanor and the English Crusaders arrived to witness a doomed assault on the city. Slowly, disease took its toll on the crusader camp and killed off pilgrims and soldiers in droves. One by one dropped to the pestilence, and King Louis IX himself succumbed to it. For Louis, this was the start of his road to sainthood, but for many Crusaders still living, the mission was not complete.[4]

Tunis could not be taken but, reluctant to go back to England after such a bitter start to their armed pilgrimage, Eleanor and Edward took the English crusaders from Africa and headed toward the Holy Land and the remnants of the Crusader States. Many crusaders felt that they were fighting to preserve or expand the Latin East, and had been doing so for generations by this time. Here the vestiges of the Kingdom of Jerusalem were crumbling, and the Latin city of Acre quite literally so. This splinter group’s journey was so significant that it earned its crusading title: The Lord Edward’s Crusade.

This army did not have a clear campaign in mind, rather they came to strengthen the defences in the East. Eleanor and the English nobles oversaw the reconstruction of the fortifications of the coastal town, ensuring that it could defend itself against the forces of Baybars and the Mamluks.[5] Now that they were entrenched in the Holy Land, Edward’s forces could negotiate for a truce with Baybars. Within weeks of the peace treaty being signed, someone, almost certainly Baybars himself, sent an assassin to kill Edward in his bed. The English king managed to fight off the would-be assassin and killed him, but Edward was wounded in the attack. The injury soon turned gangrenous – some later legends had Eleanor curing the poisoned wound herself. In the end, Edward made a full recovery, and a ten-year truce was set up with the Mamluks.

Once Acre’s walls were shored up, Eleanor and many of the other English crusaders and pilgrims suddenly had the time and, more importantly, the safety and freedom to tour the shrines and holy places. Ancient sites, such as Nazareth, held a special appeal to these medieval Christians, who had spent their lives hearing stories of these landscapes from the bible. Their ultimate prize, however, Jerusalem, lay beyond reach, even to visitors. The pope had mandated that any Christian pilgrims who dared enter the holy city while it was still in Muslim hands would be excommunicated.

De re militari
“Concerning Military Matters”

Warfare and sightseeing was not the only thing on Eleanor’s mind. This was a time for cultural enrichment. While staying in Acre, she had a copy of Vegetius’ De re militari made by local craftsmen. This was an ancient Roman text on military tactics and training – already a popular read amongst medieval Europe’s learned (and militarily minded) elite. Eleanor’s copy was the first example of the book translated into French. The book was richly adorned with illuminations and artistry, crafted by local artists. This exquisite book was a gift for Edward, perhaps a commemoration of their time together on the crusade.[6]

Eleanor and Edward, and what was left of the English host, headed back for the West. En route home, Edward learned of his father’s death in 1272. It was another two years till the couple made it to England, where Edward was crowned king and Eleanor queen of the kingdom. It was the last and only time either of them were on a crusade – but holy war was never far from their minds.

Looking back to Jerusalem

Edward’s rule back in England was largely dominated by warfare and conquest – some of the most influential conflicts in shaping the future geopolitics of the British Isles – though not crusade itself. He led a series of wars against Llwelyn ap Gruffydd, and the powers of Wales (1276-1295), The Gascon War (1294-1301) followed by his involvement in the First War of Scottish Independence (1296-1328).[7] None of this relentless battle deterred Edward, or indeed Eleanor, from wishing to return to the Holy Land and the crusade.

The king took a formal (and legally and spiritually binding) oath in 1287 to return on crusade. This was a serious commitment and gives us a clear glimpse at Edward’s commitment to the Holy Land. It is not certain, but scholars believe that Eleanor also made a second vow at the same ceremony.[8] The couple had a clear desire to be leading figures in Christendom’s wars. Their near-constant involvement in domestic wars, however, kept them from ever following through.

The couple’s desire to go on crusade, but inability to do so, was actually a fairly common frustration of many medieval Christians. During the Middle Ages, many thousands of people in the West turned to supporting the crusading effort through prayer, by donating money to the Church, and by pressuring capable warriors into going in their place. Monastic writers of the period were particularly keen that women were involved in this kind of support, rather than actually going on a campaign – though that hardly stopped them, Eleanor included.[9]

Pilgrimage in Stead

Without the ability to go on crusade again herself, Eleanor turned her attention toward sponsoring proxies. This was a common practice in the thirteenth century. Many people paid for individuals to go on crusade on their behalf – they believed that by taking on the financial burden, their sins were cleansed just as the person going on pilgrimage received some spiritual reward from enduring the dangers of the journey.[10] The intention was usually for people who were unable to go on crusade to send soldiers, ideally knights. Though, on occasion, people took advantage of this system. In the 1190s, an English lord sent a serf named Hugh Travers to the Holy Land in his stead – hardly the trade-off the Church envisioned.[11]

Eleanor, however, seems to have tried to help aristocratic friends make their pilgrimage. In 1290, she began having some close financial dealings with a knight named Robert Tibetot, who she had travelled with on Lord Edward’s Crusade twenty years earlier. She gave Robert a substantial sum of £200 and gave him a loan of a further £100. Robert clearly needed to raise a lot of money, but it is totally clear why.[12] Then, Robert’s wife, Eva, appears amongst the records of Pope Nicholas IV. Eva had taken a crusade vow (her husband Robert may also have done so). It seems that the couple was raising money for their journey. However, the pope felt that Eva, specifically, should not personally go on crusade, but instead pay for a proxy herself – the cycle continued.[13]

Helping these pilgrims with their money woes was not enough for Eleanor, she sought out a crusader to go to the Holy Land directly on her behalf. She started to engage a Savoyard knight, named Otto I de Grandson (d.1328). Otto was originally from what is now Switzerland and had been in Edward’s service for decades. He too had been on the Lord Edward’s Crusade and was a close friend of Eleanor. A capable and proven knight, a keen crusader and, apparently, a man looking for a new chivalric challenge. For Eleanor, Otto fit the bill for a proxy.

Crusade was eye-wateringly expensive, and so it often took nobles months, if not years, to raise the necessary cash. We can see these preparations in the records between Eleanor and Otto. From 1289 to 1290, Eleanor funnelled money toward Otto, as he made his arrangements for the journey. She made sure that he got as much as a thousand marks, equivalent to about 160,000 silver pennies. Eleanor also made sure to include rewards as well as payment for Otto’s efforts – she left two manors to him in her will.[14]

There was more to this sponsorship than just an interest in seeing Otto go on pilgrimage; Eleanor was dying. Her health was in steep decline, and like many medieval Christians, she sought ways of cleansing her sins before the end. Crusade was often perceived as a route to do this. By sending Otto on crusade, she hoped his journey would help speed her soul through purgatory and onto heaven. These were powerful motivations in the High Middle Ages. Otto set off for the Eastern Mediterranean in 1290, just in time for Eleanor to see him off – she was dead by November of that year.

The Antependium of Othon de Grandson, made in Cyprus, late 13th century

Otto and his accompanying knights and retainers would have known that their crusade would be dangerous, but they had no idea quite how precarious it would become. They sailed to Acre – the Christian port that they had helped defend back in the 1270s – and now they would defend it again. The armies of the Mamluks closed in around the city and quickly put it under siege in 1291. Otto and his knights had to join the desperate fight for the city, but it was lost. He and his band got out of the port on some of the last ships to make it out of the harbour and fled to Cyprus.[15] While they were there, Otto had an extraordinary cloth hanging made, embroidered in gold with an image of himself praying. Amazingly, the souvenir has survived – known as the Grandson Antependium – and was used as an altar cloth in the Cathedral of Lausanne, his hometown, for centuries.[16] Otto and his companions did not return to England until 1294, long after Eleanor was dead and buried.

Burial and Commemoration

Eleanor’s tomb in Westminster Abbey is a rare and highly important work of art that points to her fascination with holy war. In the High Middle Ages, royal burials were incredibly significant both politically and culturally. The place and nature of the burial were paramount. These were opportunities for ruling houses to celebrate their links with favoured religious orders, and to build tombs that drew prayers and championed their most beloved ideals. Although the crusade was culturally very important to royals and nobles of the 1200s, we rarely see elite tombs decorated with crusading themes.[17] Eleanor’s monument is therefore unique.

Eleanor of Castile Effigy

Her burial, however, was not straightforward. There was a clear plan in place for Eleanor’s burial in Westminster, but perhaps neither she nor King Edward considered that she might die far from home. Eleanor succumbed while staying in Lincoln, some 140 miles from the capital. Her companions made the difficult choice to remove and bury her viscera – internal organs and flesh – in Lincoln Cathedral. This allowed the body to travel more easily (and more pleasantly for those going with the cadaver). The party set off, but they had to stop for the night twelve times on their way to London. When they finally arrived, Eleanor’s embalmed heart was buried in Blackfriars Priory (close to the modern Tube Station of the same name), whilst her body was laid to rest in Westminster.[18]

King Edward was distraught at his wife’s death and immediately embarked on a lavish project of commemoration. He had ornately carved stone crosses erected at the twelve towns and villages where Eleanor’s body had lain while journeying from Lincoln to London. Three of these crosses are still standing today and can be seen at Geddington, Hardingstone and Waltham (now called Waltham Cross). Wall paintings were made around the place of Eleanor’s heart burial inside Blackfriars Priory. We also know that the heart was buried together with the heart of a recently deceased knight named John de Vescy (d.1289) – another noble who also fought in Lord Edward’s Crusade.[19] The best was saved for the two tombs at Lincoln and Westminster. The London monument still stands; an ornate marble tomb chest, topped with an amazing gilt bronze effigy, crafted by expert metal workers. We know from a mid-seventieth-century that the Lincoln counterpart was very similar, but the monument was destroyed not long after the drawing was made.[20]

A careful nod to Eleanor’s love of crusade was made on her tomb in Westminster. Walter of Durham – the king’s expert artist – was commissioned to paint a scene on the base of Eleanor’s monument. This frieze showed a group of hooded pilgrims at Christ’s tomb in Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem. Alongside them, was a depiction of Otto de Grandson in his armour, kneeling and praying to the Virgin Mary and Jesus. This was a permanent celebration of Eleanor’s last act, sponsoring a crusader to make the ultimate pilgrimage to Jerusalem on her behalf – a powerful ideal for noblewomen of her day. Visitors to Westminster Abbey who shuffled past her tomb would clearly see that her spiritual salvation was believed to have been ensured through the crusade itself. [21]

This artistry did more than just highlight Eleanor’s interest in holy war: it championed the idea that crusading was an ideal pursuit for Europe’s royalty. Ironically, however, Eleanor’s tomb was made at a time when the crusades to the Holy Land were coming to a slow end. Acre had been the last Latin foothold in the Levant, and it was gone – though news of this may or may not have reached London by the time the painting was being made. Contemporaries did not know it yet, but there would be no efforts to recover the Holy Land in the next generation like there had been during the previous two hundred years. Eleanor had strived to live up to a crusading ideal amongst her society, but she was one of the very last.