Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile

For other people named Eleanor of England, see Eleanor of England (disambiguation).

For other people named Eleanor of Castile, see Eleanor of Castile (disambiguation).

Eleanor of England
Queen consort of Castile
Tenure	September 1177 – 5 October 1214
Burial	Las Huelgas, Burgos
Spouse	Alfonso VIII of Castile
Issue Detail	Berengaria, Queen of León and Castile Infante Sancho of Castile Infanta Sancha of Castile Infante Henry of Castile Urraca, Queen of Portugal Blanche, Queen of France Infante Ferdinand of Castile Infanta Mafalda of Castile Eleanor, Queen of Aragon Infanta Constance of Castile Henry I of Castile
House	House of Plantagenet
Father	Henry II of England
Mother	Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine

Eleanor of England (known in Castilian as Leonor) (13 October 1162 – 31 October 1214) was Queen of Castile and Toledo as wife of Alfonso VIII of Castile. She was a daughter of Henry II of England and his wife, Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Early life

She was born in the castle at Domfront, Normandy, and was baptised by Henry of Marcy. She was the sixth child and second daughter of King Henry II of England and his wife, Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. Her godfather was the chronicler Robert of Torigny, who had a special interest in her and recorded her life as best he could. She received her first name as a namesake of her mother, whose name "Eleanor" (or Alienor) had previously been unrecorded though may have been related to the Greek Helen or the Italian Elena. Another view holds that in the Occitan language, Eleanor simply meant "the other Aenor", since Eleanor of Aquitaine was named for her mother, called Aenor.

Issue of Eleanor & Henry II (Eleanor is third to end)

Family

Eleanor was a younger maternal half-sister of Marie de Champagne and Alix of France. She was a younger sister of William IX, Count of Poitiers, Henry the Young King, Matilda, Duchess of Saxony, Richard I of England and Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany. She was also an older sister of Queen Joan of Sicily and King John of England.

Marriage

When she was 14 years old, before 17 September 1177, she was married to King Alfonso VIII of Castile in Burgos. The marriage was arranged to secure the Pyreneean border, with Gascony offered as her dowry.

Of all Eleanor of Aquitaine's daughters, her namesake Eleanor best inherited her mother's political influence. She was almost as powerful as her husband, who specified in his will that she was to rule alongside their son in the event of his death. It was she who persuaded him to marry their daughter Berengaria to the King of Leon in the interest of peace.

When Alfonso died, his Queen was reportedly so devastated with grief that she was unable to preside over the burial. Their eldest daughter, Berengaria, instead performed these honours. Eleanor then took sick and died only twenty-eight days after her husband, and was buried at Las Huelgas Abbey in Burgos.

Children

She and her husband had the following surviving issue:

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Infanta Berenguela (Berengaria)	Burgos, 1 January/ June 1180	Las Huelgas near Burgos, 8 November 1246	Married firstly in Seligenstadt on 23 April 1188 with Duke Conrad II of Swabia, but the union (only by contract and never solemnised) was later annulled. Married in Valladolid between 1/16 December 1197 with King Alfonso IX of León as his second wife. After their marriage was dissolved on grounds of consanguinity in 1204, she returned to her homeland and became regent of her minor brother King Henry I. Queen of Castile in her own right after the death of Henry I in 1214, immediately abdicated in favour of her son.
Infante Sancho	Burgos, 5 April 1181	26 July 1181	Heir of the throne since his birth, died aged three months.
Infanta Sancha	20/28 March 1182	3 February 1184/ 16 October 1185	Died in early childhood.
Infante Enrique (Henry)	1184	1184?	Heir of the throne since his birth, died either shortly after being born or in infancy. His existence is disputed among sources.
Infanta Urraca	1186/ 28 May 1187	Coimbra, 3 November 1220	Married in 1206 to Prince Alfonso, who succeeded his father in 1212 as King Alfonso II of Portugal.
Infanta Blanca (Blanche)	Palencia, 4 March 1188	Paris, 27 November 1252	Married in the Abbaye de Port-Mort near Pont-Audemer, Normandy on 23 May 1200 with Prince Louis, who succeeded his father in 1223 as King Louis VIII of France. Regent of the Kingdom of France during her son's minority (1226–1234) and during his absence on the Seventh Crusade.
Infante Fernando (Ferdinand)	Cuenca, 29 September 1189	Madrid, 14 October 1211	Heir of the throne since his birth. On whose behalf Diego of Acebo and the future Saint Dominic travelled to Denmark in 1203 to secure a bride He died soon after returning from campaigning against the Moors.
Infanta Mafalda	Plasencia, 1191	Salamanca, 1211	Betrothed in 1204 to Infante Ferdinand of Leon, eldest son of King Alfonso IX and stepson of her oldest sister.
Infanta Constanza (Constance)	1195	Las Huelgas, 1243	A nun at the Cistercian monastery of Santa María la Real at Las Huelgas in 1217, she later became Abbess of her community.
Infanta Leonor (Eleanor)	1202	Las Huelgas, 1244	Married in Ágreda on 6 February 1221 with King James I of Aragon. After her marriage was dissolved on grounds of consanguinity in April 1229, she became a nun at the Cistercian monastery of Santa María la Real at Las Huelgas.
King Enrique I (Henry I) of Castile	Valladolid, 14 April 1204	Palencia, 6 June 1217	Only surviving son, he succeeded his father in 1214 aged ten under the regency firstly of his mother and later his oldest sister Berengaria. Married in Burgos before 29 August 1215 with Infanta Mafalda of Portugal, the union was unconsummated and dissolved in 1216 on grounds of consanguinity. Soon after his divorce was betrothed with Infanta Sancha of León, eldest daughter of King Alfonso IX and stepdaughter of his oldest sister, but died killed by a tile coming off a roof before the marriage could be solemnized.

Eleanor & Alphonso's tomb

Ancestors

Family of Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile

16. Fulk of Jerusalem 8. Fulk V of Anjou 17. Bertrade de Montfort 4. Geoffrey V of Anjou 18. Elias I of Maine 9. Ermengarde of Maine 19. Matilda of Château-du-Loir 2. Henry II of England 20. William I of England 10. Henry I of England 21. Matilda of Flanders 5. Empress Matilda 22. Malcolm III of Scotland 11. Matilda of Scotland 23. Saint Margaret of Scotland 1. Eleanor of England 24. William VIII of Aquitaine 12. William IX of Aquitaine 25. Hildegarde of Burgundy 6. William X of Aquitaine 26. William IV of Toulouse 13. Philippa of Toulouse 27. Emma of Mortain 3. Eleanor of Aquitaine 28. Boson II de Châtellerault 14. Aimery I of Châttellerault 29. Alienor de Thouars 7. Aenor de Châtellerault 30. Barthelemy de L'Isle Bouchard 15. Dangereuse de L' Isle Bouchard 31. Gerberge de Blaison

Sources

• Fraser, Antonia. The Middle Ages, A Royal History of England. University of California Press, 2000. ISBN 0520227999.
• Gillingham, John. "Events and Opinions: Norman and English Views of Aquitaine, c.1152–c.1204." The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France between the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, edd. Marcus Bull and Catherine Léglu. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005. ISBN 1 84383 114 7.
• Rada Jiménez, Rodrigo. Historia de los hechos de España.
• Weir, Alison. Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. London: Vintage Books, 2008. ISBN 009953973X.
• Wheeler, Bonnie, and Parsons, John Carmi. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. ISBN 0230602363.

External links

• Adrian Fletcher’s Paradoxplace – Leonora’s Tomb in the Cistercian Nunnery of Santa Maria de Real Huelgas in Burgos, Spain