Eleanor of Castile

Eleanor of Castile , d.1290, queen consort of Edward I of England and daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile. At her marriage (1254) she brought to Prince Edward the territories of Ponthieu and Montreuil and claims to Gascony. She went with Edward on the crusade of 1270-72 to the Holy Land, where she supposedly saved his life after he had been wounded. On their return they were both crowned (1274), Henry III having died in 1272. After her death Edward had crosses erected to mark the stages of her funeral procession from Nottinghamshire to London. Of the 12 so-called Eleanor Crosses—at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, Waltham, Westcheap, and Charing—those at Geddington, Northampton, and Waltham are extant, though partially restored.

Eleanor of Castile (c.1244–90) Queen of England (1272–90). She was the daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile in Spain and married EDWARD I of England in 1254. Eleanor bore 13 children and accompanied her husband on Crusade (1270–73). After her death at Harby in Nottinghamshire, her body was embalmed and taken to Westminster Abbey. At each of the ten overnight stopping places Edward ordered a stone cross to be erected to her memory, the ‘Eleanor crosses’.