The first queen of Edward I would perhaps have been completely
forgotten had it not been for her husband’s dramatic memorials
to her that were erected following her death in 1290. These were
the beautiful ‘Eleanor Crosses’ …the most famous one giving
Charing Cross in London its name. Eleanor of Castile was only
ten when she left her mother country Spain and arrived in
England in 1254 to marry Edward (also known as Longshanks). As
she was so very young at the time of their marriage, Edward went
off for a few years, indulging in his favourite pastimes of war,
tournaments and more war. He must have stopped fighting
occasionally as they produced sixteen children before she became
queen, her first child being born when she was 20 years old!
Edward’s life was full of warfare and after a successful
campaign in Wales, he then turned his attention to Scotland. He
wrote to Eleanor asking her to join him in the north, but she
was taken ill on the journey and died in a little village called
Harby in Nottinghamshire. Edwa