Infant Mortality

Royal and noble families of the Medieval era found themselves locked in a dangerous and tragic game of roulette, that of producing an heir.  Young brides felt the pressure and the physical discomforts of being pregnant early and often.  And both parents felt the grief and disappointment at stillbirths, deaths of infants and toddlers, or even of preteens and teenagers on the cusp of life.  Edward I of England and his beloved wife, Eleanor of Castile, were unlucky in this regard even by the standards of their day.

Edward was the son of Henry III and nephew of Richard of Cornwall.  He was tall, a fearless athlete and rider, and later an able military commander and lawgiver, though he wouldn't inherit the throne until 1272.  Eleanor had lion's blood in her veins.  Her grandmother was Eleanor of England, daughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, for whom she was named.  Edward married Eleanor in 1254, when she was about thirteen years old.  Girls of that age were considered marriagable and they would have started married life right away.  And, something unexpected happened.  Edward and Eleanor fell in love.  They would be almost inseparable for most of their lives together.  Eleanor would come to depend on her husband's strength and patience.  Unlike a later Tudor king, he didn't throw her away when childbearing and childrearing didn't come as easily as they both hoped. 

Tragedy struck within months of their wedding.   In 1255, Eleanor gave birth to a stillborn daughter.  Then, another girl, Katherine, 1261-1264, and Joanna, 1265.  John, 1266-1271, was sent to live with his great-uncle, Richard of Cornwall, who had to bear the sad news to both Grandpa Henry III and Prince Edward.  Little Henry was also short-lived, 1268-1274.  He would die in the care of his widowed grandmother Eleanor of Provence.  There was a temporary reprieve with a tiny Eleanor, 1269-1298.  At least she lived to grow up, get married and have kids of her own.  Next was a daughter, born while Edward and Eleanor were on Crusade in Palestine in 1271.  Some sources name her Juliana, though there was no official record of her name.  Next was Joan, 1272-1307.  She, too, would live to have children of her own, and later give her father a few headaches with her choices in men.

Finally, Edward and Eleanor could hope.  Alphonso, named for his great-grandfather on Eleanor's side of the family, born in 1273 and named Earl of Chester.  England almost had a King Alphonso, but he, too, died very young.  Eleanor and Edward kept trying, just in case.  One needed an heir and a spare, or two or more.  Margaret, 1275-1333, was also a healthy child who grew up and gave her father grandchildren.  Berengaria, 1276-1278, did not.  There was a stillborn daughter, 1277.  Mary, 1279-1332, became a Benedictine nun.  It was common practice at the time for a noble family to donate a child or two to the church, along with a generous dowry of land and manor houses.  Another stillborn son in 1280, and Elizabeth, 1282-1316, who also lived to grow up.  Finally, the future Edward II, 1284-1327, who was born just weeks after his elder brother Alphonso had died.

This list doesn't account for any miscarriages Eleanor might have had, which could explain some of the earlier gaps among the children's births.  After Little Edward's birth, Eleanor's health slowly spiraled downhill.  Heart trouble might have been part of the cause.  Whether there were any gynecological issues from all these births will never be known.  Little Edward was 6 when his mother died in her husband's arms in 1290.  With just one small son and five growing daughters to his credit, Edward I needed to marry again.  He wasn't able to make that decision until 1299, when he married Margaret of France years after Eleanor's death and the poignant tributes her husband planned in her honor.  Margaret would give Edward two boys who would live to have children of their own.  Then, finally, a little girl named Eleanor, 1306-1310. 

Places: The Eleanor Crosses

Kings and emperors have throughout history erected monuments to the women they loved, whether it be the hanging gardens of Babylon or the Taj Mahal.  A Plantagenet king commemorated the love and loss of his queen in a far more simple and eloquent fashion, the Eleanor Crosses.

Eleanor (1241-1290) was a Spanish princess, the daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile.  She had Plantagenet blood in her veins, being a great-granddaughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II.  In 1254, she married Prince Edward, heir to Henry III in Burgos.  She would give birth at the age of 13 to their first child, a daughter who died young, and eventually bear Edward sixteen children, though only a few of them would survive to adulthood.  Through these tragedies, through wars, rebellions, a crusade and back and forth from the Plantagenet holdings on the Continent and throughout his realm, Eleanor followed her husband as prince and later king in 1272.  Love was no expected or required in a royal marriage, but Edward and Eleanor appear to have been blessed with a good death of love for each other.

Then, tragedy struck.  In 1287 Eleanor was struck by what was then known as a double quartian fever, most likely malaria.   She may also have had heart and live problems.  In 1290, knowing that her health was failing fast, Eleanor and Edward set off on one last progress.  Such was the state of the queen's health that parliament was convened in Clipstone, rather than London, so that Edward could stay close to her.  She finally died in Harby, Nottinghamshire on November 28, 1290, aged 49 years old.  Edward was heartbroken.  For three days all royal business stopped.  Edward accompanied her body from Lincoln to Westminster in a grand funeral process.  He also commanded that elaborate stone crosses be erected to her memory at each of the stops between the two points.  They stood at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Hardingstone, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, Waltham, Westcheap/Cheapside and Charing, each a testament to a king's love and loss.  Of the original twelve monuments, only three crosses survive, those at Geddington, Hardingstone and Waltham survive, Geddington being the best example.  The elaborate cupola at Charing Cross is a replica from the Victorian era. 

Edward went on to marry again, but would never forget his beloved Eleanor.  When he remarried again, he and his new wife named their only child Eleanor. 

Royal FamilY: the Children of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine

Large families were a plus for royalty and nobility in the Medieval era.  Infant and child mortality was high and whether or not a child survived to adulthood was a matter of luck.  Sons who survived could hope to inherit some or all of their family's domains, but would also serve as commanders, governors or in whatever other position was needed.  Daughters were vital for forging marriage alliances through marriage.  Nor was being illegitimate necessarily a bar to advancement.  The illegitimate son of a king still bore royal blood and could inherit land or titles.  King's daughters by unofficial unions could also hope to marry well.  To that end, many Plantagenet kings had large families, both official and otherwise, who in turn had large families, which makes for plenty of drama and intrigue. The children of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, who are somewhat familiar from the movie The Lion in Winter, are a case in point.

Eleanor had been married before, to Louis VII of France.  She had two daughters by him, Marie and Alix.  When Louis and Eleanor divorced, Louis kept custody of the girls, though they maintained a relationship with their mother.  Then Eleanor married Henry, and the childbearing began in earnest.  Their first son William IX, Count of Poitiers, died as a toddler (1153-1156).  The other children lived to grow up, including. Henry the Young King (1155-1183); Matilda, Duchess of Saxony and Bavaria (1156-1189); Richard I the Lionheart (1157-1199); Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (1158-1186); Eleanor, Queen of Castile (1162-1214); Joanna, Queen of Sicily (1165-1199); and John, King of England (1166-1216).  Three Kings, two queens, a Duchess, a Duke, and a Count.  Henry was intended as his father's heir, taking England, Normandy and Anjou, which is why he was crowned a junior king in his father's lifetime.  This didn't sit too well with Richard and Geoffrey.  Richard was heir to his mother's domains, including Aquitaine and Poitou, but he also wanted his father's inheritance.  So did Geoffrey, who was Duke of Brittany by right of his wife.  John, who would have to be content with land in Ireland if he got anything at all, was hurt at being left out.  Henry, Richard and Geoffrey started a civil war that turned into a rebellion against their own father.  It was in this atmosphere that Henry called his Christmas court at Chinon in 1183 as depicted in the movie.

An often-told story about Henry II is that he once showed a visitor a tapestry or a mural in the Palace of Winchester that showed an adult eagle being cannibalized by its own offspring.  Henry explained that his own sons would do the same to him and he died fighting Richard.  But for all their squabbling, the Plantagenet siblings would stand together against a common foe.  Richard bailed his sister Joanna out of her dispute over her dowry with her husband's successor, Tancred of Sicily.  After the Crusade, he was trying to reach the safety of the domains of his brother-in-law, Henry the Lion of Saxony, when fate in the form of Leopold of Austria got in the way.  Eleanor, who would survive all but two of her children, had to rally support for Richard during his absence on crusade, while keeping John at bay.  It makes for good movies and novels but would have been a hazardous life for anyone who aroused the ire of the power couple of the age or their brood of ravenous eaglets.