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.