world by the light of that which was approaching, offered advice full c wisdom on the subject:

"At Ambresbury the king with his moder was,
When to him came tiding of Troubletown Thomas.
They told him a deal Thomas would say to him,
To warn him full well which were his traitors grim.
His moder Eleanore abated her great bale,1
'Son,' said she, 'never more trow the traitor's tale:
Traitors such as he for hate will make a lie,

And through each word will be vengeance and felony.
Son, on my blessing, trow you not his saw,

But let him have ending as traitor by law.'

Edward took this wise advice, and Turbeville died without his confession being required, a proceeding which saved the king from many tormenting suspicions regarding the fidelity of his servants.

Among the royal letters preserved with the Tower records, occurs another from "the Ladye of gay Provence," after she had become the humble nun of Ambresbury. The queen-mother was, nevertheless, still a power which was invoked by her order when their privileges were in danger. The great convent of the Benedictines at Fontevraud, d which Ambresbury was a branch, had entreated their royal penitent to prefer the following petition to her son. The original is written in Norman French, and the style is naïve and familiar, like all this queen's other epistles.

ELINOR, QUEEN-DOWAGER, TO EDWARD I.2

"To the most noble prince and our dearest son Edward, by God's grace king of England, lord of Ireland, and duke of Guienne, Elinor, humble nun of the order of Fontevraud, of the convent of Ambresbury, health and our blessing.

"Sweetest son, our abbess of Fontevraud has prayed us that we would entreat the king of Sicily to guard and preserve the franchises of her house, which some people wish to damage: and because we know well that he will do much more for your prayer than he will for ours (for you have better deserved it), we pray you, good son, that for love of us you will request and specially require this thing from him, and that he will command that the things which the abbess holds in his lordship may be in his guard and protection, and that neither she nor hers may be molested or grieved.

"Good son, if it please you, command that the billet be hastily delivered. We wish you health in the sweet Jesus, to whom we commend you."

of

Charles, king of Sicily, possessing a portion of Provence in right of Beatrice, queen Eleanor's sister, the widely-spreading dependencies Fontevraud in that country felt some apprehension lest this rapacious prince should not prove good lord to them. Hence the application made to the royal votaress, who was veiled in their great English

convent.

Eleanor's next epistle to her son bears a more general interest than the conventual supplication: it is an entreaty that the mother of one of the royal wards may see her son. The original is in Norman French.

1 Ceased from moaning with pain. 2 Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, vol. i. p. 59.

1291.]

Death of Queen Eleanor.

285

"To the most noble prince and her very dear son Edward, by God's grace king of England, lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine, Elinor, humble nun of the order of Fontevraud, of the convent of Ambresbury, wishes health and her blessing.

"Sweetest son, we know well how great is the desire that a mother has to see her child when she has been long away from him, and that dame Margaret Neville, companion [consort] of master John Giffard, has not seen for a long time past her child, who is in the keeping of dame Margaret de Weyland, and has a great desire to see him.

"We pray you, sweetest son, that you will command and pray the aforesaid Margaret de Weyland, that she will suffer that the mother may have the solace of her child for some time, after her desire.

"Dearest son, we commend you to God. Given at Ambresbury the fourth day of March." The heart which prompted this pretty simple appeal, however purified from the vanities of the world, evidently retained its human sympathies. The charities of Eleanor, too, were exemplary: every Friday she distributed from her convent 57. in silver among the poor. It ought to be remembered, for the better appreciation of this conduct, that the destitute in those days had no support but conventual alms.

Eleanor of Provence survived the king her husband nineteen years. She died at the nunnery of Ambresbury, June 24th, during the absence of her son in Scotland. Thomas Wikes thus records the particulars of her death and burial, in his Latin chronicle: "The fleeting state of worldly glory is shown by the fact, that the same year carried off two English queens, wife and mother of the king, both inexpressibly dear to him. The nuns of Ambresbury not being able to sepulture the queenmother with sufficient magnificence, had her body embalmed, so that no corruption ensued, and in a retired place reverentially deposited it, till Edward returned from his Scottish campaign. On the king's return, he summoned all his clergy and barons to Ambresbury, where he solemnly completed the entombing of his mother, on the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Mary, in her conventual church, where her obsequies were reverently celebrated. But the heart of his mother king Edward carried with him to London,-indeed, he brought there the hearts of both the queens; and on the next Sunday, the day of St. Nicholas, before a vast multitude, they were honourably interred, the conjugal heart in the church of the Friars Preachers, and the maternal heart in that of the Friars Minors, in the same city."

In the parliamentary rolls is a pitiful petition from the converted Jews, patronised "by dame Alianor, companion of king Henry III.," setting forth, "That their converts had been promised two hundred and two pounds and fourpence from the exchequer for their sustenance, which had not been received by them; and that the poor converts prayed their lord, king Edward I., to grant the same, seeing that the said poor converts prayed indefatigably for the souls of the late king Henry and 1 Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies,

vol. i. p. 59.

Chron. Lanercost, quoted ibid.
Commonly called the Minories. Those

authors are mistaken who say she is buried in St. Edward's chapel; there is no memento of her in Westminster-abbey.

the queen Eleanor, his companion, on whom God have mercy; theref they hope the said sum may be paid by the treasurer for the sustena of the converts. For God's sake, sire, take pitie!" is the conclud sentence of this moving supplication.

Queen Eleanor survived to see the conquest of Wales, and the c tract of marriage between her grandson, Edward of Caernarvon, the l of England, and her great-granddaughter Margaret, the heiress of S land and Norway, through which a peaceful union of those realms v England, Ireland, Wales, Aquitaine, and Ponthieu was contemplat an arrangement which promised to render her descendants the n powerful sovereigns in Europe.

ELEANORA OF CASTILE,

SURNAMED THE FAITHFUL,

FIRST QUEEN OF EDWARD I.

THE marriage of the infanta donna, Eleanora of Castile, with prince Edward, heir of England, happily terminated a war which her brother, king Alphonso, surnamed "the Astronomer," was waging with Henry III., on account of an obsolete claim the Castilian monarch laid to the province of Gascony. Alphonso had invaded Guienne, but, contrary to his usual fortune, Henry III. had the best of the contest, and the royal Castilian was glad to make overtures for peace. Henry, who had not the least gall of bitterness in his composition, and was always more willing to promote a festival than continue a fray, luckily recollected that Alphonso had a fair young sister to dispose of, whose age would just suit his heir, prince Edward. He therefore despatched his private chaplain, the bishop of Bath, with his secretary, John Mansel, from Bourdeaux, to demand the hand of the young infanta, as a pledge of her brother's placable intentions. These ambassadors speedily returned with don Alphonso's consent, inscribed in a scroll sealed with gold. Alphonso stipulated that the English prince should come to Burgos, to receive the hand of his bride, five weeks before Michaelmas-day, 1254; otherwise the contract should be null and void. The stipulation was not unreasonable, for both the mother and grandmother of the bride had been long engaged to English princes who had broken their troth.

The king of Castile was but half-brother to the young donna Eleanora. She was the daughter of Ferdinand III. of Castile, by Joanna, countess of Ponthieu, who had been many years before contracted to Henry III., king of England. Joanna inherited Ponthieu from her grandmother,— that princess Alice of France, whose repudiation from Richard Cœur de Lion, in the preceding century, had involved Europe in war. Eleanora,

He was the celebrated royal philosopher who invented the Alphonsine tables of astronomy. His countrymen call him, Il Sabio,' or, the Wise.' Preserved in the Chapter-house at Westminster.

as the sole descendant of these princesses, was heiress-presumptive to their provinces, which the royal widow of Castile, her mother, retained in her own possession. When the preliminaries of the marriage were settled, the queen of England, Eleanor of Provence, set out for Bourdeaux with her son, prince Edward; and from thence travelled across the Pyrenees with him to Burgos, where they arrived August 5th, 1254, within the time limited by the "royal Astronomer." A stately festival was held in the capital of Castile, in honour of the nuptials of the young infanta with the heir of England. At a tournament given by king Alphonso, the prince received knighthood from the sword of his brother-in-law. Edward was just fifteen, and the princess some years younger, at the time of their espousals.

After the chivalric festivities at Burgos had ceased, queen Eleanor recrossed the Pyrenees, accompanied by her son and young daughter-in-law. King Henry waited at Bourdeaux to receive his son's bride. He had prepared so grand a festival for the reception of the young infanta, that he expended three hundred thousand marks on her marriage-feast, to the indignation of his English peers. When one of them reproached him for this extravagance, the king replied, in a dolorous tone: "Oh! for the head of God say no more of it, lest men should stand amazed at the relation thereof!" 2

Henry settled on the prince, his heir, all the Aquitanian domains inherited from Eleanor, his grandmother; he likewise created him prince of Wales, with an exhortation to employ his youth in conquering the principality, of which he had, rather prematurely, assumed the title, together with that of Guienne. One thousand pounds per annum was the dower settled on the young Eleanora, in case the prince should die before his father. Prince Edward and his bride returned to Guienne after this costly festival, in 1254. The young princess accompanied the royal family to Paris: she was lodged in the Temple, where Henry III. gave that celebrated banquet to St. Louis, mentioned in the preceding biographies as "the feast of kings." Henry ordered a suite of rooms to be fitted up for his daughter-in-law in the castle of Guildford; his directions particularly specify that her chamber is to have glazed windows, a raised hearth, a chimney, a wardrobe, and an adjoining oratory, or oriel.

the

When Henry III. was preparing to invade Scotland, to avenge affronts his daughter had received in the autumn of 1255, he was apprized that the infant don Sancho, archbishop-elect of Toledo (half-brother to Eleanora), with don Garcias Madinez, were on their way to England. They were lodged in the new Temple: the walls of their apartments were hung from their travelling stores, by their attendants, with silken tapestry, and the floors covered with rich carpets, -the first time such luxuries

1 She is mentioned by all chroniclers as a very young girl. Piers of Langtoft, her coll 2 M. Paris. temporary, speaks of her as a child. Her age seems about ten at this period.