Eleanor of Castile, the remarkable woman behind England’s greatest medieval king, Edward I, has been effectively airbrushed from history; yet she had one of the most fascinating lives of any of England’s queens. Her childhood was spent in the centre of the Spanish reconquest and was dominated by her military hero of a father (St Ferdinand) and her prodigiously clever brother (King Alfonso X the Learned). Married at the age of twelve and a mother at thirteen, she gave birth to at least sixteen children, most of whom died young. She was a prisoner for a year amid a civil war in which her husband’s life was in acute danger. Devoted to Edward, she accompanied him everywhere, including on Crusade to the Holy Land. All in all, she was to live for extended periods in five different countries.

Eleanor was a highly dynamic, forceful personality who acted as part of Edward’s innermost circle of advisers, and successfully accumulated a vast property empire for the English Crown. In cultural terms her influence in architecture and design – and even gardening – can be discerned to this day, while her idealised image still speaks to us from Edward’s beautiful memorials to her, the Eleanor crosses. This book reveals her untold story.

• The only biography of

  this fascinating woman.

• The success of books

  on Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Elfrida confirms the interest in England’s

  medieval queens, and there is significant interest in Edward I.

• Edward’s beautiful

  monuments to her, the Eleanor Crosses, still stand in Geddington, Hardingstone

  in Northampton, and Waltham Cross; remnants remain in Lincoln, Stamford, the

  V&A and the Museum of London; reconstruction crosses stand in Stamford,

  Dunstable and most famously in front of Charing Cross railway station.

• Eleanor is also

  connected to all manner of other locations, including Westminster Abbey (main

  tomb), Lincoln Cathedral (viscera burial), Leeds Castle in Kent (designed by

  Eleanor), Caernarfon Castle (birthplace of her son Edward II) and Windsor

  Castle.

• The

  perfect book to stock in the many towns, museums and heritage sites with a

  strong connection to Eleanor of Castile.

• Reviews in history

  magazines & national newspapers, to include The Independent & The Sunday Times, THES,

  and BBC History Magazine.