Eleanor of Castile (1363-1416)

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Eleanor of Castile (Spanish Leonor ; * around 1363, † 1415 or 1416) was the wife of King Charles III. Queen of Navarre from 1387 to 1415/16 .

Life

Eleanor was a daughter of the Castilian king Henry II of Trastámara and his wife Juana Manuel , the daughter of the Infante Juan Manuel of Castile and the Blanka de la Cerda y Lara.

In the Peace of Alcoutim (1371), which ended the first unsuccessful war between King Ferdinand I of Portugal and Henry II of Trastámara, Ferdinand and Henry's daughter Eleonore were married. The marriage project did not materialize, however, because the Portuguese king fell in love with the noblewoman Leonore Teles de Menezes , who was at his court at the time , had her marriage annulled and then married her.

To confirm the armistice between Navarre and Castile , Eleanor married the heir to the throne Charles (III) (called "the noble") of Navarre on May 27, 1375 in Soria . However, he had to live as a hostage at the French court from 1377 to 1381. After the death of her father (1379), Eleanor became the mistress of a large fiefdom between Roa and Sepúlveda . Her husband succeeded his father Charles II (called "the bad one") to the throne in 1387, with which Eleanor rose to become Queen of Navarre.

However, there were considerable marital disputes between the royal couple. In 1388, on the occasion of a meeting between her husband and her brother, the Castilian King John I , Eleanor asked for permission to retreat to her home town of Castile for a while in order to be able to better cure an illness that had attacked her in the local climate . She took her four young daughters, whom she had given birth to her husband, with her and resided in Valladolid . Two years later, her husband asked her to return, as she had since recovered and should be crowned with him. The Castilian king supported Charles III's wish, but Eleanor argued against it that she had been treated with disdain in Navarre, that she had been late in receiving the funds allocated to her and not in full, and even believed that she was wanted to be poisoned. So she stayed in Castile while her husband was crowned alone in Pamplona on February 13, 1390. Only her eldest daughter Johanna was allowed to return to Navarre, where she was recognized by the Cortes as Navarre's heir to the throne due to the lack of male offspring of the king .

On October 9, 1390, John I of Castile died of a riding accident and he was followed by his underage son Heinrich III. Eleonore once again refused her husband's request to come back to him, although he had officially promised to treat her extremely courteously. Instead, she intervened in the party struggles in Castile over the next few years and intrigued vigorously against her nephew Henry III, who was declared of legal age in 1393, while she continued to ignore her husband's requests. When she was angry about the reduction of the annual salary allocated to her from the Castilian state treasury and made contact with other dissatisfied nobles and stirred up unrest, she was in mid-1394 by Heinrich III. besieged and captured in her castle Roa. She had to live under strict supervision in Valladolid and finally return to her husband in February 1395, with her royal nephew giving her honorable escort to the border. Charles III received his wife brilliantly and had prayers of thanks and celebrations held for her happy return home.

From now on Eleanor was fully involved in the political life of Navarre. Her relationship with her husband improved and she bore him four more children, including two sons Karl and Ludwig, who died very young. On June 3, 1403, her coronation as Queen of Navarre took place in Pamplona. Several times when Charles III. stayed in France, she represented him as regent. She also contributed to the continuation of good relations between Navarre and Castile and to the fact that noble Castilians - including the Dukes of Benavente and members of the powerful Dávalos, Mendoza and Zuñiga families - settled in Navarre.

Eleanor died in 1415 or 1416 at the age of about 53. She was buried in the Cathedral of Pamplona , Santa María la Real, and later her husband, who died in 1425, was buried at her side.

progeny

Eleonore and Charles III. had eight children:

  • Johanna (* 1382, † July 1413), wife of Count Johann I von Foix since 1402
  • Maria (* around 1383, † January 6, 1406), died unmarried and childless
  • Blanka (* around 1385/87, † April 3, 1441), wife of King Martin I of Sicily since 1402 , wife of John II of Aragon since 1419 , Queen of Navarre since 1425
  • Beatrix (* around 1386, † around 1410/12), wife of Jacques II. De Bourbon, comte de La Marche since 1406
  • Isabella (* around 1396, † 1435/50), wife of Jean IV of Armagnac since 1419
  • Karl (born August 15, 1397, † August 12, 1402), Prince of Viana
  • Ludwig (* around 1401/02, † October 14, 1402), Prince of Viana
  • Margarete (* around 1403, † before 1412)

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to some sources Eleanor of Castile died on February 27, 1415 in Olite , according to others, however, on March 5, 1416 in Pamplona .
  2. ↑ Navarre, Medieval Lands
personal data
SURNAME Eleanor of Castile
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of Navarre
DATE OF BIRTH around 1363
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1415 or March 5, 1416