Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile (13 October 1162-31 October 1214) was the Queen of Castile from September 1177 to 5 October 1214, reigning with Alfonso VIII of Castile.
Biography[]
Eleanor of England was born on 13 October 1162 in Domfront, Normandy, the second daughter of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. She was the sister of Richard the Lionheart, John of England, Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony, Geoffrey II of Brittany, Joan of England, Queen of Sicily, and Henry the Young King, and she was married off to King Alfonso VIII of Castile at the age of twelve in 1174. The wedding was supposed to secure the southern border of Aquitaine with the Iberian Peninsula, as well as to assist King Alfonso against Sancho VI of Navarre; in 1177, King Henry oversaw arbitration over the border dispute between Castile and Navarre. Gascony, pledged as security for the full payment of Eleanor's dowry, was invaded by King Alfonso in 1205, but he yielded the claim in 1208 after Eleanor negotiated a peace with King John of England. He husband died on 5 October 1214, and a grief-stricken Eleanor could not preside over the funeral; she died twenty-eight days after him.