At the close of the Clipstone Parliament, Edward travelled slowly towards Harby, arriving there on the 20th November. The gravity of the Queen’s illness seems scarcely to have been appreciated by the King. He spent six days on his journey from Clipstone to Harby—a distance of little more than 20 miles. On his arrival the hopelessness of the Queen’s condition must have been apparent to him. She died on the evening of the 28th November.
Evidence of the King’s grief and depression is given not only by the contemporary writers, but by Edward’s actions at the time of the death of Eleanor and during the subsequent months. The gracious character of the Queen’s influence on her consort, and the affection she inspired in her people, is amply testified by the contemporary annalists. Walsingham, once more quoting his predecessors such as Rishanger, describes her shortly in the following sentence: “She was in very truth a woman of pious, gracious, and compassionate disposition, the friend of all English folk, and as a pillar of the whole realm.”[[34]] The important point of this description is the emphasis laid on the fact that Eleanor was the friend of her English subjects. This had not been the characteristic of her predecessors. In the time of Henry III, the foreign relatives of both the Queen and the King swarmed into England, and memories of the unjust favours showered upon them still rankled in the minds of the people. An echo of this can still be heard on listening to the tale of the annalist at Dunstable. He writes from the English point of view, and is chiefly concerned with describing the benefits received by his Convent from the King and Queen.[[35]]
[34]. “Fuerat nempe mulier pia, modesta, misericors, Anglicorum amatrix omnium, et velut columna regni totius. Cujus temporibus alienigenæ Angliam non gravabant, incolæ nullatenus per regales opprimebantur, si ad aures ejus vel minima querela oppressionis aliqualiter pervenisset. Tristes ubique, prout dignitatem suæ permittebat, consolabatur, et discordes ad concordium, quantum potuit, reducebat.”
[35]. Ann. de Dunstaplia: Annales monastici. Rolls series, iii, p. 362. Of Eleanor this annalist drily remarks: “Hyspana genere quæ plura et optima maneria adquisivit.”
Edward’s letter conveying information of the Queen’s death to the Abbot of Cluny still remains, and gives pathetic evidence of his own sorrow: “Whom while living we cherished dearly, and being dead we shall not cease to love.”[[36]]
[36]. Close Roll, 19 Ed. I, m. 11 d. A.D. 1291: Foedera, i, part ii, p. 743: “De Orando pro Regina.” “Cum itaque, dictam Consortem nostram quam vivam care dileximus, mortuam non desinamus amare, ac opus sanctum et salubre, juxta divinæ scripturæ sententiam, censeatur pro defunctis, ut a peccatorum solvantur nexibus, exorare.”
After the obsequies at Westminster were concluded, the King went into retirement in the religious house of the “Bons Hommes” at Ashridge, issuing to pay a visit to his mother and daughter in the Convent at Amesbury.
The Queen’s death marks the crisis of Edward’s career. His kingly manner and appearance, his renown as a warrior, and his success as a statesman, combined to make him one of the most prominent personages in Europe. The political problems of the future might well have been solved by his firmness and skill had not the distortion of his character, which dates back to his early years, become more pronounced. Especially in the management of the Scottish difficulty, his firmness of purpose contrasts curiously with the meanness and shiftiness of his administration. These base qualities more than anything else brought to so unhappy a termination his statesmanlike plans for the union of England and Scotland. This great political scheme ended with Edward’s life in the dark scene at Burgh-on-the-Sands, marked by the desire for savage revenge[[37]] only too characteristic of Edward’s worse nature. At no period of his career did Edward miss the moderating influence of Eleanor of Castile more than during his quarrel with Scotland.
[37]. This phase of Edward’s character brings to mind the “demon blood” of his Angevin ancestry. Cf. Norgate, Kate: “England under Angevin Kings,” i, pp. 143-144; ii, p. 207.