Eleanor of Castile

Eleanor of Castile (1241–1290), daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile and Joan of Ponthieu, married the future Edward I near Burgos in 1254, a match to secure English rule over Gascony. During the Second Barons' War, Simon de Montfort's government imprisoned her at Westminster Palace.

She joined Edward's Ninth Crusade in 1270–1271 and was at Acre when an assassin wounded him. From 1279 she held Ponthieu in her own right and amassed large estates in England, which made her unpopular.

She died at Harby near Lincoln in November 1290. The grieving Edward erected memorial crosses, later called the Eleanor crosses, at every stop of her cortège to London.