Three Medieval English Queens Who Joined the Crusades and Reached the Holy Land
Three English queens from the medieval era—Eleanor of Aquitaine, Berengaria of Navarre, and Eleanor of Castile—set off on crusades to the Holy Land. While the 1095 Council of Clermont didn’t specifically ban women from participating, popes generally discouraged it and required consent from their husbands. In 1146, Eleanor of Aquitaine joined her husband Louis VII to take the cross, supported an attack on Aleppo, faced rumors about her fidelity, and was annulled in 1152 before marrying Henry II. Berengaria married Richard the Lionheart in May 1191, traveled with Joanna of Sicily, but didn't have any children. Eleanor of Castile, who wed Edward I in 1254 and had 14 kids, joined him on the Eighth Crusade, learning of Henry III’s death on their way back.
Key facts
- Three medieval queens of England traveled to the Holy Land on crusade: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Berengaria of Navarre, and Eleanor of Castile.
- Women were not explicitly barred from crusading after the Council of Clermont in 1095, but popes discouraged their participation and required husbands' permission.
- Eleanor of Aquitaine took the crusading vow at Vézelay in 1146 as Queen of France with Louis VII, inspired by Bernard of Clairvaux after the fall of Edessa.
- Eleanor of Aquitaine's marriage to Louis VII was annulled in 1152, and she married Henry II of England eight weeks later.
- Berengaria of Navarre married Richard the Lionheart in Limassol, Cyprus, in May 1191, and Richard died in 1199 at the Siege of Châlus.
- Eleanor of Castile married Edward I in 1254, bore at least 14 children, and joined the Eighth Crusade to Tunis in 1270 before continuing to Acre.
- An assassin wounded Edward I with a poisoned dagger, and Eleanor of Castile allegedly sucked the poison from his arm in a likely apocryphal tale.
- The article states that the crusade exposed weaknesses in the marriages of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Berengaria while solidifying Eleanor of Castile's reputation as a dutiful wife.
Entities
Artists
- Eleanor of Aquitaine
- Berengaria of Navarre
- Eleanor of Castile
- Louis VII
- Henry II of England
- Richard the Lionheart
- Joanna of Sicily
- Edward I of England
- Louis IX of France
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- Raymond of Antioch
- Baibars
- Henry III
- Joan of Acre
- Peter the Hermit
- Saladin
- Archduke of Austria
- Émile Signol
- W.M. Craig
- J. Brown
Institutions
- TheCollector
- Council of Clermont
- British Library
- Palace of Versailles
- National Library of the Netherlands
- National Library of France
- Wellcome Collection
- Wikimedia Commons
Locations
- England
- Holy Land
- Jerusalem
- France
- Vézelay
- Edessa
- Antioch
- Aleppo
- Damascus
- Navarre
- Iberia
- Sicily
- Cyprus
- Limassol
- Acre
- Tunis
- Châlus
- Pyrenees
- Alps
- Clermont