Throughout history, the work of ambassadors has been necessary to relate with other territories. In the Middle Ages, it will not be an exception; their work will be fundamental for the well-being of the state or political power they represent. According to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), an ambassador is the person with the highest rank in the diplomatic service who represents before other states the state that appoints them. A definition that encompasses a myriad of personalities who could represent kingdoms in diplomacy with others. Typically, we speak of bishops, archbishops, papal legates, counts, viscounts as representatives, as ambassadors of these kingdoms, but in certain situations or negotiations, such as marital diplomacy, besides the usual ambassadors, we find a figure whose main role is to seek a good marriage for their sons or daughters; that figure is none other than the Queen or queen mother.
This role as diplomat in the unions of her offspring was one of the roles carried out by queens, not only the act of giving birth to the offspring of a monarch. They sought the most appropriate, suitable, and advantageous choice for their children through various formulas such as conducting negotiations with ambassadors, dispensing letters to kings of interest and to the Pope, and in some cases, they would travel in search of the bride, accompany her until her future husband or receive in their own lands the future wife until the place of the ceremony.
These queens who carried out this type of diplomatic activity were numerous throughout medieval Western Europe. Focusing on the Kingdom of Castile, we can find two iconic queens who performed this labor; one who was not Castilian but who influenced the marital diplomacy of this kingdom, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who actively participated in these matters for all her children, although here mainly we will focus on the role she had in the marriage of her daughter Leonor with Alfonso VIII of Castile and which is evident in the 1170 Treaty where her intervention is mentioned. She would also participate in the marriage of her granddaughter Blanche, future Queen Blanche of France, traveling to Castile at the request of her son John of England, selecting the most suitable granddaughter to marry Louis VIII, and accompanying her to Paris.
The other queen, this one Castilian, granddaughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, will be Berenguela of Castile, who personally carried out negotiations, sought wives, sent the appropriate ambassadors, and wrote letters for both marriages of her son Fernando III. In his first marriage with Beatriz of Swabia, it was Berenguela herself who dispatched an embassy with the letters to arrange this marriage, and she went to receive the bride upon her arrival on the peninsula, accompanying her until Burgos, where she would finally marry Fernando III of Castile. For the second marriage, she counted on the help of her sister, Blanche of Castile.
In general, there were countless known queens who are perfectly known to have carried out these diplomatic activities and they were numerous throughout all of medieval Western Europe. We will specifically discuss Eleanor of Aquitaine and Berenguela but we could also mention others like Blanche of Castile whom I will mention later.
ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE
Nothing new can be added to the figure of Eleanor of Aquitaine as it is a well-known figure by all. We know that she was Queen of France through her marriage with Louis VII of France, and Queen of England through her marriage with Henry II. As already seen in the introduction, we will focus on two marriages but this does not detract from the fact that Eleanor participated in several marriages and unions as their organizer due to the power that Henry, her husband, had ceded to her for carrying them out. In fact, without going any further, Eleanor accompanied her daughter Matilda towards Saxony for her marriage with the Duke of Saxony, traveling from England across the continent. The entourage left from Dover, carrying in said journey three ships escorting the ship on which mother and daughter were: their trousseau, 40 chests, and as many leather bags containing their clothes, jewels, and gifts for her husband and his family, along with 28 pounds of gold to make her royal tableware. Eleanor accompanied her until Normandy where she left her to continue with the company of ambassadors sent by her future husband.
Another union in which Eleanor also participated was specifically that of Berenguela of Navarre, daughter of Sancho VI of Navarre. She went to find her in 1191 during the dead of winter and accompanied her all the way to Sicily. There she would meet with her son Richard as this was the future wife Eleanor had chosen for him instead of the French option which did not appeal much to her. At that moment, Richard was on his way through the island heading towards the Holy Land to fight in the Crusades.
Let us now focus on the first of the two marriages mentioned at the beginning, the marriage of Leonor Plantagenet with Alfonso VIII. It is difficult to find direct documentation about it except for the already mentioned Treaty of Arras from 1170 which can be found today in the Crown Archive of Aragon among the documents of Alfonso II of Aragon. A curious fact especially if we did not know of the active friendship or moment of alliance that was taking place at those times between Alfonso VIII and Alfonso II. It would have been difficult to suspect that this document would be in these archives, but thanks to that moment of concordance, Alfonso II participated in said marriage accompanying the future Queen of Castile from the Pyrenees towards Tarazona, Aragonese territory where precisely the signing of the Treaty of Arras and the betrothal of Alfonso VIII with Leonor Plantagenet would take place.
But before anything else we need to know why it was Eleanor who participated in said marriage and how she could fulfill that role of ambassador. Due precisely to the infidelities of Henry II, who had his mistress at his usual residence in England, Eleanor preferred to take refuge in her territories of Aquitaine, mainly in the Poitou region, although during these years she would move around all her territory. Henry allowed it because she was the titular of those lands and knew her vassals and could help him avoid them rebelling since it was known that customs and manners were very different in England compared to Plantagenet territories on the continent. As we said, Henry allowed Eleanor to remain in her territories of the Duchy of Aquitaine, and during these years she can be seen maintaining her influence with her children and daughters. Thus, both Leonor and Juana accompanied her, including also Juan although his favorite was always Richard as several authors note, among others like Regine Pernoud. In fact, this company of her sons with her is seen in a document from the year 1170 that she herself gives on behalf of the king and her children and father and ancestors to the Abbey of Fontevraud, an abbey which was always her refuge so we can perfectly place Leonor Plantagenet alongside her own mother in this year.
Returning to the Treaty of Arras, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine is actively involved in her daughter's marriage as she appears mentioned by King Alfonso as "tamquam filie invictissimi et semper triunfatoris regis Anglie" and then adds on another line "this is all the confirmation that should be practiced with good faith and without bad intentions or rules in the presence of Alienordis the illustrious queen in Bordeaux, in the hand of Archbishop Bertrand of Bordeaux." Finally, in the document appear these words "and regarding the Queen of England and my wife her daughter who are witnesses to these agreements," leaving clear Eleanor's participation in negotiations.
Thus, knowing that daughters accompanied their mother and that Eleanor of Aquitaine had Henry II's approval to act in his territories and therefore in the name of the King of England, King Alfonso VIII sent an embassy with different men of his trust towards Poitou so they could precisely arrange said marriage with one of the king’s daughters, having as proof the Treaty of Arras which mentions the presence of the Queen Mother in negotiations, and of various ambassadors from the court of Aquitaine who were sent to accompany her daughter to her marriage with the Castilian King.
This implied Eleanor's direct participation in the negotiation of this Treaty of Arras without Henry II’s presence, between her daughter Leonor and Alfonso VIII. Her activity in this case would be more negotiator than companion to the future Queen of Castile but no less important.
The second marriage we will focus on is that of her granddaughter Blanche of Castile, daughter of the previously mentioned Leonor Plantagenet and Alfonso VIII. This marriage was the result of a reconciliation between John, King of England, who ascended to the throne after his brother Richard Lionheart's death, and Philip Augustus, King of France. This reconciliation between John of England and Philip Augustus was through a treaty, the Treaty of Le Goulet on May 22, 1200. In this peace, one of its clauses indicated that Louis, son of the king of France and future Louis VIII, would marry one of the nieces of the King of England, i.e., one of the daughters of Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leonor Plantagenet.
In this case Eleanor of Aquitaine will be in charge of undertaking a journey to find the future wife of Louis of France. This mission was personally requested by John of England from his mother, resulting in said peace between both kings. Without further delay and at 77 or 78 years old, we find Eleanor embarking on a quick journey towards Castilian lands during winter. The queen will count with a respectable escort accompanied by the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Elias de Malemort, and Mercadier, the veteran knight and last companion in arms of her son Richard, taking the route to Castile through Poitiers and Bordeaux, crossing the domains of the Lusignan where Hugo Le Brun took advantage of the circumstances to detain the elderly queen until obtaining from her the County of La Marche.
After returning to the road Eleanor will arrive in Castile, probably heading towards Burgos or one of the castles around where her daughter and grandchildren usually resided. Of the 11 children that Leonor of Castille and Alfonso VIII had, Eleanor of Aquitaine had to choose between three of her granddaughters Berenguela, Urraca or Blanche. The eldest sister Berenguela was already engaged to the heir of the Kingdom of León. Thus, the choice remained between Urraca and Blanche.
Contemporaries leave it quite clear that the choice of the future king of France's fiancée will be solely in Eleanor of England’s hands. We must take into account that Eleanor stayed in Castile for several months so her choice was likely influenced by this cohabitation with her granddaughters during these months.
Although it is curious, it is quite unlikely that the pretext given to choose Blanche over Urraca is just that. The pretext was that the queen's companions would have defended that the French would never get used to a name as peculiar as could be Urraca and that in the case of Blanche it would be more easily recognizable as Queen Blanche, but as I said before, this may simply be a pretext since it is quite misleading for the name to prevent choosing Urraca over Blanche given that the current queen of France was named Ingeborg or Isambour of Denmark, a not very French name. Finally, the choice was made by the Queen Mother and Urraca would be promised to the heir of Portugal while Blanca embarked on her journey towards France accompanied by her grandmother. Who could have guessed that this Blanche of Castile would become one of the most energetic queens and admirable mothers in the French throne!
In spring, Blanche began her journey alongside Eleanor. The journey was peaceful until Bordeaux where they arrived a few days before Easter, deciding to spend the Easter holidays there. Before resuming their journey an incident occurred where the veteran soldier who had accompanied Richard's son, Mercadier, died in a brawl in the streets of the city while Eleanor and her granddaughter rested at the Palace of l’Ombriére. After this incident Eleanor left her granddaughter Blanche accompanied by Elias, Archbishop of Bordeaux, along with other people escorting them on their way to Normandy, while the queen mother retired to her beloved Abbey of Fontevraud. The future Queen of France Blanche of Castile would marry the future Louis VIII on May 23, 1200 in Portmort located in Normandy.
In Eleanor of Aquitaine, we see the ambassador role through negotiating her daughter Leonor's marriage and sending ambassadors to Alfonso of Castile. On the other hand, we can also see that aspect which was accompanying the future wife to her place of marriage alongside who would be her husband.
Now, in the case of Berenguela of Castile, her activity will not be as active as her grandmother's but on this we will delve into further in the next installment.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACA, parchment Alfonso II, folder 43, number 92.
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