The death of Eleanor of Castile

After two silent days in the wardrobe record, business resumed on 28 November.

An order was made to give allms in respect of a religious festival which had just past and one which was to occur the next week. Eleanor, always a generous giver of charities, must have known that she would not be around to deal with the next festival - and that no-one else would be likely to remember.

A book was returnred to Richard Tailor who was still staying at Rothwell Priory - doubtless because Harby was not large enough to house the full royal entourage. And Eleanor found time to send a final letter to her favourite banker Baroncino Gualteri, formerly of the Ricciardi house.

But at the same time a courier went out again to Lincoln for ingredients for medicnes for her.

And late on the same say the book's business is interrupted by the entry: DECESSUS REGINE. SOmetime after six thirty in the evening, the start of the feast of St Andrew, Eleanor breathed her last in the presence of her beloved husband Edward I.

His grief is tellingly recorded in a letter he sent teh same day, which I posted on this day last year