File:All Saints, Harby, Nottinghamshire.jpg

English: The Victorian church of All Saints, Harby. This is a replacement of the medieval church in the village where Queen Eleanor died in a nearby manor house on 28 November 1290.

On the evening or night of Tuesday 28 November 1290 Eleanor of Castile, the beloved wife of Edward I and mother of his 14 children, died aged 49, at Harby in Nottinghamshire. The places where her body rested during the journey south to its tomb in Westminster Abbey were marked by stone crosses.

The twelve crosses were at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Hardingstone, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, Waltham (Cross), Westcheap (Cheapside), Charing (Charing Cross). Of these only three of the original crosses survive, those at Geddington, Hardingstone and Waltham Cross.

Queen Eleanor was three times buried. The tomb, containing her viscera, is in Lincoln Cathedral. Her heart was buried at Blackfriars Monastery in London and her body in Westminster Abbey.

Edward was determined to mark the death of his remarkable Queen in significant and elaborate fashion. There has been nothing like the cortège of Eleanor, before or since, on this island. Her embalmed body was dressed in loose robes, crowned, and placed on an open bier. The procession, with the Queen’s chaplain at its head and Edward following the bier, left Lincoln on 4 December. The journey back to Westminster took just under two weeks, with much of the route following the ancient roads of Ermine Street and Watling Street, and most of the overnight stops on or close to Eleanor’s landholdings. She was buried in Westminster Abbey on 17 December 1290.

In 1282–4 the royal couple were in Wales, taking part in the English conquest after the uprising by the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Then in 1286–9 they were back in Gascony, dealing, once again, with the complicated politics of the English province. Returning to England in 1289, Eleanor was already ill. She may have had malaria, or perhaps it was a worsening heart condition. The couple continued to tour the kingdom, but the pace slowed. There is a sense that Eleanor was trying to settle her family affairs, arranging marriages for three of her children.

Travelling slowly northwards in November 1290, the royal party halted at Harby in Nottinghamshire. It was there that the queen died on the evening or night of Tuesday 28 November, aged 49. Edward, struck by grief, stayed in Harby for about three days after Eleanor’s death. He then embarked on a 21-day funeral procession en route to London and Westminster.