Page:The Queens of England.djvu/129

ELEANOR OF CASTILLE. 109 The arrival of Edward in London was celebrated by the citizens with extraordinary splendor and rejoicings; the more affluent of the merchants showering gold and silver on the royal retinue, as they passed under their windows in Cheapside. The exterior of the houses in the principal streets were hung with tapestry, and the conduits flowed with the choicest wines. On the 19th of August, Edward and his beautiful queen were crowned in Westminster Abbey; the Archibshop of Canter- bury performing the ceremony, and Alexander, King of Scot- land, and all the principal nobility of both countries, taking a part in the ceremony, and afterward assembling at a magnifi- cent banquet in the great hall. "King Edward," we are told by an old writer, "was crowned and anointed as rightful heir of England, with much honor and worship, with his virtuous queen ; and after mass the king went to his palace to hold a royal .feast, among all the peers that had done him honor and worship. And when he was set at his meat, King Alexander of Scotland came to do him service, and to worship, and a hun- dred knights with him horsed and arrayed." Another old chronicler, Henry de Knyghton, informs us — "The King of Scotland was accompanied by a hundred knights on horseback, who, as soon as they had dismounted, turned their steeds loose for any one to catch and keep that thought proper. Then came Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, the king's nephew, and the Earls of Gloucester, Pembroke and Warenne, each having in their com- pany a hundred illustrious knights, wearing their lords' armor ; and when they had alighted from their palfreys, they also set them free, that whoever chose might take them unquestioned. And the aqueduct in Cheapside poured forth white wine and red, like water, for those who would to drink at pleasure." In 1227, when the Welsh flew to arms, and when Edward— not displeased with the opportunity of making his former con- quests in that principality absolute — assembled all his military tenants for the purpose of crushing that gallant people, Eleanor never for a moment hesitated to share his dangers and fatigues ; and, accordingly, we find her the companion of her warlike consort during all his campaigns. In 1283 she gave birth to her daughter, the Princess Isabella, in Rhuddan Castle, in Flint- shire ; and the following year, when she again promised to be- come a mother, Edward conducted her to the magnificent castle of Carnarvon, which he had recently built. The gateway in Carnarvon Castle through which the beau-