Elizabeth Augusta

## Elizabeth IronsideElizabeth AugustaPrincess Elizabeth, Infanta of CastilePrincess Elizabeth, Crown Princess of CastileQueen Elizabeth the Older of CastileHer Majesty, the Queen

**Elizabeth Ironside** (c. 990 – 5 January 1165) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon princesses of England. Usually considered the last surviving princess of the English Royal House of Wessex at the time of her death, she reigned as Queen consort of the Kingdom of Castile from 1042 to 1166. The favorite and eldest sister of King Edward, making her the daughter of Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York, she was the last Queen consort of Castile of English origin. Edmund Ironside was her oldest brother and she was given the cognomen of "Ironside" as she resisted the Danish invasion alongside her eldest brother, Edmund, led by Cnut the Great. A fierce and righteously honorable warrior, she was venerated as a warrior saint of the national Castilian Roman Catholic Church, just three years after her death. When Elizabeth died in 1165, she was the longest-reigning Queen consort of any European kingdom.

Historians disagree about Elizabeth's fairly long reign as Queen consort and especially considering the sanitary conditions of the period in which she was living. Her nickname of "Warrior Saint" reflects her reputation as a saint who did not suffer martyrdom as opposed to her uncle, King Edward the Martyr. Some portray Elizabeth Ironside's reign as Queen consort of Castile as leading to the end of the Reconquista, which actually ended in the reign of Isabella I of Castile and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon. A viritous and pious Queen, Elizabeth's death ended with the completing of the English-Castilian Theater Hall.

## Early life

The exact date of Elizabeth's birth is unclear, but it could have been no later than 993 when she was a witness to the signatory of charters along with her two elder brothers. She was the eldest of five daughters of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu, who was speculated to be the daughter of Earl Thored of Northumbria. Her elder brothers were Æthelstan (died 1014), Egbert (died c. 1005), and Edmund (died 1016), and younger ones, Eadred, Eadwig and Edgar. She had four sisters, Eadgyth (or Edith), Ælfgifu, Wulfhilda, and the Abbess of Wherwell Abbey. Her mother died around 1000, which allowed her father to remarry, this time to Emma of Normandy who became her stepmother. Emma had three children with her father: Edward, Alfred and Goda.

Elizabeth disapproved of the remarriage of her father and spared no attempts in concealing her anger at her father for his remarriage to Emma of Normandy. Feeling betrayed by her father remarrying to another woman, she made Emma's life as her stepmother increasingly hostile, isolated and anxiety-filled, sparing no attempt to show a comtempt for her stepmother. Edmund, Æthelstan and Elizabeth were close to each other, feeling threatened by Emma's ambitions for her own biological sons and stepchildren, especially Elizabeth. Elizabeth held such a great amount of loathing for her stepmother that she refused to invite her to her own wedding, to profess that she was not included in the close family circle of Elizabeth's relatives.

## Warrior princess

Sweyn Forkbeard seized the English throne at the end of 1013, with Æthelred fleeing to Normandy. Elizabeth was outraged by what she saw as a "coward's flight of whom the lords might smite their most excellent finnesse against". Like her three elder brothers, she stayed in England. Æthelstan died in June 1014 and left Edmund a sword which had belonged to king Offa of Mercia. Elizabeth fell seriously ill this time and was given the last rites before mysteriously recovering while praying in a chapel dedicated to the patron saint of England. Cnut attempted to marry her, only to be thrawted by the standing army of her two surviving elder brothers and Elizabeth herself, which cemented her reputation as a warrior princess.

## Engagment and marriage

As the eldest of King Edmund Ironside of England's five younger sisters, she was considered an extremely politically-perfect match. Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev extended an engagment offer for the English princess, only to be turned down by her favorite brothers: Edmund and Alfred. In place of Yaroslav who had been rejected, a prince of Castile (Alfonso) proposed marriage to the princess. The engagment was reluctantly accepted by the English court.

### **Relationship with her children**

Elizabeth had a close relationship with all of her children, having loved them equally and having held great pride in organizing their education and future marriages, with consent from both her children, her country's people, her husband and her daughters' future husbands. She relied heavily on Angelitha, the youngest of her many daughters, sending her many letters and doting on her excessively, to the point where the Castilian Infanta was almost smothered by her mother's affection for her, even after she had gotten married. Her letters to Angelitha include frequent reminders to mind her siblings: "Remember never let them tumble and rumble about, it is most uncouth of children of their most divine station to even associate with the common ramble of this kingdom, tell them to mind their manners and their mouths" and "Try to have a serious word, if one can do anything with your older siblings, heavens knows that they need it." Angelitha, although frustrated by her mother's dependency on her, duitfully followed the instructions of her mother and looked after her older siblings. Angelitha loved both her mother and father equally, though she leaned towards her mother far more than her father, whom she complained had no time for her. Elizabeth spent much of her waking hours educating Angelitha and enjoying their favorite activites together.

Elizabeth was closest to her second daughter, Blanca. Blanca resembled Elizabeth the most in both appearance and personality. She was described by her paternal great-aunt Garcia: "[Blanca] and her mother are like two replicas of themselves!....so pretty." She was cautious and reserved, and she was unquestionably devoted to Elizabeth, even compiling all of her mother Elizabeth's journals into one giant journal that Blanca locked away after the death of her mother, having vehmently refused to show it to anybody. It was eventually found, recopied and gifted as a wedding present to first Maria Feodorovna and later on both Maria Feodorovna and lastly Alexandra Feodorovna before it was returned to the hands of the Spanish royal family to whom it belonged in 1978, being gifted to King Juan Carlos I before being passed down to the current King of Spain King Felipe VI and finally being gifted as a shared birthday present to his two daughters' Leonor, Princess of Asturias and Infanta Sofía of Spain. During her mother's final months of life, she helped her mother get around by having her chair picked up and moved, or even on [more than one occasion] several occassions even ordering the servants to bring the various foreign dignitaries into the sitting room where Elizabeth was sitting, in order to prevent her mother's back from weakening by standing up.

Maria was the family medic of the family, and Elizabeth doted greatly on her, even encouraging her pursuit of the field of medicine. A stern and cautious girl, she had a non-nonsense nature with Elizabeth cheerfully reminding her husband came from him, much to his great irritation. She was greatly irritated by her mother's insistance of getting up and doing strenous activities even during childbirth, which she bemoned came from her maternal uncle Edmund's side of the family. A strong-willed individual, she disliked when people doubted her abilities and could be quite vengeful when she felt even the slightest bit wronged, even setting a poisonous snake on a visiting courtier as he insulted her medical skills and said that: "Just because you are a woman, it doesn't mean that you are any good at the making of medicine". Irritated by that accusation, Maria caught a poisonous snake, crept into the guest bedchamber where the visiting foreign ambassador was staying and dropped the poisonous snake on the bed of the ambassador. In the morning, the ambassador was discovered dead. For this, Elizabeth scolded Maria by stating: "Just because he wronged you does not mean that he deserved death. Such an attitude will breed discontent among our citizens." Elizabeth the Younger [Elizabeth's daughter] physically resembled Elizabeth, but her charming, generous and sweet personality was the very opposite of her mother's.

### **Health**

In contrast to her three older brothers, Elizabeth, had been born prematurely and thus was often sickly and her health was never very robust. Her frequent pregnancies, with her first four eldest daughters in six years and her first son three years after drew greatly from her energy.

### **Relationship with her husband and in-laws**

Rather unusual for royal marriages at that time, Alfonso VIII of Castile, married Elizabeth Ironside, the acclaimed British warrior princess out of love and passionate feelings, rather then for the valuable alliance she would bring with for, with England. Elizabeth, however, disliked her mother-in-law Blanca of Navarre, rebelling against her attempts to render Elizabeth meek and subservient to her will and by extension that of her husband. She even rebuked her attempts to arrange the marriages of Elizabeth's many daughters and only son.

## Death

Monday, 4 January 1165 passed normally for the Castilian royal family. At four o'clock in the afternoon, Elizabeth supervised the running of the Castilian royal family's hospital, with the head supervisor being her daughter Infanta Maria. Early in the afternoon Elizabeth wrote a letter to her favorite brothers, including the late Edmund Ironside, asking after his health. Maria wrote in her preserved journals that "[Elizabeth] began to complain of a slight headache, her skin turned a bright, blooming red as if she had been burned by a candle being far too close to skin for her comfort and a irritated nose and throat. These symptons had never been seen before, I had never seen them before." At 7 p.m., Elizabeth summoned Maria home from the hospital, Maria quickly returned in the Castilian royal family's carriage and tended to her mother by fetching anything that she wanted or needed desperately until dinnertime. At 9 p.m. Maria took the family carriage and left for the hospital once more for the night shift. Upstairs Elizabeth and several of her daughters, as well as some of her grandchildren passed the evening playing karnöffel; at ten thirty they went to bed.

The aging Queen consort was dead, early in the morning of 5 January 1165. Elizabeth and Apasia discovered her dead body laying on her bed when they went into their mother's bedchamber together to wake her up. When they couldn't stir her, they sent for several servants to get her

### **Burial**

Elizabeth and her two youngest daughters: Elizabeth II and Apasia plus the servants who died in the assassination of Elizabeth II and Apasia were reinterred in the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial in San Lorenzo de El Escorial in 1179, with much ceremony.

## Issue

 Maria Feodorovna, Grand Princess of Kiev | 7 June 1100
 Queen Niamh, Infanta Blanca of Castile | 9 May 1109

## Titles, styles, honours and arms

### **Titles and styles**

* 990 – 8 June 1041: *Her Royal Highness* Princess Elizabeth Augusta Ironside of England
* 8 June 1041 – 9 June 1042: *Her Royal Highness* The Infanta Isabel of Castile
* 9 June 1042 – 31 August 1158: *Her Royal Highness* The Princess of Girona
* 31 August 1158 – 5 January 1165: *Her Majesty* The Queen

## Quotes

* (To husband) *"Take pride in your strength, your accomplishments. When you are dead, you can no longer do either."*
* (To daughters-in-law) *"Any Queen consort, regardless of what country they are in, must be unyielding, proud but not arrogant, wise and not cruel, gentle and sweet, fierce and unbreakable. They repersent the future of the whole monarchy and must act accordingly. They do what is needed and say what is needed, if need be, they are the acting men of the court. Nobody is above the law, not even the king and queen."*

## Trivia

* Elizabeth Augusta was a paternal ancestor of Queen Mary of Teck and thus of the succeeding kings of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
* A close friend of Elizabeth's parents suggested naming her Elizabeth Augusta Alexandra Mary Ironside, as it would link her to the mighty warrior princess and Queen consort of Castile. Instead Elizabeth's middle sister Augusta, also named Elizabeth, was given the name of Elizabeth Augusta Alexandra Mary Ironside in order to honor Queen Elizabeth Augusta of Castile.
* Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother [Elizabeth II's mother] was known to have admired the fierce Warrior Queen Elizabeth Augusta of Castile, so she commissoned a statue of the Castilian Queen to be displayed in Castile in 1978, much to the amazement of the Spanish people who had no idea that she had a statue made especially for them.
* The Queen was the