Donald J. Kagay produced a potentially excellent monograph on a lesser-known queen, Elionor of Sicily, a princess of Sicily who became queen of Aragon. I truly wish I could give this well-researched but sometimes erratically organized study a glowing review, but I cannot. The atrocious number of typographical and grammatical errors along with the sheer sloppiness in editing (e.g., effected for affected, 211; “ring of statutes” for ring of statues, 212, and so many more) and thoughtless mannerisms such as frequent repetition of words in consecutive sentences (e.g., “with” 65, “range” 72, “yet,” 216) make this volume as irritating as it is informative. Erratic capitalization and italicization, along with occasional lapses in syntax (“the Aragonese king, the king” 176, “The thirteenth century, Bernard Desclot” sic, 45) caused me to read pencil in hand as I would an undergraduate paper; despite its wealth of information, the book is not worth its $99.00 price, unless readers can suppress their own proofreading voices.
Setting aside the many flaws in presentation as much as possible, Kagay offers a thorough and well-supported, though occasionally repetitious, portrayal of an extremely capable and loyal queen. As the third wife of Pere III, Elionor significantly shaped relations not only within the Iberian peninsula but also on the broader European stage for Sicily as well as for Aragon. Kagay introduces us to the archival riches of Aragon, though some confusion arises regarding nomenclature: Pere II is Pedro III, Alfons II is Alfonso III, Jaume II is Jaime II, and Alfons III is Alfonso IV (8). Throughout Pere III is just that, though his war with Castile is characterized as “The War of the Two Pedros.” Some explanation of and alignment with more standard names would have been helpful.
Early on, Kagay presents his thesis: “In her middle years as queen in 1362, she emerged as a formidable stand-in for her husband who always held her immediate subjects responsible for carrying out their duties to her and the crown” (10). Her constant surveillance of her holdings and her loyalty to her husband and Aragon characterize her long reign. She balanced her desire to support herself, her household, and her husband with intimate knowledge of what her subjects might be facing as plague and war disrupted their lives (11). Her willingness to pawn some of her revenues in exchange for immediate cash suggests her occasionally straitened circumstances; her husband’s appreciation of her support shows in his willingness to return to her lands and revenues lost in warfare (12) and to endow her with still more.
From a brief overview of medieval queenship on the Iberian peninsula and some background on relations between Sicily and Aragon (chapters 2 and 3), Kagay moves specifically to Elionor’s position in Sicily and her relations with her family after her departure for Aragon. As the oldest surviving heir to the throne, she protested vigorously when the Sicilian nobles and townsmen passed her over in favor in succession of her two sickly younger brothers (69). From 1356 until 1358 she argued that she should be named as next in line since neither brother had produced an heir; an empty throne would be devastating for Sicily’s stability and security. She arranged marriages for her younger sisters that strengthened ties with Iberia and cultivated relationships with officials in both the Sicilian and Aragonese courts. While this chapter could be better organized in terms of chronology, the evidence supports the conclusion that “Queen Elionor’s remarkable career as an unofficial representative and spokesperson for Sicily and her family...leaves a picture of a truly singular woman” (87).
Chapter 5, “The Fiscal Support of Queen Elionor,” presents Elionor’s initially weak financial position, then convincingly shows that her new husband quickly granted her more revenue, difficult to guarantee because of the plague. In addition to granting her control of eight Jewish and Muslim communities (confusingly listed as aljamas, with no translation offered until page 134), he continued to grant her more and more revenue-bearing sites and castles as well as the revenues from Minorca and Ibiza (96).
While she appeared to be on solid financial ground by the mid-1350s, wars with Sardinian (sic) and Castile reduced her income, as did, confusingly, something regarding the purchasing power of the sou of Jaca and the loss of her city of Tarazona (97). A combination of threats, emergency loans, and a gift from Montpellier bailed her out, though her financial situation was far from secure (98). Though Pere increased her holdings, he also expected her to shoulder many expenses (99). By 1360, it appeared that Elionor ran “an efficient administrative operation controlling cities, town, hamlets, villages, and castles bound by feudal ties to Elionor and contributing to her operating funds amounting to 305,000 sous (sic)of Barcelona” (100). [1] As the war with Castile wound down and finally ended in the mid-1360s, Pere moved to compensate his wife for property lost during the war and “decided to upgrade Elionor’s annual level of expenses by 32,000 sous (which?)...” (102-103). Did he grant her an additional allowance for living expenses? Not clear. Despite these various income streams, Pere’s annual request for funds (104) and conflicts with her elder son over property strained her financially (105). Her constant support did not stop her husband from entering into a very public affair with a young widow (106)--hardly a show of gratitude. Throughout, Kagay portrays her as a highly capable and attentive administrator of her many holdings who used her income for the good of her family and her subjects.
In the following chapter, “Elionor of Sicily as Courtier and Administrator,” Kagay steps away from the intricacies of bookkeeping to examine her broader role as both a member of the court and a part of royal administration. Anyone familiar with medieval courts will recognize the curious blend of private and public that nobles and royals combined in their households. An interesting but superfluous deep dive into Aragonese royal ordinances dating back to in 1276 or 1267 follows, culminating in those of Pere III, who explicitly stated that he needed the council of good men: his chancellor, the auditor of accounts and procurator or lieutenant general.
As queen, Elinor had her own court of over 150 members, supervised by the majordomo, chamberlain, and the chancellor (the chief auditor handled all her finances) (118). Though these functionaries handled many duties of her court, Elionor herself clearly took an active role in both its workings and in her relations with her many subjects. Kagay points out that she had extensive knowledge of jewelry, items that were not only beautiful but also easily transported and pawned (119). From early on, Elionor consistently extended her own resources to pay her courtiers, maintain her households of her children, and support her husband when necessary.
Beyond her own court, she acted as overlord for many vassals, towns, and communities; acts of individual and gang violence drew her immediate attention, in spite of the “immoderate expenses and costs” of litigating them (127-129). Her reputation for serving justice suffered, however, as she pursued “a campaign of ‘vindictive and relentless persecution’” against Bernat de Cabrera, one of her husband’s most trusted advisers, turning both her husband and son against him, culminating in 1364 in Cabrera’s execution. In explaining her motives for persecuting “the Great Favorite,” Kagay falls back on disturbingly stereotyped reasons: she was jealous of his closeness to her son Joan, and she had applied “the often-vicious standards of politics she had learned in Sicily...” (135). Oh, those insecure mothers and untrustworthy Sicilians! Best not to speculate. The final section of this generally excellent chapter focuses on Elionor’s relations with her Jewish and Muslim communities. Overall, Kagay concludes, Elionor showed herself to be an extremely effective administrator who acted “in many ways as if she were the king...” (137-138).
An equally powerful portrait of the queen emerges when analyzing her abilities and actions during war, a condition that marked much of her long reign. As with royal administration, Kagay presents an interesting but unnecessarily detailed section on the origins and events of the War of the Two Pedros and finally gets to Elionor in her position as royal lieutenant (156). The first official record of a proper royal document conferring this position pertain to Elionor, who received such recognition six times from 1359 to 1374 (157). Pere emphasized her judgment and prudent foresight and spelled out her authority to hold official meetings, to punish all crimes and offenses, and to manage “everything else connected to royal government ‘just as if...[the king] had done so’” (158); he also promised never to undo any of her decisions (159).
Much of the next section repeats points made earlier, though now framed in more political than purely financial terms. Elionor defrayed wartime expenses not only by appealing to her vassals but also by taking control of grain sales, by confiscating a portion of Castilian properties within her land, and by taking a portion of booty won from enemy troops. Her forceful letters to prelates and nobles emphasized the dangers Aragon and the king himself faced, and making clear that those who did not pay a critical subsidy freely “would be forced to do so” (164).
The queen clearly understood that while money might be the sinews of war, good management of men and fortifications also mattered. In various letters, she emphasized the need to keep sufficient troops, to pay good commanders well, and to maintain castle and town walls. She appointed her own castellans to her fortresses and paid the soldiers’ salaries, and punished any officials who stole from her with dismissal and confiscation of the stolen goods, which then went to pay for fortifications of the castle (169). During the war, Elionor often supplemented the castellan’s allowance for the soldiers’ provisions and sent shipment of many weapons as well (170). Recognizing that information could be as valuable as weaponry, the queen actively sought news from as many areas as possible, enabling her several times to predict the next moves of the Castilian king (171). She sternly advised commanders to stay at their posts and leave the raising and payment of the soldiers to her; she also acted to protect their reputations, even when they had clearly betrayed Aragon (174). Because the war raged on both land and sea, Elionor also sent funds for buying and outfitting a number of ships, funds she had raised from Catalonia’s great clergy. Clerical foot-dragging led her to send her oldest son, her protonotary, and other agents to browbeat the prelates into contributing enough to pay for crews and provisions for her ten galleys (179-180).
The final section of this lengthy chapter addresses Elionor’s relations with the Catalan parliament, seated in the richest of the crown’s three peninsular holdings (the other two being Aragon and Valencia). Warning of Catalonia’s fate should Castile conquer Valencia, Elionor repeatedly tried to raise the funds Pere had requested. Much wrangling ensued, culminating in her fifteen-minute speech “considered by many to be the greatest parliamentary address of the fourteenth century” (no footnote, alas; 183). In the end all three estates acquiesced to the royal demands despite their generally growing institutional power (184).
The final two chapters are understandably though frustratingly brief, dealing as they do with Elionor’s private life and her final days. The sources rather than the modern author are to blame; with few exceptions, medieval people left scant traces of their inner lives. Kagay has therefore to approach these topics sideways in order to infer information about her personal relations; it is difficult to determine how many of her kind words to and about them reflected genuine emotions rather than rhetorical conventions. Regardless of emotional ties, Pere clearly appreciated her abilities; in 1351 she was crowned with an extremely lavish crown, orb, and scepter that he had ordered for her (199); their infant son Joan was also crowned. Her queenly coronation, only the second in Barcelona’s history, underscored the partnership the couple had formed.
Elionor pursued her hopes of wearing the crown of Sicily until almost the end of her life, maintaining close ties with especially the female members of her natal family. Of her three children, the middle child, Martí, was clearly her favorite; she supervised his and his fiancée’s affairs very closely (205). Her relations with her courtiers and officials can likewise be inferred from her carefully kept accounts which show regular expenditures for a wide variety of professionals and provisions.
Like any good medieval queen, Elionor spent generously on religious causes. Regular gifts of food and clothing for thirteen of the poor as well as donations to decorate local churches and chapels throughout the realm were the norm; she underwrote the extensive rebuilding of monasteries and made small donations to minor houses (208-209). The cessation of war in 1366 allowed her to subsidize the building of new house for the Poor Clares in Teruel and to continue to support its twenty nuns throughout her lifetime (210).
These projects along with the maintenance of her many castles had given her extensive knowledge of buildings and builders. Her royal life began in the Old Palace, a building that Pere had attempted to improve and expand, but it remained cold, damp, and crowded (212). In 1367, he bought the Palace of the Templars and began its expansive remodeling. Though this dwelling was spartan in its simplicity, and minimally heated, nonetheless, this smaller palace on the periphery of official life became Elionor’s special domain (214).
Kagay concludes the chapter with a rather shaky attempt to examine the queen’s personality through the unnecessary framework of self-fashioning. He also claims that “before she let Siciliy (sic) she all but immediately understood that these ‘masculine’ ruling goals had to be suppressed, and replaced with the successful fulfillment of her role as wife” (216)--this, despite earlier claims that she pursued hopes of gaining the Sicilian crown for much of her life in Aragon. A puzzling statement. He states that her overall career shows her using her resources and abilities to extend her husband’s authority “not her own” (216); yet in fact her own authority was significantly extended during her six terms as lieutenant of the realm. Again, a puzzling statement. As with remarks regarding Cabrera, Kagay would do better to stick to his evidence rather than stretch it to fit a modern concept. This chapter has a hodge-podge of information that lurches from speculation to minute details of her good taste in jewels, clothing, and books, though she frequently had to pawn various items (217). Though pregnancies and kidney disease led to her nickname, “the fat queen,” she comported herself with spirit and dignity to the end (220). Her negative reputation along with that of Sibília de Fortià (wife #4) as “the image of evil” suggested perhaps by their political activities (why “underhanded?” [220]) seems to reflect more an early twentieth-century prejudice against strong and capable women than any actual defect.
Fittingly, “Elionor’s Last Days” ends the book, though with a strange conflation of María of Castile’s sorrowful end with the supposedly equally sad final years of Elionor’s life. While no doubt exists regarding her physical suffering, Kagay assumes that differences with Prince Joan led to estrangement with her husband as did their differences over their daughter’s marriage to Juan of Castile. Kagay strays further from his documentary evidence in his assertion her sorrow occasioned by a failed mission to Sicily “pointed unerringly to her death” (228). If indeed he is correct that kidney disease killed her, her last days would have been quite miserable because of that, not because of grief (229-230).
Her body was moved several times after her death, but she ended up at Poblet where she was buried next to her spouse. Her will, read publicly months before her death, named her executors and directed the disposition of her properties and personal possessions. She was particularly concerned that her daughter receive her full dowry along with other gifts, though she states her Castilian son-in-law should receive nothing (232) Several religious institutions also received generous bequests, especially the Poor Clares of Teruel. Generous gifts also went to the poor, to 12 priests, and to 15 scholars within the bishopric of Barcelona (232-233).
Elionor of Sicily had the potential to become an outstanding contribution to the fascinating and lively field of medieval queenship; patient and tolerant readers may mine it for many specifics regarding various aspects of Sicilian-Aragonese relations, court life and finances, and the multifaceted roles that a capable and loyal royal wife and mother assumed. The absence of consistently clear organization within chapters together with the inexcusable number of technical errors greatly diminish its appeal, however. So does the uneven treatment of general background; for example, we have a lengthy description of the evolution of Aragonese coronation rites, but nothing on the composition or powers of the three parliaments that operated under the crown of Aragon. It is difficult to apportion blame between the author and the publishers for the book’s many weaknesses; had either taken greater care, many scholars might have enjoyed its wealth of information without wincing so frequently.
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Note:
1. One of many instances of erratic italicization.