Uncovering the hidden history of England’s forgotten Queen
Fresh off the back of writing 2024’s instant Sunday Times bestseller Eighteen (about 18 young notable figures in British history the year they turned 18 years-old), Alice was drawn towards telling one of the most overlooked tales from the nation’s past. The story of the 12 Eleanor crosses. Monuments from medieval times built by King Edward I to mourn the loss of his wife Eleanor of Castile after she died suddenly in Harby, Nottinghamshire in December 1290.
Eleanor’s body was carried 200 miles from Lincoln to London where her funeral took place at Westminster Abbey. The route the funeral procession took was later commemorated by the King with 12 giant Eleanor Crosses – of which only three partially survive now (Northampton, Geddington in Northamptonshire and Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire).
To tell the story, Alice retraced the funeral procession’s steps 734 years later herself.
"It's this great story of love and grief. Edward and Eleanor were the great romantic couple of the medieval ages. They were married for 36 years; they were totally in love and devoted to each other. “Edward, who was this terrible warrior king, was beside himself with grief at the loss of his wife. And so, as a great romantic gesture, he built 12 stone monuments along the route they carried her body, known today as the Eleanor crosses. That is basis of the book – that’s the route I did. If you walk that route today, it tells a story of 700 years of English history because only three of the crosses survive. Lots of them were torn down in the Reformation and the Civil War. All this is part of the story I've weaved into the book. "
She added: “Most people don't know what the Eleanor crosses are. I didn't really know what they were until I read about them not that long ago.
“The only people who know about it are people who live there. It's essentially like the Taj Mahal story of English history.”
OS Maps app
For her book, Alice followed the entire 200-mile route as close as possible and visited all 12 of the sites. She recorded the whole thing on OS Maps on her phone.
She said: “I basically just used it the whole way.
“The problem with the original route is what medieval people walked would have been main roads south. Those are often now motorways.
So what I did was put in for example Stanford to Grantham on OS Maps app, which is quite a long way, about 23 miles, and just walked the easiest route. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been safe.
But it helped guide me the whole way through to the end.”
Long lost crosses
When setting off on her adventure, Alice was fully aware many of the Eleanor crosses no longer existed. However, there were remnants of them that helped her to piece together the story.
She said: “Most of them we didn't know where they were. We don't even historically know where they were.
“But there are clues you can find today. For example, there's the Queen Eleanor Interchange in Northampton, which is a massive roundabout. Or the Queen Eleanor shopping precinct in Dunstable that had a bronze memorial statue of Eleanor installed in 1985.
“And there are some other crosses that are built recently like as memorials, such as the one outside Charing Cross railway station in London, and one in Stanford built in 2008.
“Eleanor’s name comes up on the OS map quite a lot.”
Having trudged the gruelling route herself through towns, villages, countryside and cities, sometimes covering 70 miles in three days, the many small details she discovered along the route revealed so much about England’s medieval history.
All of which helped Alice tell a fascinating tale.
"No one seems to really know what this story is all about. And I just want to tell what felt like a lost and forgotten story. A hidden history people have overlooked."
Eleanor is available in hardback now.
You can follow part of Alice’s route in OS Maps app.
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