Eleanor: A 200-Mile Walk in Search of England's Lost Queen

by Alice Loxton (Narrator)

An extraordinary journey that uncovers historical secrets about England's forgotten queen. From Alice Loxton, author of the acclaimed bestseller Eighteen.

In 1290, England mourned the death of a queen, Eleanor of Castile, beloved wife of King Edward I. Her body was carried on a 200-mile journey from Lincoln to London, a solemn procession that would become immortalized in stone. To mark the places where her cortege rested, a heartbroken Edward commissioned twelve magnificent Eleanor Crosses.

More than seven centuries later, bestselling historian Alice Loxton set herself an epic following in history's footsteps by walking the entire 200-mile funeral route on the corresponding dates.

As Alice journeys in search of England’s forgotten queen, over ancient paths and modern motorways, history comes alive in surprising ways. Lively and entertaining, Eleanor uncovers the extraordinary life and formidable character of this lesser-known royal, revealing her inspiring legacy and the hidden history of Britain.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, British Literature, Travel, Historical, Audiobook

Audiobook

First published November 13, 2025

Reviews

[charlotte, · Rating 1 out of 5]

i thought this would be your run of the mill popular history book, readability prioritised over serious academia-ness, but um. it's so much worse. the introduction has a fake interview with eleanor of castile which i thought i could get past but then it has lines like:

Today, she'd be winning prizes for Women in Business, photographed in a no-nonsense power suit surrounded by her brood of children. She'd write books like How Women Really Can Have It All. She'd be a judge on Dragon's Den, throwing out snappy remarks like, 'Your numbers are off, the presentation is sloppy. For that reason, I'm out.'

and,

She also loved to read. Eleanor was an early devotee of the Romantasy genre, particularly tales of King Arthur.

for that reason, i'm out.

[Eleanor · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

It's rare that I'm in the mood for non-fiction, but recently I had this itch to learn something new. I know nothing about Eleanor of Castile, and I was interested in having her story related to me in a unique way that combined some nice nature writing with it for good measure. Unfortunately, this book yearns to be quirky and humorous, and none of it landed for me. The constant (unoriginal) questions about how Eleanor might be feeling in a certain moment, the unending (unoriginal) speculative asides which were so unfunny and honestly kind of poorly written (I hope Loxton doesn't take up creative fiction writing), and the overly redundant prose--maybe it was all an elaborate metaphor, but by the end of the book I too felt I had walked 50,000 repetitive steps, and I still feel like I got the bare-bones of Eleanor's actual life story. All I really got was Loxton's projection of what she wanted Eleanor to be like, with a side of slightly condescending over-explanation of how using sources as evidence works.

I didn't know that Loxton was an influencer before I picked this book up, but it makes so much sense now. Everything is a fun fact, fed in bitesize chunks, and I don't think that Loxton's attempts to make serious or deep takes about the world were very inspired. History is all around us--no shit. It felt aimed at people who haven't touched grass in a while and may not realise that. Speaking of not touching grass, the Gen Z humour in this took me out because it felt so desperately millennial. From an awkward segue hinged on a GOAT joke to describing one of the historical crosses as 'thicc', it was all painfully unfunny. I feel you could tell that Loxton was running low on things to say when we had the full itinerary of her lunch every time she and her many companions stopped to eat (gotta respect the tangfastics game at least though).

I will say, this was readable and I did learn some interesting things. I think it leads with a strong concept, and did teach me about a period of English history that I'm not too familiar with. I'd recommend this if you've just started out reading historical non-fiction, but only if you can stomach one too many positive appraisals of Margaret Thatcher (I almost lost it at the end when Margaret Thatcher became one of the 'female friends we made along the way' - which is my phrase, though it wouldn't be out of place in Loxton's prose).

[Sherrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always loved the story of the Eleanor crosses, one man's terrible grief at the loss of his wife and the memorials he dedicated to her. Such a shame most of the crosses were destroyed during the civil war. I liked the authors writing style, a few colour photos would have been good.

[Laura Hutchinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute delight to read - sparky and massively entertaining. Yes it’s about a forgotten English Queen and the remarkable act of love her husband Edward I made to remember her - 12 stone crosses, only 3 of which survive. But, it’s about so much more than that - it’s about the layers of history that surround us if we bother to look. It inspired me enough to get into a car and drive to Geddington to look at one of the crosses!

[Laura and Literature · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author.

History buffs- you will love this book. I found it to be very fun, entertaining, and educational.

I honestly picked this up because my daughter’s name is Eleanor, and I thought it would be fun.

This isn’t a quick read, so go into this one ready to dedicate a good amount of time to it.

I also loved that the narrator took her mom along for the adventure. How fun!

[Gabriella · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHAT. A. PLEASURE.

Here I find myself crying at ANOTHER Alice Loxton book.

“Who in life we dearly cherished, and who in death we cannot cease to love”

ELEANOR follows Alice Loxton’s 200-mile pilgrimage of the funeral route of Queen Eleanor of Castile. From Lincoln to London,
It is a tale of love, grief, community, remembrance and lots of tea. Accessibly written for non-experts, without spoon-feeding, this book is a gold-mine of information about England, and I have learnt so much from it. I love LOVE the emphasis on women’s history, and the telling of a narrative severely understated in our current-modern zeitgeist. I’ve rallied some friends up to visit Westminster Abbey sometime soon, so I will definitely be bombarding my unwilling subjects with countless Eleanor and Edward facts.
I cannot wait to see what Loxton does next.

[Lily Castle · Rating 2 out of 5]

A more accurate title for this would be "a disjointed history of the towns that Queen Eleanor's body went through," also featuring complaining about walking and wild conjecture about the queen's personality.

[Elli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would give 6 stars if I could! Such an accessible and entertaining read, and absolutely full of fascinating historical tidbits. A wonderful story on a historic figure I knew nothing about, conveying the simple power of journeying by foot and the hidden historic wonders that are all around us :)

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps I wasn’t prepared for what this book was going to be. It was very light hearted in its approach and its spattering of modern references gave me the impression that it wouldn’t age well in a few years. I was expecting, as I do with any history book, more depth in the writing. However, after looking at the bibliography (or lack there of), I wasn’t surprised by it feeling loosely researched.

Overall, it was a fast, enjoyable read, but I would only recommend it to those who are first dipping their toe into historic non fiction.

[Albarnes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is not non-fiction. The bulk of the content is about the author's assumptions of Eleanor and Edward's feelings, conversations, and relationship dynamics, with no factual or historical evidence to back these assumptions.

[Robin Pelletier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book recommendation!

This one just came out and it made me think of our senior trip to England! A historian walks 200 miles along the funeral procession route for Queen Eleanor of Castile on the same days it occurred in 1290. She passes the remaining of the 12 crosses that her bereaved King Edward commissioned for her. If ever there was a super pinpointed yet historically interesting modern pillgrimage, this is it. I thoroughly enjoyed the history, the insight and the honesty of this novel. It felt more like a travel blog to be honest. I highly recommend it if you liked Beowulf’s time period and you want to learn more about the Middle Ages. Medieval is derived from the Latin for Middle Ages. Learned in from this book.

And yes, I plan to binge the rest of Alice Loxton’s novels.

[Carolien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the concept of this book - in 2024 the author followed the route taken by Eleanor of Castile's funeral cortege in 1290 from Lincoln to London, travelling on the same days as the original cortege. As she travels, we are introduced to Eleanor and her family and times. We can appreciate changes in the landscape and some parts that would be very familiar to Eleanor. We also get to appreciate the stamina of the medieval traveller as the author wends her way to Westminster Abbey. When I come out of Charing Cross station, I will be reminded of Eleanor and her husband's love. Highly recommend.

[Reason Restored · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF: at the outset I should say that though I enjoy ‘popular’ history I don’t like an author (even one who her own narrator in the audio version i listened to) talking to me as if she is a children’s TV presenter and I am 11. Still, I stuck with it for almost 3 hours.
It may be that there is scholarship behind the seemingly random historical insights into medieval English history, and its not that there were not interesting nuggets in here, but bound together by the weakest of threads, they didn’t make an engaging read.
Eleanor remains a ghost, it seemed as if any reference to her had to be caveated with ‘perhaps she might have said’ or ‘it may be that Eleanor did this or that..’ based on some bit of semi related historical evidence about some tangentially connected person (random reference to medieval womanhood), etc.
If this really is all we can know of the “Lost” Queen, she remains lost and the author should have abandoned the idea or approached her journey in Eleanors funeral
corteges footsteps for us with a much looser mission statement.
However our author doesn’t seem to let a lack of historical evidence prevent her from ascribing an entire proto-feminist character to this Eleanor, of whom I ‘expected at any moment to be assured in another age she would have been a female boxing champion at the olympics; when she wasn’t solving climate change as a scientist; or leading troops into some 21c conflict’.
So often are incongruous words put in her mouth and unknowable actions detailed so clearly, I almost fell for this Boudicca / Margaret Thatcher/Queen Elizabeth II/ Germaine Greer fiction.
But its almost all completely imagined on the flimsiest of pretexts, and with no acknowledgement that she may in fact have just been a bird in a gilded cage who was tossed about on the seas of life by fathers and husbands and protocols and the rigid political and religious requirements of the day.
It is possible that the narrator / author could repurpose this journey along Eleanors commemorative procession for TV, I am pretty sure theres an audience for her style and approach there, and it may work much better with her hand resting on some actual medieval foundation stone or caressing the faded tapestry hangings on some near ruined castle wall. But it isn’t going to be enough for me.
The phrase ‘knitting fog’ comes to mind.

[Becca Daley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this travelogue with historical musings, but felt it was a bit heavy on what the author hoped Eleanor might have been like, rather than an insight into what the evidence might actually tell us. I know that getting a genuine sense of medieval personalities is incredibly challenging, and I don't mind a decent amount of creative licence or speculation, but I have read much better efforts at this more firmly grounded in contemporary evidence.

[Silverboggle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whilst some of the writing about Alice’s journey is mildly entertaining, there are great tracts of writing which are pure conjecture-where she’s trying to guess what Eleanor might have thought, or how Edward and Eleanor perhaps interacted, or what the original Eleanor procession must have been like. This continuous guesswork saturates the whole endeavour with improbable sentiment and really grates. There isn’t much historical fact about Eleanor. Much of the history within these pages is about other periods and people to fill the gaping hole where the facts might be laid out but aren’t. I’m left wondering what on earth the draw to Eleanor was in the first place for Alice. As an aside, no one wants to encounter unexpected Thatcher admiration in an unrelated book. Nearly threw it away at that point. ( not my own book so I resisted). Lastly, the photos were terrible- a particular highlight the black and white photo ( blurry print) telling me about the red plaque in the bottom left corner where I couldn’t discern anything vaguely plaque shaped in b&w either! All in all a disappointing read from a book that sounded very promising.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

"Whom in life we dearly cherished and whom in death we cannot cease to love." - Edward I wrote this to the Abbott of Cluny after Eleanor's funeral and it just really gets me :(((((((( its such stark human emotion that reaches across 800 years. He was DEVASTATED at her death

Alice did a really excellent job with the narration of this book. The bits in Lincoln made me a bit emotional as she did such a vivid job of describing Lincoln that it almost gave me chills. Hearing her describe the antiques shop on the corner of the hill, or the Jew's House, or the pub at the top of the hill made me homesick.

I think she also did a good job with the overall theme of the book of remembrance and how we chose to memorialize people after they're gone. And especially bringing people from the past back to life. Her writing was very accessible too.

This was such a fun audio book listen to hear her describe all the different places she walked through. I liked when she mentioned different areas of historical interest not just from the medieval period,

I liked when she drew a parallel between Catherine Eddows and Queen Eleanor; that was a really strong parallel between two women whose bodies lay in the same space 600 years apart but one was brutalized and one was honored.

I'm also sooooo jealous that she got to go to Edward the Confessor's Chapel in Westminster Abbey and got to see all these tombs up close. How do I do that in the future? How much work do I have to do in the history field to get the dean of Westminster to give me private tour please I need to know. New career goal dropped ig

It also took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the author Alice, was historyalice on instagram lol

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you've ever watched one of Alice Loxton's TikTok or Instagram videos you'll get the tone of this book:
*Posh English cheerful voice* Gosh! Wasn't Eleanor of Castile a medieval girl boss with her extensive property portfolio! And wasn't it sooooo romantic that her dreamy husband commemorated her funerary journey with twelve glorious stone monuments of luuurve!"

I put up with the tone because it's actually a really interesting bit of history and on her pilgrimage ("joyful saunter through the English countryside"), the author passes through a lot of places I know well. And I'm already planning to visit some of the places I don't know.

She does her best to also include the lives of the "hoi polloi" (an actual phrase she uses!), but her passion is clearly for the monarchy of it all. This is her description of Edward I, a king who is known as the Hammer of the Scots: "He was hot. He was valiant. He was everything a prince should be. Jilly Cooper would have had a field day. You can picture the steamy scenes after a tournament... Prince Edward jumping down from his stallion, face ruddy, flinging his breastplate aside...*cues Careless Whisper*"

And the things she decides to highlight from her 200 mile journey from Lincoln to London are very telling (*cough* Tory *cough*): "We sat on the churchyard wall, watching village life unfold around the cross. The postman doing the rounds. Friends stopping to chat. Little children wrapped in scarfs and hats, whizzing about on bikes and scooters."

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75⭐️ for my first time reading a book in this genre. really loved, thought the writing style was not too overwhelming and very accessible as someone who’s never read a history book for fun before.
Eleanor sounds like a formidable and powerful woman of her time and I felt so moved by Edward’s display of grief and love for his wife through the Eleanor Crosses. So much so that I was gutted each time we were told of the destruction of one.
Sometimes reading about the medieval processes of making the crosses was slightly snoozeville but then enjoyed reading about the author’s journey of discovery and her connection to Eleanor.
I’m inspired and would love to go and visit some of the places visited along this pilgrimage.

[W.S. Luk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't share what seems to be a peculiarly British compulsion to walk and hike ridiculous distances, but nevertheless found myself drawn into Alice Loxton's 200-mile journey following the path of Queen Eleanor of Castile's funeral procession. Loxton's biography of Eleanor broadens from this theme to discuss the architectural and artistic legacy that her era of the Medieval world left, and the histories of the different locations this strange pilgrimage passes through. ELEANOR is written for a non-specialist audience (hence Loxton's explanations of concepts like Purgatory or the four humours), which may account for why I would've liked the book to delve further into historical minutiae, but she entertainingly reconstructs the personalities of Eleanor and her husband Edward I in fictitious episodes, and discusses historical detail in a lighthearted and accessible tone (at one point she describes a "chunky and strong" cross by saying "Gen Z would call it 'thicc'", which I am afraid are precisely the words I'd use).

[Lizzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed- the premise was great and easy to read but the content was extremely lacking. I didn’t earn anything new about Eleanor and I didn’t know a huge amount to start with. Alice Loxton doesn’t really come across as a historian of any substance.

[Phoebe Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75 ⭐️

Almost perfect! The weird Gen Z references weren’t needed and probably won’t age well. Other than that I adored it

[Becky]

ultimately this just wasn’t for me. I like pop history and even travelogue history but something about this fell flat where others did not. none of the magic of rural England translated for me personally.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that combines a long walk through England with visiting old buildings and with tidbits of history and a woman who shares the same name as my daughter? I'm in.

[Judith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I’m being generous in giving this 2 stars. This isn’t my idea of history & it concerns me that people reading this book have said they’ve learnt from it. Some of Loxton’s facts are correct & some of her opinions I like, e.g. putting up an Eleanor style cross to Elizabeth ll. However, the facts that are known about Eleanor & Edward do not support the numerous sections of conversation & supposition and it is very difficult to separate truth from fiction. I just wish I hadn’t spent £22 on it!

[Ellie (bookmadbarlow) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this look into Queen Eleanor in the form of a 200mile pilgrimage by the author.
Its quite a niche topic and I wouldn't expect that many people to know about this queen, but having grown up in a location with a cross the subject fascinated me.
I loved following the authors journey and hearing about places I had visited myself.
A very easy listen about what can sometimes be a boring subject.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant history also such a humorous writer ! She should be on telly x

[Erin Sexton (Micale) · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it! creative, witty, and just overall interesting.

[Bethany Currie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into Eleanor with high hopes. I enjoy history and this particular narrative style, but this book ultimately fell flat for me. Despite its subject, I didn’t feel I learned much about who Eleanor actually was in a historical sense. In fact, I found myself turning to Wikipedia afterward to fill in basic context the book failed to provide. Equally disappointing was the lack of information about the author herself, who is an important part of the journey. I never felt I truly got to know her motivation and perspective sufficiently, which made the framing device feel thin. Overall, the stakes simply weren’t high enough, and my interest waned fairly quickly.

The historical interpretation also raised concerns. King Edward I’s actions are repeatedly whitewashed, with the narrative focusing almost exclusively on the most flattering aspects of both Edward and Eleanor. The author seems to decide early on that Eleanor must have been a particularly capable, likable, modern-feeling figure and builds the story around that belief, despite this being historically unlikely and at odds with contemporary accounts from the time. Edward I is remembered primarily for his brutal campaigns in Scotland and the immense bloodshed of his reign, yet the author urges readers not to judge him by modern standards and seems to imply that his affection for his wife somehow mitigates or excuses the near-genocide that occurred during his reign. I found this deeply troubling and difficult to move past. Overall, this book managed to be neither educational or entertaining, a big disappointment.

[Cher Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

not my cup of tea. I like the idea of making history more interesting to a general audience, but the book fell flat for me.