The New Murrey and Blue blog

Yes, it’s Weir(d) Babies 4 here, and another post poking fun at a certain “historian” who seem to pull royal babies out of thin air and include them in genealogies. This time, the extraneous little cherubs were credited to that notably fertile pair, Edward I and Eleanor of Castile…as if they did not already have a humungous brood!

Three girls, Alice, Blanche and Beatrice, are surprising additions to this royal family. Now Eleanor and Edward DID have several daughters who were stillborn or who died in infancy but their names did not survive in history. One was possibly called ‘Juliana’ but the evidence for that name is pretty flimsy too. The other three, though, seem to be complete inventions. Some claim the mysterious ‘Alice’ was a twin to Joan, but this is also pretty darn unlikely as the birth year listed for ‘Alice’ is not the same as Joan’s!

So here are some disgusted (and disgusting looking) medieval babies here to register their disapproval of these ‘creative’ inventions…