Eleanor of Aquitaine (?)

     Eleanor of Aquitaine (?) Eleanor of Aquitaine (about 1122 - April 1, 1204) was one of the most powerful people of the Middle Ages and the richest and most powerful woman in Europe during her lifetime. She was married first to the French King Louis VII and then to the English King Henry II, a marriage that produced the two English kings Richard the Lionheart and John. Her father was William X, Duke of Aquitaine, and her mother was Aenor Aimery, the daughter of Aimeric I, Vicomte of Chatellerault. When Eleanor was born she was named after her mother and called "Alia Aenor", which in Latin means "other Aenor", but it became "Eleanor" in English. She was raised in one of Europe's most cultured courts, the birthplace of the courtly love poetry invented by her grandfather, William IX of Aquitaine, the Troubador.


The eldest of three children, she became heiress to the province of Aquitaine, largest and richest of the provinces that would become modern France, when her only brother died as a baby. As soon as her father died in 1137, when she was 15 years old, Eleanor became the target of marriage proposals from all parts of Europe. She married King Louis VII of France, bringing to the marriage her vast possessions from the river Loire to the Pyrenees, most of what is now the west of France. She also gave him a wedding present that is still in existence, a rock crystal vase. She took part in the Crusades with some female contemporaries but as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. The story that she and her ladies dressed as Amazons is disputed by serious historians, and her conduct was repeatedly criticized by Church elders as indecorous. However her testimonial launch of the 2nd Crusade from Vezalay, the rumored location of Mary Magdalene's interment, dramatically emphasized the role she led women to play in the campaign. While in the eastern Mediterranean countries, she learned about maritime conventions developing there that were the beginnings of what would become the field of admiralty law, and she later introduced those conventions in her own lands, on the island of Oleron in 1160, and then into England, while she was acting as regent for her son, King Richard.

Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged as vigor and piety clashed. She sided with her flamboyant, handsome uncle, Raymond of Toulouse, in his desire to re-capture the County of Edessa. Louis preferred to visit Jerusalem which eventually led to a debilitating campaign. When Eleanor declared her intention to stand with Raymond for Edessa, Louis had her brought with him by force. Eleanor's imprisonment disheartened her Aquitaine knights and Magdalene followers and the divided Crusade armies could not overcome the Muslim forces. For reasons unknown Louis and the Crusade kings targeted Damascus, an ally until the attack. Failed, they retired to Jerusalem and sailed home. When they passed through Rome on the way to Paris, the Pope himself tried to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, and Eleanor did conceive their second daughter (Alix (or Alice) Capet, the first being Marie de Champagne), but there was no saving their marriage. In 1152 the marriage to Louis was annulled on the grounds of consanguinity. Her vast estates reverted to her and were considered no longer a portion of the French royal properties.

Within a year, Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Anjou, who was shortly to become king of England. She was eleven years older than he and related to him in the same degree as she had been to Louis. She bore Henry five sons and three daughters — (William, Henry the Young King, Richard I "the Lionheart", Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, John "Lackland", Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan) — over the next thirteen years. Some time between 1168 and 1173, Eleanor instigated a separation, deciding that from then on she would mostly remain in her own territory of Poitou where she developed the rumored Court of Love, while Henry concentrated on controlling his increasingly large empire elsewhere. A small fragment of her codes and practises remain written by Andreas Capellanus.

In 1173, Eleanor took part in a rebellion against Henry (see Revolt of 1173-1174), in league with three of their four surviving legitimate sons, although his other sons stood by him. Henry in 1170 had Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Beckett murdered and Europe was outraged. Eleanor was certainly incensed by Henry's numerous sexual dalliances leaving a division of family inheritance. She was annoyed with his attempts to control her patrimony of Aquitaine and the social progress of her court Poitiers. The rebellion was put down, and Eleanor was imprisoned by Henry at the age of 50 for the next fifteen years.

Upon Henry's death in 1189, her son Richard inherited the throne and released his mother from prison. She ruled England while Richard went off to Crusade. She survived him and lived long enough to see her youngest son John on the throne.

Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey near her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible.

Eleanor in historical fiction
Eleanor and Henry are the main characters in the play The Lion in Winter, by James Goldman, which was made into a film starring Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn. The depiction of her in the film Becket is totally inaccurate. She appears briefly in the BBC production Ivanhoe portrayed by Sian Phillips. She is also a major character in Thomas B. Costain's Below the Salt, and the subject of E. L. Konigsburg's children's book A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver.

Biographies
Queen Eleanor: Independent Spirit of the Medieval World, Polly Schover Brooks (©1983) (for young readers)
Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography, Marion Meade (©1977)
Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings, Amy Kelly (©1950)
Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Mother Queen, Desmond Seward (©1978)
Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life, Alison Weir (©1999)
Women of the Twelfth Century, Volume 1 : Eleanor of Aquitaine and Six Others, Georges Duby

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine. Eleanor's name appears on a charter for the first time in 1129, when she was seven. She, her parents and her brother witnessed the parchment, and she signed her initials in ink.

Eleanor went on crusade with first husband Louis VII.

Eleanor's marriage to Louis was ended on the grounds of consanguinity.

When Eleanor married Henry, she brought with her 42 gowns, 14 pairs of shoes, 5 mantles, and 10 undershirts.

Eleanor's ancestral palace at Poitiers is now the Palace of Justice. Some of the changes that she made can still be seen.

A character in Shakespeare's play, King John.

Constance of Brittany makes a bitter speech--the use of baby talk makes it one of the most cynical in all of Shakespeare's plays, which is saying a lot--to her son Arthur and his grandmother Eleanor, who has backed John instead of Arthur: "Do, child, go to it grandam, child; Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam will Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig. There's a good grandam!..." King John Act 2, scene 1

Portrayed by Martita Hunt in the 1952 film, "The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men."

Portrayed by Jill Esmond in the 1955-58 television series, "The Adventures of Robin Hood."

Portrayed by Pamela Brown in the 1964 film, "Becket."

Played by Katharine Hepburn, whose portrayal won her a Best Actress Academy Award, in the 1968 film "Lion in Winter."

Portrayed by Jane Lapotaire in the 1978 BBC-2 series, "The Devil's Crown."

She was born in 1122. She was the daughter of William X (?) Duke of Aquitaine and Aenor Aimery. Eleanor of Aquitaine (?) married Henry II "Curt Mantel" (?) King of England, son of Geoffrey V Plantagenet (?) Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou and Matilda (?) Queen of England and Empress of Germany, on 18 May 1152 at Bordeaux, Gironde, France.¹ Eleanor of Aquitaine (?) died on 1 April 1204 at Fontevraud, Anjou, France.