Eleanor of Aquitaine – Queen, wife & mother

Eleanor of Aquitaine – Queen, wife & mother

Eleanor of Aquitaine, was one of the most powerful and influential figures of the Middle Ages.

Inheriting a vast estate at the age of 15, made her the most sought-after bride of her generation.

She would eventually become the queen of France, the queen of England – and lead a crusade to the Holy Land.

Eleanor was born in Bordeaux, in the year 1122.
She was the eldest daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, and Aénor de Châtellerault.

This little girl would be considered the most powerful and enlightened woman of her time, if not the entire medieval age.

As a girl, Eleanor was well educated, versed in literature, philosophy, and languages and trained to the rigors of court life.

When she was 15, her father died.
She inherited her father’s title and extensive lands, becoming the Duchess of Aquitaine, and by far the most eligible single young woman in Europe.

Eleanor was placed under the guardianship of the King of France, and within hours, the shrewd King had betrothed Eleanor to his son and heir, Louis.

Louis and Eleanor were married in July 1137, but before they could become close and get to know each other, Louis’ father the King, fell ill and died.

On Christmas Day of the same year, Louis and Eleanor were crowned king and queen of France.

Louis and Eleanor’s first years as rulers were fraught with power struggles within their own family.

Louis, still young and inexperienced, made a series of military and diplomatic blunders that set him at odds with the Pope, and several of his more powerful lords.

The conflict that ensued culminated in the massacre of hundreds of innocents in the town of Vitry – a great number of the populace took refuge in a church, which was set on fire by Louis’s troops.

Louis was besieged by guilt for many years, over the tragedy at Vitry, and on the Popes advice, set off on a crusade in 1145.

Eleanor joined her husband, on the dangerous and ill fated journey, west.

The crusade did not go well, and Eleanor and Louis grew further and further apart.
Eleanor sought an annulment, and they were eventually granted an annulment on the grounds of consanguinity (being related by blood) in 1152

Their two daughters were left in the custody of their father, the king.

Within two months of her annulment, Eleanor married Henry, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy.

She had been rumored to have had an affair with her new husband’s father, but the marriage still went ahead.
Within two years Henry and Eleanor were crowned king and queen of England.

Henry and Eleanor argued often, but the marriage to Henry was more successful than her first, producing eight children together between 1152 and 1166.

Eleanor separated from Henry in 1167 and moved her household to her own lands in Poitiers.

The reasons for the breakdown of her marriage to Henry remain unclear, but Henry’s increasingly visible infidelities, could be the reason.

In 1173, Eleanor’s son Henry fled to France, to plot against his father and seize the English throne.

Eleanor was arrested and tried for treason, under the assumption she was actively supporting her Son’s plan to overthrow his Father.

Suspected of plotting against her husband, and even being accused of playing a role in the death of his favorite mistress Rosamund, Eleanor spent the next 16 years being moved between various castles and strongholds in England.

After years of rebellion, their son Henry finally succumbed to disease in 1183, and died.

On his deathbed, he begged his Father for the release of his Mother.

King Henry released her, but she was always under guard.
Eleanor rejoined her husband’s household for part of each year, joining him on solemn occasions, and resuming some of her ceremonial duties as queen.

King Henry II died in July 1189, and their son Richard succeeded him.
He would become better known as Richard the Lionheart.

One of his first acts as King, was to restore his mother to full freedom.

Richard took over from his father in leading the Third Crusade, which had barely begun when Henry II died.
While Richard was away, Eleanor ruled England in Richard’s name, signing herself

“Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England”.

Between 1190 and 1194, King Richard was engaged in the Third Crusade.
Richard was then held in captivity by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.

Eleanor played a key role in the negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor, eventually securing Richard’s release with the ransom she raised.

When Richard returned to England, he ruled until his death in 1199.

When her youngest son John, was crowned king after Richard’s death, John employed his mother as an envoy to France.

Eleanor lived well into the reign of her youngest son, King John.
Eleanor would later support John’s rule, against the rebellion of her grandson Arthur.
She eventually retired as a nun, in the abbey at Fontevraud.

Eleanor died on 1st April 1204, aged 81/82.
She was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey, next to her husband Henry and their son Richard.

Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible, and she was decorated with representations of magnificent jewellery.
Such effigies were rare, and Eleanor’s is one of the finest of the few that survive from this period.

Sadly, during the French Revolution, the abbey of Fontevraud was sacked and the tombs were disturbed and vandalised.
Consequently the bones of Eleanor, Henry, Richard, Joanna and Isabella of Angoulême were exhumed and scattered, never to be recovered.

By the time of her death she had outlived all of her children, except for King John of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile.

There are two great movies of the story of Eleanor, both titled ~
‘The Lion In Winter’

The 1968 version stars Katherine Hepburn & Peter O’Toole.
The 2003 version stars Glenn Close & Patrick Stewart.

? Picture details from La Belle Dame sans Merci, by Sir Frank Dicksee, ca. 1901, and Queen Eleanor by Frederick Sandys, 1858