Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine

Chapter I: Eleanor of Aquitaine's Early Life

Eleanor of Aquitaine ~~~ Eleanor Becomes Duchess of Aquitaine ~~~ Eleanor, Queen of France and England ~~~ Eleanor Was Strong Willed ~~~ Eleanor Gets Married

Chapter II: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France

Eleanor in the Middle East ~~~ Eleanor Got Divorced ~~~ Eleanor of Aquitaine's Early Years ~~~ Eleanor of Aquitaine Meets Henri Plantagenet ~~~ Origins of 100 Years' War

Chapter III: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of England

Revolt of Eleanor's Sons ~~~ Court of Love ~~~ Richard Lion Heart Dies ~~~ Eleanor Lies in Fontevrault Abbey ~~~ More About Eleanor of Aquitaine ~~~
More French History ~~~ The Author ~~~ Eleanor of Aquitaine's Guestbook

About Eleanor of Aquitaine's youth, we know very few things. She was probably born in 1122; whether in the castle of Belin or in Poitiers or Bordeaux (chroniclers never agree about her birth place). Eleanor was daughter to William, duke of Aquitaine and Aenor (Eleanor) of Chatellerault.

William of Aquitaine reigned on a vast territory going from the Loire to the Atlantic Pyrenees. The Duke of Aquitaine was wealthier and had more power than the King of France, Louis VI - aka the Fat - William's territories were wider than those of the King of France's Royal domain.

Like any other lady in the medieval period, Eleanor had a strong education: she was able to read, write Latin, studied classic literature, played music. Because she grew up in Southern areas of current France, she enjoyed daily ballads sung by troubadours and took pleasure in listening to poems and music. Those activities were brought to the Aquitanian court by her grandfather William IX of Aquitaine, known as the Troubadour.

Eleanor of Aquitaine had a sister named Allix (Alice), both girls were surviving children of William of Aquitaine and Aenor of Chatellerault.

Eleanor became an orphan when her father died, during a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1137, and thus became Duchess of Aquitaine. Medieval rules were special and the King of France had the right to make a decision on any orphan girl of the aristocracy's future husband.

Because William of Aquitaine put his daughter under the protection of the King of France, Louis VI, the decision was made to marry her to his elder son, Louis the Young.

Prince Louis, aka the Young, Background

Because he had an older brother, Louis was initially intended for a clerical career, however, when his elder brother died, Louis was designated as legitimate successor of his father. At 16, he got married to Eleanor of Aquitaine, a duchess he had never seen and didn't know anything about. The marriage was a political affair and the opportunity for the king of France to join Aquitaine to the Royal Domain.

The Royal Wedding

Eleanor and Louis exchanged their vows in Saint-Andrew Cathedral of Bordeaux on July 25, 1137 during a ceremony which all lords of France attended. This cathedral is the one where Louis XIII would marry Anne of Austria 500 years later.

Eleanor and Louis were crowned Dukes of Aquitaine in Poitiers, on August 8, 1137. The very same day, they were warned that Louis VI was sick and the new couple had to leave Aquitaine for Paris.

Anecdote: in the medieval period, the woman was the only person to wear a ring. The wedding ring was first placed on the thumb of the bride: "in the name of the father"; then on her index: "in the name of the Son"; then on her middle finger: "and in the name of the Holy Ghost" and finally placed on the ring finger: "I take you for wife". The kiss exchanged at the end of the blessing was actually a symbol of peace.

Photo source:Britannica.com

Seeing things from the 21st century, we can think Eleanor had everything a woman would wish to be happy: she was beautiful, she was princess of Franks and duchess of Aquitaine; she was wealthy and adored by her husband and Frank people. However, the sad truth is that she wasn't happy at all.

First, Eleanor was born in the warm, shining and joyful South of current France. When she arrived in Paris, she discovered a horrible town, enclosed in the Isle of the Cite where the royal palace was situated. The palace was grey, dirty, windy; the weather was grey, rainy, cold and Eleanor understood that she would never feel fine in such a place.

Then, while her husband, Louis, was allowed to join the title of Duke of Aquitaine to his existing title of Prince of the Franks, Eleanor will never agree to join Aquitaine to the Frank Royal domain; instead she wanted to keep the autonomy of her territories as in the event of a divorce, she would risk losing her possessions to the profit of her ex-husband. She didn't want to see Aquitaine become a Frank region. This decision didn't make her husband happy.

A few month after the wedding, King Louis VI died and prince Louis became Louis VII, new King of Franks. Eleanor and Louis were crowned on Christmas Day, in 1137, King and Queen of France (in Bourges).

Chronicles of the times pretend that Louis loved his wife with a passion; however, Eleanor wasn't satisfied with her new husband: she stated that he was "more a friar than a man" and she was lacking of all bounties a woman is supposed to expect to get from her husband. In reality, Louis was pious, and took more pleasure from the time spent in churches than the time spent with his wife.

Eleanor of Aquitaine was a wise person and organized the Parisian court in the same way that the one of Aquitaine was. Therefore, troubadours, jugglers, poets and musicians provided the cold Parisian court with a Southern joyful ambiance; which was then named "the Fine Love".

She was also responsible for a new type of fashion clothes: the one where clothes had low necklines, allowing men to catch sight of a small part of the woman's bosom, waistbands which underlined waist thinness; clothes were cut in richer fabrics and luminous colours.

Queen Eleanor and King Louis took part to the Crusades of 1147 "to deliver Jesus Christ's tomb in Jerusalem". French lords and their wives also joined the crusade and after a very dangerous travel across Europe and the ocean, they arrived in Constantinople where they were invited by Manuel Komnenos and his wife Berta.

Eastern wonders fascinated Eleanor of Aquitaine: gold pieces of furniture, windows made out of crystal, scents and perfumes, spices, everything was new and she really believed that she was in Heaven. Because of housing problems, the Franks didn't stay a long time in Constantinople and quickly went to Antioch.

The travel was horrible, a huge number of crusaders died and survivors had to eat their horses. Last major disaster was the Turk attack they had to deal with.

Crusaders arrived in Antioch in early 1148. Antioch was ruled by Eleanor's uncle, Raymond of Aquitaine; a handsome man who was only 30 years old. A legend pretended that Raymond and Eleanor had a love affair years ago and King Louis had faith in this legend. This made Louis angry particularly because he was jealous of the long secret meetings between Raymond and Eleanor; which excited his bad behaviours towards Eleanor.

In reality those meetings concerned Raymond's plans for fighting against Edessa, a county under Syrian rule: he needed the help of Louis to succeed. However, the king refused and made a decision on leaving Antioch. Eleanor didn't agree and wanted to stay in Antioch; which she really liked.

Louis insisted and planned to kidnap his own wife; which led into Eleanor to decide to ask the pope the authorization to get divorced from the King of Franks. She found an excellent pretext to justify this decision: they were parents with a prohibited degree and could not live together any more. This convinced Louis to kidnap Eleanor and to run to Jerusalem.

The crusade failed miserably and Louis and Eleanor went back to the French kingdom. On their way to France, the pope solemnly confirmed their marriage and the King and Queen of France were blessed by the birth of a daughter during the summer 1150. Sadly the child didn't bring happiness to the couple as the King, still jealous, spied upon his wife who, in turn, was tired of having to deal with such a husband.

Luckily for Eleanor, the priest Suger, adviser of her spouse and against any idea of divorce, died one year later and Louis made a decision on getting divorced from Eleanor under the pretext that she couldn't give him a son and, therefore, a heir to the King. This divorce was Louis VII's biggest political mistake ever.

Indeed, Eleanor's domain was the biggest French territory and she, therefore, became the most powerful woman in Europe as well as the most interesting in terms of power for all single men of the continent.

Among Eleanor's admirers was the young Henry Plantagenet, son of the empress Matilda, Count of Anjou, Touraine and Duke of Normandy. A handsome 19 year old man. They fell in love as soon as they met each other.

Henri Plantagenet's background is strong as his mother was sister of the King of England, Stephen of Blois, who stole the English throne from her. The king of England didn't have any heir and Henry Plantagenet was, therefore, the potential heir of the British crown.

Henry and Eleanor got married as soon as she got divorced. The very same day, they joined their territories; which became the largest and most powerful French region.

King Louis VII asked the pope to cancel this marriage as he was frightened about the huge possessions of the new couple. Moreover, supposing that Eleanor had a son, this child would inherit from his parent's to the detriment of the daughters King Louis got from Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Unluckily for Louis, Eleanor's first child was a boy, named after her grandfather, William the Troubadour and her husband's grandfather, William the Conqueror. William Plantagenet, who wouldn't live more than 3 years, got seven siblings:

• Henry, who would never reign as he died before his father ;
• Richard, also known as the "Lionheart", future King of England
• Geoffrey, Duke of Normandy
• John - aka "John Lackland", future King of England
• Matilda, future Duchess of Sax and Bavaria;
• Eleanor, future Queen of Castilla;
• Joan, future Queen of Sicily and, after her husband's death, Countess of Toulouse.

Two years later, Henry became King of England and, therefore, Eleanor became Queen of England. She wasn't happy at all as she already had been a queen and the experience wasn't positive. However, she left the beautiful Aquitaine for London's fog and grey sky.

Despite the weather, as Queen of England, Eleanor had a more prestigious life than the one she had in Paris. She decorated the Royal Residence of Westminster Palace with splendid tapestries, furniture and plates. Chronicles of the time state that the English court was wealthier than the one of France; however, once again, Eleanor wasn't happy: London smelt bad, Thames river transported any sorts of dreadful garbage, meals were often vile and the sun never drilled the thick layer of clouds.

Because Henry and Eleanor joined their French territories to the British crown, Aquitaine and Normandy became English colonies. This led Louis into making a decision of fighting the war against those territories.

The first part of Hundred Years' War started. It lasted for 16 long years.

Henry was a successful warrior and restored peace in England, Wales and was also recognized by his French vassals. He was crowned three times in England. In 1158, Henry became also Seneshal of Anjou ; during this ceremony, both King of England and King of France signed a peace agreement and the engagement of their elder children: Henry and Margaret.

Accordingly to the habits of the medieval period, Margaret was educated in England. The two children got married one year later.

Eleanor's Activities in this Period.

For fifteen years, Eleanor travelled from England to Aquitaine where she recreated her Parisian Court of Love. Several ladies and lords attended the court where they read poetry, practiced gallantry and "pure love".

What is "pure love"?

During the Middle Ages, people practised friendship and pure love rather than marital love; which means that there was no physical contact in pure love, instead of marital relationships; which purpose was to have children.

Another really appreciated way to love each other in the medieval period was the inaccessible woman worship and platonic love.

Henry II and Eleanor's reign was not a long and quiet river. While Henry had been easily and quickly accepted in his role of King of England, he had many clashes with the English Church - still under Catholic, Apostolic and Roman rule.

Henry decided to centralize the Episcopal Authority in England and created the "Clarendon Constitutions" in which he abolished ecclesiastical judicial privileges as well as the power of the Pope, substituted with a more important influence of the King on the English Church.

The Clarendon Constitution wasn't accepted and Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury who publicly disavowed the King, had to leave England and ask the king of Franks' protection. In addition, Henry had to suffer echoes of the archbishop's assassination as English people considered him guilty. The Pope himself denied him when he canonized Thomas Becket a few years later.

Most of the problems that the King of England had to face had a huge influence on Eleanor's future.

Eleanor left England with her son Richard and stayed in France for seven years. She got help from Louis VII at the time she had to manage French revolts against Henry II who was still Duke of Normandy.

While chronicles probably exaggerated the role of Eleanor in the fight her sons started against their father, we are sure that she asked the protection of Louis VII for her sons. Historians are still studying the reasons behind the support Eleanor brought to her four sons. There is a wide range of possibilities regarding this: Henry's mistress that Eleanor hatred, Thomas Becket's murder, did she wish to bequeath Aquitaine only to Richard?

One thing is sure, though, Eleanor was in open revolt against her husband when she was captured, sent to England and locked in different castles, including Salisbury donjon. Regarding this detention, we know very few things but she was certainly surrounded by her familiar ladies as well as Alys of France, future spouse of Richard.

Photo: Palace of Justice in Poitiers - Christophe.Finot - Wikimedia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic License.

Richard loved his mother so much that as soon as he would become King of England, sixteen years later, he unlocked her. Richard's accession to the English throne didn't keep him away from leaving England to join a Crusade in the Middle East. He finally never got married as he was kidnapped on his way to England after the crusade. Eleanor collected the money required to set Richard the Lionheart free but had to fight against her youngest son, John - future John Lackland - who ripped the crown. Unfortunately, Richard the Lionheart died in Limousin, the year 1199 before he had been able to join England. Eleanor thought she would die of sorrow.

However, this extraordinary woman wasn't about to die yet and crossed the Channel to meet her daughter Joan in Fontevrault (France). Joan was widow of King of Sicily and about to get married to the Count of Toulouse. This meeting brought a lot of happiness to Eleanor as in the medieval period, a princess was bound to get married, live and die in foreign countries; therefore, that kind of meeting was rare and a marvelous opportunity for Eleanor: she didn't see her daughter in 24 years!

Eleanor was an old woman of almost 80 years old and, despite her old age, after she ordered the lying sculptures of her husband and her son in Fontevrault Abbey, she travelled to Spain as she wanted to get one of her granddaughters married to the future King of France.

The most beautiful of her Spanish granddaughters was Princess Urraca; however, her first name was incomprehensible to French, therefore, she chose the second one: Blanca. This young princess would marry Louis VIII. Through this union and beyond death, Eleanor and her first husband, Louis VII will survive as Blanca will provide her husband with a large number of children. She will become mother of Louis IX, the future Saint-Louis.

In the spring of 1204, Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the greatest characters of the European history, returned her soul to God. She was 80 years old; which is quite old for this period.

Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine was buried in Fontevrault Abbey next to her second husband, Henry Plantagenêt and her adored son Richard the Lionheart. Their lyings still exist.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and then Queen of England, owner of the most important territories in France, used to sign her documents with the following sentence:

Eleanor, Queen of England, by the anger of God!

Photo: Henry and Eleanor Lyings by Manfred Heyde - Wikimedia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Chapter I: Eleanor of Aquitaine's Early Life in France

Eleanor Becomes Duchess of Aquitaine ~~~ Eleanor, Queen of France and England ~~~ Eleanor Was Strong Willed ~~~ Eleanor Gets Married

Chapter II: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France

Eleanor in the Middle East ~~~ Eleanor Got Divorced ~~~ Eleanor of Aquitaine's Early Years ~~~ Eleanor of Aquitaine Meets Henri Plantagenet ~~~ Origins of 100 Years' War

Chapter III: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of England

Revolt of Eleanor's Sons ~~~ Court of Love ~~~ Richard Lion Heart Dies ~~~ Eleanor Lies in Fontevrault Abbey ~~~ More About Eleanor of Aquitaine ~~~
More French History ~~~ The Author ~~~ Eleanor of Aquitaine's Guestbook