Eleanor of Aquitaine


Eleanor on the Second Crusade

    Eleanor of Aquitaine was born in approximately 1122, the daughter of Duke William X of Aquitaine and his wife Aenor, and granddaughter of the first toubadour.  Eleanor was given an excellent education and brought up in a court where music and literature were celebrated. Both of her parents died while she was young, and at the age of fifteen, upon her father's death, she became the duchess of Aquitaine and was placed under the care of King Louis the Fat of France, as his ward.  Louis married her to his son and heir, the future King Louis VII on August 1, 1137.  When King Louis the Fat died a few days following the wedding, Eleanor and her new husband were crowned king and queen of France.  

    Eleanor and Louis had different temperaments; she was known for her maturity, charm, and liveliness while he was thought of as extremely pious, peaceful, and humble (Kelly, 6, 13).  The assertive Eleanor even followed Louis on the Second Crusade and demanded to have a role in it.  It was over a matter pertaining to the Crusade that Eleanor sided with her uncle, Raymond of Poiters, against Louis, creating a rift in their marriage.  Eleanor told Louis that he was endangering their souls because they were related to each other in a degree that the church had forbidden, and after she gave birth to a disappointing second daughter Louis allowed her a divorce.  


Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II- stained glass 
window in the Church at Poitiers  

    Less than eight weeks after Eleanor's divorce from Louis was granted, she married the Duke of Normandy, the future king Henry II of England.  Eleanor's own land holdings in Aquitaine and Poitou were vast, and when added to Henry's territories, their marriage had consolidated an area of land larger than their overlord Louis'.  When Henry became king of England in 1154, Eleanor received her second crown.  The accession, which had been insecure for Henry, was strengthened by the birth of their eight children, seven of whom survived past childhood.     

   Henry and Eleanor's marriage fist seemed to show visible signs of strain in 1169 when she took their son Richard back to Poiters and set up her own court and administration.  She also coordinated a rebellion against Henry in 1173, and was imprisoned by him for fifteen years because of her treachery.  Here, Eleanor of Aquitaine biographer Amy Kelly contributes her wrath in part to Henry's flaunting of an affair with Rosamund Clifford, but other historians, W.L. Warren included, discount this.  


Eleanor's Seal

    When Henry II died in 1189 and Richard inherited the throne, Eleanor was restored to her freedom and participated in governing her son's lands.  While Richard was on Crusade, it was Eleanor who managed his governmental affairs, and it was she who raised the scutage for his ransom when he was captured.  Eleanor also attempted to keep her son John from taking his brother's crown after he left, and was able to convince John's followers that Richard would be coming back.  The fighting amongst her sons was particularly painful for her and she looked to God for the cause, saying "His anger is so against me that even my sons fight against each other, if indeed it can be called a fight when one is imprisoned and crushed in chains while the other heaps grief upon grief by trying to usurp the former's kingdom for himself with his cruel tyranny." 

    After Richard's death, John became king, and he sought the advice of his mother in governing as well.  In her later years, she also arranged prosperous marriages for her grandchildren, of which she had many.  Eleanor's influence earned her the reputation for being one of the most powerful women in medieval Europe; she had been the heiress of a vast territory, the queen of two countries and the mother of two kings, participated in the Crusades, and been involved in government administration.  Eleanor died and was buried in Fontevrault Abbey in 1204, and her tomb rests there today.     

   
Eleanor's tomb at Fontevrault Abbey, France

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Last modified: 12/08/02