Eleanor of Aquitaine, also known as Eleanor of Guyenne, was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 after her marriage to Louis VII, then Queen of England from 1154 to 1204 after marrying Henry II Plantagenet in her second marriage. As a “lively” young woman, and later mother of three kings, she challenged the masculine tradition of power by administering her lands and playing a preeminent role in public affairs. A seductress, she is credited with originating courtly love; intelligent and cultured, she protected troubadours, novelists, and poets. Her effigy is located in the Abbey Church of Fontevraud, where she took the veil at the end of her life and where she passed away on March 31, 1204.
Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Coveted Princess
Daughter of William X, Eleanor of Aquitaine was born around 1123 near Bordeaux. Through her father, she would inherit an immense domain covering the entire southwest of France: Gascony, Guyenne, Périgord, Limousin, Poitou…. Her grandfather, the Duke of Poitiers, William IX, was perhaps the most illustrious of the princes of Aquitaine, also known for his talents as a troubadour. Initiator of a cultural movement that flourished in the 12th century, William enabled the emergence of literature in the Occitan language alongside the expansion of lyric poetry.
Beautiful and alluring, with a charming smile, a gentle gaze, noble manners, a quick and cultivated mind, Eleanor loved parties and flowers. She was only fifteen when her father proposed her in marriage to the son of King Louis VI the Fat, the future Louis VII: the king, ill, could die in peace. She welcomed her future husband, accompanied by five hundred gentlemen, in Bordeaux, where the marriage was celebrated on July 25, 1137, with Louis VII becoming king in August of the same year. The new Queen Eleanor proved perfect: present at jousts and tournaments, she received the nobility, welcomed and listened to troubadours… while single-handedly managing the Duchy of Aquitaine. But she was ambitious and desired power.
Queen of France
Louis VII the Young was a weak, very devout king. Little respected by his vassals, whose possessions were often more important than the royal domain, he withdrew from everything, no longer participating in anything, partly entrusting the government to Abbot Suger. Eleanor said, “he is more monk than king,” but their first daughter Marie of France was born in 1145 (she married Count Henry I of Champagne and died in 1198). The king’s only salvation lay in the crusade requested by Pope Eugene III in March 1146. Convinced by the words of Saint Bernard, Louis VII set out for the Holy Land, followed by his court and a “light and dissipated” Eleanor occupied with amusing herself. From Constantinople to Asia Minor, Eleanor discovered magnificent landscapes but… was caught in an ambush by the Saracens near Iconium. Thanks to the knights, she escaped, yet the bulk of the army was defeated.
King Louis of France, arriving shortly after, was involved in the battle for four hours and fortunately found Eleanor in Antioch, where they were royally received by the queen’s uncle: Raymond of Poitiers, Duke of Antioch. The festivities had a particular character due to the customs and practices of Asia, Eleanor gave herself up gaily to the pleasure of these festivities, and the king held it against her. He found the relationship between Eleanor and her uncle dubious, he was indignant and decided to leave the place.
The queen refused to leave and spoke of separation, the situation deteriorated… but she had to obey nonetheless. The rumor was launched about the queen’s extramarital adventures… with her uncle. The king embarked for Europe thanks to the vessels of the King of Sicily. Stopping later in Rome, he confided in the Pope about Eleanor: he wanted to repudiate her…
Failure of the Marriage With Louis VII
Returning to France after four years of absence, Louis VII found his friend Abbot Suger who calmed him, helped him with his worries and explained that he was strongly against this repudiation. The royal couple reconciled and a second daughter was born in 1150: Alix, who would marry Count Thibault the Good of Blois and who would die in 1195. But Suger died in January 1152, the king lost a wise friend and the situation worsened again in the couple. Finally, at Easter 1152, he presented his request before an assembly of prelates: a request for the annulment of the marriage.
The chancellor had this speech: “It is unnecessary,” he said, “to insist on the king’s sorrows, and on what happened in Palestine; there is no one who does not know the rumors that have circulated, and the king, who wants to respect the honor of this great princess, must not delve into the truth of the facts whose certainty would oblige him to deploy all his severity. He relies on the queen herself. When she wanted to separate from the king her husband in Antioch, she invoked kinship as evidence of the nullity of her marriage; this is what the king submits to the judgment of the Assembly. If kinship is proven, Louis’s union with Eleanor will be annulled.”
The Archbishop of Bordeaux then admitted that kinship indeed existed to the fourth degree through the women of Burgundy. The nullity was immediately pronounced during this council of Beaugency. At the announcement of this news, Eleanor fainted, then recovering herself, she was surprised by the king’s decision: “Ah! Gentlemen, what have I done to the king that he wants to abandon me? How have I offended him? What fault has he found in my person? I am young enough for him, I am not barren… I am rich enough; I have always obeyed him…“
Quickly regaining her senses, at the head of Poitou and all of Aquitaine, she felt threatened with abduction (the Count of Anjou, Geoffrey Plantagenet wanted to stop her in order to marry her), fled Blois, passed through Tours and took refuge in Poitiers, hoping to marry Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Normandy, Geoffrey’s brother. Their first meeting had taken place in 1151 and had been very successful. He had everything to please the rich heiress: a bearing announcing his high birth, golden blond hair, a gentle gaze, an adroitness for all bodily exercises, at ease at court, he was twenty years old. Six weeks after the repudiation, Henry asked for her hand in marriage.
Queen of England
Although Louis VII did everything to prevent this union, Eleanor married Henry in May 1152; the latter became King of England and took the name Henry II. Eleanor, Duchess of Normandy, Queen of England did not find happiness, her husband being unfaithful and moreover, he had no intention of letting her have power! She just had the right to take care of the eight children who would be born: William (1153-1156); Henry the Young (1155-1183); Matilda (1156-1189) wife of Henry the Good, mother of Emperor Otto IV; Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199) King of England; Geoffrey (1158-1186) father of Arthur; Eleanor (1161-1214) wife of the King of Castile, mother of Blanche of Castile; Joan (1165-1199) wife of William II King of Sicily, then Raymond V Count of Toulouse, became abbess of Fontevraud; John Lackland (1166-1216) King of England to the detriment of Arthur.
Furious, Eleanor made scenes to her husband, going from anger to tenderness, even turning the children against their father, providing them with weapons, pushing them to ally with Scotland against him. She left England and retired to Poitiers, in the midst of her court of poets. Henry II, suspecting Eleanor of being behind the death of his former mistress Rosamund and at the end of his patience, imprisoned her for sixteen years, in Chinon, and in various castles in England.
She only came out when her eldest son Richard the Lionheart, once on the throne after the death of Henry II in July 1189, freed her. From that day, still governing Aquitaine and Poitou, she visited her lands and decided to open all the prisons. While Richard the Lionheart was on crusade, she ensured the Regency and received a more than warm welcome at each of her passages in the various regions. But out of jealousy and need for power, she evicted Richard’s young fiancée, sister of Philip Augustus: she wanted no one but herself on the throne! She eventually accepted and negotiated the marriage of Berengaria of Aragon and Richard.
A little later, she struggled and devoted herself body and soul to free Richard who had just been captured and delivered to Emperor Henry VI, on his return from the crusade. She spared no effort to gather the enormous ransom demanded. Richard was freed in February 1194, but a few years later, he was wounded and died in Limousin in 1199.
Rather than see another lineage accede to power, she pushed John Lackland, her last son, to ascend the throne. She went to fetch her granddaughter Blanche from Castile and participated in negotiating the marriage with the son of Philip Augustus, the future Louis VIII.
End of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s Life at Fontevraud
Having reached the end of her life, she left her inheritance to her grandson Henry III, then retired definitively to the Abbey of Fontevraud in Maine. She took the veil there while making donations and alms to the poor. After a very eventful life, “the most beautiful and richest flower of Aquitaine, the incomparable pearl of the South” died in March 1204 at the age of 82. She rests at Fontevraud, first alongside her husband, then her son Richard and her daughter-in-law Isabella of Angoulême (wife of John Lackland). Today, one can see their four polychrome effigies facing the high altar of the abbey church.
Considered for a time by historians as the cause, by her conduct, her divorce and her remarriage, of three centuries of conflicts with England, this famous figure is perceived differently today. Eleanor of Aquitaine embodies the liberated woman of the 13th century, symbol of an enlightened and pleasant Middle Ages; however, some would like to present her as the archetype of the medieval princess, more to be pitied than admired. If Eleanor continues to provoke such strong positions, it is because she remains above all a central female figure in our history.
