Eleanor of Aquitaine
Queen of France, Queen of England · 1122 CE, Poitiers or Bordeaux, Duchy of Aquitaine (modern France) - 1204 CE, Poitiers, France
One of the most powerful women in medieval Europe. She was queen consort of France, then queen consort of England, mother of two kings including Richard the Lionheart, and a patron of troubadour poetry and courtly culture. She lived to eighty-two and remained politically active to the end.
Life and legacy
Eleanor inherited the vast Duchy of Aquitaine at age fifteen upon the death of her father, Duke William X, in 1137, making her the wealthiest heiress in Europe. Within weeks she married Louis VII of France, becoming queen of France. She accompanied Louis on the disastrous Second Crusade in 1147-49, traveling as far as Antioch and Jerusalem. The marriage was troubled by personal incompatibility and Eleanor's failure to produce a male heir, and it was annulled in 1152 on grounds of consanguinity.
Just eight weeks after the annulment, Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou, who became King Henry II of England in 1154. Together they ruled an empire stretching from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees. Eleanor bore Henry eight children, including the future kings Richard I and John. She governed Aquitaine in her own right, holding courts at Poitiers that became legendary centers of troubadour poetry and the ideals of courtly love.
Relations between Eleanor and Henry deteriorated through the 1160s, and in 1173, Eleanor supported her sons in a great revolt against their father. The rebellion failed, and Henry kept Eleanor imprisoned for sixteen years, from 1173 until his death in 1189. She endured her captivity at various English castles, but she was never broken.
When Richard I became king in 1189, he immediately freed his mother, and Eleanor became the effective regent of England during his absence on the Third Crusade. She kept the kingdom together while Richard was away and then while he was held captive in Germany, personally traveling across the Alps to deliver his ransom. When Richard died in 1199, Eleanor threw her support behind her youngest son John, traveling at age seventy-seven across the Pyrenees to fetch her granddaughter Blanche of Castile as a bride for the future Louis VIII of France.
Eleanor died at the abbey of Fontevraud in 1204, aged about eighty-two. She had been queen of two countries, mother of two kings, and a political force for six decades. Her tomb at Fontevraud, where she lies beside Henry II and Richard I, shows her reading a book, a fitting image for a woman who was as intellectually engaged as she was politically formidable.
Key accomplishments
- Served as queen consort of both France (1137-1152) and England (1154-1189)
- Governed Aquitaine independently and served as regent of England during the Third Crusade
- Patronized troubadour poetry and courtly culture at her court in Poitiers
- Mother of kings Richard I and John of England
- Remained politically active into her eighties, negotiating treaties and securing alliances
Quotes
I am Eleanor, by the wrath of God, Queen of England.
Attributed, from a letter to Pope Celestine III (c. 1193)