Time to write about the reason for the trip-a chance to walk in the footsteps of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Parts of medieval history are included in most school curriculums and the history goes something like, Rome fell to the Visigoths ushering in the dark ages then the low Middle Ages followed by the High Middle Ages as culture and art began to flourish. We learn about the Norman invasion, William the Conqueror, then the legend of Robin Hood, Richard the Lionhearted and King John. We may learn about John's and Richard's father Henry II and if we do, his name in inevitably linked with the one female name we know from 800 plus years ago, Eleanor - spelling Alienior in French history. Their great love affair gave him the resources to become King of England and years later she launched a civil war when power became more important than love. We may know the old movie Lion in Winter where Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn trade barbs as Henry and Eleanor.
Eleanor was born in 1122, probably in Poitiers although Bordeaux is sometimes mentioned as her birthplace. She was extremely well educated, in math, astronomy history and Latin as well as the domestic skills and the arts. When her younger brother died when she was about 8 she became heir presumptive to the Duchy of Aquitaine, which makes up about a third of modern France - mostly the Southwest and Central parts. When her father died while on a pilgrimage to Spain, she inherited his title and was promptly sent to Paris and her guardian. King Louis the Fat who saw in the guardianship a chance to bring Aquitaine to the French crown and promptly married her to his son the Dauphin-also Louis. This Louis had spent his life in a monestary to be brought back to the palace when his elder brother died.
Eleanor and Louis married in Bordeaux and within weeks, Fat Louis was dead and she and now King Louis where on their way to Paris to rule. She officially kept her lands but once she gave birth to a male heir, the lands would become her son's and part of the empire of the French King. By all accounts, Louis was in love with his lovely southern Queen, until he increasing fell under the influence of the Church leaders and Eleanor failed to produce a male heir and felt herself more capable to rule her lands than her husband. Eleanor gave birth to one daughter, Marie, reportedly telling courtiers that it took two to make a baby and with a husband more monk than King, there wasn't much she could do.
Eleanor and Louis took part in the second Crusade. Eleanor was the feudal leader of the soldiers from her Duchy and expected to be treated accordingly. By all accounts the crusade was a disaster, both as a military exercise and for their marriage. She was rumored to have a dalliance with her uncle, Raymond of Antioch and leading her troops over mountains in the Syrian region, her troops escaped a slaughter that befell her husband's soldiers. Opening discussion of an annulment on the way home-where they were battered by storms and lost for a while until they were reunited in Sicily, they stopped to see Pope Eugene III who instead of granting the annulment, tried to reconcile the King and Queen. This obviously had some success as soon after princess Alix was born.
Back in France, living increasing separate lives and with Louis desperate for a male heir, an annulment was finally granted on the grounds of consanguity - meaning they were too closely related. Her daughters were declared legitimate and stayed in Paris-she never saw her younger daughter again, and Eleanor left Paris for Poitiers.
There were two attempts to kidnap her on the way home from Paris-one from Geoffrey of Blois and the second from Geoffrey of Nantes brother of Henry of Anjou. Kidnapping and raping an heiress was one way to make her marry you in medieval times and the Aquitaine was quite the prize. Once home, Eleanor sent for Henry Plantagent, who she had met in Paris a few years earlier. He was 9 years her junior. The 18 year old had told her he planned to conquer England, a land he felt was illegally snatched from his mother on the death of his grandfather. At 15 he led an army to try to defeat his uncle King Stephan but defeated he escaped back to France to bide his time.
On May 18, 1152, eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry in Poitiers in what was described as a marriage without pomp that did not befit their stations although it did take place in Poitier Cathedral. While technically, Eleanor should have asked Louis as her overlord for permission to marry, she skipped that step. Henry had been advised by his father Geoffry of Anjou to steer clean of Eleanor and there were rumors that Geoffrey of Anjou and Eleanor had a dalliance while she was married to Louis.
The time before the reign of King Henry II is known as the time when Christ and his saints slept as King Stephen and Henry's mother Mathilde fought a bitter civil war over whether the nephew or the daughter of the prior king - Henry I son of William the Conqueror - should have inherited the throne. After the wedding Henry II prepared an invasion of England but when a nation sick of war pushed for a compromise that would make Henry the heir to King Stephen. When Stephen's heir died, the deal was sealed and shortly thereafter Stephen followed his son to the grave. In October 1154, Henry was King of England and Eleanor followed him to London where she was crowned at Canterbury that December.
Their marriage was tumultuous and passionate as the previous barren Eleanor producing 8 children-five sons and 3 daughters in the next 13 years, despite the fact that Henry ruling from the Scottish border to Bordeaux was rarely home. He trusted her to rule in his absence. The barons of Aquitaine tried repeatedly to revolt as they did not care to be led by an Angevin and Henry proved an able commander and kept both his and Eleanor's lands under control-at least until his sons became adults.
Never faithful, Eleanor looked the other way until a dalliance with Rosamond de Clifford. Their marriage terminally strained Eleanor devoted herself to the Duchy of Aquitaine becoming a major patroness of the arts especially the troubadours and stories of courtly love. She had her second surviving son invested as count of Poitiers and Richard followed the troubadour tradition leaving us two long romantic songs. The detailed King Arthur legends date back to this time with many other stories of knights and chivalry.
In 1173, after arguing with his father over sharing power, something Henry was disinclined to do, his eldest living son known as Henry the Young King rebelled against his father. He was known as the Young King because Henry II made him co-ruler of England in an effort to prevent any disputes about inheritances like that which had led to the English civil war under King Stephen. Eleanor jumped to defend her son, sending Richard and Geoffrey to help. (Eldest son William had died as a youth and John was still a child). Henry put down the rebellion and imprisoned Eleanor in England. She was not released until his death. Freeing her was the first command of King Richard.
Richard spent little time in England. His reign included a crusade and an imprisonment in Germany. Eleanor helped rule the lands in his absence and was instrumental in raising his ransom. When Richard died, Eleanor threw her support behind King John.
At age 77 she traveled to Spain to secure her granddaughter (Blanche of Castile) for the heir to the French throne. Along the way she was captured and had to barter for her freedom. In 1201, Arthur of Brittany - the posthumously born son of Eleanor's son Geoffrey, challenged John for the throne. Eleanor rode to Poitier to secure it but was surrounded by Arthur at Mirebeau. John the rode through the night - something not often done then to launch a surprise attach to free his mother. This was to be King John's only victory on French soil as he preceded to lose his father's French empire little by little. Eleanor would not live to see the Angevin empire fall as after John captured Arthur (he would eventually kill him) she moved to Fontevraud and became a nun. She died in 1204 having outlived all her children by John and a daughter, Eleanor of Castile - Blanche's mother.
800 plus years later, we still know her name and parts of her story and I am looking forward to walking in her footsteps.
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