What is the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine?

Question

details if you can! thanks!

Answer 1

Wow! Where to start?

Eleanor was the heiress to Aquitaine, which was far larger than either France or England. She married Louis of France (can't remember the number) and had two girls. This, of course, was not what was wanted. She and Louis did not get along, he had been raised to enter the Church before his elder brother died, and Eleanor grew up in one of the most highly cultured courts of the time. Her grandfather was a noted composer and all the finest minstrels flourished at his court. When Louis decided to go on Crusade, Eleanor and her ladies accompanied him, to the scandal of everyone. That was the end of the marriage.

To Louis' surprise (really, what did he expect her to do?) Eleanor married Henry Plantangenet, heir to the English throne, and produced a large healthy family, including several sons. Their combined lands dwarfed the rest of Europe. Henry was in constant warfare with his sons, and Eleanor took their side against him. He imprisoned her for years, so she could not aid and abet his enemies. When Richard the Lionheart, their oldest son, came to the throne, he immediately released his mother  and left her to rule England while he went on Crusade. This is the period of the Robin Hood stories, with Prince John plotting to seize the throne.

Eleanor lived into her eighties, active and in charge to the end.

The film "The Lion in Winter" gives a very good account of the end of Henry's reign and his relations with Eleanor and his sons. Find a biography of her, she did so much, that it is impossible to cover it all here. She was the most cultured and accomplished woman of her day.

Answer 2

she's a fascinating lady.  Read more about her than what we write.

To sum up: she was the elder daughter & heiress of William Duke of Aquitaine, in southern France.  Aquitaine was the homeof the troubadours and other arts coming in, and very different from the rest of the lands around them.  The big duchies then were practically independent of the French throne, so a marriage was arranged between her & the Dauphin, later Louis VII.  Louis was a quiet man, originally meant to be a monk.  Eleanor led him into some bad decisions (but what can you expect?  They were both young).  Eventually, they went on Crusade together; the French army was decimated, and there was a serious attack on Eleanor's part of it because she arbitrarily changed the location of camp one night and separated them.  Things were falling apart in the marriage already, and her flirtation with Raymond of Antioch, incidentally her uncle, sort of capped it.  They did get to Jerusalem, and then went home.  All total, they had just 2 daughters.

I think she was about 30 when she met another of her husband's vassals: Geoffrey of Anjou & his son Henry Plantagenet, who was 12 years younger.  She immediately pushed through a divorce, based on part that they were too closely related (there was also the point that she only had daughters).  No sooner than it was official, she ran off & wed Henry.  There were a lot of screams from everyone else--the Church was mad because she was even more closely related to Henry than Louis (& the speed might have had something to do with it), and the Crown was mad because they thought they would be able to control Aquitaine by controlling Eleanor's next marriage--if she was to be permitted one.  Now Aquitaine went to join Henry's lands--and he was now Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou, and Duke of Aquitaine--in short holding most of what is now France, and more than the King held.  Not to mention that he was also heir to the English throne, being a great grandson of William the Conqueror. (later Henry II)

This marriage was more successful--Eleanor had learned from her earlier mistakes, and their personalities were more compatible.  They had several children--the sons are best known: Henry the Young King, Richard Lionheart, Geoffrey of Brittany, and John Lackland.  Several daughters, and a few other sons who died young.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, they began to fall apart as well.  Henry was wildly unfaithful, though I suspect she could have handled that somewhat (her paternal relatives had checkered histories, too), and he tried to exert authority and make changes that did not sit well, 1st with young Henry, and then with  Richard, Geoffrey, & Eleanor.  They involved the succession: after young Henry died, the elder one tried to pass off Aquitaine to John, since Richard was now heir to the English throne.  Richard & Eleanor objected to this re-distribution, the more so because they were her lands, & he was acknowledged heir to them.

In the end, she encouraged her sons to rebellion & tried to join in personally.  She was captured, and held in comfortable confinement near Salisbury mostly for the rest of Henry's reign.  He was not going to be foolish like Louis & lose such a rich land.  During this time, her son Geoffrey died as well.

She was freed upon the death of her husband, and secured the kingdom for Richard, who was on the continent.  She ran the place while he was on Crusade as well, and found him his bride.  And helped raise the ransom when he was captured by an enemy on the way home.

She outlived all of her sons except John, and saw him lose half the empire Henry had gained, though not her own Aquitaine.

She was active 'til the end, even travelling over the Pyrenees in her old age to fetch one of her granddaughter to be the bride of the then Dauphin.

She's buried at Fountevralt Abbey (sp?).

She's often credited with bring culture to England, and definitely imported the troubadours & the Courts of Love/chivalry towards ladies.  Sometimes, she's also credited for having sponsored the more romantic aspects of the King Arthur tales.

Beautiful, lively, intelligent

They also like to say she poisoned one of Henry's mistresses, Rosamund, though that's not true.  Rosamund was a great threat, but not a fatal one, and she did not die at Woodstock as legend has it, but elsewhere (I forget--a convent, I believe).

I agree, Lion in Winter is a good movie to watch (get the Katherine Hepburn version--it also has Anthony Hopkins & Timothy Dalton in it).  While the actual occasion probably didn't happen, it really does show the family dynamics well, including the fact that Henry had taken Richard's 1st fiancee as a mistress.  And Philippe Augustus (II) of France's efforts to aid in the rift.