Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Mother QueenDorset Press, 1978 - Eleanor, of Aquitaine, Queen, consort of Henry II, King of England, 1122?-1204 - 264 pages This volume is a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine (ca.1122-1204) one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. First, she became First Lady of France as the wife of Louis VII, and then First Lady of England when she next married Henry II. Many saw her as a ruthless hellcat, governed by a lust for power, who schemed against her husband and dominated the lives of her sons, Richard the Lionheart and King John. Shakespeare portrayed her as a "monstrous injurer of heaven and earth." Yet there was another side to this powerful queen consort. Worshipped by men and idealized in the songs of the troubadours, she was the sex symbol of her age. She also became renowned as a generous and strong ruler, throwing off the constraints that shackled twelfth-century women. Among her achievements was her patronage of the abbey at Fontevrault, a refuge for battered wives |
Contents
Foreword | 7 |
Aquitaine and the Troubadours | 11 |
Queen of France | 25 |
Copyright | |
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abbey abbot Alice Angevin empire ANGLIE Angoulême Anjou ANORA Antioch archbishop Arthur barons Berengaria Bertran Bertran de Born betrothed bishop Blois Bordeaux Brittany brother Canterbury Capetian castles Châlus Champagne chancellor Chinon chronicler Church Constance court crowned crusade daughter death despite DOMINA duchess duchy duke Eleanor of Aquitaine emperor enemy English king father Fontevrault French king Geoffrey Gerald of Wales gold GRACIA heir heiress Henry's Holy Land homage Hubert Walter Hugh husband HYBERNI Isabella of Angoulême Joanna John's justiciar king John king Philip king's knights lady later Limoges lords Louis VII Louis's Lusignan magnates marriage married monks never Norman Normandy nuns old king palace Paris peace Philip of France Plantagenet Poitevin Poitiers Poitou pope possessed princes Provençal queen Eleanor queen mother Richard Rouen royal sailed seems sent Sicily St Bernard Suger Thomas Becket took Toulouse troubadours vassals wife William IX William Longchamp William of Newburgh woman young king