Born: 1122, France
Died: 1 April 1204
Country most active: France
Also known as: NA
This biography, written by Gabby Storey, is shared with permission from Team Queens, an educational history blog run by a collective of historical scholars. All rights reserved; this material may not be republished without the author’s consent.
Eleanor of Aquitaine, born c.1122-24, is perhaps one of the most famous queens of medieval western Europe. Crowned queen of both France and England, her long life and several heirs, and position as one of the wealthiest duchesses of western Europe, enabled her to exert great influence in the Anglo-French sphere.
Married to Louis VII of France in 1137, Eleanor’s first marriage was far from harmonious due to their differing personalities. Although Eleanor bore two daughters, Marie and Alix, Eleanor was reportedly dissatisfied with their marriage and requested an annulment whilst they were on the Second Crusade. Unsubstantiated allegations of Eleanor conducting an incestuous affair with her uncle, Raymond of Antioch, and her future father-in-law, Geoffrey of Anjou, purported to have taken place between 1149-51, are the cause of much of Eleanor’s infamy.
After her divorce from Louis in 1152, Eleanor swiftly married Henry, then duke of Normandy and later king of England. They successfully ruled the Angevin realms until Henry’s death in 1189. Their partnership was not entirely harmonious, although it produced several heirs. After 1189, Eleanor continued to exercise power beyond the role of queen mother, as she was politically active and occasional regent for both her sons Richard I and John. She retired to Fontevraud Abbey, Chinon, a place which benefited from her substantial patronage, in her later years, before her death in 1204.
Recommended Reading
Bonnie Wheeler and John Carmi Parsons, eds., Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)
Martin Aurell, Aliénor d’Aquitaine (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2020)
Michael Evans, Inventing Eleanor. The Medieval and Post-Medieval Image of Eleanor of Aquitaine (London: Bloomsbury, 2014).
Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and England, Mother of Empires (Stroud: Amberley, 2019).
Podcast: You’re Dead To Me featuring Gabby Storey https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p087r8kb
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
After her marriage, she accompanied Louis VII, King of France, to Palestine, but her intimacy with Raymond de Poitiers and Saladin resulted in a divorce. She then married Henry 11, Duke of Normandy, bringing with her, as dowry, Poitou and Guyenne. Her son, Richard the Lion-Hearted, received Guyenne and did homage for it to the King of France. As a result of instigating her sons to rebel against their father, she was sent to prison, where she was obliged to remain for fourteen years. Liberated by her son Richard, she lived a life of self denial, going from city to city, setting free many prisoners. She showed great magnanimity in forgetting her desire for revenge and devoting all her energy toward the accomplishment of good deeds. Her old age atones magnificently for the sins of her youth, and she ranks among the most romantic characters of history.
The following is excerpted from “Female Warriors: Memorials of Female Valour and Heroism, from the Mythological Ages to the Present Era,” by Ellen C. Clayton (Mrs. Needham), published in 1879 and shared online by Project Gutenberg.
The somewhat ridiculous termination to her first essay in presence of the foe did not entirely quench the military ardour of Eleonora of Aquitaine. After she had been for some years the wife of king Henry II, she stirred up her sons, Richard and John, to rebellion against their father; and went so far as to appear in masculine attire, at the head of their forces in Aquitaine. And thus clad, she was made prisoner.
When Prince Arthur was prosecuting his claims on the English crown, Philip Augustus, the French king, sent him with a military retinue into Normandy, then in the hands of the English. The French barons laid siege to Mirebeau, a fortified town near Poitiers. It was defended for King John by Eleonora, who, though she had then attained the age of four-score, was as active as ever, and had only just returned from a journey into Spain—a matter of some difficulty in those days. When the French had captured the town, the veteran Amazon threw herself into a strong tower which served as a sort of citadel; and here she held out bravely till the arrival of John with reinforcements, on the night between July 31st and August 1, 1202; when the besiegers were compelled to surrender.