8
Eleanor of Aquitaine was the most famous woman of her generation. No other medieval woman has commanded such enduring interest and numerous biographies have been written about her. Certainly, her fame exceeded even that of her mother-in-law, Empress Matilda, and Eleanor became a legend in her own lifetime. Like Matilda, Eleanor’s fame was perhaps not entirely welcome and even to this day she retains a slightly unsavoury reputation. In her youth, Eleanor was portrayed as a selfish and domineering woman, who would become an adulteress, then a rebellious and disloyal wife and finally simply a woman who did not know her place and would not let go of the empire she had ruled for nearly fifty years. Eleanor’s long and active life defied attempts to classify her, so to the conservative chroniclers she was someone to be feared. Eleanor was a woman living in a man’s world and unlike many other queens of England, she excelled in it, to the chagrin of many of her contemporaries.
Much of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s notoriety comes from her marriages and relationships with husbands and children. It is probable that much of her behaviour was a result of her unorthodox upbringing. Eleanor’s childhood would have been dominated by her grandfather, Duke William IX of Aquitaine. A flamboyant figure, he overshadowed her father, William X. William IX was notorious across Europe for his abduction of the beautiful Viscountess of Chatelerault, who appears to have been more than willing to accept the position of the Duke’s official mistress, driving his wife to seek refuge in a nunnery. Despite the protests of the duchess, William’s relationship with his Viscountess was lasting and after several years his mistress was able to persuade him to marry his son to her daughter.1 Eleanor’s mother, Aenor, is a shadowy figure and was probably very young at the time of her marriage. Nonetheless, she bore William three children; Eleanor in 1122, followed by Petronilla and William Aigret. In 1130 when Eleanor was eight, both her mother and her brother died, leaving Eleanor as her father’s heir.2 It is unlikely that William X intended to be succeeded by his daughter. In 1136 he became engaged to Emma of Limoges but before the wedding could occur, she was kidnapped and forced to marry her abductor, William of Angouleme – yet another example of an unconventional marital arrangement in Eleanor’s childhood.3 In 1137, William X, who had still not remarried, died suddenly of food poisoning.4
As he lay dying, William confirmed Eleanor as his heir and entrusted her guardianship to his overlord, Louis VI of France. Louis VI immediately seized the opportunity presented by William X’s death and, on 18 June 1137, his sixteen year-old son, Louis, set out with a large escort for Aquitaine in order to marry Eleanor.5 Young Louis had been born as a second son and was raised by the Church. This made him deeply religious and somewhat unsuited to the role of heir to the French throne, which was presented to him on his brother’s death.6 Throughout her lifetime, Eleanor showed an interest in romance and it is likely that she was expecting a warrior in the same vein as her father and grandfather. Louis proved to be a constant disappointment for her. He arrived in Aquitaine in July and married Eleanor at Bordeaux on 25 July 1137. The new Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine were crowned there before moving onto the ducal capital of Poitiers.7 Eleanor was as tall as Louis and attractive, with red or auburn hair.8 Louis appears to have been overawed by his wife throughout their marriage and from the outset Eleanor was the dominant partner.
Whilst Louis and Eleanor were still becoming acquainted, word arrived at Poitiers that Louis VI of France had died, leaving his kingdom to his son, Louis VII. This must have been a shock to the young couple. For Eleanor, the news meant that she would have to leave her homeland for the first time in her life. The young king and queen immediately set out from Aquitaine for Paris in order to claim their crown. It is likely that Eleanor was as disappointed in Paris as she was in her husband and they found the city palace in a state of disrepair.9 Eleanor immediately began remodelling the palace, probably in the style of the more opulent palaces she had known in Aquitaine.10 She was crowned queen at Christmas 1137 but had little role in government, appearing only rarely in charters during Louis’ reign, something that must have been another disappointment for her.
Despite her lack of a defined political role, Eleanor had a great deal of influence over Louis. Eleanor’s grandmother had been the heiress to Toulouse, but the territory had been usurped by a kinsman. Eleanor maintained her claim to Toulouse throughout her lifetime and, in 1141, persuaded Louis to invade Toulouse on her behalf.11 It is possible that she was trying to mould her unpromising husband into a warrior but if so her encouragement failed. The campaign proved to be a disaster for Louis and it is likely that Eleanor again felt a deep disappointment in her husband.
Eleanor’s influence over Louis did not end with the Toulouse disaster and in 1143 Louis was again embroiled in a war at Eleanor’s behest. In 1142, Eleanor’s sister Petronilla fell in love with the nobleman, Raoul de Vermandois, and Louis gave his permission to the match despite the fact that Raoul already had a wife.12 Petronilla and Raoul were duly married and Raoul’s discarded wife was sent back to her uncle, the Count of Champagne. It is likely that Eleanor, who is known to have appreciated the ideals of courtly romance, was pleased that her sister had married for love and she proved a loyal supporter of the couple. However the marriage did not please everyone and the Count of Champagne immediately appealed to the Pope demanding that his niece be reinstated as Raoul’s wife. The Pope responded by declaring the marriage invalid and excommunicating Raoul and Petronilla. Eleanor and Louis reacted angrily to this sentence and in January 1143 Louis invaded Champagne and laid waste to the province, probably once again at Eleanor’s behest.13
Eleanor’s influence in Louis’ actions is plain to see and this campaign, like the invasion of Toulouse, proved to be a disaster. When Louis’ army reached the town of Vitry in Champagne, the townspeople sheltered in the church. Flames from the burning town caught the church roof and, as Louis watched in horror, the church burned to the ground with the people of Vitry inside.14 Louis’ captains found him shaking and unable to speak following the disaster at Vitry and he remained in a trance-like state for two days.15Louis finally emerged from his trance a changed man and in later summer 1143 appears to have had a further breakdown. He ordered that his hair be shorn like that of a monk and he took to wearing monastic habits and spending hours at prayer.16 For Eleanor, this change in Louis must have been intolerable and it is possible that the real problems in their marriage date from the Vitry disaster.
Eleanor had troubles apart from those concerning Petronilla. Early in her marriage, Eleanor is known to have miscarried a child.17 Following this Eleanor does not seem to have conceived and by 1144 she was concerned. On 10 June Eleanor met privately with the churchman Bernard of Clairvaux and asked for his help in lifting the excommunication on Raoul and Petronilla. Bernard reproved Eleanor for interfering in politics and she burst into tears saying she only did so because she had no child. Bernard then offered her a deal: if she desisted in her interference in politics, he would ask God to send her a child.18 Eleanor accepted this and in 1145 she bore a daughter, Marie. A daughter was not Eleanor preference but this was, at least, proof that she was able to bear children.
Following Vitry, Louis grew steadily more pious and, at Easter 1146, he undertook to go on crusade.19 Eleanor, who had by then spent several uneventful years in France, must have been anxious to be included in this campaign. Insisting on taking part, Eleanor took the cross and one legend holds that she and her ladies dressed as Amazons and rode through the crowd, to encourage others to join the crusade.20 It is likely that Eleanor saw the crusade as a way of leaving behind the monotony of her life in France and her unsatisfactory marriage to Louis. Certainly she threw herself into preparing for the crusade and a number of her personal vassals took the cross. Louis and Eleanor set out for the Holy Land in 1147.21 It was not unusual for women to go on crusade in this period, although it has been suggested that Louis loved Eleanor so much that he could not bear to leave her behind.22 It is, of course, possible that he did not trust her enough to leave her behind unsupervised. There is no doubt that by 1146 any love Eleanor had felt for Louis had evaporated.
The French army followed the route towards Constantinople that Conrad of the German Empire had taken a few months earlier.23 Throughout her life Eleanor seems to have enjoyed travelling and it is likely that she was excited about visiting Constantinople. In Constantinople Eleanor and Louis were entertained lavishly by the emperor and his wife, being taken to visit shrines and other sites.24 The emperor was, however, anxious to be rid of his French guests and Eleanor and Louis soon set off again for the Holy Land. It must have been very disconcerting for them when, soon after leaving Constantinople, they heard news that the Germanic army had been decimated in the Holy Land. The French army came into contact with several Germanic survivors and was joined in November 1147 by the injured Germanic emperor, Conrad himself. Despite the worry caused by the Germanic defeat, the French had no option but to follow the same route towards Antioch.25
In order to reach Antioch the French had to cross Mount Cadmos, where the Germans had sustained their heavy defeat. Eleanor appears to have ridden in the vanguard of the army, which was led by one of her Aquitainian vassals.26 The vanguard carried little luggage and so was able to move swiftly. On the day of the crossing, the vanguard reached the proposed campsite early and decided to press on to the other side of the mountain. The rear of the army, which was much slower, reached the original campsite as night was falling and were disconcerted to find that the vanguard was not there. The Turks, seeing that the French army was split in two, attacked the rear, causing heavy losses. Louis’ royal guard were killed and Louis himself, who fought bravely, was only spared because his simple clothes meant he was not recognised.27 Louis was forced to spend the night hiding in a tree before limping back to join the vanguard in the morning with the few other survivors. The vanguard was oblivious to the fate of the rest of the army and Eleanor must have spent the night worrying about what had befallen Louis. The defeat was a disaster for the crusade but also for Eleanor’s reputation. Almost immediately, she was personally blamed for the ambush, with rumours that her enormous amount of luggage hampered the rear of the army’s progress.28 This claim seems unjustifiable since it is impossible that one woman’s luggage could have slowed down an entire army. To the churchmen who were struggling to establish what had gone wrong on the crusade, Eleanor, as a woman of already dubious reputation, was a convenient and easy target. There would have been nothing Eleanor could have done about this portrayal of her and, regardless of her true actions and the weak leadership of the French army, she will always be remembered as the cause of the French misfortunes.
The army was left with no food or water following the Mount Cadmos defeat and the remainder of the crossing must have been an ordeal. When the army finally reached Adalia, it was found that there was no food there either. Louis at first refused to abandon his army to travel to Antioch by ship, but was forced by his barons to do so.29 The royal couple sailed away from Adalia leaving thousands of their men behind, most of whom starved or converted to Islam.30 It must have been a relieved Eleanor who stepped ashore at Antioch in March 1148.31 Antioch was ruled by Eleanor’s uncle, Raymond of Aquitaine who like her father and grandfather was a handsome and warlike man – a contrast to Louis, and he and Eleanor seem to have spent a great deal of time together. Such conduct led to rumours and John of Salisbury claimed that ‘the attentions paid by the prince to the queen, and his constant, indeed almost continuous, conversation with her, aroused the king’s suspicions’.32 It is not impossible that Eleanor and her uncle were lovers; there is no doubt the scandal accompanied Eleanor throughout her life. Eleanor certainly preferred the company of Raymond to that of Louis and during their stay she told Louis she wished to remain in Antioch and have their marriage annulled.33This seems to have been the first time divorce was mentioned and Louis was deeply shocked. He consulted his counsellors and was told that he would be shamed if he left his wife behind. The French therefore left Antioch secretly at night, taking Eleanor with them as a prisoner to Jerusalem.
Eleanor must have been furious at her treatment by Louis and seems to have remained in disgrace throughout her time in Jerusalem. The king and queen finally set sail for home with the 300 men remaining in their army in April 1149, having failed to win any military victories.34 It is perhaps indicative of the state of the royal marriage that Eleanor and Louis sailed in separate ships.
On the way back to France, the couple visited the Pope at Tusculum. Their purpose may have been to discuss their marriage and the Pope took it upon himself to reconcile them, even going so far as preparing a special bed for them.35 Louis, who previously seems to have been uninterested in sexual intercourse, took this as a sign of God’s approval and, in early summer 1150, Eleanor bore a second daughter, Alix.36 The birth of another daughter was something of a blessing to Eleanor and even Louis’ council began to suggest that Louis take a new wife who could bear him a son. To the male councillors it was, of course, entirely Eleanor’s fault that Louis had no son although, in only a few years, Eleanor would be able to demonstrate that the problem was not hers.
Events began to move more quickly for Eleanor in August 1151 when Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, and his son, Henry FitzEmpress, arrived in Paris to perform homage for Normandy. Henry was over ten years younger than Eleanor and does not appear to have been handsome, being described as having a reddish, freckled complexion, large head and stocky build.37 However, to Eleanor, he must have seemed an interesting proposition. According to William of Newburgh, ‘Eleanor was extremely irritated by the habits of the king, and claimed that she had married a monk, not a king’.38 Upon meeting Henry, she apparently longed to divorce Louis and marry him.39. It seems unlikely that Eleanor and Henry had the privacy to commit adultery in Paris but it is likely that some agreement to marry in the future was reached between them. It was claimed by Gerald of Wales that Henry ‘basely stole Queen Eleanor from his liege lord, Louis, king of the French, and then married her’, implying that an understanding had been reached between Henry and Eleanor before her divorce.40
One person who was apparently against the proposed marriage was Henry’s father, Geoffrey. Capgrave describes in his Chronicle of England:
Geoffrey Plantagenet warned Henry his sone that he schuld in no wise wedde Helianore the qwen of Frauns, for he told him in very treuth that whan he was steward of Frauns, and dwelled with the kyng, he had comounde with the same qwen oftetyme.41
Several other sources assert that Eleanor and Geoffrey committed adultery with each other. The evidence for this is even more tenuous than for Eleanor’s supposed liaison with Raymond of Antioch. It seems likely that rumours of an affair between Eleanor and her future father-in-law were based on her notorious reputation and the belief of contemporaries that she was capable of any sexual sin, rather than the facts. To her contemporaries, she had already proved herself an incestuous adulteress with her uncle and it was not a great stretch of the imagination for them to believe that she had had an affair with her future father-in-law. Eleanor was probably as unconcerned with these rumours as her predecessor Judith of France had been; similarly would she discover just how firmly rooted negative associations could be for a female.
Following Henry’s departure, Eleanor again raised the suggestion of divorce. This time Louis was prepared to consider the matter and, on 21 March 1152, Eleanor and Louis’ marriage was annulled on the grounds of consanguity.42 The separation appears to have been amicable and Louis retained custody of their daughters. He did not know of Henry and Eleanor’s plans and allowed Eleanor to return home to Aquitaine. Louis and Eleanor were never to meet again. Following the divorce, Eleanor set out home to Poitiers. She must have travelled with a considerable escort, as Eleanor was once again the most desirable heiress in Europe. En route she learnt of two separate ambushes laid for her, one by Theobold of Blois and the other by Henry’s own brother, Geoffrey.43 Both men meant to kidnap and forcibly marry her and Eleanor must have known she was in considerable danger. She probably uncomfortably remembered the fate of Emma of Limoges and she cannot have relished the possibility of being forced into yet another arranged marriage. It must have been a great relief to arrive back in Aquitaine safely.
Henry was also journeying secretly to Aquitaine and he arrived in Poitiers in mid-May, where he and Eleanor were married. It is actually unlikely that the marriage was a love match and it seems to have been based on political considerations. However, Eleanor probably reflected that Henry would make a more fulfilling husband than Louis had been. The marriage was conducted with great secrecy. Louis had clearly been unaware of their intentions. He had agreed to divorce Eleanor on the basis of consanguity because he believed their marriage was against God’s will. However, Eleanor and Henry were much more closely related to each other than she and Louis and the latter was furious when word reached him of the marriage. Louis apparently claimed that Henry had basely stolen his wife and immediately invaded Normandy, only to be quickly repelled by Henry and forced to retreat impotently to Paris.44 Eleanor must have known how hurt Louis would be upon hearing of her marriage and it is possible that there was an element of revenge in her choice of Louis’ greatest rival.45 The marriage also provided personal fulfillment for Eleanor because on 17 August 1153, she gave birth to her first son.46 For Eleanor, at thirty-one, this must have been a major source of satisfaction and a major reproof to Louis.
The first years of Eleanor and Henry’s marriage were dominated by his struggle for the crown of England and they were often apart. The death of King Stephen’s son, Eustace led to Henry being named heir to England and this was a major triumph for the couple. In June of 1154 Eleanor joined Henry in Rouen then on the death of Stephen in December sailed for England.47 Henry and Eleanor were crowned together at Westminster on 19 December 1154 and in February 1155 Eleanor bore her second son, Henry.48 Eleanor must have felt triumphant.
Henry and Eleanor ruled vast lands in England and on the continent and Eleanor was expected by Henry to play an active political role. Early in 1156, Henry crossed to Normandy leaving Eleanor as co-regent in England with Richard of Luci.49 Eleanor obviously performed the role satisfactorily and was left as regent again when Henry travelled to Normandy in 1158.50 Eleanor also had some influence over Henry, encouraging him to invade Toulouse on her behalf in 1159.51 This campaign proved a failure but demonstrates Eleanor’s continuing preoccupation with the county.
Despite the importance of Eleanor’s political contribution, her main purpose during the early years of her marriage was to bear children. Her eldest son, William, died in 1156 but in June of that year Eleanor bore a daughter, Matilda.52 This birth was followed at Oxford in September 1157 by Richard and then Geoffrey one year later. Daughters Eleanor and Joanna were born in 61 and 65 and Eleanor’s last child, John, was born on Christmas Eve 1166. After years of childlessness and disappointment Eleanor must have been delighted with her children. Richard appears to have been Eleanor’s favourite and she named him heir to Aquitaine at his birth.
Henry was also pleased with the births of his children and proved to be a fond father. Like Eleanor, he also had great plans for their futures and attempted to arrange grand marriages for them. In August 1158, Henry crossed to France and swore fealty to Louis for his French possessions. Whilst he was there, he betrothed young Henry to Marguerite, Louis’ eldest daughter from his second marriage. This betrothal was made for political reasons and it is clear from its terms that Louis had not yet forgiven Eleanor. It was usual for a betrothed girl to be raised by her future husband’s mother, but Louis stipulated that Marguerite should not be placed in Eleanor’s care, instead being raised by a mutually acceptable Norman family.53 Even in his provisions for his daughter, however, Louis was to be thwarted. In 1160 Henry had the two infants brought together and married prematurely in order to claim Marguerite’s dowry for himself.54 Marguerite was then given over to Eleanor’s care.
In the early years of their marriage Eleanor and Henry worked together as an effective team in ruling their empire. However, relations between them began to sour quickly, perhaps as a result of Henry’s adultery. In around 1165 Henry began his famous and lengthy affair with Rosamund Clifford.55 The Christmas of that year was the first Eleanor and Henry had spent apart, with Eleanor at Angers and Henry at Oxford. Eleanor probably deeply resented Rosamund Clifford who proved a more enduring rival than Henry’s earlier more fleeting affairs. It was rumoured that Eleanor even went so far as to murder Rosamund in her jealousy: according to legend, Henry, concerned for Rosamund’s safety, built a specially designed maze in which to hide his mistress. Eleanor discovered the way through the maze with the use of a thread and, in the centre, offered Rosamund the choice of a dagger or poison with which to kill herself; Rosamund chose the latter.56 This story is clearly fantasy and Rosamund is known to have retired to a convent after her affair with Henry. However, it does suggest that Eleanor’s feelings against Rosamund were strong and it is possible that this affair turned Eleanor against Henry. At Christmas 1167, Eleanor informed Henry of her decision to return to Aquitaine, a move that signified an informal separation. Eleanor spent the years 1168 to 1173 ruling Aquitaine personally.
In spite of the apparently amicable nature of the separation, over the years animosity grew between Eleanor and Henry. In 1170 Henry succeeded in having young Henry crowned as his heir at Westminster and Eleanor does not appear to have been invited to the coronation. Eleanor was ambitious for all her children and probably resented this keenly. Henry was also fond of his children but, unlike Eleanor, was unable to accept that they had grown up and needed to be given independence. This led to a growing resentment between Henry and his sons and, in April 1173, they rose against him. Most contemporary sources make it clear that Eleanor was considered a ringleader in the revolt and, when Henry summoned her to join him at Easter 1173, she refused.57 The Archbishop of Rouen also threatened Eleanor with excommunication if she refused to join her husband but still she remained in Aquitaine, conspiring with her children and her ex-husband. There is no doubt that Eleanor, as Henry’s wife, received the greater share of the blame for the revolt and this was very damaging to her reputation. Eleanor was certainly guilty of conspiring against Henry but he had also treated her badly through his affairs and her actions seem, to modern eyes, understandable, even if they were not so excusable to her contemporaries.
By June, the rebellion had spread throughout Henry’s French lands, with his sons, young Henry, Richard and Geoffrey, as active participants. In August Henry struck back and soon recaptured his lands, making peace with Louis in September. Eleanor was left without support in Poitiers as Henry marched towards her. She cannot have relished being captured by her husband and she would have known that she could expect no mercy from him. In September she was captured trying to escape to France dressed as a man and brought as a prisoner to Henry.58 This must have been one of the darkest moments of Eleanor’s life and it would have been doubly worse for her knowing that the man who had brought her so low was her own husband, the hated Henry. Perhaps at this point Eleanor looked back on her time as Queen of France and considered that Louis had not been so bad after all. Henry took Eleanor over to England with him where she was confined at Salisbury.
Eleanor’s fortunes reached their lowest ebb in 1173 and she must have felt that the future looked bleak. Henry talked openly of divorcing her and, in 1175, the papal legate was sent to her to persuade her to retire to Fontevrault Abbey as its Abbess.59 This would have allowed Henry to both remarry and keep control of Eleanor’s lands. As such this was unacceptable to Eleanor, despite the only chance of freedom it offered. Eleanor totally refused to agree to a divorce and remained in captivity. She must have had little hope as, at eleven years Henry’s senior, she was unlikely to survive him.
Eleanor spent the rest of Henry’s reign a prisoner. It is likely that news did reach her in her prison but she was isolated from the world. In 1179 Louis died. Whilst Eleanor is unlikely to have grieved from him, news of his death must have reminded her of her own mortality and her own bleak future. A bigger blow reached Eleanor in June 1183 when Henry the younger fell ill and died suddenly on the continent. It is reported that his last request was for his father to show Eleanor mercy but she remained a captive. In 1186 Eleanor suffered a further blow when her third surviving son, Geoffrey, was killed in a tournament in Paris.60
Eleanor must have realised that she would never be released in Henry’s lifetime and probably resigned herself to die in prison. The years of rebellion by his sons had affected Henry adversely, however. During the winter of 1188 and 1189, Richard was in open rebellion in alliance with Philip Augustus, the young king of France. By July 1189 Henry was ill and finally defeated by his son. As part of the terms of his surrender, Henry asked for a list of names of those who had rebelled against him. On seeing that the first name was that of his favourite son, John, Henry turned his face to the wall and died.61
Eleanor is unlikely to have mourned for Henry and she probably welcomed his death. Her favourite son, Richard, succeeded to his father’s lands unchallenged and immediately sent word to England for Eleanor to be released and appointed regent in his absence.62This proved unnecessary; once word of Henry’s death reached England, Eleanor’s gaolers released her, presumably recognising that the new king was unlikely to favour those who imprisoned his mother. After years of inactivity, Eleanor threw herself into preparing England for Richard’s arrival. Richard was not a familiar personage in England and Eleanor immediately carried out a number of acts in his name with the aim of increasing his popularity. One of these acts, probably also close to her own heart, was to order the release of all prisoners in England.63 She also ordered the removal of royal horses from religious houses, thereby removing an expensive and hated burden.64
Richard landed at Portsmouth on 13 August 1189 and met Eleanor at Winchester. They had not met for several years and it must have been an emotional reunion. Richard and Eleanor then travelled slowly to London for his coronation. Richard was crowned on 3 September in Westminster Abbey. Eleanor had arranged a splendid ceremony and she took a prominent place, dressed in silk and furs.65 It is clear that Eleanor was happy to resume her role of queen and was not prepared to relinquish her position to anyone. Nevertheless this probably suited Richard as he knew little of England and relied on Eleanor to help govern his new kingdom. He also had no intention of remaining in England for long and quickly set about raising money to fund his crusade.
Eleanor’s release also saw her reunited with her youngest son, John. It has often been suggested that Eleanor hated John and certainly she seems to have preferred Richard. However, the surviving evidence suggests that Eleanor was as ambitious for John as she was for the rest of her children and was prepared to support his interests. When Richard was ready to go on crusade he asked his brother John and Henry II’s illegitimate son, Geoffrey, to take oaths swearing that they would stay out of England for three years.66Richard of Devizes writes how Eleanor begged Richard to release John from his oath – hardly the actions of a mother who hated her son.67 Nonetheless her actions do seem to have focused on her eldest surviving son. Soon after Richard left England for the Holy Land in December 1189, Eleanor set out for Navarre to fetch Berengaria, a sister of the King of Navarre, to marry Richard. They then travelled together to Sicily where Eleanor left Berengaria with Richard before rushing back to England where her presence was badly needed.
With both Richard and Eleanor absent, John had begun to call himself the king’s heir and had himself appointed supreme governor of England in Richard’s absence.68 He also ordered that all the castles in England be turned over to him, ignoring all Richard’s provisions for the regency. Eleanor landed at Portsmouth on 11 February 1192. On hearing of his fearsome mother’s arrival, John attempted to flee to France but Eleanor swiftly prevented him. According to Richard of Devizes ‘with all her strength she wanted to make sure that faith would be kept between her youngest sons, at least, so that their mother might die more happily than their father, who had gone before them’.69 Eleanor arrested John’s Flemish mercenaries and closed the channel ports to prevent any further support arriving for John.70 Following her arrival she also called a number of councils and took control of the government of England.
Eleanor must have eagerly awaited Richard’s return to England in order to put an end to John’s pretensions. However, in January 1193, the devastating news reached England that Richard had been captured on his way home from the crusade. Eleanor immediately dispatched the Abbots of Boxley and Robertsbridge to the Germanic states to find out where Richard was being held.71 From them, Eleanor learnt that Richard had been captured by the Duke of Austria and handed over to the Emperor Henry VI. Eleanor called a council at St Albans in June 1193 to discuss the terms of Richard’s release and to appoint officers to collect the ransom demanded by the emperor. She threw herself into securing Richard’s release and personally selected 200 hostages from amongst the nobility to be sent to the Germanic states.72
Eleanor also wrote two remarkable letters to the Pope, begging for his aid and expressing her grief. The first began:
To the reverend Father and Lord Celestine, by the Grace of God, the supreme Pontiff, Eleanor, in God’s anger, Queen of England, Duchess of Normandy, Countess of Anjou, begs him to show himself to be a father to a pitiable mother. I have decided to remain quiet in case a fullness of heart and a passionate grief might elicit some word against the chief of priests which was somewhat less than cautious, and I was therefore accused of insolence and arrogance. Certainly grief is not that different from insanity while it is inflamed with its own force. It does not recognise a master, is afraid of no ally, it has no regard for anyone, and it does not spare them – not even you.73
The second letter continues on the same theme of grief and touched upon Eleanor’s dead sons:
My insides have been torn out of me, my family has been carried off, it has rolled past me; the Young King [young Henry] and the earl of Brittany [Geoffrey] sleep in the dust – their mother is so ill-fated she is forced to live, so that without cure she is tortured by the memory of the dead. As some comfort, I still have two sons, who are alive today, but only to punish me, wretched and condemned. King Richard is detained in chains; his brother John is killing the people of the prisoner’s kingdom with his sword, he is ravaging the land with fires.74
These letters show more about Eleanor’s character than any other. They demonstrate her passionate nature and the great grief she felt. Even by the 1190s, Eleanor had outlived her generation and many of the younger generation. These letters show clearly that she keenly felt her age and the losses which time had inflicted on her. They also show her as a very effective propagandist.
Despite her pleas, Eleanor received little help from the Pope. Nonetheless by 1194 the ransom was raised and Eleanor and the Archbishop of Rouen were summoned by the emperor to bring the ransom to Speyer.75 Eleanor’s hopes of seeing Richard again were dashed, however, on 17 January when the emperor announced that he had received an alternative offer from King Philip Augustus of France and John to keep Richard in prison. It took all her negotiating skill to secure Richard’s release later that month by convincing Richard to declare himself the emperor’s vassal. She then returned in triumph with Richard to England where he was ceremonially recrowned at Winchester.
Soon after the coronation, Eleanor and Richard crossed to Normandy where Eleanor engineered a reconciliation between Richard and John. Eleanor must have felt pleased about the work she had done for her sons but she began to feel her age around this time. Soon after the reconciliation she retired to the Abbey of Fontrevault where she must have hoped to live quietly until her death. Eleanor rarely appears in sources between 1194 and 1199 and appears to have lived a secluded religious life.
She did not, however, cut herself off totally from the world and was ready for action in April 1199 when she received word that Richard was lying dangerously wounded at Chalus. Eleanor travelled day and night to be with him but he was beyond help when she arrived. He died in her arms on 6 April 1199, having named John as his heir.76 Despite the deep grief she must have felt, Eleanor immediately threw herself into securing the throne for John. The succession was disputed between John and her grandson Arthur, son of her dead son Geoffrey of Brittany. Eleanor was acting as John’s chief advisor in 1199 and advised him to go at once to Chinon to secure the royal treasury before meeting with her at Niort. John then crossed to England to be crowned whilst Eleanor toured her lands in Aquitaine to ensure their support for John. In mid-June she even travelled to Tours where she did homage to Philip Augustus for Aquitaine in order to ensure that Arthur could have no claim to the duchy.
Soon after the Christmas of 1199, John and Philip met to discuss a truce. It was agreed that in order to secure the truce, John would supply a bride for Philip’s son. Eleanor therefore set out on the long journey to Castile to select one of her daughter Eleanor, Queen of Castile’s, daughters. There she spent several months, no doubt reacquainting herself with her daughter and meeting her grandchildren, before selecting the youngest daughter, Blanche. Eleanor and Blanche then began to journey to Normandy, parting company when Eleanor unexpectedly decided to return to Fontevrault. It seems likely that Eleanor, at the age of seventy-eight, had begun to feel the effects of an arduous journey and could go no further. Blanche continued to Normandy where she was met by her uncle, King John, and married to the dauphin of France.77 Eleanor must have been pleased with the work she had done in securing her and Henry’s empire for their last surviving son.
Eleanor’s story does not end with her second retirement, however. Arthur of Brittany still posed a major threat to John and must have been a source of worry to his grandmother. In May 1202 Eleanor decided to travel to Poitiers to help John in his war against Arthur. When Arthur learnt that his grandmother had left Fontevrault, he immediately set out in pursuit in an attempt to capture her and Eleanor found herself besieged in the flimsy castle of Mirebeau.78
Eleanor sent an urgent message to John at Le Mans before trying to delay Arthur with attempts at negotiation. This tactic had limited effect however and by the time John arrived Eleanor was trapped in the keep with the rest of the castle occupied by Arthur’s men. John had force marched the eighty miles from Le Mans and caught Arthur by surprise. He swept into Mirebeau and won his only victory on the continent, rescuing his mother and taking Arthur prisoner.79 Eleanor must have been relieved to see John and seems to have gladly returned to her retirement at Fontrevault. She is unlikely to have been sympathetic about the fate of Arthur following his attack on her at Mirebeau. He disappeared into John’s dungeons and was probably murdered soon afterwards.80
Eleanor never emerged from her third period of retirement at Fontevrault. At some point in 1204 she slipped into a coma and died on 1 April 1204, aged eighty-two.81 Her death meant John lost his most able advisor and it must have been painful for Eleanor to watch him gradually lose the Angevin empire from her retirement at Fontevrault.
She died at an ancient age by the standards of the time and she may have reflected, in the end, that she would be remembered as a great queen. Certainly, Eleanor of Aquitaine was a powerful and influential queen and brought much to the role. However, she did not always conform to the behaviour expected of a queen and, as such, has a somewhat ambiguous reputation.
Eleanor of Aquitaine was a legend in her own lifetime and her story is still of immense interest to readers today. But Eleanor has never been universally admired. To medieval writers, she was a woman who interfered in politics when they did not concern her. The fact that she was the ruler of an independent state which was larger than the country ruled by her first husband was immaterial to her contemporaries. As a married woman, it was for her husband to rule her lands and for Eleanor to placidly obey and bear children. In her refusal to do this, Eleanor attracted unwelcome attention from the male chroniclers; influential churchmen, such as Bernard of Clairvaux, were no friends to her. As a powerful and independent woman, Eleanor was a threat to male rule, just as her first threats of divorce to Louis directly threatened his dignity and kingship. To her contemporaries, Eleanor was an oddity and they could easily believe that she was an adulteress and disloyal wife with ambitious and unwomanly characteristics. Like her mother-in-law, the Empress Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine was a woman in a man’s world and consequently her reputation suffered. She is therefore remembered as a notorious queen and an example of what a queen should not be. Eleanor, as one of the most vivid women of the medieval period, probably would not have cared. Like the Empress Matilda, Eleanor is not universally criticised in the sources, and it is admitted that she had some positive traits. Her daughter-in-law, Isabella of Angouleme, on the other hand, is recorded to have had no redeeming features whatsoever and, unlike her more famous mother-in-law, is portrayed as a model of true queenly wickedness.