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Living Section of the San Bernardino SUN November 13, 2005 Issue 
Eleanor of Aquitaine, A Life By Alison Weir Ballantine Books, 1999 
Eleanor of Aquitaine - A Woman Ahead of Her TimesIn reading about Cyprus where I would be traveling soon, I learned that not only is it the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, goddess of love, but that also in 1191 Richard, Coeur de Lion married Berengaria of Navarre in the Cypriot coastal town of Limasol. My interest in Richard and his Third Crusade during which he conquered Cyprus, led me to the famous biography of his mother, "Eleanor of Aquitaine, A Life" by British historian Alyson Weir. As the heiress of the vast duchy of Aquitaine and Poitiers, Eleanor was one of the richest and most powerful women of her time. She was married to two kings - Louis VII of France and Henry II of England and was the mother of two - Richard and John; she rode in the Second Crusade; bore ten children; governed her duchy, England and all her other properties skillfully; conspired with her sons against Henry II and was imprisoned by him but outlived him and lived to be 82 at a time when 50 was considered a ripe old age. Eleanor's smoldering beauty and fiery personality are legendary although an actual physical description of her does not exist. But through extensive research of chronicles of the times and archives of royal households, author Weir has constructed a detailed portrait of a medieval queen that could serve as a role model even in the 21st century. Eleanor was born in 1122 and upon the death of her father inherited the duchy of Aquitaine and Poitiers - a separate feudal state much larger than France. Aquitanian inheritance laws made it possible for women to inherit lands and rule them autonomously. At age fifteen Eleanor married King Louis VII of France who was extremely pious and would have preferred to be a monk. There is no concrete evidence to support the legend that Eleanor, dressed like an Amazon, rode on a white horse inciting people to join the Second Crusade which Louis VII was about to lead. But there is much documentation about Eleanor and the 300 noble ladies who traveled with the Second Crusade all the way to Jerusalem. According to a Greek chronicler, Eleanor and her ladies entered Constantinople "boldly sitting astride in their saddles as men do, dressed as men and armed with lance and battle axe." Byzantium, gilded and opulent, was the complete opposite of the Church-imposed austerity of the Western courts. In Constantinople the royal crusaders dined off silver dishes and used forks for the first time. But for all his hospitality Manuel Comnenus, the Byzantine Emperor, gave the crusaders false information in order to get rid of them which led to their slaughter by the Turks. This was a typical example of Byzantine duplicity. After the birth of two daughters, Eleanor, who reputedly had already been involved in adulterous relationships, asked Louis for an annulment of their marriage on the basis of consanguinity. Then at the age of 29 she secretly married her 19-year old cousin, Henry, Duke of Anjou who in 1154 became king of England. That tumultuous marriage produced eight children two of whom - Richard and John - lived to become kings of England. But prior to that, in 1173 Eleanor involved her three living sons in a plot against Henry. The rebellion was quashed and Henry placed his queen under house imprisonment that lasted nearly 15 years. Upon his death in 1189, Henry was succeeded by Richard as king of England. Eleanor took over the government of the kingdom while Richard took off on the Third Crusade. When Richard was captured on his return from the crusade by his mortal foe, Duke Leopold of Austria, Eleanor moved heaven and earth to collect the ransom needed for her favorite son. She died in 1204 at the Fontevrault abbey, her legacy extending centuries in the future. An uncommon woman, Eleanor is an inspiration for the scores of contemporary women who have managed to discover her. body Ophelia Georgiev Roop Library Director San Bernardino Public Library |
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