Eleanor of Aquitaine
Female 1123 - circa 31 Mar 1204
Born, either in Poitiers or at the Castle de Berlin-Beliet, Gironde, Aquitaine near Bordeaux.
Died, Fontevrault Abbey.
Married to Louis of France. Partner of Henry of England. Mother of Guillaume Plantagenet, Henry Plantagenet, Mathilde Plantagenet, Richard of England, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Eleanor Plantagenet, Joanna Plantagenet and John of England.
from: Lynn Abbey at www.sff.net/people/LynnAbbey/eleanor.htmThings are pretty murky back in the 12th century. The fewreliable, contemporary sources that do exist often don't agreewith each other and invariably leave out the interesting parts.Sometimes, we know a part was interesting precisely because itwas left out -- like who slew King Harold at the Battle ofHastings in 1066. Sometimes we can do some solid sleuthing andcome up with explanations that satisfy generation aftergeneration. Sometimes, we just don't know.We don't know when the future Eleanor of Aquitaine was born,though it was probably in 1122 and possibly in the castle ofBelin near Bordeaux. Aside from demonstrating that a wife wasn'tbarren, firstborn females weren't an event 12th century folkcelebrated. Her father was William, styled the Toulousan, ofAquitaine, the tenth duke of that name to inherit the Aquitaine;not surprisingly, William X was the son of Eleanor's livinggrandfather, William IX, styled the Troubadour. Her mother wasAenor de Rochefoucauld; somewhat more surprisingly, Aenor wasthe daughter of Eleanor's living grandmother, the Vicomtess deRouchefoucauld, whose name is recorded as Dangereuse. Properly speaking, Eleanor's name is Alia-Aenor, which meansldisinterest surrounding a firstborn daughter but, perhaps, alsothe irregular nature of the ducal family at that particularmoment. Alia-Aenor had a younger sister, Aelith, probably born in 1125and known as Petronella, which is Latin for, among other things,Younger Sister or Little Stone. With their third child, possiblyborn in 1126 or 1127, William and Aenor got the son they wereundoubtedly praying for. They named him William Aigret;unfortunately, both he and Aenor died about 1130.Duke William should have remarried immediately, but didn't makeplans until 1136, when the husband of the woman he'd selected,Emma of Limoges, was providentially widowed. Unfortunately forthe Duke, the other Limousin nobles were less enthused about theprospects of an alliance between their ducal overlord and theirprovincial overlord. Another William, Count of Angouleme,kidnapped Emma before the nuptial negotiations were complete andsuccessfully married her, to the relief of his peers. Duke William reacted to this disappointment by joining hisneighbor, Count Geoffrey of Anjou (who will play a larger rolein a later segment of this story) in the count's ongoing effortto enforce his wife Matilda's (daughter of Henry I of Englandand widow of the German Emperor Henry V) claim to the ducalprovince of Normandy. The campaign didn't go well; Geoffreywounded his foot and returned to Anjou. William returned home.The following year, he decided to go on a pilgrimage to St Jamesat Santiago de Campostela. En route, he took sick (possibly frommaking a meal of bad eels) and died in the Campostela cathedral,having told his men to entrust his eldest daughter into the careof Louis the Fat, King of France (and William's nominalliege-lord, though the dukes of Aquitaine traditionally thumbedtheir noses at the far-less-powerful Capetian kings offar-smaller France.)End of part 1Part 2With more success than was usual in the 12th century, the deadduke's men managed to keep his death a secret from his vassalsand subjects as they hurried north to Paris. I can't find anymention of when Eleanor and her immediate family learned ofWilliam's death, but whatever honest grief they felt would havebeen tempered by their understanding that the dynasty wasimperiled. Might may not have made Right in the 12th century,but Right didn't stand a chance without Might to back it up anda fifteen-year-old heiress was among the least mighty actors onthe contemporary political stage. Eleanor's unquestioned legitimacy and right to inherit herfather's titles and lands made her a tempting target for any andevery ambitious man who might learn of her situation. Marriageby abduction and rape was not widely practiced in the 12thcentury and the Catholic Church was beginning to insist that theconsent of both parties was a necessary precursor to a validmarriage, but the Church's power wasn't absolute in the upperreaches of 12th century society. Any man who kept an unmarriedwoman under his roof for a night could claim that he had marriedher: Rape was presumed and, from the new husband's persepective,the end justified the means because the Church accepted StPaul's assertion that it was better to "marry than to burn." Ifthe woman were an heiress (which was, generally speaking, theonly circumstance which justified the risks of abducting awoman) her newly recognized husband would claim her rights,privileges, and income-- and unless the unwilling bride's familywere willing to go to war-- his claim would recognized.Is it any wonder, then, that when the question "Are marriage andlove compatible?" was raised in the 12th and 13th century (andit was the central question of the Courts of Love which Eleanoris often credited with founding) the men and women alike usuallyanswered No.The alternative to marriage by abduction was, in effect,marriage by decree. A woman, young or old, would quite literallybe given away in marriage by her father, her guardian, or herfamily. Eleanor Searle wrote a book entitled "Predatory Kinshipand the Creation of Norman Power" which provides one of thebetter descriptions I've come across of how noble familiesmantained themselves in the early medieval period. The titlesays it all and although Eleanor of Aquitaine wasn't Norman, thestrategies Eleanor Searle were in effect during her lifetime.There's no way of knowing whether Eleanor of Aquitaine had begunto daydream about her future life as a wife and mother or whather hopes and fears might have been if she had. Given herheritage and temperament, it seems reasonable to assume that shewould have been more concerned about her prospective husband'sstatus than about any notion of love. It's also reasonable toassume that, had her father lived, she would have had some sayin the selection process. The 11th and 12th century-- especiallyin and around the Aquitaine -- had seen a number of formidablewomen who wielded dynastic power well and in their own right,and Eleanor was related to most of them. But, of course, her father had died unexpectedly, leavingimportant things undone. With his dying testament, he placed theburden of choosing his heir's husband into the hands of theCapetian king -- a man Eleanor would not have known and couldnot hope to influence but whose decision she would have nochoice but to obey.Louis the Fat was the Duke of Aquitaine's liege lord -- based onthe allotment of land and titles made after Charlemagne's deathseveral hundred years earlier. In practice, the Capetian domainin the north of France was smaller and far less wealthy than theducal lands in the south. Eleanor's ancestors had been able toignore their king with impugnity for generations although, infact, the economic and political decline of the Aquitaine hadbegun during the rule of Eleanor's illustrious grandfather,William the Troubadour who made, in our terms, some bad businessand investment decisions during his life. Eleanor's father,William the Toulousian, continued in his father's footsteps--though without the Troubadour's flair for staying one step aheadof disaster. By the time he died, Eleanor's father had losteffective control of much of his domain and was at least partlyaware of this fact. He certainly knew that the best way toinsure his daughter's safety and his dynasty's continuation wasto make her a ward of Louis the Fat rather than trust that anyof his own Aquitainian vassals would respect her rights andinterests.Louis the Fat had been dying for several years at that point intime. No one, including him, would have expected the Capetianking to outlive the Duke of Aquitaine. Almost certainly theCapetian court expected Eleanor's father to remarry, begethimself a passel of sons, one of whom might prove capable ofwhipping the Aquitaine back into line and almost any of whomwould have looked more promising than Louis' own heir, hissecond son-- destined for the Church from birth, but wrenchedfrom that fate by his elder brother Philip's untimely death,trampled by swine in the muddy Parisian streets.(Young Philip Capet was a piece-of-work-and-a-half. Louis theFat, thinking to assure the eventual succession, had had his soncrowned beside him when Philip was twelve. Henceforth, the boybelieved he was his father's equal and at the time of his deathat sixteen was on the verge of full-scale civil rebellion; hewas not much mourned by his father. Louis the Fat resolved notto make the same mistake with his second son, now heir to theFrench crown. And as young Louis Capet was already accustomed toa life of prayerful obedience to his superiors, Louis the Fatsaw no reason to change the direction of his new heir'seducation... (This will prove very significant later on.)Anyway, Louis the Fat was beached in his bedchamber, which henever left, when the Aquitainian delegation arrived with news ofDuke William's death. There are some fairly graphic descriptionsof the persistent aromas in the king's bedchamber, which, whencombined with the usual squalor of Paris at that time (recallthe mud and the swine that got young Philip). Those in serviceto the Capetian king, needed a strong stomach and a weak nose.We can assume that the Aquitainians were at a disadvantage whenthey made their announcement and that they left promptly whengiven the opportunity.Despite his many ailments, Louis the Fat's mind was quite intactand he was competent king who understood immediately that Godand Fortune had smiled at him that day. In one swell foop (as itwere), three of his most pressing problems were solved. 1) Therewould be no young, male Aquitainian heirs cluttering up thedynastic landscape for future Capetian generations to contendwith. 2) He had absolute control over who would become the nextDuke of Aquitaine and 3) He'd found a bride for his son. Nevermind that she was a year younger than him or reputed to be agreat beauty. What mattered was that when Louis Capet becameDuke of Aquitaine, the effective size of the domain of theCapetian kings would double in size and more than double inwealth and prestige.The young man was summoned into his father's presence, told whathis duty would be, and sent south to claim his bride in thecompany of the cream of Northern French nobility, including theformidable Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis, a clergyman ofconsiderable power in his own right and, additionally, theking's confidant. It was Suger's job to make certain themarriage came off smoothly.
Sources
- Curry, Fred L.ged - provided by LifeTimes Research
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