General Notes

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Custom Field:<_FA#> HEIRESS de AQUITAINE & POITOU
Custom Field:<_FA#> Ruled 11 37-1204

The Dutchess of Aquitaine, she was divorced from Louis VII, King of France.
She was imprisoned for 16 years while married to Henry II.

Eleanor Of Aquitaine
b. c. 1122
d. April 1, 1204, Fontevrault, Anjou, Fr.
also called ELEANOR OF GUYENNE, French ÉLÉONORE, OR ALIÉNOR, D'AQUITAINE,OR DE GUYENNE, queen consort of both Louis VII of France (in 1137-52) andHenry II of England (in 1152-1204) and mother of Richard I the Lion-Heartand John of England. She was perhaps the most powerful woman in12th-century Europe.
Eleanor was the daughter and heiress of William X, duke of Aquitaine andcount of Poitiers, who possessed one of the largest domains inFrance--larger, in fact, than those held by the French king. UponWilliam's death in 1137 she inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine and in July1137 married the heir to the French throne, who succeeded his father,Louis VI, the following month. Eleanor became queen of France, a titleshe held for the next 15 years. Beautiful, capricious, and adored byLouis, Eleanor exerted considerable influence over him, often goading himinto undertaking perilous ventures.

From 1147 to 1149 Eleanor accompanied Louis on the Second Crusade toprotect the fragile Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, founded after the FirstCrusade only 50 years before, from Turkish assault. Eleanor's conductduring this expedition, especially at the court of her uncle Raymond ofPoitiers at Antioch, aroused Louis's jealousy and marked the beginning oftheir estrangement. After their return to France and a short-livedreconciliation, their marriage was annulled in March 1152. According tofeudal customs, Eleanor then regained possession of Aquitaine, and twomonths later she married the grandson of Henry I of England, HenryPlantagenet, count of Anjou and duke of Normandy. In 1154 he became, asHenry II, king of England, with the result that England, Normandy, andthe west of France were united under his rule. Eleanor had only twodaughters by Louis VII; to her new husband she bore five sons and threedaughters. The sons were William, who died at the age of three; Henry;Richard, the Lion-Heart; Geoffrey, duke of Brittany; and John, surnamedLackland until, having outlived all his brothers, he inherited, in 1199,the crown of England. The daughters were Matilda, who married Henry theLion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria; Eleanor, who married Alfonso VIII, kingof Castile; and Joan, who married successively William II, king ofSicily, and Raymond VI, count of Toulouse. Eleanor would well havedeserved to be named the "grandmother of Europe."

During her childbearing years, she participated actively in theadministration of the realm and even more actively in the management ofher own domains. She was instrumental in turning the court of Poitiers,then frequented by the most famous troubadours of the time, into a centreof poetry and a model of courtly life and manners. She was the greatpatron of the two dominant poetic movements of the time: the courtly lovetradition, conveyed in the romantic songs of the troubadours, and thehistorical matière de Bretagne, or "legends of Britanny," whichoriginated in Celtic traditions and in the Historia regum Britanniae,written by the chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth some time between 1135 and1139.

The revolt of her sons against her husband in 1173 put her culturalactivities to a brutal end. Since Eleanor, 11 years her husband's senior,had long resented his infidelities, the revolt may have been instigatedby her; in any case, she gave her sons considerable military support. Therevolt failed, and Eleanor was captured while seeking refuge in thekingdom of her first husband, Louis VII. Her semi-imprisonment in Englandended only with the death of Henry II in 1189. On her release, Eleanorplayed a greater political role than ever before. She actively preparedfor Richard's coronation as king, was administrator of the realm duringhis crusade to the Holy Land, and, after his capture by the Duke ofAustria on Richard's return from the east, collected his ransom and wentin person to escort him to England. During Richard's absence, shesucceeded in keeping his kingdom intact and in thwarting the intrigues ofhis brother John Lackland and Philip II Augustus, king of France, againsthim.

In 1199 Richard died without leaving an heir to the throne, and John wascrowned king. Eleanor, nearly 80 years old, fearing the disintegration ofthe Plantagenet domain, crossed the Pyrenees in 1200 in order to fetchher granddaughter Blanche from the court of Castile and marry her to theson of the French king. By this marriage she hoped to insure peacebetween the Plantagenets of England and the Capetian kings of France. Inthe same year she helped to defend Anjou and Aquitaine against hergrandson Arthur of Brittany, thus securing John's French possessions. In1202 John was again in her debt for holding Mirebeau against Arthur,until John, coming to her relief, was able to take him prisoner. John'sonly victories on the Continent, therefore, were due to Eleanor.

She died in 1204 at the monastery at Fontevrault, Anjou, where she hadretired after the campaign at Mirebeau. Her contribution to Englandextended beyond her own lifetime; after the loss of Normandy (1204), itwas her own ancestral lands and not the old Norman territories thatremained loyal to England. She has been misjudged by many Frenchhistorians who have noted only her youthful frivolity, ignoring thetenacity, political wisdom, and energy that characterized the years ofher maturity. "She was beautiful and just, imposing and modest, humbleand elegant"; and, as the nuns of Fontevrault wrote in their necrology: aqueen "who surpassed almost all the queens of the world."

Countess of Saintonge, Angoumois, Limousin, Auvergne, Bordeaux, Agen.