He took with him only his immediate guards and family, leaving the rest of the army to manage by themselves as best as they could passage to the Holy Land. The Antochian capital proved to be as dazzling to the French as Constantinople. Eleanor enjoyed her ten days in Antioch immensely, especially the prince, her long lost uncle Raymond of Poitiers. Raymond and Louis also disagreed on how to go about the crusade, Raymond wanted to attack Aleppo and perhaps recapture Edessa.
In the meantime Louis wanted to go on to Jerusalem. Eleanor favored her uncle's plan and angrily opposed her husband. She went as far as to propose a divorce. On advice from the regent in Paris, Louis decided to deal with Eleanor back in France. The rift between the couple would not be mended. The Byzantines, who were at war with Sicily, captured Eleanor's ship. The Sicilian navy re-captured her ship and she went to Palermo to recuperate.
The extraordinary luxury of the Sicilian court left a lasting impression on the queen. After returning to Paris, Eleanor gave birth to a second child, also a girl named Alix , in the summer of Her marriage to Louis was growing more stressed, despite interventions by the pope Eugenius and the abbot Suger, regent of France during the absence of the royal couple. Eleanor was attracted to Henry and some kind of surreptitious arrangement with Henry must have been reached.
The real reasons were the absence of a male heir; their incompatibilities and finally the enormous influence St. Bernard held on king Louis and his desire to remove Eleanor from the king's side. Accepting a marriage proposal from Duke Henry of Normandy made the previous summer; Eleanor re-married May 18, , hardly eight weeks after the dissolution of her first marriage.
He was eighteen years old and Eleanor twenty-nine. Their marriage seemed to have been a happy one. He was in love with Eleanor and gave her all the children she wanted.
Sometime during August Eleanor gave birth to her first son, named William in honor of her father and grandfather. Around Christmas of the same year Henry was proclaimed heir to the English throne after waging successful campaigns and gaining support from many English lords. Eleanor frequently administered justice in his absence, "arbitrating in disputes over land and feudal dues, and presiding over law courts.
She also kept a careful watch over certain tax receipts. Throughout she showed herself clear-headed and firm, indeed dictatorial. Her children would one day show the world where they came from as two of her daughters became queens and three of the sons kings.
When Henry named Thomas Becket archbishop of Canterbury, a growing feud intensified between the secular and the clerics and Eleanor tried her best to mediate both sides. For Eleanor's ambition, the worse news came from France when it was learned that Louis' third wife finally gave him a male heir on August 22, , the future king Phillip II Augustus, who one day would destroy the Angevin Empire of Henry II.
Two years later, on December 24, Eleanor gave birth to the future king John; it was her last childbirth. Her childbearing years were over and her marriage to Henry began to decline. The following year Eleanor left England for Pontiou where she stayed happily for five years before returning to England.
Rebel barons ambushed the queen and her protector, Patrick- Earl of Salisbury. The Earl was stabbed in the back and his nephew William came to his rescue. William was eventually subdued and Eleanor ransomed him. William became Marshall of England and the greatest knight of his age. On December 29, the most horrific crime against Christiandom was committed in the name of Henry II when four of his magnates not knights as some believed hacked Thomas Becket to death in the cathedral of Canterbury.
Henry was not excommunicated but went through many humiliations and his power to the delight of Eleanor destabilized. His kingdom harbored the most rebellious and unruly lords of any ruler in Western Europe and all she needed were trustworthy allies. By she had the three trustworthiest allies she could find, her three oldest sons. Eleanor would benefit by getting back Aquitaine, which she intended to rule with her son Richard. Henry II suspected nothing of the revolt. On February father and son met as the young Henry demanded England, Normandy or Anjou for himself.
Henry II began to suspect a conspiracy but his suspiciousness did not rise until the young Henry escaped one night towards England with the idea to raise it. At the last moment he turned around and instead headed for Paris to seek refuge in king Louis' court. The plot was doomed. However, one by one he put down all of them and by the autumn of he had defeated the grand alliance and a peace conference took place at Gisors. Eleanor took refuge with her uncle, but when Henry II laid siege to the castle she escaped to Paris dressed as a nobleman.
Shortly before reaching safety a group of Henry's knights intercepted her entourage and captured her. She spent a few months imprisoned in one of the towers of Henry's castle at Chinon in Touraine.
She spent the next fifteen years his prisoner, mostly in his castle at Winchester. Only briefly was she allowed to travel to Aquitaine where she gave her duchy to her son Richard. Three years later, on June , her son Henry and heir to the throne of England contracted dysentery and died.
Her total freedom was not granted, but slowly she was allowed more and more access to the outside world, including a visit to Windsor to celebrate Christmas with king Henry and their sons, Richard and John. For nearly two decades, Eleanor played an active part in the running of Henry's empire, travelling backwards and forwards between their territories in England and France.
In two of Eleanor's sons involved her in a plot against their father, and as a result Henry imprisoned her. After Henry's death in , his eldest son, Richard I, ordered his mother's release.
Despite her age now in her mid-sixties, which was considered elderly in the 12th century Eleanor became very closely involved in government. In , she acted as regent in England when Richard went to join the Third Crusade. She even played her part in negotiations for his release after he was taken prisoner in Germany on his way home. In , Richard died and was succeeded by Eleanor and Henry's youngest son, John. Eleanor's role in English affairs now ceased, although she continued to be closely involved in those of Aquitaine, where she spent her final years.
Search term:. Read more. She famously established the so-called Court of Love at Poitiers between and Toward the late s, relations between Eleanor and Henry were growing tense. Henry was a notorious philanderer, and many speculate that his infidelities damaged the marriage beyond repair. The royal children were not making things easy on their parents either. Henry the Young King enlisted his brothers Richard and Geoffrey to rebel against their father. By the end of that year, the king appeared to have gotten the upper hand in the struggle and Eleanor was captured and held at the fortress of Chinon, France.
Eleanor's sons were major characters in the tale of Robin Hood. The Anglo-French dynasty of the Normans and Plantagenets attempted to ground its power in a common mythology: the Arthurian legends. Between and , William of Malmesbury published them as the De antiquitate Glastoniensis ecclesiae On the Antiquity of Glastonbury. This work, dedicated to Eleanor of Aquitaine, describes the Round Table. The following years were very hard for the queen, who lived under house arrest in several different locations in England.
Henry II was rumored to be seeking a divorce from Eleanor, perhaps to marry the most well known of his mistresses, Rosamund Clifford. Famous for her beauty, Rosamund died under mysterious circumstances in Eleanor was imprisoned during this time, so her murdering Rosamund seems unlikely. During her confinement, Eleanor would be allowed to travel for holidays, most notably Christmas, and to see her sons.
He rebelled again against his father in , but was struck by dysentery. Knowing he was going to die, he implored Henry II to show mercy to his mother.
Eleanor would be granted more freedoms over time and would even travel with her husband, but she was not free to come and go as she pleased. Her son restored her lands that had been seized after the rebellion. Richard appointed her to a government position, and Eleanor traveled the English countryside securing loyalty oaths to her son and his kingdom. Even in her late 60s, Eleanor continued to follow and often direct the political events of her lands.
In she arranged a marriage for Richard to Berengaria of Navarre. In her 70s, Eleanor sought to strengthen the bonds between the Plantagenets and the Capets. In she traveled to the Pyrenees to escort her granddaughter Blanche to marry the son of the French king in a continuing effort to maintain the power of her family. The wars between France and England would last long past her death. At times portrayed as a frivolous young woman or a manipulative schemer, Eleanor was a savvy player on the political stage—unafraid to exercise the power she held; her reputation may have been damaged by her boldness, but her influence on the political and cultural events of the 12th century remains undiminished.
All rights reserved. History Magazine News. This mighty medieval woman outwitted and outlasted her rivals Ruler of two nations, mother to kings and queens, leader of a crusade: Eleanor of Aquitaine was a savvy power player in medieval France and England.
Like mother like daughter. Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Marie of France writing in a miniature from a late 13th-century anthology of french poems. England's royal legends and lore. Founded in , the Glastonbury Abbey is identified with the mythical Avalon where, according to legend, King Arthur and Guinevere were buried.
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