Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography (WOMEN IN HISTORY)

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I may not be able to reply to all your letters personally but I am always touched that readers take the trouble to write to me. I can only say a heartfelt thank you for all the positive comments, and welcome the new opportunity to share my enthusiasms with readers, which the Newsletter affords. Weir approaches Eleanor`s story with an objective eye and a mass of source material. The result is as vivid as it is informative." ( The Times)

Chambers, Frank McMinn (1941). "Some Legends Concerning Eleanor of Aquitaine". Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies. University of Chicago Press. 16 (4): 459–468. doi: 10.2307/2852844. JSTOR 2852844. S2CID 162522341.

The University of Chicago Press

While in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor learned about maritime conventions developing there, which were the beginnings of what would become admiralty law. She introduced those conventions in her own lands on the island of Oléron in 1160 (with the " Rolls of Oléron") and later in England as well. She was also instrumental in developing trade agreements with Constantinople and ports of trade in the Holy Lands. In 1137 Duke William X left Poitiers for Bordeaux and took his daughters with him. Upon reaching Bordeaux, he left them in the charge of the archbishop of Bordeaux, one of his few loyal vassals. The duke then set out for the Shrine of Saint James of Compostela in the company of other pilgrims. However, he died on Good Friday of that year (9 April). The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France Between the Eleventh and Thirteenth Centuries, Marcus Graham Bull, 2005 Contemporary sources praise Eleanor's beauty. [9] Even in an era when ladies of the nobility were excessively praised, their praise of her was undoubtedly sincere. When she was young, she was described as perpulchra—more than beautiful. When she was around 30, Bernard de Ventadour, a noted troubadour, called her "gracious, lovely, the embodiment of charm", extolling her "lovely eyes and noble countenance" and declaring that she was "one meet to crown the state of any king". [12] [38] William of Newburgh emphasised the charms of her person, and even in her old age Richard of Devizes described her as beautiful, while Matthew Paris, writing in the 13th century, recalled her "admirable beauty".

As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to her third cousin Henry, Duke of Normandy. The couple married on Whitsun, 18 May 1152 in Poitiers. Eleanor was crowned queen of England at Westminster Abbey in 1154, when Henry acceded to the throne. Henry and Eleanor had five sons and three daughters, but eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting the revolt of their eldest son, Henry the Young King, against him. She was not released until 6 July 1189, when her husband died and their third son, Richard I, ascended the throne. As queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade. [5] She lived well into the reign of her youngest son, John. Edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John Carmi Parsons. This is a nonfiction collection of essays by medievalists, covering practically every facet of her life. It is by and for medieval scholars but don’t let that scare you off – the essays collected here are easily accessible to any interested layperson and are an absolute treasure trove of information about the woman who set the medieval world on fire. The Lais of Marie de France

Books

Siberry, Elizabeth (2016). The New Crusaders: Images of the Crusades in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries. Routledge. ISBN 9781351885195. Weir`s rendering of events is valuable as a revision of earlier biographies…detailed and convincing…impressive in its breadth and clarity…[A] cogent and fascinating book." (Joanna Laynesmith, The Times Higher Education Supplement) The celebrated Bernart de Ventadorn dedicated one of his songs to Eleanor as ‘Queen of the Normans’, and after she passed through Germany en route to Jerusalem, a Middle High German poet wrote: ‘If all the world were mine/from the sea to the Rhine/I would gladly give it up/if only the Queen of England/would lie in my arms.’ Despite the many allusions to the extent of her patronage, more sceptical historians have tended to disregard them. But Sullivan points out that we need not choose between the ‘maximalists’ and the ‘minimalists’. ‘We must resist the temptation to transform an ambiguous suggestion into either an affirmation or a denial.’ Which is to say, how Eleanor was perceived mattered as much as what she did. Rodríguez Viejo, Jesús (2016). "Royal manuscript patronage in late Ducal Normandy? A context for the female patron portrait of the Fécamp Psalter (c. 1180)" (PDF). Cerae. An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. 3: 1–35. ISSN 2204-146X. Evocative... A rich tapestry of a bygone age and a judicious assessment of her subject's place within it." ( Newsday)