A while back I wrote a post about Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose life story has always fascinated me, especially after reading The She-Wolves by Helen Castor; a book about the lives of women who became queens of England before Elizabeth I, either in their own right, as mothers of kings or as royal consorts. Now that I’m reading an excellent biography, “Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings” by Amy Kelly, I’m rewriting the original post in order to add information that provides further context to the life of Eleanor. I’ll divide the story into two parts so as not to make it too long. This first part will describe her life as Duchess of Aquitaine and Queen of France and in a later post I’ll talk about her life as Queen of England.
Eleanor was born in the Duchy of Aquitaine, possibly in 1122 (the exact date of her birth has not been clearly defined), and she could count Charlemagne among her ancestors. She grew up in a court that was described in the 12th century as one that consisted of lively and cultured people, elegant in their manner of dressing, quick of mind, liberal and hospitable, a court where the first troubadours made their appearance. As heiress to the duchy, her father made sure that she received the best possible education and this prepared her for the amazing circumstances that she had to face during her life. She must have been an intelligent, cultured person, politically cunning, daring and courageous, beautiful according to the chroniclers of the time, and, above all, fascinating; so much so, that she continues to fascinate us centuries later.
The fact that she was Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right made her one of the richest and most powerful women of her time. Aquitaine, in the 12th century, comprised an area equivalent to nearly a third of France’s territory today, and obtained important revenues from the export of salt and Bordeaux wine to the whole of Europe.
She became duchess of Aquitaine in 1137, upon the death of her father. Three months later she married Louis, heir to the throne of France and within a few months, Louis’ father died, making him King of France. Louis VII of France was crowned at Bourges on December 25, 1137 and Eleonor assumed the role of Queen of France.
Louis had not been educated as the dauphin of France, given that his elder brother, Phillip, had been anointed as heir to the throne. Louis was destined to follow an ecclesiastical life and had, therefore, been educated in a monastery. However, when he was 10 years old, Phillip suffered a fatal accident, and this brought Louis away from the cloisters and thrust him into the high levels of government and politics. His monastic education heavily influenced his personality and he never forgot that his original vocation had been to renounce the world.
And this is how it came to happen that a young woman, who had been educated in a liberal and avant-garde court, married a person who felt detached from this world and its problems. These were two people who – despite the fact that marriages at the time had little or nothing to do with love – had probably little chance of getting along very well. Although we do have documents and testimonies of the time that seem to indicate that Louis was genuinely fond of his beautiful wife. The marriage lasted 15 years and they had two daughters.
Although hardly more than a girl (she was 15 years old when she arrived at the French court), Eleanor brought with her a different way of thinking, of expressing herself, of dressing and of having fun. None of this was particularly helpful in gaining support and sympathy from the rest of the court, especially from the King’s principal advisor, abbot Suger.
While she lived in Paris, universities had not yet been founded, but they did have schools of theology and philosophy, which students from all over the world attended, and the philosopher, poet and theologist Peter Abelard was spreading his controversial philosophical ideas and his questionings regarding the way religion should be practiced (considered as heresy by some). More than likely, Eleanor was familiar with all of these ideas and agreed with most of them. During her formative years, Eleanor was exposed to various religions, given that Bordeaux was a commercial port where Muslim, Jewish and Christian merchants lived together. We do know that she was familiar with Aristotelian reasoning and syllogism.
Eleanor was blamed for several wrong decisions made by Louis VII during the time they were together – among others, the banning of the Pope’s candidate for bishop, which brought about a temporary disruption of relations with the Papacy; as well as for a war against the count of Champagne when Louis allowed the marriage of Eleanor’s sister to Raoul de Vermandois, who was already married to the Count of Champagne’s niece. A terrible incident took place during this war in which more than a thousand people, who had taken refuge in a church, died when Louis ordered the town to be burned down. In 1144, Saint Bernardo de Clairvaux, one of the most powerful and influential men during the reign of Louis VII, reprimanded her for interfering in matters of church and state, which indicates that Eleanor did have a certain influence over Louis.
The years that she spent in Paris as Queen of France, trying to impose her independent spirit and to gain the intellectual liberty that she had been accustomed to, must have been very difficult for her, which is probably why, when in 1146 her husband decided to go on a Crusade to liberate Jerusalem, she insisted in coming along.
The Crusade, as such, was a terrible failure for France, but Eleanor was reacquainted with her adventurous spirit and with life away from the French court. During this trip she also familiarized herself with the maritime conventions in effect at the time in the eastern Mediterranean, which she introduced in her realms, and later in England.
On the way back to France, Eleanor asked Louis for a divorce on the grounds of consanguinity which she argued made the marriage invalid, although they had obtained permission from the Pope to marry. This proposal was not well received because a divorce would mean that France would lose the Aquitaine region.
They arrived in France in 1149 and Eleanor had not been able to obtain the liberty she longed for. Two years went by, during which the couple’s second daughter was born, before Louis finally agreed to annul their marriage on March 18, 1152. She regained her properties and left her daughters in France.
Eleanor returned to her beloved Aquitaine and on May 18, 1152, eight weeks after her marriage had been annulled, she married Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, whom she had met a year before and who, in 1154, would be crowned Henry II, King of England. He was 19 and she was 30 years old.
And here ends the first part of her story, as Queen of France. In a later post I’ll tell you about Eleanor, Queen of England.
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