Eleanor of Aquitaine: A LifeIn this beautifully written biography, Alison Weir paints a vibrant portrait of a truly exceptional woman and provides new insights into her intimate world. Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman in Europe, the wife of two kings and mother of three, Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the great heroines of the Middle Ages. At a time when women were regarded as little more than chattel, Eleanor managed to defy convention as she exercised power in the political sphere and crucial influence over her husbands and sons. Eleanor of Aquitaine lived a long life of many contrasts, of splendor and desolation, power and peril, and in this stunning narrative, Weir captures the woman—and the queen—in all her glory. With astonishing historic detail, mesmerizing pageantry, and irresistible accounts of royal scandal and intrigue, she recreates not only a remarkable personality but a magnificent past era. |
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... Paris Louis VII, King of France. Manuscript illumination from “Grands Chroniques de France,” fr. 2813 fol. 223 © Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris Rock crystal vase, 12th c., from the Abbey of Saint-Denis, now in the Louvre © Réunion des ...
... Paris Louis VII, King of France. Manuscript illumination from “Grands Chroniques de France,” fr. 2813 fol. 223 © Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris Rock crystal vase, 12th c., from the Abbey of Saint-Denis, now in the Louvre © Réunion des ...
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... Paris and the surrounding area, which was known from the fourteenth century as the Île de France; yet its kings, thanks to the legacy of the Emperor Charlemagne, who had ruled most of northern Europe in the eighth century, were ...
... Paris and the surrounding area, which was known from the fourteenth century as the Île de France; yet its kings, thanks to the legacy of the Emperor Charlemagne, who had ruled most of northern Europe in the eighth century, were ...
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... Paris while she was Queen of France. The letters in which this skill is apparent were in fact composed for Eleanor in 1193 by the accomplished royal secretary Peter of Blois, and it is far more likely that it was he rather than his ...
... Paris while she was Queen of France. The letters in which this skill is apparent were in fact composed for Eleanor in 1193 by the accomplished royal secretary Peter of Blois, and it is far more likely that it was he rather than his ...
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... Paris, in the thirteenth century, recalled her “admirable beauty.” No one, however, left a description of Eleanor or even recorded the colour of her hair and eyes. Her tomb effigy shows a tall and large-boned woman, but this may not be ...
... Paris, in the thirteenth century, recalled her “admirable beauty.” No one, however, left a description of Eleanor or even recorded the colour of her hair and eyes. Her tomb effigy shows a tall and large-boned woman, but this may not be ...
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... Paris, as well as Sens, Orléans, and part of Berry. The greatest threats to French expansion were posed by the Count of Blois, linked by strong family and political ties to the Count of Champagne, and by the Count of Anjou, who was ...
... Paris, as well as Sens, Orléans, and part of Berry. The greatest threats to French expansion were posed by the Count of Blois, linked by strong family and political ties to the Count of Champagne, and by the Count of Anjou, who was ...
Contents
To Jerusalem | |
A Righteous Annulment | |
A Happy Issue | |
All the Business of the Kingdom | |
Eleanor by the Grace of God Queen of England | |
Poor Prisoner | |
Shame Shame on a Conquered King | |
The Eagle Shall Rejoice in Her Third Nesting | |
The Admiration of Her Age | |
The Devil Is Loosed | |
The Staff of My Old Age | |
The Most Reverend Eleanor | |
The Brood of the Wicked Shall Not Thrive | |
The King Has Wrought a Miracle | |
Conjectures Which Grow Day by Day | |
The Holy Martyr | |
The Cubs Shall Awake | |
Beware of Your Wife and Sons | |
A Candle Goeth Out | |
Notes on the Chief Sources | |
Dedication | |
A Readers Guide | |
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Common terms and phrases
abbey Abbot Alys Angevin Anjou Archbishop army Arthur barons Berengaria Bernard Bishop Blois Brittany brother castle Cathedral charter Chinon Christmas chroniclers Church Count court crown crusade daughter death domains duchy Duke Eleanor of Aquitaine Emperor English excommunicated father FitzStephen Fontevrault France French Geoffrey Geoffrey’s Gervase of Canterbury Giraldus Cambrensis Guillaume le Maréchale heir Henry and Eleanor Henry’s honour household Hugh husband Ibid Jerusalem Joanna John of Salisbury John’s King Louis King’s kingdom knights L’Histoire de Guillaume London Longchamp Louis’s Lusignan marriage married Matilda mother Norman Normandy overlord palace Paris peace Philip Pipe Rolls Poitiers Poitou Pope Queen Eleanor Ralph of Coggeshall Ralph of Diceto Raoul Raymond reign remained Richard of Devizes Robert of Torigni Roger of Hoveden Roger of Wendover Rolls Series Rosamund Rouen royal sent sons Suger Theobald took Toulouse trans troubadours twelfth century vassals Walter Map wife William of Newburgh Winchester Young King