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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... domains. The authority of the dukes of Aquitaine held good, therefore, only in the immediate vicinities of Poitiers, their capital, and Bordeaux. Although they claimed descent from Charlemagne and retained his effigy on the coinage of ...
... domains. The authority of the dukes of Aquitaine held good, therefore, only in the immediate vicinities of Poitiers, their capital, and Bordeaux. Although they claimed descent from Charlemagne and retained his effigy on the coinage of ...
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... domains, since within it lay the important trade routes that linked Aquitaine with the Mediterranean. A great-niece of William the Conqueror, King of England, Philippa was a spirited lady in the tradition of the duchesses of Aquitaine ...
... domains, since within it lay the important trade routes that linked Aquitaine with the Mediterranean. A great-niece of William the Conqueror, King of England, Philippa was a spirited lady in the tradition of the duchesses of Aquitaine ...
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... domains, writing poems and fighting useless wars against his unruly vassals, which only served to weaken his position and strengthen theirs. Increasingly self-indulgent, he openly pursued women, even boasting that he would found an ...
... domains, writing poems and fighting useless wars against his unruly vassals, which only served to weaken his position and strengthen theirs. Increasingly self-indulgent, he openly pursued women, even boasting that he would found an ...
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... domains intact to his son, who now became William X, he had been unable to curb the aggression and growing independence of his vassals, with the consequence that ducal authority had been even further undermined. William X's reign was ...
... domains intact to his son, who now became William X, he had been unable to curb the aggression and growing independence of his vassals, with the consequence that ducal authority had been even further undermined. William X's reign was ...
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... domains and to act as chatelaines of the castles that were springing up all over Europe. The teachings of the Church Fathers, who followed St. Paul in preaching that a woman's role was to learn in silence and be subject to her husband ...
... domains and to act as chatelaines of the castles that were springing up all over Europe. The teachings of the Church Fathers, who followed St. Paul in preaching that a woman's role was to learn in silence and be subject to her husband ...
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