Eleanor of Aquitaine

Mary Stone | March 13, 2023

Summary

She was the daughter of the Duchess of Aquitaine and Gascony, Countess of Poitiers from 1137; Queen of France from 1137 to 1152; Queen of England from 1154 to 1189; one of the richest and most influential women in High Middle Ages Europe. Alienora was the wife of two kings – first King Louis VII of France and then King Henry II of England, and the mother of two English kings – Richard I the Lionheart and John the Soothsayer.

A woman of remarkable beauty, character and disposition, which set her apart not only from the ruling women of her time, but from all of history.

Alienora was descended from the noble Southern French family of the Ramnulfides, descended from a lateral branch of the Carolingians. In the second half of the ninth century, the Ramnulfides became rulers of the Poitiers, and in the mid-tenth century they won a dispute with the Counts of Toulouse for the title of Duke of Aquitaine. Formally, the Dukes of Aquitaine were considered vassals of the Kings of France, but were in fact independent rulers. In the 11th century, the Ramnulfids greatly expanded their holdings by annexing the Duchy of Gascony. Their possessions occupied vast territories in southwestern France. Southern France, known as Occitania because of its preserved antique heritage, was both richer and more cultured than the north of the kingdom. The culture of the troubadours emerged here in the eleventh century, and Alienora herself and her beauty were more than once sung in their poems.

Alienora”s grandfather, Duke Guillaume IX (1071-1126), was an extraordinary and capricious ruler and talented poet, a lover of luxury, a bully and a heartthrob, considered the first of the Occitan troubadour lyricists. His provocative antics and writings shocked the clergy; twice Guillaume was excommunicated and twice the excommunication was lifted. Guillaume tried to expand his holdings at the expense of the Countship of Toulouse, to which he claimed by right his second wife Philippa, the only daughter of Count Guillaume IV, but was eventually forced to renounce this conquest. The last years of his reign were turbulent due to nobleman and brigand rebellions in Aquitaine.

The eldest son of Guillaume IX and Philippa of Toulouse was Guillaume X (1099-1137), who inherited Aquitaine after his father”s death. In 1121, Guillaume IX married his son to Aenor de Chatellerault, daughter of his long-time mistress Amauberga, known by the nicknames Danjerosa (Dangerous) and Malbergion, and her husband, Viscount Emery I de Chatellerault. From this marriage were born three children: an early dead son, Guillaume, and two daughters: the elder Alienora and the younger Petronilla.

According to the chronicler Joffrois de Vijoie, Alienora received her name in honor of her mother:

Duke Guillaume of Aquitaine, son of Guillaume and daughter of the Count of Toulouse <…> gave birth to a daughter by his wife Aenora <…> who was called Alienora, in other words another Aenora (lat. allia Aenor).

In later sources, however, she is often called Eleanor (Éléonore) and Eleanor (Eleanor).

The exact year of Alienora”s birth is not documented. She first appears documented on July 25, 1137, when her marriage to the French prince Louis (the future King Louis VII) was consummated in Bordeaux. The year of Alienora”s birth was determined by researchers based on the assumption of how old she would have reached marriageable age. According to the ideas of the time, the maximum age of marriage for a girl was 15. At the same time, according to canon law, a girl could get married from the age of 12. In addition, there is a late document dating back to the 13th century which reports that Alienora was 13 years old at the time of her marriage in 1137. Based on this, it is assumed that Alyenora was born in 1124. According to another version, she was born in 1122. Her birthplace could have been Nieuil-sur-Otiz (Vendée), the castle of Belin (Gironde) or the palace of Ombrier (Bordeaux).

Alienora”s father, Guillaume X, who became Duke of Aquitaine in 1126, did not get along with church hierarchs like his father. During the church schism in 1130, when two popes were elected, Innocent II and the antipope Anacletus II, Guillaume X supported the latter, which resulted in his excommunication and the interdict on his estates. Guillaume X, however, ignored this. Only in 1135 did Bernard of Clairvaux succeed in getting Guillaume X to recognize Innocent. Either as payment for the removal of the excommunication or to seek support against the vassals who rebelled against him, Guillaume X went on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in early 1137, during which he fell ill and died on April 9 of that year or 1130.

The only son of Guillaume X, Guillaume l”Egre, died as a child in 1130. The heiress to the duke”s possessions and titles was the young Alienora. Before the journey, Guillaume X drew up a will. There is a document that supposedly contains the text of the will. Although its authenticity is disputed, it shows quite accurately what was going on at the time. In addition, the will of Guillaume X is reported by the abbot Sugerius. According to the will, the guardianship of Alyenora and her sister was entrusted to King Louis VI of France, who was bequeathed to give Alyenora, who received Aquitaine and Poitiers, in marriage “if the barons would agree to it.”

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Queen of France

Louis VI, who received news of the late duke”s last will in June, acted immediately, deciding to marry his son and heir, Louis VII, to Alienora. He was the second son of Louis VI. As a child, Louis VII was prepared for the ecclesiastical ministry by being brought up in the monastery of Notre Dame. But on October 13, 1131, Philip, Louis VI”s eldest son, who had become his father”s co-ruler in 1129, died. Thereupon the second son, Louis, then 11 years old, was taken from the monastery and, on the advice of the abbot Sougueur, crowned and anointed on 25 October of the same year, after which he became co-ruler with his father. But in the future Louis retained his piety and respect for the church.

Wary lest someone beat him to it, since the young Duchess seemed a very profitable match, the King sent Prince Louis to Bordeaux on June 15, accompanied by the royal adviser Abbot Sugerius and an army of 500 men led by the Count of the Palace, Thibaut II of Champagne and the Senechal Count Raoul I de Vermandois. On top of everything else, the army was to impress the rebellious vassals in Aquitaine. Louis arrived in Bordeaux in July, and on July 25 he was married in St. Andrew”s Cathedral. Since Louis was already his father”s co-pastor and anointed king (though with no real power), Alienora”s head was crowned with a royal diadem.

From Bordeaux, the newlyweds set out for Poitiers, where Alienora was to take the ducal dignity. On the way they tried to avoid the castles of the rebellious Aquitaine vassals. According to the Troyes chronicler, Alienora and Louis spent their first wedding night in the castle of Taibourg belonging to Geoffroy de Rankon, one of the vassals who remained faithful to the Dukes of Aquitaine.

On August 8, Alienora and Louis VII arrived in Poitiers, where they were officially proclaimed Dukes of Aquitaine and Counts of Poitiers. On the same day, they learned that King Louis VI had died on August 1, making Louis VII the sole ruler. To establish himself on the throne, Louis VII and Aliénora left immediately for Orleans and from there for Paris.

The mores of the Parisian court were different from those of the court of the dukes of Aquitaine, there was a different language. Alienora, who arrived in Paris, was in fact a stranger, as were many other consorts of French kings. Her younger sister Petronilla arrived in Paris with Aliénora, as well as a retinue of unknown size. Aquitaine”s clothing was considered provocative and extravagant, perhaps influencing French fashion at court.

The chroniclers say almost nothing about the role the young queen played at court. She probably had virtually no political influence (except indirectly). However, even on her personal estates in Aquitaine, Alienora did not exert any influence at first, Louis VII appointed his own people to manage his wife”s lands. It was the king who in 1138 put down the rebellion that broke out in Poitiers and created a commune. Also, Louis attempted, on behalf of Alienora, to lay claim to the Countship of Toulouse, which she had inherited through her grandmother, Philippe of Toulouse. But the French army, which reached Toulouse in June 1141, was unable to take the city, forcing Louis to confine himself to taking the oath of vassalage from Count Alphonse Jordan.

According to a number of scholars, Alienora may have been involved in the changes at the French court that took place after 1138. The leading role in the court of Louis VII was originally played by the abbot of Saint-Denis Sugerius. He managed to gain the upper hand in a dispute for influence over the king with Queen Dowager Adelaide of Savoy, Louis” mother, and Raoul I de Vermandois, Louis VI”s cousin. The result was Louis VII”s break with his mother and Raoul, who was deprived of his position as seneschal. Later, however, Adelaide of Savoy, remarried to Mathieu I de Montmorency (who became the connetable of France), was able to regain lost ground. Sugerius” influence on politics waned and Raoul I de Vermandois regained his position as seneschal. A Berrian cleric, Cadurk, became chancellor in place of Sougueur”s man. The king tried to make him archbishop of Bourges and primate of Aquitaine, but the Bourges chapter chose another – Pierre de La Chartres. This choice was approved by Pope Innocent II, which provoked a conflict with Louis, who believed that French bishops should be appointed by the king.

In 1141 Raoul I de Vermandois had an affair with Petronilla, sister of Aliénora. Petronilla was only 15 years old, Raoul was 50. He was also married – to Eleanor de Blois, sister of the powerful Thibaut II of Champagne, Count of Champagne and Blois. The marriage was of political importance – Petronilla was at that time the heiress of Aquitaine. Alienora supported her sister. Raoul managed to find prelates who annulled his marriage to Eleanor de Blois because of blood kinship, and in 1142 he married Petronilla. This marriage caused a scandal. Thibault II of Champagne interceded on behalf of his sister and appealed to the pope. The assembled ecclesiastical council at Lanyi recognized Raoul”s first marriage as valid. As a result, Raoul and Petronilla”s marriage was annulled and both were excommunicated.

These events sparked a war between Louis VII and Thibault II of Champagne. The royal army invaded and devastated his possessions. In the process, a church in the town of Vitry was burned, in which a thousand and a half inhabitants were sheltered, none of whom escaped, which shocked the king. Bernard of Clairvaux tried to settle the conflict by asking the pope to lift the excommunication of Raoul and Petronilla, but without recognizing their marriage. He also sent a message to the king, accusing the “wicked counsellors” of fomenting war. This may have been Queen Alyenora, who supported her sister wholeheartedly. But the king was stubborn, accusing Thibault of Champagne of using marriage alliances to create an alliance of nobles against the king.

In 1144 Pope Innocent II died. His successor, Celestine II, was a disciple of Bernard of Clairvaux and proved more accommodating. Bernard understood that peace would require convincing concessions to Alienora, whose supporters refused to make any agreements until the excommunication of Raoul and Petronilla was lifted and their marriage recognized. June 11, 1144 was the consecration of the new choir of the Abbey of Saint Denis, which was attended by the king, his mother, Alienora and other nobles of the kingdom. A meeting between Bernard and Alienora took place there, which resulted in a compromise. The Lives of Saint Bernard, by Geoffroy of Auxerre, tells us that Alienora, whose marriage had long been childless (there was only one miscarriage), lost hope of becoming a mother and told Bernard, who promised that if she ceased to be a bad influence on the king, she would have a child.

Eventually peace was made. Louis VII reconciled with Thibault of Champagne, who renounced the idea of marriages that had agitated the king. In addition, the king recognized Pierre de la Chartres as the new Archbishop of Bourges. Raoul and Petronilla”s excommunication was never lifted, but they continued to live together and had two daughters and a son. After Eleanor de Blois died in 1148, Pope Eugene III lifted the excommunication and the marriage was legalized. A daughter was born to Alienora in 1145, named Mary, probably after the Virgin Mary.

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The Second Crusade

After the war ended, Louis VII vowed to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The chroniclers give different reasons for this decision. According to one version, the king took the vow to atone for those burned in the Vitry fire. According to another, he was going to fulfill a vow made by his late brother Philip. According to some historians, the king meant to thank the heavens for giving birth to a child to Alyenora.

There is now a theory expressed by the historian A. Grabois. According to him, the reason was that, as a result of a compromise with Bernard of Clairvaux, Louis VII was forced to break an oath he had pronounced on the relics of saints – that he would not allow Pierre de La Chatre to enter Bourges. The correspondence that the king maintained with Bernard shows that the pious Louis was oppressed by his breaking the oath he had publicly taken.

On October 24, 1144, Edessa was captured by the emir of Mosul, Zenga. After learning of this in France, Louis VII gathered the royal court at Bourges on December 25, 1145. There he announced that he intended to organize a crusade to Palestine. Bernard of Clairvaux and the pope supported the king”s call. On March 31, 1146, Bernard gave a sermon at Wesle, after which a large number of counts, lords and prelates accepted the cross. According to the testimony of the anonymous successor of Sougueur”s records, Alienora was also present at Vézelay and also accepted the cross – immediately after Louis. However, some historians doubt that Alyenora was at Vezla.

Some later authors claim that Alienora accepted the cross as an Amazon. This is based on the chronicle of Nikita Honiatus, who wrote that during the Crusader march through Byzantium there were women in male dress in their army who rode horses like men. A number of historians, such as Isaac de Larray (seventeenth century) stated that there were many women in the Christian army who formed “female squadrons,” that Alienora wanted to go on a campaign following the example of the ancient Amazons.

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Relationship with Louis VII

According to chroniclers, Louis VII immediately fell in love with the beautiful Alienora. John of Salisbury wrote that Louis

loved the queen with an almost excessive love.

William of Newburgh argued that

From the very beginning she so captivated the young man”s mind with her beauty that, in preparation for this most famous campaign, the king decided to take her with him to the war, because he was fervently in love with his young wife.

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Divorce

Louis VII had no military success in the Holy Land, and the royal couple returned to France. In 1151 they had their second daughter. The following year, however, on March 21, they divorced, the formal reason for the divorce being that they were distantly related. The daughters remained with the king; Alienora retained all her lands in Aquitaine.

At the time of the marriage between Louis VII and Alienora, no one thought of the bloodline between them. The fact is that one of Bernard of Clairvaux”s letters to Louis showed that the churchmen knew that they were in the third degree of kinship, but they turned a blind eye to it.

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Queen of England

A few months after the dissolution of her marriage to Louis, on May 18, 1152, Duchess Alienora married the Duke of Normandy, Henry Plantagenet. Hastily arranged in the utmost secrecy, the marriage was consummated with all possible haste. The consequences of this marriage would shake Europe for decades. From that moment almost half of France belonged to the Plantagenet dynasty. According to some historians, it is in the history of the marriage of Alienora of Aquitaine to look for the origins of the war, which in the XIX century was called the Hundred Years War. October 25, 1154 Alienora”s husband became King of England, and she herself received the title of queen. Queen Alienora bore Henry II nine children, of whom only two sons survived to adulthood. During the first half of Henry II”s reign, the queen played an important role in the political life of England. Alienora accompanied him on many military campaigns, often remaining viceroy in French lands and, while in England, was given the right to manage the royal treasury, which proves Henry”s confidence in his wife.

During Henry II”s confrontation with Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, between 1162 and 1170, the queen supported her husband”s actions. In June 1170 Henry II decided to crown his eldest son, with the help of the Archbishop of York, as his co-ruler, having obtained permission from the pope, who soon changed his mind and sent letters to the king”s cousin Bishop Roger of Worcester to go immediately to the King of England and persuade him to cancel Henry the Young”s coronation. Roger was in Normandy at this point and was already preparing to set sail for England, but in addition to him there was also Alienora on this side of the Channel. The queen and Richard Humez, the seneschal of Normandy, did not permit the bishop to go to England. The sailors received clear orders from the queen and the seneschal not to carry him across the strait. Henry the Young was nevertheless crowned co-ruler of his father.

Henry”s long military campaigns, as well as his penchant for adultery, soon put a chill on the relationship between the spouses. In addition, Henry became more greedy and suspicious as he grew older.

Alienora”s eldest son Henry, the “Young King,” though crowned co-ruler of his father, was not given any real power. Adele – the bride of Richard, Alienora”s most beloved son, was generally referred to as Henry II”s mistress. Rumors spread throughout England and Normandy that the young king was unhappy with his lack of possessions and real power. While Henry II was conquering Ireland, 1171-1172, the queen began a rather dangerous political game. At the instigation of Alyenora”s uncle (Ralph de Faye), according to the Chronicle of Tours, and the Angevin baron Hugo de Saint-Maur attempted to turn young Henry against his father by pointing out the injustices taking place. Matthias of Paris in his Great Chronicle names the same individuals as instigators, leading readers to believe that the ensuing rebellion was God”s parole of the royal family for the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket.

At the same time, Alienora”s favorite son, Richard, was already in his fifteenth year. The queen insisted that Richard be formally proclaimed duke of Aquitaine. Henry II gave his consent and, on 11 June 1172, Richard was duly proclaimed duke in the monastery of Saint Hilary in Poitiers. The queen attended the ceremony, and then they went with their son to Limoges, where they were met in a large procession. Richard accepted the Aquitaine attribute of power, the ring of St. Valery, and listened to the homily. From that moment, Prince Richard became the rightful ruler of all the possessions of his mother, making her long-awaited dream come true. Contradictions between Henry II and his sons, incited by their mother, continued to deepen. All this led to the fact that in 1173 Henry the Young fled to the court of the French king Louis VII. That same year, after Christmas, the king and the queen had a serious quarrel, after which she fled to Aquitaine, taking Richard and Geoffrey with her. Soon after, Archbishop Rotroux of Rouen wrote a long and angry letter to Queen Alyenora, laying all the blame for the rift within the family on her alone. Alienora paid no attention to the archbishop”s words and even led a rebellion of the Aquitaine barons. The queen sent Richard and Geoffrey away to her older brother in Paris. Soon she herself decided to join her sons. The queen dressed as a man and followed her sons, but on the way she fell into the hands of her husband”s supporters. There had long been no tender feelings between the ruling couple, and so Henry II, with no regrets, imprisoned her. Gervase of Canterbury wrote: “Alienora was a very intelligent woman, born into a noble family, but very windy.” The archbishop argued that the story of the princes” escape had been conceived by the queen herself. The author of Henry”s Acts said that “the authors of this abominable treachery were Louis, King of France, and, as some claim, Alienora herself, Queen of England, and her uncle Ralph Fay. One way or another, Alienora of Aquitaine”s free life was interrupted. In July 1174, she and her husband, her youngest son John, Queen Margaret and the brides of her other sons left Normandy for England. On arrival, the king ordered that Alienora be taken to Salisbury Castle and imprisoned in a tower.

The imprisonment was comfortable enough. Alienora was still Queen of England and Duchess of Aquitaine. She was left with a staff of servants, and the guards were told to give the prisoner complete freedom within the fortress walls. In addition, there is a version that Henry was going to divorce his wife and marry one of his mistresses. But with Aliénora, the king would have lost all his lands in France (except Normandy, Anjou and Maine). This prospect forced him to come to his senses and keep the marriage.

In 1179 Henry succeeded in getting Alienora to transfer the title of duke to Richard.

On July 6, 1189, Alienora”s husband died and she herself was imprisoned. Henry II was succeeded by Alienora”s most beloved son, Richard. One of Richard”s first edicts as king was to free his mother from imprisonment. William Marshal was sent to Winchester on this errand, finding her “already freed and more powerful than ever before.” Immediately after her release, the queen concentrated supreme power in her hands on behalf of her son and began making preparations for the coronation of Richard I. Traveling around the country, the queen freed prisoners who had been granted the right by special royal decree to prove their innocence.

Before Richard”s coronation, conflict erupted in England. The illegitimate son of Henry II, Joffrois, was appointed Archbishop of York. Despite his election as archbishop by the canons of York Cathedral themselves, his candidacy was opposed by the queen mother and Archbishop Hubert Gauthier.

After the breakdown of the engagement between Richard I and Adele of France, King Philip II of France proposed her as wife to John, the youngest son of Henry II and Alienora, who persuaded her son to reject the marriage.

During Richard I”s involvement in the Crusades, the queen also left England. While the king was at war, Alyenora traveled to Navarre to find a bride for her son. Her choice fell on Berengaria of Navarre, and soon Alyenora and Berengaria were on their way to Messina to see Richard. Alienora thought that by making Navarre her ally, she could secure the borders of Aquitaine. On May 12, 1191, Richard was married to Berengaria of Navarre. Throughout Richard”s reign, Queen Berengaria never visited her husband”s homeland, besides remaining in the shadow of her overbearing and powerful mother-in-law.

While the king was away, a confrontation broke out in England between Bishop William de Lonçon, who had become chancellor and concentrated great power in his hands, and Richard”s brothers. In February 1191, Alyenora met with the king”s son in Messina, denouncing the chancellor”s unworthy behavior. On April 2, the queen and Archbishop Gautier of Coutance left for Rome to persuade the pope to approve the ordination of the king”s half-brother, Geoffrey, as archbishop of York.

As a result of the long conflict, Lonschan was deprived of his position as chancellor and excommunicated, and his diocese, Illy, was deprived of the administration of the rites. In addition, Prince John began secret negotiations with the king of France, who began fortifying the castles on the Normandy border. Queen Alienora, who was in Normandy, immediately began to act. On February 11, 1192, the queen arrived in Portsmouth, and from that moment on was de facto ruler of England for some time. Alienora dissuaded John from leaving England, and, summoning a council of barons, forced her son to swear an oath of allegiance. The queen mother had time to visit several of Illy”s estates and petitioned for the removal of the excommunication from Lonshan. Gautier de Coutance received orders from the queen to return the income to Lonshan and lift his excommunication. After summoning Archbishop Geoffrey and Hugo of Durham to London, Queen Alienora tried to reconcile them to no avail. She also refused to allow Lonshan, who had been reinstated as papal legate, to remain in England until King Richard”s return.

In February 1193 news of King Richard”s capture came to England. Alienora appealed to Pope Celestine III, reproaching him for not doing all he could to restore Richard”s freedom. However, the situation did not change. Soon Duke Leopold agreed to release Richard for a large ransom. After receiving the terms on which the king was to be released, all taxpayers were ordered to provide a quarter of the proceeds to raise funds for the ransom. Alienora of Aquitaine saw to it that the injunction of the Justiciars was carried out. When it became clear that the required amount could not be collected, it was decided to send 200 hostages to the emperor until he received the entire ransom. Having personally chosen the hostages and collected the required sum, Alienora delivered the money to Germany. On February 2, 1194, at a solemn meeting in Mainz, Richard was granted his freedom, but was forced to offer an oath to the emperor and promise to pay him five thousand pounds sterling annually. On February 4, 1194, Richard and Alienora left Mainz. According to William of Newburgh, after the English king”s departure, the emperor regretted letting the prisoner go, “a tyrant strong indeed, threatening the whole world,” and sent a chase after him. Since the Emperor Henry failed to capture the English king, he tightened the conditions under which the English hostages were held.

On May 13, 1194, Alienora and Richard arrived in England. Soon Richard I set out for Normandy for her defense against the king of France. The mother followed with her son.

On March 26, 1199, at the siege of Château Chabrol, Richard was wounded in the neck by a crossbow bolt. On April 6, 1199, he died of blood poisoning in his mother”s arms.

After the death of Richard I on the English throne was the most unloved son of Alienora – John. Immediately after John”s coronation, the queen mother ceased to participate in the political life of England, and then left it altogether, leaving for her native Aquitaine. Alienora continued to participate actively in the political life of Aquitaine.

After John”s coronation, Alienora”s 16-year-old grandson, Arthur Plantagenet, claimed the English throne. Arthur received the support of Philip II, King of France, and began to wage war against John the Soothsayer. During the war, Arthur besieged his grandmother Alienora of Aquitaine at the castle of Mirabeau. The castle would have easily fallen if Alienora had not organized its defenses so that the defenders held out for several days until July 31, 1202, when John and his troops approached the castle and took Arthur prisoner.

In 1200, the mother queen of England made her last journey beyond the Pyrenees to bring her granddaughter, Blanca of Castile, to France, whom she married to the future king of France, Louis VIII.

In her final years, she retired to Fontevro Abbey, where she died at a very advanced age on March 31, 1204. Alienora was buried next to her husband Henry II and her beloved son Richard I.

Among historians, Alienora of Aquitaine is often called the grandmother of medieval Europe.

Not much is known about Alyenora”s appearance. At the end of the twelfth century, Richard of Devizes, a monk of Winchester, dedicated a work to Alyenora in which he describes her as

an incomparable woman, beautiful and chaste, powerful and temperate, modest and eloquent – endowed with qualities that very rarely combine in a woman

There are a number of surviving images of Aliénora, but they were all created later and there are doubts as to whether they accurately depict Aliénora”s appearance. There is a surviving tombstone of Alienora at Fontevraux Abbey. Historian Georges Duby believes it was created after her death, which means that the sculptor did not know what Alyenora looked like and there could be no resemblance to the original. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that it may have been commissioned by Aliénora while she was still alive, an assumption that is now accepted by many art historians. In that case, some resemblance may be there, although her appearance may have been exalted and idealized.

There are also surviving images of Alienora on the stained-glass window of the cathedral in Poitiers and a fresco in the Cathedral of St. Radegunda in Chinon, as well as an image on a module in the hall of the chapter of St. Radegunda in Poitiers, but there appears to be no portrait resemblance.

The chronicler William of Newburgh writes that Alyenora was seductive; another chronicler, Lambert of Watrelo, states that Alyenora was very beautiful. According to the canons of beauty of the time, sung in various writings and songs, noble ladies had a beautiful body, a clear face, white skin, blue or gray eyes, and red hair.

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In computer games

Alienora of Aquitaine is one of the leaders of England and France in the computer global strategy game Civilization VI: Gathering Storm.

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Footnotes

Sources

1. Алиенора Аквитанская
2. Eleanor of Aquitaine
3. ^ [Adelaide] perhaps [based] her preconceptions on another southerner, Constance of Provence … tales of her allegedly immodest dress and language still continued to circulate among the sober Franks.[4]
4. ^ Ms. S. Berry, senior archivist at the Somerset Archive and Record Service, identified this “archdeacon of Wells” as Thomas of Earley, noting his family ties to Henry II and the Earleys” philanthropies.[34]
5. Алиенора была намного старше Генриха: ей было 28 лет, а Генриху только исполнилось 19[19]
6. La date et le lieu exacts de sa naissance ne sont pas connus ; plusieurs chroniqueurs signalent que les seigneurs d”Aquitaine lui ont juré fidélité à son quatorzième anniversaire, en 1136. Quelques chroniques donnent 1120 comme date de naissance, mais il est presque certain que ses parents ne se sont mariés qu”en 1121. Enfin, d”autres chroniques lui donnent treize ans lors de son mariage, en 1137.
7. Jane Martindale retient 1122, dans « Eleanor, suo jure duchess of Aquitaine (c.1122–1204) », Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, édition en ligne : mai 2006.
8. Marie-Aline de Mascureau, « Chronologie », primitivement publiée dans Aliénor d”Aquitaine, Revue 303, hors-série no 81, p. 218-223, Nantes, 2004, dans Edmond-René Labande, Pour une image véridique d”Aliénor d”Aquitaine, réédité avec une préface de Martin Aurell par la Société des antiquaires de l”Ouest-Geste éditions en 2005 (ISBN 2-84561-224-9).
9. Edmond-René Labande, « Pour une image véridique d”Aliénor d”Aquitaine », paru dans le Bulletin de la Société des antiquaires de l”Ouest, 1952, p. 175-234 ; réédité avec une préface de Martin Aurell par la Société des antiquaires de l”Ouest-Geste éditions en 2005 (ISBN 2-84561-224-9), p. 26 ; voir aussi Jean Flori, Aliénor d”Aquitaine. La reine insoumise, Paris, Payot, 2004 p. 184-185 (non consulté).
10. ^ (LA) Chronicon sancti Maxentii Pictavensis, Chroniques des Eglises d”Anjou, pag 411
11. ^ (LA) #ES Documents historiques inédits tirés des collections manuscrites de la bibliothèque royale, Tomes II, doc. n° VII, pagg 13 e 14
12. ^ Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life, 1999.
13. ^ a b Louis Alphen, La Francia: Luigi VI e Luigi VII (1108-1180), pag. 718
14. ^ a b c d Louis Alphen, La Francia: Luigi VI e Luigi VII (1108-1180), pag. 719