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hi everyone welcome back to the history 20 podcast hope we're all okay staying safe and well and all that so today's episode is about eleanor of aquitan who was a hugely influential queen in the middle ages so we'll dive right in with this one so quite a lot to talk about today so start off with her personal profile so her actual date of birth wasn't actually known she was born sometime between 11 22 and 11 24 so just about like for the simplicity of this episode i've presumed she's born in 1122 so when i reference her age if i say she's say 80 i'm referring to 1202 if she's 78 i'm referring to 1200 etc so for this episode i'll presume she was born in 1122. and she was born in poitiers in france and she died on the 1st of april 1204 aged 81 to 82 depending on when she was born in that year in platia in france now she had various reigns she was the duchess of aquitan from the 9th of april 11 37 to the 1st of april 1204. she was the queen consort of front from the 1st of august 11 37 the 21st of march 11 52 and she was the queen consort of england from the 19th of december 11 54 to the 6th of july 1189 so as you can tell from that already i'm pretty sure you'll be able to tell that she did have a pretty exciting lifestyle so she was married twice to two different kings firstly to louis the seventh of france whom she was married to between 11 37 until its annulment in 11 52 and then king henry ii of england who we've previously discussed in another podcast and she was married to him from 11 52 until his death in 1189 and she never remarried after that she had various children 10 children in total i believe and they are listed on my blog but yeah i go on i'll read them out there was marie who was contest of champagne alex countess of boi william the ninth count of pattier henry the young king matilda the duchess of saxony richard the first king of england jeffrey ii duke of brittany eleanor queen of castile john queen of sicily and john king of england so quite the family tree going on there and she's from the house of patie so a quick little introduction to her she's obviously one of the most as i mentioned earlier one of the most formidable queens of the middle ages and she's often unfortunately overlooked because of those contemporaries who surrounded her so king louis the seventh of france the crusader king henry ii of england the first plantagenet king richard the first of england the lionheart and king john lackland of england so despite this though without ellen and none of these men would have been who they were she married two kings from two different countries she was mother to over five different kings and queens and not only that but she epitomized the courtney lifestyle of the high middle ages there was crusading there was chivalry and there was even confinement and she's not just one of the standout queens of the middle ages but one of the most powerful influential and greatest people of all time so we'll start with her early life which we're going from circa 11 22 up to 11 37 so as is unfortunately the case with many of the medieval sources we've looked at so far at the history and 20 podcast eleanor's exact birthday is actually unknown and there's actually debate about her birth year as i mentioned earlier sometime between 11 22 and 24. now she was of noble birth born to william the tenth he was duke of aquitan and ernor de chatellero if and it felt pronounced that wrongly which i probably have someone correct me in the comments and she they were the duke and duchess of aquitan now elena was really well educated in her upbringing actually and that's clear to see that she used that in a later life as well so she was thoroughly knowledgeable in a range of subjects from literature and philosophy to languages and even the constellations of the stars so as part of her upbringing she was trained in courtly life and obviously what was to be expected of a young woman in a 12th century french court however a father died when elena was age 15 and as she was the eldest of his three children she became his heir and thus the duchess of aquitan's mother had unfortunately died while when eleanor was about five so william the tenth of requesting in his will that eleanor therefore be placed under the guardianship of the french king who was louis vi at the time he ran from 1108 to 37 for an uninterested and within a matter of hours she'd been betrothed to the king's son prince louis now louis vi died in august 11 37 and his son succeeded him as king louis vii who reigned from 11 37 to 11 80. so the next section we'll talk about is her marriage to uh king louis king louis the seventh of france and their involvement in the second crusade so eleanor married louis the seventh of france when she was aged about 15 in july 11 37 and they were officially crowned king and queen of france on christmas day 11 37 so with this marriage eleanor almost doubled the land area subject to the capacion house which was the royal family of france at the time bringing with her her territories in the south and southwestern fronts where she was from now ironically enough louis wasn't even meant to be king in the first place his older brother philip had actually fallen from his horse when he was out riding chasing after hares i think and a pig ran out and freaked out the horse and it tripped over and it sent him flying and he died which left louis as heir to the capacion crown as a result now this was evident in louie's kingship and his personal life because as a young boy as was the tradition louie had been sent to paris by his father to train for priesthood and eleanor famously once commented that she had married a monk not a king so obviously the marriage was therefore destined to be difficult from the outset you've got eleanor's fiery politically astute tempestuous demeanor and then you've got louie's pretty humble pious shy nature and the uh historian jeffrey hindley wrote a great book on the crusades you'll see that in the bibliography below um he stated that she hardly fitted conventional models of domestic disability and he was absolutely right now in the early 1140s eleanor moved to paris where the rulers of france sort of met and lived and it was at this time that ellen is credited this is just a bit of a miscellaneous fact good for pub quiz isn't that this is where ellen is credited with being responsible for the introduction of built-in fireplaces in castles and houses and stuff because she was obviously shocked by the frigid winters in the north of france in complete contrast to the warmer milder winters down on the mediterranean coast where she was from so this innovation spread quickly and built in fireplaces became a staple in castles from here on in so fun fact fear there now arguably the most major event in louie and ellen's marriage was their involvement in the second crusade which ran from 1147 to 50. and i'll just put this out there now if anyone would like me to do a mini series on the crusades i've been thinking about for a long time let me know in the comments below leave a comment and just ask what you'd like um so anyway back to this uh so under almost pretty much direct instruction from pope eugene iii eleanor accompanied louis or what was more likely louie accompanied eleanor on the way to jerusalem to liberate the inverted commas christian city from the infidel which were muslims who'd taken it over so eleanor and louis arrived in antioch which is in modern day turkey on on the 11th of march 1148 and they were showered with these lavish gifts plenty of pomp and ceremony put on by a guy called raymond of antioch who had been prince of antioch since 1136 and he was also helena's uncle now the historian dan jones argues that this was likely a source of comfort for eleanor obviously to visit a close family member so far away from her homeland excuse me and be present in his exotic court which wasn't only filled with exotic eastern spices flowers animals but also with these homely additions such as ossitan or orchiton speaking men and women from the south and southwest of france and now despite only spending 10 days as raymond's guests in antioch it was definitely enough time to create rifts in eleanor and louie's marriage so notwithstanding raymond's generosity and hospitality louis announced that he had no intention of deploying his troops to help increase raymond's army for the second crusade which was the whole point of him meeting in antioch now raymond was obviously furious when hearing this and the contemporary chronicler william of taya reported that raymond began to hit louise ways he openly plotted against him and took means to do him injury now to achieve this raymond used his relationship with eleanor to sort of blackmail louis now this trick did work on eleanor she was happy at raymond's court and she refused to leave for jerusalem with her husband so louis set off without her however the joy was short-lived as elner remained in antioch with her uncle rumors began spreading that they were having an incestuous affair or even if they did have an affair wouldn't actually have been incestuous because raymond was a blood aunt's husband but nevertheless it blackened ellen's reputation and essentially cuckolded louie so william of taya wrote that contrary to her royal dignity she disregarded her marriage vows and was unfaithful to her husband but the problem with a statement like this is interpreting this in the 12th century and the 21st century yield very different results so it was almost certain that william was actually referring to the perceived domestic sin of disobedience which is straight edged of churchmen and contemporaries viewed as a sin of equal magnitudes compared to sexual infidelity but nevertheless the crusade went on without eleanor and actually culminated in a miserable failure and marked the beginning of the end of louisiana's marriage however the couple were briefly reconciled at easter 1149 and then left back home for france albeit on separate ships so both ships and couples met up at sicily before sailing on to pope eugene the third's villa in tusculum which is around in modern day frescati around 12 miles south of rome so the pope attempted to reconcile a couple even offering them a marital bed draped with fine fabrics but that failed as well and within 18 months of the return to france in loan 49 eleanor had already remarried this time to a young english nobleman called henry fitz empress now as queen of england is the next section so by aquitan's law women which is quite unusual for the time obviously uh could inherit and administer property in their own right and elena's father had specified that the duchy of aquatan should not be integrated into the royal demons but should instead remain independent and be inherited by ellen azares not eleanor and louie's heirs so therefore when their marriage was an old in 1152 elena parted from louis and her huge inheritance also parted from the french crown so within the space of a few months eleanor married henry who was then the count of andrew and maine and duke of normandy two years later he became king of england and uh he was crowned as the first plantagenet monarch henry ii so ellen has vast territories in the south and southwestern fronts joined with henry's and formed the huge plantagenet empire right from scotland to spain as you can see on the map on your screen at the minute now eleanor had still not escaped crusade and it was literally in henry's blood so his grandfather was a guy called king folk of jerusalem obviously king of jerusalem and both of his uncles folk sons baldwin iii and amil rick the first were also kings of jerusalem so it seemed like a match made in heaven but despite their prosperous marriage they had eight children between them five of whom went on to become kings or queens it was notoriously fractious too and this was largely a result of henry's numerous mistresses including one who was known as fair rosemond who melano was actually accused of poisoning to death but due to henry's infidelities elena moved back to pattaya in france in 1167. so i'll just have a quick sort of excerpt here from this is sort of a lifestyle and culture in what was known as the court of love from 11 67-73 so during a time back in france elena founded and established what was called the court of love and this was a court where everything we associate with the high medieval period took place so chivalry was encouraged poetry music were rife folklore and literature were constructed within its walls now accompanied by a daughter marie the court was also focused on courtly love and symbolic ritual that was eagerly locked up by the writers and musicians of the day but despite the brief interlude nell and his exciting life thus far it was soon to take a turn for the worst so the next section we talk about is rebellion and imprisonment excuse me so after the crisis between henry ii and thomas beckett which you can read about in a different blog post i've written obviously listen to the first video which i'll link below eleanor begun to start stirring rebellions against henry so she initially inspired a rebellion from the english earls robert of leicester and bigot of norfolk in early 1173 and was actually supported by her ex-husband louis vii because obviously anything between england and france he's going to support french or anything that undermines the english king so initially henry had managed to quash these rebellions at the expense of generous pardons and financial aid but by mid-1173 there was one rebellion which tipped henry over the edge and this was when his eldest son and heir young henry had fled to france to be with his mother eleanor apparently to plot to seize the throne from his father now eleanor rumored to be actively supporting young henry's plans against henry ii was arrested and placed under arrest she also actually later encouraged richard her other son to pay homage to the king of france who was philip ii at that time but unlike ordinary prisoners because she was no ordinary prisoner she was placed under relatively comfortable confinement which is essentially house arrest and shuttled between different english castles for the next 16 years now young henry died of a disease in 1183 allegedly begging for his mother's release in his deathbed and henry ii actually did release eleanor on various occasions and uh she rejoined his household in 1154 for at least part of each and accompanied him on these solemn occasions such as funeral processions and so on as well as resuming some of her ceremonial duties as queen so onto a later life and death from 1199-1204 so henry ii died in 1189 leaving the next oldest oldest son which was eleanor's favorite richard the first as hair now he succeeded his father as richard the first also known as richard the lionheart uh in 1189 and one of his first acts was to release eleanor completely from house arrest and she actually went on to rule as regent queen regent in richard's absence during his leading of the third crusade so again another crusade in relation to eleanor and even the agent elena's duties were far from over at this point so aged 70 she managed to negotiate richard the first release from prison and then when she was 78 one of her granddaughters who was called blanche of castile she brought her from spain to france to when the king of france who at that point was louis viii and when she turned 80 she actually directed the defense of a town under siege from an army so what like how iconic um now when richard died in 1199 eleanor actually lived long enough to see her younger son who was henry ii's favorite john become king of england and she was even employed by john as an invite to france and she later supported john's rule against the rebellion of one of her grandsons called arthur and finally retired as a nun to none to the abbey at font of rod now eleanor peacefully slipped away on the first of april 12-0 footage between 81 to 82 which is a good age for like these times but for that time it was absolutely immense and she was buried in that abbey next to her favorite son richard so what legacy did alana leave behind well i think there's a few historians who would disagree with the statement that eleanor was the most influential woman of the middle ages now there were numerous kings who did twice as little but of twice as much written about them and despite the fact she was a 12th century woman she arguably had more influence over the people around her than the men did the for example a historian norman davies states that eleanor of aquitan was perhaps the outstanding personality of the age she made her mark not only as a woman of remarkable spirit but as a political and cultural patron of immense influence now this is true so among her children and grandchildren she lived to see one emperor three kings of england kings of jerusalem and castile a duke of brittany and another queen of france and despite the attempts of the chroniclers like william of tyre to stay in a reputation as an incestuous and those others who accused her of poisoning fair rosemond she nevertheless survived all odds and stands as the central figure in the cultural history of a land in which her enemies were intent on destroying so hope you enjoyed that one thanks for listening and uh like i mentioned earlier just leave a comment below let me know what you think about it give it a like share comment subscribe invite your friends to like it you'll be able to see all my social links underneath and if you just drop a comment let me know what what you'd want to hear next time i've got some ideas lined up but it's always good to have some suggestions so thanks very much for listening and i'll catch you next time