Why has the study of Eleanor of Aquitaine often been obfuscated by legend and prejudice? (original) (raw)
Related papers
Eleanor of Aquitaine, Twelfth-Century English Chroniclers and her 'Black Legend'
Nottingham Medieval Studies, 2008
Eleanor of Aquitaine (1124-1204) ranks as a favourite of modern biographers, and in the twentieth-century writings on this twelfth-century personality attained the proportions of a 'romanticizing "Eleanor industry".' 1 In approaching Eleanor, historians today face the sharply differing standards of her medieval contemporaries, modern scholars, and popular writers in depicting a powerful woman's place in medieval society and government. Because of this, the twelfth century's most famous woman can provoke either modern biographers' 'uncritical enthusiasm, or else curiously grudging dismissal'. 2 Perhaps the primary example of the enthusiastic approach is Amy Kelly's Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings, first published over a half century ago and still in print. 3 W. L. Warren's dismissal of Eleanor in his biography of her second husband, Henry II shows the grudging attitude, 'To judge from the chroniclers, the most striking fact about Eleanor is her utter insignificance in Henry II's reign.' 4
Two reputed representations of Eleanor of Aquitaine from her lifetime -a re-evaluation
This article revisits the evidence for the identification of the “Chasse Royale” mural in the Chapelle Ste Radegonde in Chinon with Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Plantagenets and the identification of Fécamp Psalter with Eleanor of Aquitaine. It suggests that the mural may have been commissioned by Eleanor of Aquitaine it should not be regarded as portraying the Plantagenets but part of the story of Ste Radegonde. It also suggests that the Psalter should now be regarded as a genuine commission by Eleanor of Aquitaine and as containing a representation of Eleanor herself.
The Outlandish Lioness: Eleanor of Aquitaine in Literature
Medieval Feminist Forum
The panel followed the showing of Lion in Winter, which features Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitoine. The remarks of participants Fiona Tolhurst, Constance Berman, and R6Gena DeAragon follow. THE OUTLANDISH LIONESS: ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE IN LITERATURE The image the viewer gets of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Anthony Harvey's The Lion in Winter is that she was a woman of many talents and moods who was both dangerous and fascinating. This image is like the one a reader gets of Eleanor in literature-and for good reason: the lack of detailed records of Eleanor's life has enabled writers of annals, chronicle histories, and poems to create varied and fantastic tales about the woman who managed to be Queen of France and then England.' Because generic distinctions in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries among annal, chronicle, and literature are fuzzy at best, one striking pattern that emerges as a reader compares the historical and literary sources about Eleanor is that she is a figure at the mercy of continual literary reconstruction. Even in literary works such as Wace's Brut and Lawman's Roman de Brut where her reputation is invoked indirectly through the character of Guenevere, Eleanor of Aquitaine becomes an Everywoman whom each male historian or poet uses to praise or critique the women of his own culture and time. I would argue, then, that every version of Eleanor a reader or viewer encounters is, at least to some extent, literary-a product of the imagination of a writer using her as an emblem of womankind.
Marie de Champagne and Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Relationship Reexamined
Speculum, 1979
UNTIL recently, the influence of Eleanor of Aquitaine upon her daughter, Marie de Champagne, was taken for granted. Many well-known and respected scholars have spoken authoritatively of the interaction between the two women at Eleanor's court in Poitiers where, together, they supposedly reigned over courts of love, the judgments from which were recorded by Andreas Capellanus in his De Amore. Rita Lejeune tells us that: "On a conserve certains de ces jugements, prononces a une date mal determinee, mais dont beaucoup doivent se situer aux environs de 1170, lorsque Marie frequentait la cour de sa mere a Poitiers." 1 Amy Kelly has gone so far as to assert that Marie was selected as a veritable "maitresse d'ecole for the royal academy in Poitiers." 2 She describes in fond detail the "disquieting" and unruly condition in which Marie found the court. "What the countess obviously needed for her royal academy," we are told, "was. .. a code of manners to transform the anarchy and confusion that confronted her into something refined, serious, and decorous." 3 As a result, Andreas Capellanus was set to work to write his De Amore. As scholars were well aware, this description of Marie's function at the court of Poitiers was in large measure a product of the fertile imagination of Amy Kelly. Still, the belief in this interaction between the two women was assumed to be essentially accurate, and John Jay Parry spoke for many scholars when he commented on Kelly's account of Marie's visit to Eleanor's court: "Part of her work is based upon inference, but I have no doubt that it is substantially correct." 4 Within recent years, however, John F. Benton has * I am indebted to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a grant which made this study possible. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the first regional meeting of the International Courtly Literature Society-American branch, held in conjunction with the South Atlantic Modern Language Association in November, 1977. 1 Rita Lejeune, "Role litteraire de la famille d'Alienor d'Aquitaine," Cahiers de Civilisation Medievale I (1958), 325. 2 Amy Kelly, Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings (New York, 1950), p. 202. Marion Meade in her recent biography of Eleanor continues this myth of a more or less formal academy at Poitiers, as she comments, "To her daughter [Marie] she [Eleanor] assigned the task of educating these high spirited male subjects of hers so that the younger generation might be molded into civilized beings who, not so incidentally, would know how to respect women." Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography (New York, 1977), p. 252. One of the most useful scholarly works that has appeared on Eleanor in recent years is the collection of essays from the Symposia in the Arts and the Humanities, No. 3, at the University of Texas at Austin, edited by William W. Kibler and published under the title of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Patron and Politician (Austin and London, 1976). 3 Kelly, Eleanor, p. 205.
Women Living beyond the Norm: Eleanor of Aquitaine
Historisch tijdschrift Groniek vol 46, no 198, 2013
Eleanor, duchess of Aquitaine (1124-1204), is likely the best known medieval queen, first consort of Louis VII of France, of Henry II of England. Despite medieval churchmen's teachings of women’s innate inferiority and subordination to males, she lived as she saw fit, seeking political power. Eleanor paid heavily for her pursuit of power, subjected to scurrilous gossip beginning on the Second Crusade, and spreading to the West. Medieval teachings ascribed women’s actions to irrational, sentimental or libidinous motives, and clerical writers attributed her rifts with her two husbands to personal, not political factors. A 'Black Legend' grew up that haunted her over the centuries.
Eleanor de Montfort: A Rebel Countess in Medieval England
Medieval Feminist Forum, 2013
louise wilkinson has written a modest little book about the youngest sister of an English monarch, Henry III. In just 136 pages of exposition (183 with notes), Wilkinson accomplishes her stated goal of "consider[ing] the life and career of Eleanor, the youngest daughter of King John, against the turbulent background of thirteenth-century English politics and Anglo-French relations, and consider[ing] her transformation from the king's beloved youngest sister into his bitter political enemy" (2). While the book achieves its goal of providing a biography of a previously neglected noblewoman, it also, intentionally or not, inspires much more, motivating scholars to analyze women's status as sisters, in addition to their positions as wives, widows, or mothers, to glean more information about the bases of women's political action. With obvious reason, the book is organized chronologically around Eleanor' s life cycle, beginning with chapter 1 on Eleanor' s childhood; chapter 2 on her first marriage, to William Marshall the Younger; chapters 3 and 4 on her first widowhood; chapters 5 through 8 covering her second marriage, to Simon of Montfort, and the baronial rebellion against Henry led by Simon; and chapter 9 on her second widowhood, this time as an exile in France. A picture emerges of a king who cared deeply for his youngest sister, abandoned at the age of two by her widowed and newly remarried mother and a royal princess who never seemed to have enough money to provide for her own living expenses. Through Eleanor' s childhood, first marriage, first widowhood, and the beginning of the second marriage, Henry attempted to provide financially for his sister, changing his mind only, Wilkinson argues, when Eleanor and Simon pushed him too far by asking for too much. Throughout, Wilkinson acknowledges the difficulties one encounters when trying to bring to light the life of a neglected historical figure, supplementing the meager documents left behind by the lady herself with letters and writs of King Henry as well as contemporary chronicles. With Henry' s documents, the reader can see the king's concern for his sister's well-being, but the reasons for Eleanor' s financial distress are unclear-was Eleanor just a poor manager of her estates or expenses, or were the estates in too poor a condition to provide adequately? We know that she did not get the full amount of dower owed from her first husband's estate, but those lands were not the entirety of her assets. Additionally, Wilkinson attempts to fill in remaining blanks with brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk
2017
Many historians have tackled the subjects of Eleanor of Aquitaine as well as the Angevin Empire. However, few have studied her role in the governance of the Plantagenet lands. This work is an attempt to remedy this situation through the study of Eleanor’s charters and letters during her time as Queen of England. Eleanor’s charters and letters demonstrate that she was a vital figure in the governance of the Angevin Empire as her husband Henry II and her sons Richard I and John I. The charters she issued during her early marriage to Henry II Plantagenet, from her ‘Court of Love’ in Poitou and imprisonment, and after Henry II’s death during the reigns of her sons, Richard I and John I will prove the important role she played in the Angevin Empire. The actions Eleanor took as Queen and the letters both to and from her during her marriage to Henry II will also support this argument.