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Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England by Alison Weir
Book Type: Paperback
Published: 10 January 2008
Publisher: Vintage
RRP:£8.99
Best Discount: £2.00 (22%)
Cheapest price: £6.99
Prices last checked: 17/11/2008 19:01:12
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Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England by Alison Weir
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Review:
Eleanor of Aquitaine was the queen of Louis VII of France and later Henry II of England. she was the mother of two English kings, Richard the Lionheart and John. France and England fought for many years over her vast French estates.
Eleanor was one of the most fable women of the Middle Ages and also one of the more controversial.
Beautiful, wilful, strong, intelligent, passionate and a famed lover. Much scandal was attached to her name, much of it with more than a little substance.
She seems to have had more than a few paramours while married to both kings, including Geoffrey of Anjou, father to her second husband, Henry II of England, while she was still married to Louis VI of France.
She was a great patron of troubadour poetry, inspiring some great and passionately expressed ballads.
she lived to be 82 but it was only towards the end of her life that she overcame the adversities and tragedies of her earlier years and became the de facto ruler of England.
The nuns of Fontrevault recorded in their necrology a glowing but conventional tribute to their late patroness, who had been a paragon among women and 'illuminated the world with the brilliance of her royal progeny, She graced the nobility of her birth with the honesty of her life, enriched it with her royal excellence, and adorned it with the flowers of her virtues, and her renown fr unmatched goodness she surpassed almost all the queens of the world'.
Sadly it was often the scandals associated with her youth, and not the wisdom of her stewardship of England during the reign of her sons that is remembered. Yet many ballads and stories have been attached to her name in the 800 years following her passing.
this was written in all sincerity because they knew her in her venerable old age.
We learn much of the role of women in Medieval nobility. In Eleanor's day, women were supposed to be chaste both inside and outside marriage, virginity and chastity being highly prized states. When it came to fornication women were usually apportioned the blame because they were descendants of Eve who had tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden. Promiscuity and brought great shame upon a women, including fines, social ostracism, and even in the case of royal and aristocratic women, execution. Women who engaged in sexual activity prior to marriage devalued themselves on the marriage market as no one wanted to 'buy' what they regarded as 'soiled goods'.
Such archaic and narrow minded views of women have for the most part withered away in Western society today but remain the order in Islamic societies.
Incarcerated and restricted during the reign of her husband Henry II, she played a powerful role under Richard and John, exhorting the Pope to see that Richard was freed while being held prisoner by the Duke of Austria and opposing the destructive power of Bishop William Longchamp of Ely. during Richard's reign, while Prince John acted as regent, while Richard was away on the crusades.
We learn oft he crusades, one of which Eleanor herself went on with Henry II, not long after their marriage, causing much scandal along the way, and engaging in conflict with her king, due to the scandals around her activities, while witnessing the great events of the crusade across Europe and the battles fought between the Crusaders and Muslims in the Holy Land.
I don't think that this book was at all dull or 'text booky'.
On the contrary it teaches the reader a great deal about the life and times of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and her husbands and children, while reading smoothly and interestedly like a novel. It marvelously brings the life of Eleanor to vividity, and the times she lived in to life, exploring a wide range of emotions, feelings, colours an sounds, while always making clear what is fact and what is unknown, legend or myth.
The author does not hesitate from strongly expressing her own opinions but on the other hand is honest about the grey areas where there is indeed no clear answer.
A difficult thing to do for a non fiction history, but one that clearly marks one
It is filled with many interesting facts and legends, which the author is clear to distinguish.
For example the author refutes the myth that Eleanor had Henry II's mistress Rosamund Clifford, and also does not give credence to Eleanor having presided over the fabled Courts of Love.
She also refutes the rumours that Richard I was a homosexual.
This narrative is highly readable, an account of a fascinating and strong-willed women and queen.
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