Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine

7/6/2010

I first became interested in researching Eleanor of Aquitaine after seeing the play “The Lion in Winter” which depicted the turbulent marriage of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor states in the play that “I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus” in the Second Crusade. I immediately started to research her actual historical role in the Crusades, and found that statement to be based at least partially in fact. I was fascinated with her personage from that moment forward. Eleanor of Aquitaine was a woman far ahead of her time, willing to defy the rules set for women in the 12th century and break out of the restrictive mold in which she was cast to change the course of history in what we now know as Western Europe.

Eleanor was born in 1122 to William X who was the Duke of Aquitaine, Gascony, and Count of Poitou. One source describes the region “Aquitaine was like a separate nation with lands extending in southwestern France from the river Loire to the Pyrenees” (womeninworldhistory.com). Aquitaine was a fief rich in resources, wealth and called the “land of waters.” Eleanor’s grandfather was known as one of the first troubadours, or lyrical poets of France. William’s effort to integrate poetry and song into the French court greatly influenced Eleanor to patronize the arts later on in life. When Eleanor was a mere sixteen years of age, she was wed to Louis VII, who was seventeen in 1137. In truth, Eleanor’s lands were far more valuable than the future king and given the fact that both of her parents were recently deceased she also ruled these lands in her own right. Eleanor, from a very early age realized her immense power due to the priceless land holdings which she inherited. She was also a ravishing beauty, which greatly enhanced her already impressive standing in this era. According to legend “she was described as perpulchra- more than...