Long Live Eleanor!
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
A NON-Forgotten Woman of France
822 years ago TODAY, Eleanor of Aquitaine died.
April 1st, 1204.
She's notable for many things - notably for being a two-time queen - first of France, then of England.
Long live Eleanor of Aquitaine!
Just about every time I tell someone I’m writing a musical about Eleanor of Provence, they say, “Oo, she was amazing! I love Eleanor of Aquitaine.”
No. Different Eleanor. But there were a lot of Queen Eleanors. Like there were a Whole Lotta Louis. Yes, I wrote that song.
And El of Aq. has been done! The Lion In Winter, folks! Katherine Hepburn - a must! Ah, she was a beauty...
Would Eleanor have gotten a chuckle that her death landed on April Fools’ Day?
No, because April Fools - known as Poisson d'Avril in France - didn’t become a thing here until 1564, when they switched to the Gregorian calendar.
Here's the Topline/Headlines on Eleanor of Aquitaine:
At 15, she inherits Aquitaine - equal to a huge chunk of modern-day France - which gives her a lot of wealth and clout.
She immediately marries King Louis VII of France. Who should have been a monk - literally. Eleanor is anything but that. Chalk and cheese from Day One.
Illustration in point: she helps create the ideal of Courtly Love, the poetry/song tradition that inspires brutish thugs to transform themselves into moral and adoring knights to their perfect ladies.
Fun Fact:
El introduced the fork
and the fitted bodice
to the French court
(brought up north from
her more-cultured Aquitaine)
She and Louis go on a Crusade together - where she and her handsome Uncle Raymond become, shall we say, “Close.” Louis is not happy.
She's been pushing for an annulment, but he refuses. He wants to keep her Aquitaine - which represents half of his kingdom.
Finally Louis gives in - largely because they have no sons. Gotta have that heir.
After 15 years of wedded un-bliss, they’re divorced. I mean annulled. She gets her Aquitaine back.
Out of the frying pan: she's likely to be kidnapped by “suitors,” so she gets Henry Plantagenet of England to marry her - within a speedy eight weeks (Is the ink dry on the divorce?)
Biggest burn ever?
She marries Louis's biggest rival,
"trades up" to a younger, more powerful king,
takes her massive territories with her to England -
AND
She and Henry have FIVE SONS.
So I guess the "no French heir thing"
wasn’t her fault.
HOWEVER, things don’t go well with Henry II either.
GUESS THE "NOT GETTING ALONG THING"
WASN'T ALL LOUIS'S FAULT.
She leads a revolt against Henry, turns his sons against him (cue “Lion In Winter”).
Henry locks her up for 16 years.
Finally, Henry dies and her son Richard the Lionhearted frees her. She rules England as his regent.
Eleanor should be an ad for the AARP. At age 77, she rides across the Pyrenees to Spain to pick out her granddaughter, Blanche of Castile, and bring her back to France to marry the future King (Louis VIII).
And that Blanche is the
b*tch of a mother-in-law
who makes the life my Queen
Marguérite de Provence hell!
At the ripe old age of 80, she holds a castle that is under siege until her son can arrive. AH! now I see the origin of "holding down the fort."
1204 - April 1st - she dies at the age of 82 at Fontevraud Abbey.
Which is a very cool monastery: one of the few co-ed ones where the head person is a woman. Another such monastery?
AMESBURY ABBEY - where guess who retires?
MY ELEANOR - OF PROVENCE
By the time Eleanor of Aquitaine dies, her descendants are sitting on the thrones of England, France, Castile, and Sicily.
LONG LIVE ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE!
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