Guest Author - Christy English

During the week I finished reading my first historical novel from the Medieval period.   I was mesmerised by the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine's early life as told by Christy English in To Be Queen


Today I am honoured and delighted to share an article written by guest author Christy English.  Fascinating reading I am sure you will agree

 Eleanor of Aquitaine: Feudal Queen

Guest Post by Christy English

To Be Queen: A Novel of the Early Life of Eleanor of Aquitaine

Duchess at fifteen, Eleanor of Aquitaine marries the King of France.
But will she find that she must pay too high a price to be queen?

Although Louis VII is enamored of his bride, the newly crowned king is
easily manipulated by forces in the Church. Trapped in a loveless
marriage, Eleanor fights for her freedom and for the love of her life.
In the arms of Henry of Normandy, Eleanor may finally find the passion
she longs for, and the means to fulfill her legacy as Queen.

Who is Eleanor of Aquitaine? Though this medieval queen has dominated my life over the last five years as I have written both THE QUEEN’S PAWN and TO BE QUEEN, I have discovered when talking to people less obsessed with medieval history, that some do not know who she is. I have had a few people say, “Oh, Elizabeth I? The Armada Queen?” and others ask, “Oh, you mean Eleanor Roosevelt?” So since we can not assume that Eleanor of Aquitaine is the by-word for everyone that she is in my own life, I would like to talk a little about her here.

We do not know what day Eleanor of Aquitaine was born. Historians are not even certain of the year. I believe however that Eleanor was born in the year 1122. In the Middle Ages, the time when Eleanor lived, the countries of Europe that we are familiar with today did not exist in their current, centralized forms. The Kingdom of France, for example, was made up of duchies and counties held by dukes and counts, all vassals of the King in Paris. These vassals owed the King their allegiance, especially in times of war, but each county and duchy governed itself with its duke or count as its sole ruler.

The sole ruler of Aquitaine, where Eleanor was born, was her father, Duke William X. The Duchy of Aquitaine and all the lands controlled by it stretched from the borders of Burgundy and Toulouse in Eastern France to the Atlantic Ocean. The cities of Limoges, Poitiers, and Bordeaux were all under Eleanor’s father’s protection. And when Eleanor’s older brother died from a fever in 1130, Eleanor became Duke William’s undisputed heir.

Map of France from 1154

When her father died, Eleanor became Duchess of Aquitaine at the age of fifteen. She married King Louis VII of France, but their alliance produced only two living daughters. Eleanor was blamed for this, because at the time, the lack of a son was always considered to be the woman’s fault.

King Louis VII of France
Eleanor’s First Husband

In March of 1152, Eleanor and Louis were granted an annulment by the Pope in Rome.  Eleanor left the French court, with all her family’s holdings intact, because a clause in her marriage contract stated that her lands belonged not to Louis VII, but to their son. When Eleanor and Louis separated, she took her holdings with her. In modern parlance, we might say that her pre-nup held. Duchess of Aquitaine and Countess of Poitou still, in May 1152, Eleanor married Henry, the nineteen-year-old Duke of Normandy.

King Henry II of England

Eleanor’s Second Husband

Her marriage to Henry of Normandy was fruitful from the beginning. Eleanor had given birth to one son and was pregnant with a second by the time Henry became king of England in 1154. On December 19, 1154, Henry and Eleanor were crowned King and Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, the second royal crown Eleanor wore in her lifetime

King Richard the Lionhearted

Eleanor’s Favorite Son

Eleanor and Henry went on to have eight living children, three of whom, Henry the Younger, Richard the Lionhearted, and Prince John, all became Kings of England. Eleanor saw three of her sons crowned, and lived to the age of 82. For the last few years of her life, Eleanor retired to the nunnery her family had founded at the Abbey of Fontevrault, where she died on April 1, 1204

Dizzy C, thank you so much for hosting me today.  For those who want to know more about my adventures with Eleanor of Aquitaine, readers can find me on my blog at http://www.ChristyEnglish.com and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/ChristyEnglish

Photos by kind permission of Christy English