Eleanor of Aquitaine - Mother of Kings Documentary

[Music] it is the 21st of March 1152 on the banks of the river Loire for Archbishop's of France gather at the royal castle of potency and with the reluctant approval of the Pope annul a king's marriage on the grounds of consanguinity eleanor of aquitaine the divorcee for King Luiza 7 travels to Parthia but is soon accosted by two Lords who attempt to kidnap and forcibly marry her in order to claim her lens but she escapes on horseback and only eight weeks after the annulment in the 18th of May 1152 paranor stands at the altar once more this time beside a man of her own choosing Henry of Anjou the future king henry ii of england [Music] the woman known to history as eleanor of aquitaine was born in or around 1122 ad in the western french city of poitiers Eleanor's father William the 10th Duke of Aquitaine in Gascony and count of Ponte was the son of the first troubadour or French lyricist or poet William the knight the Duke of Aquitaine her father William the tenth is known today as William the saint due to his untimely death whilst on pilgrimage in Santiago de Compostela in Spain in 1137 an event that would set about a chain of events which would catapult his daughter on to the center stage of European power politics eleanor was originally named early in all after her mother a noir digital era from the Latin meaning the other a noir but her name became adulterated to Elinor because of the dialect of northern France at the time Amazon or Mary Duke William the tenth in 1121 and was the daughter of a Marie the first Deroche for cold by count of chatelherault whose wife by countess taja rose de Lille Bouchard was also the mistress of William the ninth Duke of Aquitaine meaning that Eleanor's maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather were lovers her grandfather William the ninth Duke of Aquitaine was somewhat of a romantic as a true battle or medieval French poet he would have composed ballads or songs that portrayed an idealized view of womanhood which are among the earliest romantic artistic works in existence and they would influence the lives of many of Williams descendants but his romantic nature was perhaps best exemplified by his kidnapping of his supposedly willing victim by countess Tanja ruse and his installation of her in a morphing york tower of his castle in 48 marched to his wife's consternation he is even sent to have painted an image of her on his shield and so eleanor was born into a family dominated by position intrigue sex and power and as the Duchess of Aquitaine she would have been probably the most eligible bride in Europe it is also true that she would have enjoyed a life of luxury and refinement given her father's wealth and status meaning that she would have been given the best education money can buy from the finest scholars clergymen and tutors France had to offer accounts claim that Eleanor's father ensured she was afforded lessons in a myriad of subjects and disciplines including mathematics astronomy Latin as well as history literature must also learning what at the time were considered more feminine skills health keeping a needlework sewing spinning and weaving as well as this she was also taught to play backgammon checkers and chess she also danced and played musical instruments such as the harp and it is also said of her that she was extremely confident intelligent and willful despite possessing these qualities Eleanor's life as was common for daughters of noblemen was destined to be shaped by marriage in motherhood and as she was the eldest of her parents three children the others being her brother William and her younger sister petronella Eleanor's future would have been determined from an early age and would have entailed a marriage into a high ranking noble family however as was common in medieval Europe the child mortality rate was high even in families of noble birth therefore when her younger brother William died at the age of four in 1130 when young eleanor was only eight she became the heir to her father's lands and titles which meant that her future husbands were more likely to be monarchs than magnates as her mother had died in the same year as her brother in 1130 the prospect of her aging father marrying or producing another heir was made even less likely and so when Duke William finally died in 1137 in accordance with her father's wishes eleanor was placed under the protection of the king of france louisa sex who acted as her guardian although Louie was a noted monarch the French crown at this time was not nearly as powerful as it would become in the late medieval era largely because of the sheer power and autonomy of the various dukedoms such as Burgundy Normandy and Aquitaine that rivaled the French Kingdom itself the origins of the Duchy of Aquitaine thanks for the time of the Roman Empire when it was known as a quite a me a prime er and would later be ruled by the Visigoths and then the Franks who formed the territory into a Duchy which had remained until 852 ad when Eleanor's ancestors were granted the title of Dukes of Aquitaine although it remained a fiefdom as it had been granted to Eleanor's family by the kings of France and returned for their services in homage the Duchy of Aquitaine at its greatest extent consisted of the Southwest culture of modern-day France making it the largest and arguably the richest of the French dukedoms essentially meaning that whoever controlled it would hold the balance of power in northwestern Europe and it was this colossal and priceless inheritance and was given to Eleanor in 1137 effectively making her at the tender age of 15 the most sought-after and desirable woman in Europe King Louie the sex who now had Eleanor under his protection devised a plan to marry the young heiress to his son Louie the younger the future Louie the seventh however the only sticking point from the French king's perspective was that the condition for Eleanor to inherit her father's lands and titles in Aquitaine was that she must retain control over the Duchy until her children with Louis came of age when the Duchy would be united with France Prince Louie himself had not always been the heir to the French throne as his older brother Philip had died in 1131 when his horse tripped over a black pig that darted out of a dung heap in Paris resulting in the fifteen-year-old Prince being thrown violently over the horse's head and onto the ground where he received crippling and ultimately fatal injuries on impact as he passed away a day later because Louie was the spare to the air he was not afforded the kingly education that his brother enjoyed as at the time of his elder siblings death he was preparing to embark on a pious life of religion however almost immediately after the King's eldest born had been laid to rest Louie's father made him co-regent and the young prince's religious upbringing would go on to shape his character as would his marriage to the young Eleanor a clue to the reason why Louie the Cinque made both his sons Regent in quick succession can perhaps be found in his nickname Louie the fat and in 1137 the Kings declining health was further compounded by him contracting dysentery which prompted him to dispatch his son to Aquitaine along with 500 heavily armed Knights we're on the 25th of July Eleanor married young Louie in a Cathedral of sound ray in Bordeaux who would only one week later become King Louie the seventh of France it was customary for couples from noble families at the time to exchange wedding gifts to further seal their union but Eleanor honored this custom by giving her new husband a rock crystal vase that she had been given by her troubadour grandfather William the Knights and amazingly the artifact is still in existence today as it is kept in a Louvre museum in Paris and is widely considered to be the only surviving object that we know for certain belongs to Eleanor after their marriage both Louis and Eleanor traveled to Portier the capital of Aquitaine where they were confirmed as Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine on the 8th of August 1137 but the festivities were short-lived as word soon reached the couple that the king of France Louis a sink and succumbed to his dysentery and so both Louis and his new bride immediately wrote to Paris where they were crowned king and queen consort on Christmas Day 11:37 it is evident that Eleanor not only possessed fierce intelligence that was also captivating Lea beautiful and our accounts which think that the young king soon became besotted with his wife who in turn quickly gained a reputation with the king's family as well as France's clergy and nobility as being something of a troublemaker influence as she would wear revealing clothing and supposedly acted in improper manner that was unbecoming of a woman of her status this hostility towards Eleanor was largely due to the fact that she was an outsider who had been raised in no small part due to her grandfather William denied this influence in the more liberal secular fashion whilst the Parisians on the other hand were more traditional and conservative and it is possible that Eleanor knew that her status in France depended on the good favour of the king thus she may have sought to exploit the pious young Louise naivety by bewitching him with her womanly charms which evidently were considerable even at an early age moreover the advantage of Eleanor's beauty and charm was seen almost instantly much to the annoyance of the French Court as the formerly reserved young man began to lavish his queen with hundreds of expensive gifts presumably in an effort to please his new wife indeed further evidence of Eleanor's supposed grip over the French King came one year after their wedding when lui along with the small army put down a rebellion near Ponte and three years later undertook a campaign to capture Toulouse which Elinor laid claim to through her paternal grandmother Philippa though there is no evidence to suggest that Louis undertook these campaigns at his wife's insistence it is certain that any campaign in Aquitaine or Toulouse would at the very least have concerned her and what we also know for certain is that Eleanor's arrival at the French Court did cause some intrigue as her sister the fifteen-year-old petronella who had relocated to Paris with a Lenore began an affair with the fifty year old cousin of the king Raoul the first of thurmond wah the couple soon made a public declaration that they intended to marry despite the fact that Raoul was already married to Eleanor of champagne me Sofia bawled the second count of champagne however the Queen once again used her influence over the king to have Raoul in Eleanor's marriage annulled on grounds that they were too closely related and so petronella Raoul were then married in 1140 to understandably this union greatly angered the count of champagne who appealed to the van Pope Innocent ii who declared that Raul's marriage to petronella was in turn invalid meaning that both now faced excommunication as a result King Louie who had previously quarreled with the Pope of the archbishopric a Porsche was in no mood to back down and so marched on champagne with an army and assaulted its then capital b-tree which in quick order was burnt to ashes as were around 1,000 of the city's inhabitants who had taken refuge in a church Louie was greatly affected by the agonizing deaths of so many civilians and according to accounts pleaded to undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sins but despite the Kings apparent sorrow the war against champagne would go on for two more years until peace was finally agreed with the assistance of the French abbot Bernard of Clairvaux who in a private meeting with Elinor promised that God would grant her children if she ceased to be a negative influence over her husband this eventually had the desired effect as both Elinor and her husband soon backed down when Louie agreed to return Theobald's captured lands to him and also agreed to cease his opposition to the Pope's choice for the archbishopric of borsch whilst Raul and petronella remained excommunicated until Pope Innocent the second death in 1140 for the Eleanor however the church's blessing seemed to have paid dividends as she gave birth to a daughter named Marie in 11:45 who would go on to marry Theobald the second the count of champagnes son Henry in 1164 and as well as this the Queen then gave birth to a second daughter in 1151 named Alex but she and her husband were never to be blessed with a son which was a fact that would fuel their later division this episode which had seen Eleanor and her sister spark a full-scale war within France demonstrates the power and influence they had acquired over the French King but even a monarch as powerful as Louis could not fight for long against his own Nobles and the might of the Catholic Church and so when soon afterwards the king who were still wracked with guilt and the burning of civilians at v3 was asked by the new pope Eugene the third to lead a crusade against the Saracens in the Holy Land Louie could hardly say no and so on Christmas Day 11:45 in Porsche Cathedral the king made it known that he intended to take the cross and set sail for the Middle East Alan or true to character also took the cross alongside her husband the reasons for which are still debated today are some historians suggest that Louis could not bear to leave his beautiful bride whilst others state that it was Eleanor herself who planted the idea of taking the cross in her husband's mind a possible reason for which may lie in the fact that her father's brother Raymond of Poitier's was the leader or Prince of the Principality of Antioch which was one of the Christian Crusader kingdoms that have been established after the First Crusade in 1098 another possible reason that Louie allowed Eleanor to accompany him on crusade could be that her doing so ensured the backing of the Duchy of Aquitaine as Eleanor subordinate magnates provided troops for the campaign whilst her presence would have inevitably meant that the French King also received financial backing from his wife's Duchy the king his wife and their army of fellow Crusaders then set out from France in June of 1147 and across Western and then Eastern Europe towards the Byzantine Empire where they were received with suspicion by the then Emperor Manuel the first colonists also known as Manuel porphyra Genesis or born into purple who fade what the influx of hordes of Westerners might do to his empire whilst the Crusaders in turn viewed the Byzantines as decadent and reliable Christians despite this hostility Eleanor herself seemed to have made a considerable impression on the Byzantines that were clearly not used to being confronted with a woman of the French Queens power in confidence as they later portrayed her in accounts as a warrior queen who rode horses in the male fashion at the head of her Crusader army this interest in the French queen seems to have also been reciprocated and so the Crusader stayed for over a fortnight in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople but then received a message that Conrad the third of Germany had secured a great victory against the Turks and not wanting to miss out on the glory Louie in his Queens and followed been upon entering Anatolia found that the message informing them of Conrad's victory was false and that the German King had actually been defeated by the Seljuk Turks judging that they had come too far to turn back the French Crusaders joined with Conrad's much reduced force and headed further into the hinterland of Anatolia towards Antioch for their journey there was leading them over the hilly and mountainous terrain of Asia Minor who had proved to be as difficult for the French as it had been for the Germans after crossing into Anatolia the Crusaders headed south over the Phrygian mountains and whilst approaching the summit of mount Cadmus on the 6th of January 11:48 loi ordered his Vanguard to halt and make camp but it's commanders one of whom was Eleanor's vassal Geoffrey de Ronco decided to continue into the following Valley which stretched the Crusaders line of advance considerably and made it vulnerable to attack the Seljuk blow then fell in the middle of the Crusader horse that effectively chopped it in two resulting in part of the Christian baggage-train being either destroyed or captured in the following route in which many hundreds of Crusaders and unarmed pilgrims were slain as they retreated back down the narrow passes or fell to their deaths in the deep ravines later Eleanor would be blamed for this defeat by chroniclers in what is now known as the Battle of mount Cadmus as some claim that she gave rank on the order for the Crusader Vanguard to march on whilst other state that her baggage train slowed the Crusader falls down but it should be noted that there is no concrete evidence to suggest where Eleanor was during this incident although women being blamed for male deficiencies or mistakes at the time is not uncommon over the coming days the tacks mounted more raids on the Crusaders as a traverse the Anatolian mountains and eventually loi was forced to abandon the majority of his force and proceed to the Holy Land by ship which effectively consigned those left behind to death from exposure starvation will by the Seljuk Turks themselves the king and Eleanor finally arrived in the city of Antioch in March of 11:48 where they were greeted by Eleanor's uncle Raymond of party but it soon became evident that all was not well between the French King and his wife as lui being eager to fulfill his pilgrimage wanted to continue onwards to Jerusalem whilst Raymond requested that the French King should aid his siege of Aleppo about 40 miles to the east of Antioch Eleanor in turn spent many hours in private conversations with her uncle for unknown reasons some say she was seeking Raymond's advice last other state he was attempting to win her support for his war against the Muslims while some chroniclers even accused Raymond and Elinor of starting an incestuous affair but modern historians believe this to be false as Eleanor had been close to her uncle since childhood as well as this the Queen and lui continued to share a bed together after this period which suggests that the French King had no such suspicions it must be remembered that rumors of Eleanor's promiscuity abounded both during her life and following her death with one 13th century minstrel even claiming that Eleanor had an affair with Saladin when on crusade however this story along with many others concerning Eleanor has no grounding in historical fact and simply reflects the fascination that surrounded Eleanor as a powerful medieval woman and the many attempts that were made to both denigrate and mythologize her and her legacy whatever the purpose of Eleanor's conversation with her uncle they seem to have resulted in her turning against her husband as despite Raymond's requests for help Louis decided to carry on to Jerusalem whilst the Queen insisted on remaining in Antioch with her uncle indeed her involved with Raymond was a sign that Eleanor had grown tired and disappointed with her marriage to Louis and the French King in turn was upset and jealous over Raymond in Eleanor's close relationship the Kings insistence that Eleanor accompany him to the Holy Land led her to propose what she had been considering for some time annulment and so Eleanor proposed annulment on the grounds of consanguinity as she and Louie were fairly closely related by blood and consanguinity was common grounds for annulment during the medieval period and was an effective tool for divorce for the nobility as the vast majority of noble couples at this time were related to each other in some way Louie was devastated by his wife's proposal and forcibly removed her from Antioch and marched on with his army to the Holy Land and in May 11:48 the Crusaders finally reached the holy city of Jerusalem where they were welcomed by a juvenile out which included the patriarch of Jerusalem and the Emperor Conrad after finishing his pilgrimage with prayer at Jerusalem's holy sites Virgie himself of his sins Louie embarked on a siege of Damascus however this ended within four days on the 28th of July with failure and retreat and as French resources were by now running low as was morale and as autumn was approaching the army began to disintegrate as men either demanded to go home who deserted there is very little mention of Eleanor's activities during the 11 months she spent in Jerusalem suggesting that she was still in disgrace and the relationship between her and the French King was steadily worsening and as was typical with Eleanor's life there arose numerous legends of her activities in the Holy Land including one which suggested that she brought back silkworms from the Middle East and introduced them to Aquitaine after celebrating the Easter of 11:49 in Jerusalem Eleanor and Louis departed by ship towards Italy but during this journey the royal ships were attacked by a Byzantine fleet intent on capturing the couple and after narrowly escaping the ships of Louis in Eleanor were then separated by a violin storm Eleanor's whereabouts remained unknown for two months until her ship was finally brought to port at Palermo in Sicily and where she was during that two-month period remains a mystery to this day the king and queen were finally reunited in Calabria in the late summer of 11:49 but Eleanor's relief were soon dissipated by news that on the 29th of june raymond of antioch had been killed and decapitated by Muslim forces greatly bereaved Eleanor now set off with her husband north towards Rome where Pope Eugenius the third had invited the Royals to stay in his palace at Tusculum just south of the city both Louis and Eleanor separately confided in the Pope about their marital problems during their visit for two genius adamantly refused to consider an annulment rather he blessed the marriage and commanded that it should not be dissolved under any pretext whatever even encouraging the couple to sleep in the same bed when residing with him on November the 11th Louie and Eleanor at last returned to Paris after an absence of over two years and although they were received by demonstrations of joy there was underlying discontent pervading France at the ignominious failure of the crusade with the plane being laid primarily at Louise an especially Eleanor's door heightening the discontent with eleanor of aquitaine among the French elite Louie and Eleanor's already tense marriage was irreparable II broken by the birth of their second child in the latter half of 1150 as the arrival of another daughter was a bitter disappointment to Louie who approaching the age of 30 craved a male heir to succeed him in the Capetian Royal line indeed he took the birth as a sign that God did not approve of his marriage and that Eleanor had been right to call its validity into question this view was shared by the Barons of France who encouraged Louis to divorce Eleanor and marry someone less controversial and powerful who could deliver in sons and so finally recognizing that the marriage was doomed Louie agreed to initiate proceedings of an annulment in late 1151 and on the 21st of March 1152 or Archbishop's of France gathered at the royal castle of Bojan see on the Loire River and with the reluctant approval of the Pope annulled Eleanor's marriage on the grounds of consanguinity the divorce had immense consequences not just for Eleanor but for the future of the European balance of power as by renouncing his marriage the King of France had also renounced more than half of his domains and this would lead to a disastrous disturbance of the balance of power in France precipitating 300 years of conflict with England following her divorce Eleanor had instantly become the most coveted and sought after woman in Western Europe so much so that as she made her way back to plenty a she twice avoided abduction from would-be suitors but nevertheless eleanor already knew who she was to marry indeed it was likely she knew well before her divorce from Louis as only eight weeks after the annulment eleanor was again standing at the altar this time beside Henry of Anjou the future king henry ii of england eleanor first met Henry in Paris in 1151 and though she was 11 years his senior they were attracted to one another and perhaps more importantly both Eleanor and Henry would receive immense political gains from the marriage has at this time Henry's lands included the northern French provinces of Anshu in Normandy and after the crafting of an agreement with King Stephen of England in late 1153 whom he had been fighting for the English crown Henry who was the grandson of King Henry the first would be heir to the throne of England as well as this Henry's personal courage political talents and immense power resonated with Eleanor's ambition for influence after arriving in poitiers Eleanor sent envoys to Henry requesting marriage then summoned the chief vassals of her lungs to renew their allegiance to her and to approve her choice of husband and so on the 18th of May 1152 Eleanor and Henry were married in the Cathedral of San Pierre in put yet much to the fury of Louis the seventh who already regarded Henry as his foremost enemy with his holding of Normandy and attempts to gain the English throne and the addition of Eleanor's considerable province which more than doubled n Rees Holdings in France left Louis extremely vulnerable on the continent the speed with which Eleanor remarried and the fact that Henry was Louise our tribal left the French King greatly stung by Eleanor's actions nevertheless Eleanor did not simply want to see Henry's lands and power increase at Louise expense rather as an ambitious woman she wished to expand her own power and influence and by siding with Henry Eleanor believed she had put herself in the best situation to wield control over a larger swathe of Western Europe little is known about the state of the marriage before 1173 but it is likely that what was to become one of the most turbulent royal marriages in history began well as Eleanor and Henry had plenty in common such as their forceful ambitious personalities and high levels of energy and intelligence nevertheless Henry was determined to be the dominant partner and expected Eleanor to be submissive to his will even if she was allowed a certain degree of autonomy over the ruling of her own lands she was not to interfere political affairs of state over the course of their marriage Eleanor bore eight children five sons William Henry Richard Geoffrey and John however William died at the age of three whilst Richard who had come to be known as the Lionheart and John would both inherit the English crown the daughters were named Matilda Eleanor and Joan and they would go on to marry some of the most powerful men in Europe including Henry the lion Duke of Saxony and Bavaria Alphonso the eighth king of Castile and William the second king of Sicily and so Eleanor's unofficial title as the first grandmother of Europe is therefore well deserved in January 11 53 after he and Eleanor had completed a tour of Aquitaine and reset sail for England at the head of an invasion force intent on bringing King Stephen to submission and seizing the English crown and after months of successful skirmishing during which Henry took many English towns and castles and cemented a reputation for bravery and military skill many English barons and bishops urged the leaders to negotiate and after the death of his eldest son Eustace on the 17th of August King Stephen agreed and in a November peace conference he accepted Henry's hereditary right to the throne and agreed to recognize him as his heir whilst in return henry conceded that stephen would rule England until his death Henry did not have long to wait as on the 25th of October 1150 for King Stephen died and on the 7th of December Henry and Eleanor set sail for England to take possession of their new Kingdom being crowned on the 19th of that month after being received by a jubilant London crowd who hailed the new royal couple as peacemakers come to restore order after the many disturbances and Wars that had characterized the reign of King Stephen and so began the reign of the first Plantagenet King and Queen of England whose house would rule England for the next 330 years though Henry rapidly established his authority over England implementing legal reforms and consolidating his power he found his Continental Holdings much more difficult to govern particularly Aquitaine whose nobles were hostile to outsiders and the region remained in a state of almost constant revolt against Henry and recognized only Elinor as possessing dominion over the province meaning that the Queen was able to exercise strong personal management of her hereditary lands furthermore though Henry ensured he possessed complete control over the most important matters of state during the reigns early years Eleanor acted as regent of England on the numerous occasions when Henry was away on the continent dealing with routine business of state implementing and approving the acts of Ministers and touring and arbitrating in disputes across the country as Queen and as a pious woman eleanor was a great benefactor of religious institutions funding the building and restoration of churches Abbey's and cathedrals in Porto and Aquitaine as well as the Abbey of Fontevraud which benefited most from Eleanor's patronage as under her influence the religious order of the Abbey based on the border between plot2 and Aquitaine grew in influence and prestige and it was hare de belem all spent her final years and was buried alongside Henry in 1168 Elinor took a permanent residence in Poitier establishing her court in the city along with her favorite son Richard and although it was Elinor that initiated this separation from Henry the king approved of it and was not upset or disturbed by the Queen's move as having dealt with a large aquitanian revolt in the spring of 1168 Henry thought Eleanor's presence would help quell the province of Aquitaine whose nobles were still fiercely loyal to their Duchess there is much debate as to why Elinor wanted to move away from Henry 248 the marriage had by now certainly gone stale partially due to Henry's frequent and public affairs and at 46 having born eight children it is possible that Elinor believed she had done her duty within the marriage and no longer wanted to take an active part in it furthermore living in her own lands with a relative degree of autonomy allowed Elinor to exercise greater power than when she was with Henry whose domineering personality constrained her desire for an influence from 1168 to 1173 Elinor held a court appoint a that has become legendary as the so called court of love where chivalric romance was prominent and the medieval lyrical poetry of the troubadours flourished under Elinor's patronage indeed the idea of courtly love the conventional medieval tradition of love between a chivalrous Knight and a noblewoman in many ways sprung from the legends surrounding Eleanor's court it is true that Elinor did attract troubadours to her court through her patronage of their work and the Queen herself was often mentioned in the poems of the troubadours of southwestern France at the time described admiringly as an elegant and noble woman however like so much of the story surrounding the life of Elinor a court of love was almost certainly a myth a literary conceit concocted by Andreas Kappa larnice a chaplain at the court of tois as between 1174 and 1196 after Eleanor's court had been dismantled andreas wrote the art of courtly love in which he describes elinor along with her daughter Marie as presiding over a tribunal that made judgment on intellectual disputes courtly love despite these writings there is no real evidence for this court of love in any contemporary sources furthermore there is no evidence that Murray ever visited Eleonora Poitier thus Eleanor's appearance in Andreas's work owes far more to her European reputation than her actions indeed Eleanor's colt was a very pious household frequented by chaplains and often taking part in communal worship whilst eleanor was at port here pressure was growing on King Henry's rule from his eldest son Henry and with the Treaty of memorial in January 11 69 the King divided his vast inheritance between his three eldest sons Henry receiving England Normandy and Anjou Richard receiving Aquitaine and Geoffrey gaining Brittany and furthermore Henry was prematurely crowned as king of England in June 1170 in anticipation of his succession and was dubbed the young king nevertheless the young king took after his father in his Restless desire for power his vanity and his face temper and having grown up spoilt by his parents Henry found his position of having titles yet no power infuriating and in his anger a rift began to grow between the young king and his father who refused to cede any political power to his son furthermore King Henry was increasingly isolated politically primarily due to the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket in December 1170 by four of Henry's knights an act which Henry had not explicitly ordered and deeply regretted yet one in which he was still implicated and which shocked Christian Europe and caused great anger toward the English King from across the continent Beckett's murder was another factor which drove Eleanor and Henry further apart as she was angry at Henry for the incident and after living separately for five years in 1173 eleanor was firmly on the site of her son's and as the split between her husband and her offspring who were demanding autonomy over their promised lands grew in deed Eleanor did not just oppose a king for her son's sake as she had substantial control over her children and knew that the more power they gained the more political influence she herself would gain Henry was also coming under growing pressure from his vassals especially in Puerto and Aquitaine who resented his heavy-handed imposition of authority and dictatorial governance and after Henry's dramatic loss of international prestige following the murder of Becket they sensed an opportunity to overthrow the authority of the English king and they're growing rebellious Ness was encouraged by Eleanor and her three eldest sons as well as King Louie who relished a chance to undermine the might of Henry's continental Empire the stage was the set for the most dangerous rebellion ever to confront Henry the second and although Eleanor's precise role in the build-up to the uprising is not certain it is clear that she was a key player in helping to form the hostile coalition that confronted the English King in 1173 in March of the same year the young King escaped from his father and fled to Paris where he and King Louie pledged to assist each other against their common enemy and so many of henry ii vassals declared their support for the young king and Elinor soon sent his younger brothers Richard and Geoffrey to Paris to join him in revolt whilst encouraging the Lords of her southern lands to rise up in support of the rebellion fearing for her safety in pointier Eleanor left for Paris sometime between the end of March and the beginning of May 1173 but on her journey the Queen was captured by man in Henry's pay and sent to his castle in Rome as for the King this was an extremely bitter betrayal and he had Eleanor confined as his prisoner contemporary chroniclers were unanimous in condemning Eleanor's treachery as her actions violated every medieval concept of the duties and loyalties of a wife indeed whilst sons rebelling against fathers were fairly common in this period it was virtually unheard of for a queen to rebel against her husband the rebellion of 1173 to 1174 saw little open warfare however many castles were besieged the lands ravaged as three suns and the King of France used scorched earth tactics to decimates waves of the king of England's territory nevertheless despite the power of their coalition the young king and Louis were unable to effectively organize the divided rebel groups into a cohesive force but Henry did retain the support of the church as well as the vast majority of the English who feared invasion and instability above all and gave Henry considerable financial and military support the summer of 1173 saw Henry fight tirelessly across his lands to suppress the rebellion and after a winter low the spring of 1174 saw fighting break out again in force but then the rebels lack of unity and Henry's ceaseless energy saw the revolts begin to erode a key moment coming when the invasion of England by William the lion king of the Scots was repulsed and the King captured by Henry's troops led by Randolph degan ville in the summer of 1174 leading to the English rebels suing for peace that July and William acknowledging Henry as his feudal overlord face forced Louie and the young King to call off their planned invasion of England and when their attack on Rouen in August ended in retreat back to Paris in the face of Henry's advance the rebellion was virtually at an end and for Henry this was a glorious and skillful victory against overwhelming odds and it restored his international reputation from the tarnish it had received with the death of st. Thomas Becket the outcome of these events was that a peace was reached on the 30th of September between Henry and his sons Batman Louie the King generously giving money and castles to his remorseful sons but not ceding any political power indeed there was to be no savage retribution rather Henry proclaimed a general amnesty for all those who had risen up against him all that is save his Queen after traveling to England with Henry on the 8th of July 1174 Eleanor was made a prisoner and for the remainder of Henry's life until 1189 she would remain in captivity by order of the King permitted only limited contact with her children the King dealt with Eleanor so discreetly that very little is known about her life during these years as a prisoner but she resided mostly at Winchester castle and in the early years of her captivity her allowance was meager although he did become more substantial during the 1180s and although eleanor lived in fairly luxurious surroundings the king ensured she was completely cut off from the outside world as he had first-hand proof of how dangerous Eleanor could be to his power when allowed freedom during this time the King enjoyed many years of peace throughout his realm but this was shattered once again by the antics of Henry sons as in the early 1180 s Richard's harsh suppression of rebellious barons and the ruthless enforcement of his authority in entertain which he effectively ruled in Eleanor's absence caused his bitter vassals to look to the young king to challenge Richard and so the impetuous young Henry jealous of his brothers autonomy over his lands joined with the Barons of Aquitaine and invaded Richard's territory in 1182 after this the young Kings anger soon turned once again to his father demanding greater power in furious outbursts to the king and when henry ii stopped his son's allowance the young king formed a mercenary band and raided and looted territories throughout southern france however in June of 1183 the young king fell violently ill with dysentery and died at the age of 28 leaving the king overcome with grief even though he was now more secure in his rule after the shock death of the young king from the late summer of 1183 eleanor was allowed greater freedom resuming her place as queen and occasionally appearing at henry side in public but there were no obvious signs that the couple's personal estrangement had ended by 1189 henry had reached the age of 56 and although 12 years younger than Eleanor a lifetime of relentless activity had left him suffering from numerous health problems including a bleeding ulcer and only six years after the loss of young Henry after hearing that his son John had sided with Richard in conflict against his father the King died on the 6th of July 11 89 in his castle at Shima and was buried in the nearby Fontevraud Abbey and so Richard the first was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey on the 3rd of September 11 89 following his father's death in front of an enthusiastic gathering and one of his first acts as king was to formally order the release of Queen Elinor from captivity maybe despite having been a prisoner for 15 years Elinor emerged with ferocity onto the European political scene at the age of 67 and for the remaining 15 years of her life would play a greater and more influential political role than ever before as the Queen was able to exert far more influence over her children than she did over her late husband with Richard in Aquitaine Helen all set about drumming up support for her son in England a country that Richard had barely visited and so upon traveling to Westminster the Queen received ODEs of loyalty from the Lords of England on behalf of the king and in addition Eleanor passed a host of laws in an attempt to endear the English people to their new king including ordering the release of vassals who had rebelled against henry ii the 31 year old richard sailed to Portsmouth on the 13th of August where thanks largely to Eleanor's efforts he was greeted with great public enthusiasm but richard the lionheart who spoke no english had very little interest in administering his new domain rather he immediately threw himself into preparing for the project that had dominated his imagination since he took the cross as a counter Ponthieu in 1187 that being the third crusade on the 2nd of october 1187 the turks led by their brilliant military commander Saladin had occupied Jerusalem and massacred the Knights Templar causing the leaders of Western Europe led by Pope Urban the third to rally for a new crusade and after implementing heavy and unpopular taxes on the English people as well as the nobility to pay for his supplies Richard departed from England in December 1189 to make his way to the Holy Land and in his absence he left Eleanor unofficially in charge of the English government her imprisonment had made Eleanor increasingly pious and wise yet a tenacious energy and will had not been eroded in the slightest and in Richards absence she transacted the business of state using her own seal on official documents demonstrating the qualities of a benevolent and statesman like ruler and greatly impressing contemporary chronicler Eleanor also had to deal with the intrigues of Richards younger brother John who furious at Richard's intention to name his four-year-old nephew Arthur of Brittany as his heir traveled up and down England in an attempt to gain support amongst the English in addition philip ii of france had left the crusade due to illness and upon his return to france in 1191 Elinor realized that the King presented another threat to Richard's authority in Europe and after John and Philip formed an alliance in early 1191 the Queen spent considerable time and energy for ting the intrigues of the two princes during Richard's absence eleanor ordered the reinforcements of all castles guarding the border between Richards Empire and Philips France at upon hearing in February 1192 the John was preparing to cross the channel with an army to join with Philip Eleanor travelled to England from Normandy to stop him and after making every English magnates where a new oath of fealty to Richard Eleanor threatened to confiscate John's castles at estates if he defied her and he backed down however as the Crusaders began arriving home in the winter of 1192 having won victories but failed to recapture Jerusalem there was no sign of Richard then in January 11 93 eleanor received a letter from the holy roman emperor henry the sink stating that Richard had been captured by the Emperor's cousin Duke Leopold of Austria whom he had offended whilst on crusade Leopold's Overlord Henry the sink was a ruthless man who was an enemy of the Plantagenets after henry ii had supported his great rival henry the lion duke of saxony and after taking control of the prisoner andrey demanded an extortionate ransom of one hundred thousand silver barks equivalent to twice the annual revenue of England with her customary vigor Eleanor set to work raising the king's ransom whilst keeping the kingdom United as news of Richard's capture threatened political chaos this included reinforcing odds of fealty and again blocking John's attempts to claim the throne though England was already financially exhausted after the crusade Eleanor imposed a levy demanding a quarter of every person's annual income as well as extracting wealth from churches and Abbey's rich or poor every member of the kingdom was made to contribute to Richard's ransom nor were these efforts limited to England as Eleanor sent officers to Anshu in Aquitaine to collect ransom money indeed a considerable percentage of the sum was raised abroad with the money raised Eleanor herself set out for Germany in December 11 93 and was received on the 2nd of February 11 94 by the Emperor at his court in manes but Henry the sixth announced that Philip and John had offered him an even greater ransom some two hand rich it over to the King of France and it was only after 48 hours of negotiations that Eleanor and Richard's German allies persuaded the Emperor to release the king who departed with Eleanor back to England on the 4th of February with the triumphant return of the Crusader King to England on the 12th of March 1194 all rebellious support for John was crushed and Richard quickly re-established his authority for giving his troublesome younger brother whom he did not regard as a serious threat indeed John was utterly obedient to his brother for the remainder of his reign the same could not be said of King Philip of France however entering the final five years of Richard short reign the English King would be engaged in a bitter struggle with Philip tirelessly defending his territories against the aggressive ambition of the French King Eleanor meanwhile lived at the Abbey of Fontevraud for their final years of Richard's reign looking toward the salvation of her soul and death as by 1199 the Queen was 77 years old a remarkable age by contemporary standards Richards warring with Philip was brought to an end on the 13th of January 1199 when a five-year truce was concluded with the Lionheart not ceding any of his territory to Philip and Richards reign would end less than three months later when he was struck by an arrow whilst besieging the castle of a rebellious aquitanian vassal and he died of his wounds on the 6th of April at the age of 41 declaring John as his heir moreover eleanor was at the bedside of her beloved son when he perished and she saw to it that he was buried at the Abbey of Fontevraud at the feet of his father's tomb of immediate importance to Eleanor following Richard's death was to ensure that her son John received his inheritance as he ever troublesome philip ii proclaimed Richards nephew Arthur of Brittany who was residing with the French King in Paris as the rightful heir to his empire leading to numerous vassals in the province of Anjou declaring themselves for Arthur the Queen responded by ordering the devastation of the lands of any vassal disloyal Terr son and Arthur's supporting Anshu was soon quashed furthermore Eleanor embarked on a tour of her southern lands to consolidate support for John in Aquitaine and plateau indeed when John was crowned as king of England in May 1199 his Continental Holdings were secured thanks largely to the energy of his mother in late 1199 Philip concluded a truce with John recognizing the English king as Richards heir and providing for the marriage of Philips heir to one of John's Castilian nieces the daughters of his sister Eleanor of England and it was decided that Queen Eleanor should travel to Castile to select one of the princesses and conveyed them back to France an extremely strenuous journey for a woman of 77 yet Eleanor welcomed the opportunity to see her daughter for the first time in 30 years following the truce eleanor set off from poitiers and was ambushed and captured just south of the city by a rebellious vassal she de lucia who demanded she grant him the title count of la marche in return for a release and deciding that the Castilian marriage was of greater importance than a disputed fiefdom eleanor capitulated and continued her journey south crossing the Pyrenees Mountains in the depth of winter the elderly Queen arrived at the court of Castile in late January in the year 1200 and chose the sixteen-year-old Blanche to marry the French air a choice that would prove to be a wise one as Blanche of Castile would ultimately become almost as formidable a queen as her grandmother keeping France stable during the minority of her son the future st. Louis the ninth an exhausted Elinor arrived back in southern France in April having spent two months at the Castilian Court and retired to the Fontevraud Abbey where during the summer of 1202 Eleanor's final impactful actions on the European political stage had become apparent as war again broke out between John and Philip and the Queen immediately declared her support for John outraged at Arthur of Brittany's invasion of want to to claim the province for himself with Philips support in late July Eleanor set out from Fontevraud with a military escort to install herself at poitiers to deter Arthur's advance and stopped on the way to Lodge at the castle of Mirabal some 20 miles northeast of poitiers however Arthur learned of her whereabouts and then besieged the castle intending to take the old Queen hostage instructing her men to defend the fortress Eleanor smuggled out a messenger to John requesting aid and upon receiving the letter the King immediately marched to the castle arriving on August the 1st and in a surprise attack the procedures were overcome arthur captured when Eleanor freed and escorted to safety in her final defining act Eleanor it helped John to achieve the greatest military victory of his reign returning to Fontevraud Abbey Eleanor took the veil and became a nun for the remainder of her life finally dying on the 1st of April 1204 at the age of 82 and was buried in between her husband and her son Henry the second and Richard the first during her final years the Queen's Empire was falling around her as the ineffectiveness of King John was ruthlessly exploited by Philip of France who by 1205 had taken Normandy Anjou and put you from the weak King moreover Eleanor's immediate legacy was marred by the fall of her empire and medieval 13th century chroniclers ensured her reputation was dominated by the rumors of scandals of a youth rather than the wise and pious rule that defined her later years indeed the collapse of John's Continental Holdings demonstrates Eleanor's importance and skill as a queen as it was only when Eleanor withdrew from her political life that the Empire that she had spent so much of her life working to uphold collapsed the fact that the life of eleanor of aquitaine has been and continues to be surrounded by legend and myth speaks to the face grip she held on the imagination of medieval Europe and still holds on us today as she has gone from being portrayed as an evil and scandalous Queen throughout the 19th century to a romantic heroine in the 20th and even today her failings and her achievements are often exaggerated Eleanor achieved a remarkably long career as a central political figure in Europe ruling as capably as any man at a time when most people of her age should 15 dead she also had an important impact on history in an era when women were so often relegated to a servile role indeed there are not many more influential figures in the history of medieval Europe the nuns of Fontevraud wrote in their necrology about the first queen of the Plantagenet dynasty she surpassed almost all the queens of the world what do you think of eleanor of aquitaine was she really a charming seductress using her womanly Wiles to their greatest advantage what was she a beautiful and intelligent States woman whose face loyalty to her children felt ranked the love of any king or commoner please let us know in the comment section and in the mean time thank you very much for watching you you

Channel: The People Profiles

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Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles, Biography channel, the biography channel

Id: -dgJ-1y__eg

Length: 55min 59sec (3359 seconds)

Published: Fri May 29 2020