Katharine Hepburn bristled with fiery energy in the role of Eleanor in the film The Lion in Winter , based on the play by James Goldman. She even has a seat at a major work of feminist art—there's a place set for her in Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party , now at the Brooklyn Museum. Having outlived all of her husbands and most of her children, Eleanor ended her days at Fontevraud Abbey in France.
She died there in in her eighties. Remarkably, her 13th-century effigy tomb survives, depicting Eleanor reclining on a bed, a crown upon her head and a devotional book in her hands. She seems to be studiously ignoring the effigies of her husband Henry II and son Richard the Lionheart on either side of her. Her bones were once interred in the abbey's crypt. The crypt's bones were exhumed, dispersed, and never recovered.
BY Allison C Meier. A drawing of what Eleanor of Aquitaine might have looked like circa Her beauty was celebrated, but her appearance is a mystery. She didn't stay home during the Crusades.
Her first marriage was annulled. She was a powerful Queen of England. She had a historically bad break-up. She spent over a decade under house arrest.
She was most powerful as a widow. A vase she owned still survives. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. He famously married a series of six wives in his search for political alliance, marital bliss and a healthy male heir. His desire to She sought to return England to the Catholic One of the most renowned kings in English history, Henry V led two successful invasions of France, cheering his outnumbered troops to victory at the Battle of Agincourt and eventually securing full control of the French throne.
His portrayal in three of Victoria was queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland — and empress of India — She was the last of the House of Hanover and gave her name to an era, the Victorian Age.
During her reign the English monarchy took on its modern First lady Eleanor Roosevelt , wife of Franklin D. John gathered all the magnates for a council and William Longchamp was removed from office. Phillip invited John to France, with the intention of preparing him for the throne by offering him all the Plantaganet lands in the continent as well as his half sister for a wife.
Eleanor re-gathered all the magnates for several councils and with their support successfully prevented John from leaving England and Phillip from besieging the lands of a man engaged in the crusades. Eleanor once again took control of the realm and ruled through the new justiciar, Walter of Contances.
She tried unsuccessfully to get the pope to intervene, but the eighty-year old pope, Celestine III, was too timid to respond. John finally crossed the channel and tried to arouse the rest of the Plantaganet lands to his banner. He failed. He then allied himself with Phillip. When John's mercenaries landed they were easily overwhelmed. John managed to escape and with some Welsh mercenaries took Windsor. The castle was immediately laid siege.
Meanwhile a ransom for Richard's release was announced, , marks. Eleanor and her deputies raised taxes and emptied church coffers in an effort to come to the amount. Upon hearing that Richard could be set free soon, John slipped out of Windsor and arrived at Phillip's court. He tried to incite revolt, but Eleanor proved to be more powerful and better liked. His lands were confiscated and even Normandy refused to align itself with John. Two hundred hostages were assembled in the ports of Dunwich, Ipswich and Orford.
Eleanor was to accompanied the precious cargo to her son 57 The Emperor of Germany, Henry, vacillated on the agreement because Phillip and John both offered , marks to the Emperor if he kept Richard imprisoned a little longer, time to portioned his lands between them. Due to pressures from the German princes, whom Richard had befriended, Henry decided to go with the original agreement only if Richard accepted to become his vassal.
Eleanor convinced Richard to go through this meaningless ceremony and finally on February 4, Richard was set free. They traveled down the Rhine, Richard making allies as he went. Finally on March 13, the king and his mother landed in England after an absence by Richard of more than four years. Neither would ever set foot in England again. He remained loyal for the rest of Richard's reign. During an assault on the garrison at Chalis on March 25, a crossbow bolt hit Richard in his shoulder. A piece of the bolt remained after the operation and gangrene quickly set in.
On April 6, Richard died in the arms of Eleanor. Constance, with the help of king Phillip of France, invaded Normandy, but Eleanor, on a grand tour of her lands, secured it all for John with the help of mercenaries.
Constance fled and Arthur was placed under the custody of king Phillip. In five of them she issued charters releasing their feudal obligations and setting them up as corporations.
Her purpose: to ensure loyalty to her and John. In July she performed a very distasteful task, paying homage to king Phillip for her lands Poitou and Aquitaine , effectively blocking Arthur's claim to them, all in accordance to feudal law.
She consented and arrived in Castille in the middle of January Blanca turned out to be the right choice, as her son became Louis IX, better known as St.
On July , Eleanor received news that Arthur would be invading Poitou and that she was the main price. Arthur learned she had stopped in the town of Mirebeau. She held out with a few troops in the town's citadel. She successfully bargained for time as two messengers slipped out, one headed to John, the other to the seneschal of Anjou, William of Les Roches. All the gates to the town were closed except one, left open in order for the besiegers to receive supplies. Within forty-eight hours John arrived and stormed the town, capturing everyone.
Eleanor was truly one of the most remarkable women in medieval history. But she was also one of the most inaccurately portrayed, as the following examples demonstrate….
The image of Eleanor as a serially unfaithful sensualist underpins many portrayals of her. The two major accusations are that Eleanor was not just unfaithful to her first husband, Louis VII, but incestuously so. The accusation that comes nearest to having any foundation at all in the sources is the one relating to Raymond. But it is actually not until more than 30 years later that the allegation of infidelity was levelled at Eleanor — and then by chroniclers of questionable reliability working for Henry, who by this stage had imprisoned Eleanor and had an axe to grind.
What seems to have happened is that Eleanor and Raymond spent rather too much time in family and political discussion, to the intense displeasure of Louis, who is known to have been jealous of his wife.
Eleanor ultimately demanded an annulment of their marriage, to which she was technically entitled on the grounds of their close familial links. Louis flatly refused and constrained her to leave Antioch — in essence he kidnapped her.
The Geoffrey of Anjou story surfaces at just the time when Henry II was unsuccessfully seeking to divorce Eleanor — in the fall-out from her siding with their sons during the revolt of —74 — and can be traced straight back to him. As for Saladin, he was 10 years old when Eleanor was on crusade, and living in Damascus — which Eleanor never visited. She abandoned her daughters by Louis first to go on crusade and then because she was determined to secure an annulment from her first husband.
She dumped her youngest two children by Henry in Fontevraud Abbey.
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