Eleanor of Aquitaine: Power, Politics, and Medieval Queenship

Introduction

According to Curtis Howe Walker, "Romance offers no more brilliant picture than does the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of two powerful medieval monarchs, and mother of two more — one of them a villain, the other the most famous warrior of his time" (1950, p. 2). Walker points out that Eleanor lived during a formative period in history and was inextricably entwined with the great personages of her era. These relationships "plunged her into adventure after adventure, and led her from one extremity of the known world to the other. And hers was a long life. She made her first entrance on the public stage as a bride at the age of fifteen, and held her place upon it for three score years. After her last dramatic act, the defense of a besieged castle, she made her exit at the age of eighty-two."

To better understand this fascinating figure from European history, this paper provides an overview and brief biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, an examination of the degree of her power as queen of England and France (and as ruler of Aquitaine in her own right), a comparison of her power relative to the kings she married, the limits of that power, and the ways in which she exercised it. A summary of the research is provided in the conclusion.

Background and Overview

Eleanor of Aquitaine — also called Eleanor of Guyenne, French Éléonore, Aliénor d'Aquitaine, or de Guyenne — was queen consort of both Louis VII of France (1137–52) and Henry II of England (1152–1204). She was also the mother of Richard I (the Lionheart) and John of England. Eleanor was born around 1122 and died on April 1, 1204, in Fontevrault, Anjou, France.

During this period in history, the lives of elite women — queens, princesses, and the daughters and wives of great magnates — in high medieval France and England were, to a considerable degree, shaped by marriage from their earliest years. "Marriage plans influenced girls' early education, place of residence, and treatment. The marriage ceremony itself, which often took place when a girl was twelve years old, and sometimes even earlier, functioned as a symbolic rite of passage into adulthood." While the precise age at which elite females were regarded as adults varied, this transition was largely dependent on a woman's personal abilities and education. Marriage, as in Eleanor's case, was likely to occur earlier if her husband already possessed land, position, and authority, or if the woman had been educated at her future spouse's court.

According to Teresa Santerre Hobby, "Men's fear of strong women such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose husband locked her away, and Joan of Arc, who was burned at the stake as a heretic," was rooted in the fact that women enjoyed greater power when their husbands were absent:

"Not only queens and amazons such as Eleanor and Joan had increased power during fifteenth-century Europe. Widows, who were most frequently burned as witches, had the most power because they took over their dead husbands' fields; craftsmen's wives inherited shops, tools, and apprentices; and landowners' widows discovered the opportunities as well as the problems of management responsibility. Some widows used their wealth to attract youthful suitors. Others, more materialistic or less romantic, used remarriage to increase their wealth."

These dynamics were clearly not lost on Eleanor, and her ability to acquire and wield power was almost unrivaled among her contemporaries.

Eleanor and Power

According to Black's Law Dictionary, "power" refers to "the right, ability, authority, or faculty of doing something." One of the first things that emerges from research on Eleanor is the consistent application of the word "powerful" to her long life — some biographers add "and dangerous" as well. This description is well-deserved, yet Eleanor was not entirely unique among her contemporaries. As Fiona Harris Stoertz points out, the respect and authority enjoyed by many elite women of the era were generally earned through time and experience: "In France and England, women often ruled territories and even kingdoms upon the absence or death of husbands. Women usually possessed their own households and circles of patronage, and it was widely recognized that women had considerable influence over their husbands."

In his essay "Eleanor of Aquitaine Marries Henry of Anjou: May 18th, 1152," Richard Cavendish suggests that "two more strong-minded, forceful, and determined people could hardly have been matched." Eleanor, then approximately thirty years old, had already been queen of France for fifteen years through her first marriage. She was the daughter and heiress of William X, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou, and was described as "beautiful, wanton, capricious, sophisticated, highly intelligent, and accustomed to having her own way."

Following William's death in 1137, Eleanor inherited her father's valuable estates. Her first husband was Louis VII of France, with whom she had two daughters. Eleanor even traveled with Louis on the Second Crusade, but ultimately proved too forceful a personality for him. According to one biographer, "Eleanor's conduct during this expedition, especially at the court of her uncle Raymond of Poitiers at Antioch, aroused Louis's jealousy and marked the beginning of their estrangement." Frustrated by Eleanor's assertiveness and her apparent inability or unwillingness to provide him with a male heir, Louis had the marriage annulled in March 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity.

This annulment represented a significant career advancement for Eleanor: Aquitaine and Poitou reverted to her control. According to Nick Barratt, Henry II was the son of the Empress Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou, and was the nominal ruler of lands extending from the borders of Scotland to the Pyrenees. Geoffrey had inherited a claim to England partly through conquest and partly through his mother's birthright as daughter of Henry I. Normandy had been conquered by his father, and Henry had been invested as duke of Normandy sometime between November 1149 and March 1150, inheriting Anjou on Count Geoffrey's death in 1151. Barratt suggests that "perhaps the most audacious acquisition was the strategically important duchy of Aquitaine when Henry married its heiress Eleanor in 1152. This was a gamble; not only was Eleanor eleven years older than the nineteen-year-old Henry, but also she was the repudiated wife of Louis VII, king of France. One of the grounds for the annulment was that she had failed to produce a male heir, a serious issue when dynastic continuity depended on a brood of healthy sons."

Conclusion

The research showed that Eleanor of Aquitaine lived a long and eventful life during the twelfth century, remarkable even by contemporary standards. Through her marriages to — and subsequent manipulation of — Louis VII of France and Henry II of England, Eleanor gained territory, titles, wealth, and prestige. Her life was not without intrigue or controversy, but no one today would likely dispute the assertion that Eleanor was one of the most powerful women in history, and perhaps the most powerful female of her day.

References

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Barratt, Nick. 2004. Lackland. History Today, 54(3): 32, March.

Black's Law Dictionary. 1990. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co.

Cavendish, Richard. 2002. Eleanor of Aquitaine Marries Henry of Anjou: May 18th, 1152. History Today, 52(5): 64, May.

Pernoud, Régine. 2005. Eleanor of Aquitaine. In Encyclopedia Britannica [premium service].

Stoertz, Fiona Harris. 2001. Young Women in France and England, 1050–1300. Journal of Women's History, 12(4): 22.

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