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A WISE AND VALIENT LADY

© Viola Ashford

Although she was 30, an age considered much older in medieval times than now, Eleanor could not resist the impressive 19-year-old Henry set to become the next King of England. Wealthy, beautiful and powerful, Eleanor refused to be told what to do by Henry. In spite of their stormy partnership, she became a highly renowned Queen, and a great leader.

This was the first time that Eleanor had truly fallen in love. At 15, the young heiress to the Duchy of Aquitaine, which extended from the river Loire to the Pyrenees, was married to Louis VII, the Kind of France. It was Eleanor, however, who owned more than half of France. Although Louis, who was much older, adored Eleanor, she unfortunately found him rather pious and boring. The problems with their marriage probably began when young and adventurous, Eleanor was determined to join the Crusades Kneeling before Abbe Bernard of Clairvaux in the cathedral of Vezelay, she offered him thousands of her vassals for the Second Crusade. There was great disapproval, however, when Eleanor also insisted on accompanying Louis to the Middle East with 300 of her ladies to 'tend the wounded'. Ladies had no business to follow men to battle, it was thought.

The expedition became a disaster. Louis insisted that Eleanor follow him to Jerusalem, instead of attempting to recapture Edessa, as her handsome, young uncle, Raymond suggested. Louis was defeated and Eleanor seized the opportunity to claim that her marriage was invalid because they were too closely related. Within a short time, she married young Henry, leaving her two daughters to be raised at the French court.

It was said of Henry 11, the first Plantegenet King, that 'his hands were never empty: they always held either a bow or a book.' Although he was a great reformer, recovering royal estates, controlling the greedy barons, and encouraging the rule of law, his responsibility for Thomas a' Beckett's death upset Henry greatly.

His marriage to Eleanor was not happy. Although they found each other very attractive and had eight children - five boys and three girls - they were constantly fighting. Eleanor didn't care for Henry's bad temper, with good reason. "His eyes were prominent and often bloodshot and appeared to change color when he flew into one of his alarming rages which were so uncontrollable that he would throw himself to the floor and grind the rushes which covered it between his teeth".1