Eleanor Of Aquitaine

This week's history lesson, courtesy of National Geographic History, is on Eleanor Of Aquitaine. She is well known to movie fans from The Lion In Winter, in which she was played by Katharine Hepburn. The character also appears in the earlier film Becket (both featuring Peter O'Toole as her husband, Henry II of England), and she is featured as a manipulative, conniving shrew. Of course, there is more to the story.

I found this portrait, which is featured in the magazine, interesting because it depicts her as a young woman, when Hepburn's performance fixed the woman in her later years. She was one of the key figures during twelfth century Europe, because she was married to two kings and gave birth to two more.

Born circa 1122, she was one of the most eligible women in Europe, as her father was William X, the Duke of Aquitaine. She was well educated for the time, and when her father died she became the Duchess of Aquitaine. Louis VI of France (also known as Louis The Fat) married her off to his son, and then promptly died about a month after the wedding, and his son became Louis VII and Eleanor queen.

She accompanied him on the Second Crusade (Hepburn, in The Lion In Winter, recalls riding bare-breasted and getting windburn). However, the marriage was rocky. She was rumored to be very close to her Uncle Raymond, and did not produce a male heir. Ultimately the marriage was annulled, due to consanguinity of the fourth degree (which did not stop her from marrying Henry of England, who was actually a closer relative).

She married Henry in 1152, although there were rumors that she had an affair with his father, Geoffrey (also alluded to in The Lion In Winter). She bore him many children--five sons and three daughters--over the next thirteen years. Two of them, Richard The Lion-Heart, who was her favorite, and John, who would be best known for being forced to sign the Magna Carta, would become kings of England.

As the film depicts, their marriage was also rocky. Henry had several illegitimate children, and ended up imprisoning her for sixteen years. When Henry died and Richard became king, one of his first orders was to release his mother from prison. When he went off on the Third Crusade, she acted as regent, thus really the first ruling queen of England. She outlived him, and died in 1204, during the reign of John.

Her legacy in film and literature is rich. In addition to the two films mentioned, she is a character in Shakespeare's King John, and features in many Ivanhoe and Robin Hood stories. She is even a playable character in a video game, Civilization VI: Gathering Storm. A mini-series just about her would be an excellent idea.