Eleanor of Aquitaine: biography of the 'queen of the troubadours'

She was queen three times: of France and England first and, later, queen of troubadours. The latter was possibly the title that she liked the most. Because Eleanor of Aquitaine was not only one of the most powerful women of the Middle Ages, but she has also gone down in history as a faithful patron of the arts and protector of artists. Indeed; She gathered around her many of the greatest troubadours of her century, who turned her court in England into one of the most cultured and refined in Europe. It was the century of courtly love, the fin'amor that the poets sang

In this Biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine We will travel through the exciting life of a woman like no other, who knew how to impose her will in a world of men and who deserves a prominent place in history.

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Brief biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine

As usually happens with most of the relevant characters in history, Eleanor of Aquitaine enjoys friends and enemies alike. For example, there are many who consider her an intriguing, problematic and usurping woman. Régine Pernoud (1909-1998), one of the best medievalists that the 20th century has had and one of her best biographers, says in her prologue to

Eleanor of Aquitaine (Cliff): “An annoying reputation, which I myself confess to having admitted in a previous work without taking the trouble to verify it. But having had the opportunity to get a little closer to the character, what often happens has happened (...): I have found a Leonor very different from the one I imagined. A female personality without equal that dominated a century (…)”.

In short: Eleanor of Aquitaine has been the victim, as often happens, of historical misinterpretation. Let's see what his role was next.

The first marriage, the first crown

Aquitaine was, in the year Eleanor was born, a wealthy and prosperous duchy to the west of what is now France.. In the 12th century, the French territory was, of course, not as we know it today.

The domains of the King of France were incredibly small, as they included, roughly, the so-called Ille-de France, that is, Paris and its surroundings. The rest of the territory was a conglomerate of duchies, counties, and lordships that were often more powerful than the monarch himself, as was the case with the Duchy of Aquitaine.

It is in these fertile lands where, around the year 1122 (it has not been possible to determine the exact date) Leonor was born.. At the time of her birth, her duke was her father, William X, who was in turn the son of William IX, who has been considered the first troubadour in history. We then understand where the very young Leonor's taste for poetry, music and love came from. And really, Poitiers, the capital of Aquitaine, was the perfect setting to extol the character sensitive and passionate of the young woman, since she was reputed to be the most refined and cultured court in all Europe.

Leonor grew up, then, surrounded by luxuries and beauty. According to the chronicles, she was a girl of splendid beauty, highly educated and intelligent, always interested in the arts and good conversation. She certainly did not lack for suitors, but her fate had been sealed for a long time: in 1137, at the age of 15, Leonor married the young Dauphin of France.

The marriage pact was a masterful move; for France it meant annexing the rich Aquitanian territories, and for the duchy it meant gaining a loyal her ally to protect Aquitaine from the attempts of independence of the Gascons and from the greed of the county of Anjou.

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Paris is not Aquitaine

Unexpectedly, the French king dies, and Eleanor's new husband is crowned Louis VII of France. Leonor thus obtains what would be her first crown. Now as monarchs, the very young couple leaves for Paris. But Eleanor soon realizes that the French court is not Aquitaine. Indeed, 12th century Paris, despite being an active and dynamic city, is a mere provincial town compared to the land Eleanor has left behind. The French court is not the Aquitanian court. And it's not that Paris isn't a cultured city; Suffice it to say that the Sorbonne is bustling with intellectual life, and its streets are packed with students exchanging passion and knowledge.

But in Paris there are no troubadours, there is hardly any music or poetry, and, in the young southerner's opinion, the people are somewhat rude and somewhat aloof. Her own husband, the king, is a quiet and very pious young man, not interested in art or luxury. Leonor withers in Paris. Marital disagreements do not take long to appear; disagreements that are aggravated by the fact that, in eight years of marriage, Leonor has only given the king one daughter. The lack of a male heir drives an even deeper wedge in the couple's relationship.

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To the Holy Land

In 1144, the city of Edessa falls into the hands of the Turks.. The Christian kingdoms of the Holy Land, formed after the First Crusade, are therefore once again in danger. With the proclamation of a Second Crusade, Louis VII decided to travel to Jerusalem and, in May 1147, parted with his entourage for Constantinople. In that entourage travels the indomitable Leonor, who has not wanted to miss out on such an adventure. Excitement overwhelms her; finally some excitement in his tedious existence.

Perhaps today we may be surprised that in the Middle Ages a woman traveled to the Holy Land with her husband, but the truth is that this was common. Already during the First Crusade there were many gentlemen who took their wives with them and, later, King San Luis will also do so with his wife Queen Margarita.

In Constantinople they are received with great pomp by the Byzantine emperor. Leonor is absolutely fascinated with the city, at that time the largest in the entire Christian world. The royal couple spent many months in the Byzantine capital as guests of honor and, in March of the following year, they leave for Antioch, where Raimon de Poitiers, Eleanor's uncle, rules.

Raimon is only eight years older than his niece, and the two share a complicity that soon arouses Luis's jealousy. Malicious tongues, always ready to launch poison, spread the rumor throughout the city that Leonor is getting into her uncle's bed, which, by the way, has never been confirmed. Tension breaks out when Raimon and Luis argue about how the Crusade should be carried out and Leonor sides with her relative. The dispute between the spouses is violent; some historians maintain that Luis even hit his wife. Something that, obviously, the indomitable Leonor will never forget.

marriage is void

Two years the kings remain in the Holy Land. On their return to France, Eleanor and Luis pass through the Italian peninsula and visit the Supreme Pontiff. Armed with courage and with a firm objective in mind, Leonor announces to the Pope that she believes that her marriage is invalid. The cause: the degrees of kinship that she unites with Luis, which constitute a degree prohibited by the Church. The Pope does not accept such a claim, and even gets the couple to reconcile. The following year Alix, the second daughter of the couple, was born.

However, the idea is still alive in the mind of the Aquitaine. Eleanor does not want to stay with Luis any longer, and she uses the argument of her kinship over and over again to obtain the annulment of the marriage, which she is finally granted in 1152. Free again, Eleanor returns to her beloved Aquitaine.

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Second marriage, second crown

Despite the duchess's undeniably strong character, it was clear that she could not continue to participate on the European political chessboard without the presence of a man by her side. Such were the rules of the game, and Leonor had to follow them.

It was very clear to her when, during her return trip to Aquitaine, she was about to be kidnapped twice. She determined to have a masculine figure that would protect her facing the gallery, Eleanor married, barely two months after the annulment of her first marriage, with the Count of Anjou, the very young Enrique Plantagenet, who at that time was barely twenty years old (ten less than her). Why did Leonor choose this little boy to become her second husband?

The County of Anjou had long had claims to Aquitaine, so for the Plantagenets the link was a masterful move.

But what about Eleanor? It seems that the passionate duchess fell madly in love with the young man, who had a character as fiery as hers. Perhaps she thought that if she had to remarry, if she had to, she would at least marry someone who was like her. She wanted at all costs to forget the “monk king”, as the French king once called her former husband.

Henry Plantagenet was not always Count of Anjou. After the long English civil war that confronted the two candidates for the throne, Henry took the crown, since he was the son of the supposed legitimate queen, Matilde. So, Eleanor was anointed Queen of England on December 19, 1154..

queen of troubadours

Two crowns had already passed through his head, and there was still a third that, for Leonor, would be the most significant. People began to call her "queen of troubadours."

Once in England Eleanor realized that the island was even less refined than the court of Paris.. Immediately, she got down to business. She invited troubadours, musicians, poets and writers, and created a lyrical universe around her that would be the symbol of courtly love or fin'amor, as it was called in the language of oc of the troubadours.

Eleanor's presence in England introduced Arthurian legends into poetry and chivalrous literature, which in those years were transmitted orally in the British Isles. Thanks to the queen's patronage and that of the intellectuals she called to her side, these legends materialized in novels, the famous medieval romances, which made a real rage at the time and which had consecrated authors such as Chrétien de Troyes to the head.

The time of intrigues

The one that had been branded as "infertile" gave the English monarch no less than eight children. However, the marriage soon began to unravel. If at first Leonor and Enrique were very much in love, little by little they began to drift apart, partly because Leonor was getting more and more involved in the politics of the kingdom. The result: Eleanor was gradually displaced by Chancellor Thomas Becket, who was later named Archbishop and, after his assassination, elevated to the altars.

No, Leonor didn't like being kept away from her political affairs. And she, much less, liked that her husband slept with her. beautiful rosamunda, with which, moreover, it was said that the king fell madly in love. Possibly this was what motivated one of the darkest episodes in the life of this queen, the one that has contributed the most to fueling her fame as a traitor and intriguer of hers. And it is that Leonor began to conspire against her husband in favor of Ricardo, her favorite son of hers. She did not go well with the play, at least for the moment. Discovering her cake, Enrique locks her up first in Chinon Castle and, later, in Salisbury Castle, where she will remain isolated for years. Finally, the king died on June 6, 1189, without having reconciled with his wife or his children.

After learning of her death, Eleanor frees herself from confinement and leaves at the side of hers her son Richard his, who is eventually crowned Richard I of England.. Leonor is 67 years old at that time, an advanced age for the time, when women usually retired to meditate in a monastery. But we have already seen that Leonor is not like other women. He will remain at the foot of the canyon for several more years, and will even gather all his forces to save his son from captivity in Vienna, where he is taken prisoner upon returning from the Third Crusade.

The last years

Ricardo was Leonor's favorite son. She never hid this preference. When the Third Crusade breaks out, the new king bravely answers the call. From the Holy Land only praise comes to the monarch, who already receives the nickname of Lion heart for her bravery. The praise hid, yes, the cruelties that the English king is known to have carried out, such as the episode, recorded by Jacques Le Goff, in which he walked through Jerusalem with a necklace of Muslim heads neck.

Be that as it may, Ricardo's fame precedes him. Returning from the Holy Land, Leopold of Austria takes him prisoner and she asks for a large ransom: no less than 150,000 silver marks. How to get such a sum? Leonor does not think twice. She goes from one place to another, she talks with the most influential people of the moment and manages to mobilize all the king's vassals. When she finally collects her large sum, it is she herself, at the age of seventy, who personally places it in the hands of Leopold's envoys, who are waiting for her in Cologne.

Her spirit is fireproof. Six years after the rescue, now almost 80 years old, he still has the strength to cross the Pyrenees and pick up her granddaughter Blanca de ella in Castilla, in order to marry her to the new King of France, Louis VIII. Leonor doesn't know it, but the teenager who accompanies her back will be her worthy successor and will become another of the most energetic female figures of the Middle Ages. Like father Like Son.

Now that she is 80 years old, Leonor finally decides to retire. The chosen place is the monastery of Fontrevraud, where he died on April 1, 1204. Eight of his ten children have died, including his beloved Ricardo. Only Leonor, Queen of Castile, and Juan, her youngest son, who will reign in England under the name of Juan sin Tierra, remain alive. Years before, he had engaged in a frantic war for the throne against his brother Ricardo, and only Leonor managed to make peace between them.