In King John, Shakespeare portrayed
Eleanor as a canker d grandam , governed
by lust for power, who schemed against
her husband Henry II - a crime for which
she spent fifteen years in prison - and
dominated her children s lives, ruthlessly
turning them against their father, the
King. It is also well known that she feuded
bitterly with at least one daughter-in-law
and contributed to the death of her own
grandson.
And, yet, there was another side to this
powerful queen consort. Splendid in
person, rank, and fortune, Queen of
France - as the wife of Louis VII - and
then of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine
was worshipped by men, loved by her
children, and idealised in the songs of the
troubadours. She was renowned for her
beauty and her generosity. Emerging at
the King s death to become regent, she
immediately ordered the release of
prisoners throughout England, announc-
ing: By my own experience prisons are
hateful to men and to be released from
them is a most delightful refreshment to
the spirit. She also patronised the great
abbey at Fontevrault, a refuge for the
wives of brutal husbands.
Today her glamour, her patronage of
the poets, and her throwing off of the
ferocious constraints with which conven-
tion shackled women in the twelfth
century, are almost forgotten, as are her
very real gifts as a politician and a ruler.
This book is an attempt to reconcile the
paradoxes in the formidable personality
of this monstrous injurer of heaven and
earth who was clearly loved and admired
by so many.
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