Henry ii and eleanor of aquitaine

Henry did not join her for Christmas that year, only crossing to France in March , where he would remain for another four years. The unprecedented separation at Christmas also led to speculation of discord, but Henry was with her by Easter that year, when she conceived their last child, John. Eleanor, now 42 years old, did not join Henry in France till they spent Christmas together at Angers.

This year also saw her bringing Matilda, then only eleven, to the continent in September in preparation for her marriage to the much older Henry the Lion , Duke of Saxony, which took place on 1 February Henry II's reign was marred by a bitter feud with Thomas Becket , which began in Becket was initially a close friend and adviser, then his chancellor and eventually Archbishop of Canterbury.

There has been some speculation as to what role Eleanor may have played in this, but very little evidence. During his exile in France from , Becket unsuccessfully sought her help. What little evidence exists though, suggests that she urged reconciliation. In December , Eleanor gathered her movable possessions in England and transported them on several ships to Argentan.

Christmas was celebrated at the royal court there, and immediately afterward she left for her own city of Poitiers. Henry and his army went with her before attacking a castle belonging to the rebellious Lusignan family, who threatened to switch allegiance to Louis. Henry then went about his own business outside Aquitaine, leaving Patrick, Earl of Salisbury , his regional military commander, as her protective custodian.

When Patrick was killed in a skirmish with the Lusignans, Eleanor, who proceeded to ransom his captured nephew, the young William Marshal , was left in control of her lands. There she would remain until , a move that facilitated Henry's control over a corner of his realm where the vassals were continually rebelling. This move also led to speculation of a marital breakdown.

By this time, Louis VII had finally been given a son, by his third wife. The separation of Eleanor and Henry during the next five years has been the subject of much speculation as to whether it was predominantly a matter of political expediency, an indication of a growing rift between the couple or both. Certainly Eleanor had fulfilled her queenly duties of providing both male heirs and daughters as commodities for alliances, [ ] but was now too old to provide further children.

Also, she successfully set about restoring order in proverbially restless Aquitaine, and continued in her royal duties as Angevin queen, including acting as regent in various French territories. Richard of Devizes suggested it was Eleanor that initiated the separation and that Henry did not oppose it. Although not much is known about Eleanor's whereabouts during this period, [ ] Christmas was spent apart, Henry at Argentan and Eleanor at Poitiers.

The resulting Treaty of Montmirail was to have long term consequences for all the members of Henry's family. In the treaty, Henry divided his domains between his sons and betrothed Prince Richard to Louis' daughter Alys. Despite opposition from the Church, this took place on 14 June , and from then on he was referred to as Henry the Young King.

For instance she changed her formal address to omit "the king's", merely stating "to her faithful followers". During this period, relations between Henry II and his young sons became increasingly fractious. Having been allocated portions of the Angevin empire at Montmirail, they were eager to assume their powers, rather than wait for their father's death, as had been arranged.

Louis VII was aware of this and now that the Young King was his son-in-law, saw an opportunity to exploit these divisions. In November , Louis invited his daughter, Queen Marguerite, and the seventeen-year-old King Henry to Paris where he encouraged the former's ambitions. Of all her influence on culture, Eleanor's time in Poitiers between and has been claimed to be the most critical, yet very little is actually known about it.

This evolved further into the tradition, that in conjunction with her daughter by Louis VII, Marie of Champagne, she presided over what became known as "The Court of Love", where courtly love thrived. While troubadours both attended her court and praised her, the Court of Love was a later literary invention. The Tractatus stated that Eleanor, together with Marie, Ermengarde, Viscountess of Narbonne , Isabelle of Flanders and other ladies would sit and listen to the quarrels of lovers and act as a jury to the questions of the court that revolved around acts of romantic love.

He records some twenty-one cases, the most famous of them being a problem posed to the women about whether true love can exist in marriage. According to Capellanus, the women decided that it was not at all likely. There is no evidence to the claim that Eleanor invented "courtly love", an expression that only appeared in the late nineteenth century.

Her paternal grandfather, William IX — was considered a troubadour who extolled the growing popularity of tales of love and chivalry, long before this. The rest is merely conjecture. From Montferrat, the royal entourage moved to Limoges , where matters worsened. The latter then informed King Henry II that he was now supporting his son as the new reigning monarch.

This was the beginning of the Revolt of — Later chroniclers assigned much of the blame to Eleanor, adding to her deepening reputation and leading to much speculation regarding motive, despite lack of evidence, although they carefully added "so it was said" to their accounts. Later, in April, Eleanor too would set out to travel to Paris to join her sons.

While Henry II was ultimately victorious and made some concessions to his sons at the Treaty of Montlouis on 30 September , [ ] Eleanor was confined to various degrees for the rest of Henry's life in various locations in England, about which there is very little information, although pipe rolls refer to Ludgershall Castle in Wiltshire, to Buckinghamshire and various houses in Berkshire and Nottinghamshire.

In early , he tried again, by persuading Eleanor to become a nun at Fontevrault. She then requested the Archbishop of Rouen to intervene and he supported her refusal, prompting Henry to once again attempt to seek papal approval, [ ] [ ] which was denied. Meanwhile, Henry continued his use of his children to forge alliances. In the summer of , Eleanor was at Winchester with Joanna, then eleven.

As soon as plans for her marriage to William II of Sicily were concluded, she was sent there on 27 August, the marriage taking place on 13 February While Eleanor remained confined, she was not strictly a prisoner, but rather in a form of " house arrest " although stripped of her revenues, and in the later part of this period enjoyed some greater freedoms from onwards and particularly after , and would witness the death of two more of her sons Henry and Geoffrey and her daughter Matilda, but very little information exists about these years.

During her imprisonment, Eleanor became more and more distant from her sons, since Henry II could not afford having her in communication with them, and possibly plotting against him. Rosamund Clifford died in or at Godstow , Oxfordshire. Henry erected a tomb in the abbey and gave gifts to the abbey in her memory. Her death would much later lead to myths concerning Eleanor's putative involvement [ ao ] that grew more elaborate over the centuries, and for a long time were accepted as established facts, further building her Black Legend, despite virtually no contemporary evidence to support this.

Some chroniclers, including Gerald of Wales, Ralph Niger, Roger of Hoveden and Ranulf Higden state that Henry then began an affair with the sixteen-year-old Alys of France , a matter complicated by the fact that she was betrothed to his son Richard and was also the daughter of Louis VII, who became alarmed on hearing this news. In the meantime, Henry delayed the marriage, which Richard was now resisting and Alys bore Henry several children.

The years of Eleanor's confinement were marked by almost constant warfare, between their sons and rebellious vassals — especially Aquitaine, between each other and with their father. Philip, who was the brother-in-law of Henry the Young the heir apparent, was even more determined than his father to regain the French lands of Henry and his sons, and to exploit the conflicts in that dysfunctional family.

During one of these campaigns, Eleanor's son Henry died of dysentery on 11 June , at Martel , Quercy , at the age of twenty-eight. His dying wishes included a plea for his mother to be set free and that his wife Marguerite be provided for. He later described how she told him she had a premonition in a dream. Henry's death, as heir apparent, changed the family dynamics, leaving Richard as the new heir.

This marked the beginning of a loosening of the restrictions on her. Roger of Hovenden states that the King commanded she "be freed and that she make a progress about her dowerlands". Geoffroy du Brueil states that she remained in Normandy for about six months. Young Henry's death necessitated a renegotiation of the treaty of Montmirail and the contentious question of Richard's betrothal to Alys, resulting in a further meeting of the English and French kings at Gisors , Normandy on 6 December , at which time Henry revoked much of the land concessions he had made earlier.

At Winchester, Matilda gave birth to her fifth child, William. She would remain in Normandy for nearly a year, the royal couple returning to Southampton from Barfleur England on 27 April , spending the summer together at Winchester, though there is very little information on her whereabouts from then till However, even in Aquitaine affairs, it was clear she had little freedom to act, stating that her acts were "with the assent and at the will of her lord Henry, King of England, and of Richard, Geoffrey and John, her sons" [ ] The family situation changed further when Geoffrey died in Paris on 18 or 19 August , leaving only Richard and John as heirs but conflict between them and with their father continued over their inheritance, and Richard made yet another attempt at adding Toulouse to the Aquitaine domain, bringing Henry and Philip into direct conflict once more, which would lead to twenty-seven years of intermittent war.

This time Richard and Philip combined their forces against an ailing Henry, forcing him to relinquish much of his French possessions. Over the last few years Eleanor had often travelled with her husband and was sometimes associated with him in the government of the realm, but still had a custodian so that she was never fully free. Henry's death ended a marriage which has been described as tumultuous and Eleanor's long years of imprisonment.

One of his first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders to release the sixty-five-year-old Eleanor from prison; he found upon his arrival that her custodians had already released her, whereupon she assumed the powers of regent, bestowed upon her by Richard [ aq ] who was still in France. On 13 August , Richard sailed from Barfleur to Portsmouth and was received with enthusiasm, proceeding from there to Winchester to meet Eleanor.

However, on 29 August, Prince John carried out his father's wishes, marrying his cousin Isabella, to whom he had been betrothed in On his return he made more formal arrangements, prior to his more prolonged departure for the crusade on 12 December, appointing as custodians his justiciar Hugh de Puiset together with William de Longchamp as summi justifiarii.

Meanwhile, although John had married, the question of succession still remained, and in particular the problem of Alys to whom Richard was betrothed yet had been in a relationship with his father, but was also King Philip's half-sister. Such an alliance would serve the purpose of stabilising matters in Gascony. From there, she escorted Berengaria to Sicily, where Richard had arrived at Messina.

He was also in conflict with Philip, partly over the matter of Alys, [ ] as a result of which Eleanor's ship was refused landing at Messina and had to proceed to Brindisi. By March , Richard had secured Joanna's release, and joined Eleanor and Berengaria at Reggio , from where the latter was placed in Joanna's care. Richard then confronted Philip with the matter of Alys' relationship with Henry II as the reason for breaking the betrothal, and Philip promptly departed for the Holy Land prior to the arrival of Eleanor in Messina.

By the time Eleanor had reached Sicily, stories of misrule and conflict in England between Longchamp and Prince John had emerged. Walter de Coutances , Archbishop of Rouen, was appointed to reestablish royal authority in England, and he and Eleanor began their return journey after only four days, departing on 2 April for Salerno. From there they travelled to Rome, arriving on the 14th to meet with the new Pope, Celestine III , to obtain his approval of appointing Walter de Coutances over William de Longchamp, who also served as a papal legate.

On 10 April , Richard and Berengaria together with Joanna left Sicily, with the women on a separate ship, bound for Outremer , but storms diverted them to Cyprus where Richard and Berengaria were married on 12 May at Limasol , and Berengaria was crowned. King Philip abandoned the Crusade on 2 July and returned to France, but in the meantime Richard had found himself in conflict with Duke Leopold of Austria , an event which would have serious consequences for him later.

Once Eleanor reached Rouen, where she arrived on 24 June , she was able to direct affairs in England better, [ ] although she spent the winter of — in France. As regent, she demonstrated the qualities of a benevolent and statesmanlike ruler with Richard of Devizes describing her as "incomparable" [ at ] and she began using the phrase teste me ipsa as my own witness on official documents.

Coutance was appointed head of a regency council and Longchamp fled to France, attempting unsuccessfully to recruit Eleanor to his cause. In early Philip recruited Prince John to his cause, offering him lands and Alys, prompting Eleanor's return to England on 11 February to prevent John's invasion of Normandy, [ ] however she spent much of that year dealing with ecclesiastical disputes and successfully curbing the ambitions of Longchamp and John.

In the Holy Land, Richard made little progress in his quest to capture Jerusalem, and by late was forced to arrange a truce with Saladin , and sent Joanna and Berengaria back to Sicily in September, departing from Acre himself on 9 October. Following which his whereabouts were unknown till January when Eleanor learned that he had been taken prisoner by Duke Leopold, whom he had slighted on his arrival in Acre.

Eleanor only became aware of what had happened through Coutances' spies in France, but immediately assumed control of the government, while Prince John with Philip's support, became emboldened once more in claiming the throne. At the same time she received the first letter from him since his capture, urging her to accept the terms, and informing her that his conditions had much improved and that he had been transferred to Hagenau.

Eleanor and her council immediately set about trying to raise the ransom and arrange the hostages, a task to which Beregnaria, now in Poitou. Having agreed to a date for Richard's release on 17 January , Eleanor and Coutances set off for Germany in December , arriving at Speyer by the agreed day. There she discovered that King Philip and Prince John had outbid her in return for keeping Richard in custody.

Further negotiations and offers, including an annual tribute, eventually led to him being released on 4 February. Richard and Eleanor then made a triumphal entry into London on 23 March Eleanor and Richard's stay in England was relatively brief, since feeling the need to defend his French possessions from Philip, Richard departed from Portsmouth on 12 May Arriving in Barflueur, neither Richard nor Eleanor would return to England.

Initially, prior to Richard arriving in England, he delegated authority to Eleanor statuendi quae vellet in regno , though this was not repeated. During Richard's subsequent prolonged absences, royal authority in England was represented by a succession of chief justiciars. On Longchamp's dismissal in , government moved to a more conciliar mode magnum concilium and communitas regni under Coutance.

Richard and Berengaria had no children, and on Richard's death, one of the first things Eleanor did was to warn John to flee from Brittany where he was with Arthur I, Duke of Brittany , Eleanor's grandson, and secure Richard's possessions. Arthur was the only son of Eleanor's fourth son Geoffrey and his wife Constance. He had been considered to be Richard's heir, being the son of John's older brother, and hence had a claim on the throne, there being no other male heirs.

Richard himself, though having considered Arthur, had declared John to be his successor prior to his death. Whereupon the Breton army advanced on Angers and captured it, followed by Anjou, Maine and Touraine declaring their allegiance to Arthur. Eleanor immediately acted to repel the Bretons, ordering the devastation of the lands of any vassal disloyal to John.

Support for Arthur soon collapsed and he withdrew with Philip to Paris and John was officially invested as Duke of Normandy on 25 April , while Eleanor toured all her domains raising support for John, whom she had declared the rightful heir and on 25 May , John arrived in England and was crowned king on 27 May, although he was back in Normandy by 20 June where he concluded a truce.

At the same time, Eleanor also made peace with Philip and pledged her allegiance as a vassal. This helped to safeguard them from Philip in the event of her death. In September that year Joanna died in childbirth, at Fontevrault, where she was buried, leaving Eleanor with only two surviving children, John of England and Eleanor of Castile. Among other provisions, the new truce cemented dynastic alliances through the marriage of the twelve-year-old Louis , King Philip's heir, to one of John's nieces in Castile and the payment of 30, marks by John to Philip.

This was formalised in the Treaty of Le Goulet of May Subsequently, John returned to England to raise the money, while Eleanor travelled to Castile to select a suitable bride. Hugh demanded she cede him the county of La Marche , sold long ago by one of his ancestors to Henry II, which she acceded to so that she could complete her mission. She finally arrived in Castile by the end of January Eleanor of Castile had two unmarried daughters, and of those Eleanor chose the younger, Blanche , then sixteen years old.

She remained there till late March, to avoid Lent, during which marriages could not be solemnised, arriving in Bordeaux at Easter on 9 April. While there she undertook a major reconstruction of her ducal palace in Poitiers, originally Merovingian but now being rebuilt in the Angevin Style.

Henry ii and eleanor of aquitaine

Blanche and Louis were married on 23 May She bore him 12 children, one of whom was the future Louis IX of France , ensuring that Eleanor's descendants would be future rulers of France. Amongst the advice she gave him was to secure the loyalty of her vassals, should she die, and in particular Hugh of Lusignan, to whom she had granted La Marche the previous year, making him the new count.

John arrived at Lusignan Castle on 5 July, where he encountered the thirteen-year-old Isabelle of Angouleme and sought her hand in marriage from her parents, while breaking off negotiations with the Portuguese court. However, Isabelle was already betrothed to Hugh of Lusignan, whom he had dispatched to England. While there were potential political advantages to such an alliance, under the circumstances this was a mistake that would soon have serious consequences.

The marriage between John and Isabelle took place in secret in Bordeaux on 24 August, and they then proceeded to England, where she was crowned queen at Westminster Abbey on 8 October King John ignored the Lusignans' protests over the betrayal, whereupon they rose in rebellion in early Eleanor, though in ill health, once more intervened to restore peace in February and March, summoning Arthur as an intermediary with King Philip.

But John continued to seek vengeance on the Lusignans, and conflict simmered throughout On 28 April , freed from some of his other commitments, Philip summoned John to his court, and upon his refusal declared him a traitor and in lieu of his lands. Louis, still young and intemperate, made a series of military and diplomatic blunders that set him at odds with the Pope and several of his more powerful lords.

Eleanor joined him on the dangerous—and ill fated—journey west. The crusade did not go well, and Eleanor and Louis grew increasingly estranged. After several fraught years during which Eleanor sought an annulment and Louis faced increasing public criticism, they were eventually granted an annulment on the grounds of consanguinity being related by blood in and separated, their two daughters left in the custody of the king.

Within two months of her annulment, after fighting off attempts to marry her off to various other high-ranking French noblemen, Eleanor married Henry, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy. Henry and Eleanor argued often, but they produced eight children together between and Nonetheless, she does not emerge again into a publicly active role until separating from Henry in and moving her household to her own lands in Poitiers.

On 6th May, Henry received a letter from Eleanor inviting him to marry her. Henry dropped everything and sped south. The couple had met a few months earlier in Paris when Henry had been invested as Duke of Normandy. The effort to paint this as a seedy, scandal fuelled passion fits the pattern deployed against Eleanor and plenty of other women with power.

The truth is much less shocking, but much more interesting. Eleanor owned vast swathes of land. Attempts to capture her had made her perilous situation clear. If Eleanor was to look for a new husband, she needed someone who could protect her from and rival her ex — the King of France. Few bachelors fit the bill quite like Henry. He had a strong claim to the throne of England, which it must have appeared he was capable of realising.

For Henry, the advantages were equally clear. Aquitaine was a huge area that brought wealth, as well as prestige, and another dukedom. Beside these advantages was the glaring warning that neither could have missed. They could only have accepted that the benefits outweighed the dangers. Eleanor did not. The union made Henry the largest landowner in France by a country mile.

He held far more land than Louis, and probably more than anyone had in centuries. Detail of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Poitiers Cathedral. As the Duchess of Aquitaine, Eleanor had developed a reputation for style, luxury and patronage of the arts. Her wealth, education and confidence made her court famous. She indulged his passion for Aristotle, while he encouraged her love of poetry and hunting.

She also bore him a daughter, Marie. One account relates how Eleanor set up a mock trial in which the ladies of the court judged French knights while they read love poetry and dressed in elaborate outfits. In , Eleanor travelled with King Louis on the Second Crusade, but there the marriage began to show signs of strains. Rumours circulated that the attractive and charismatic Eleanor was drawing unnaturally close to her long-lost uncle, Raymond of Poitiers.

Image credit: Public Domain. Louis and Raymond disagreed over the best strategy to reclaim the Holy Land. Eleanor made the unpopular decision of siding with Raymond, and her reputation suffered as she had also not produced a male heir. King Louis and his queen had now been married for 13 years and their union had still not resulted in a son.

Their marriage, once the envy of Christendom, was foundering. Neither of the religious leaders were successful.