Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady (The New Middle Ages)

Eleanor's patrilineal descent, from a lineage already prestigious enough to have produced an empress in the eleventh century, gave her the lordship of Aquitaine. But marriage re-emphasized her sex which, in the medieval scheme of gender-power relations relegated her to the position of Lady in relation to her Lordly husbands. In this collection, essays provide a context for Eleanor's life and further an evolving understanding of Eleanor's multifaceted career. A valuable collection on the greatest heiress of the medieval period. Front Matter....Pages i-xxix Eleanor of Aquitaine Reconsidered: The Woman and Her Seasons....Pages 1-54 Queen Eleanor and Aquitaine, 1137–1189....Pages 55-76 Eleanor of Aquitaine in the Governments of Her Sons Richard and John....Pages 77-95 Wife, Widow, and Mother: Some Comparisons between Eleanor of Aquitaine and Noblewomen of the Anglo-Norman and Angevin World....Pages 97-113 Alianora Regina Anglorum: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Anglo-Norman Predecessors as Queens of England....Pages 115-132 Queenship: Office, Custom, or Ad Hoc? The Case of Queen Matilda III of England (1135–1152)....Pages 133-158 The Birth and Childhood of King John: Some Revisions....Pages 159-175 A Taste of the Feast: Reconsidering Eleanor of Aquitaine’s Female Descendants....Pages 177-211 The Canon Law of Divorce in the Mid-Twelfth Century: Louis VII c. Eleanor of Aquitaine....Pages 213-221 Eleanor’s Divorce from Louis VII: The Uses of Consanguinity....Pages 223-235 The Reciprocal Loyalty of Eleanor of Aquitaine and William Marshal....Pages 237-245 Scandalizing Desire: Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Chroniclers....Pages 247-263 Damned If She Didn’t and Damned When She Did: Bodies, Babies, and Bastards in the Lives of Two Queens of France....Pages 265-299 Tempering Scandal: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie ....Pages 301-317 What Ever Happened to Eleanor? Reflections of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Wace’s Roman de Brut and Lawman’s Brut ....Pages 319-336 Marie de France, Aliénor d’Aquitaine, and the Alien Queen....Pages 337-368 The Eleanor of Aquitaine Vase....Pages 369-376 The Queen’s Choice: Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Tombs at Fontevraud....Pages 377-405 Fontevraud, Dynasticism, and Eleanor of Aquitaine....Pages 407-422 Epilogue: Eleanor of Aquitaine and a “Queenly Court”?....Pages 423-439 Back Matter....Pages 441-506 These twenty-one chapters by scholars in various fields provide a fresh context for understanding Eleanor of Aquitaine's multi-faceted career and reputation. Her fame (and infamy) still fascinates us. She is a pivotal figure in the history of the twelfth century because of her lordly inheritance as well as the eminence--and political and diplomatic scope--of her marital rank as queen, first of France and then of England. Some essays in this collection reassess the often fragmentary historical information about her life, while others investigate her reputation in later literary and historical contexts. These twenty-one chapters by scholars in carious fields provide a fresh context for understanding Eleanor of Aquitaine's multi-faceted career and reputation. Her fame (and infamy) still fascinates us. She is a pivotal figure in the history of the twelfth century because of her lordly inheritance as well as the eminence--and political and diplomatical scope--of her marital rank as queen, first of France and then of England. Some essays in this collection reassess the often framentary historical informaiin about her life, while others investigate her reputation in later literary and historical contexts "These twenty chapters by scholars in various fields provide a fresh context for understanding Eleanor of Aquitaine's multi-faceted career and reputation. Some essays in this collection reassess the often fragmentary historical information about her life, while others investigate her reputation in later literary and historical contexts."--Jacket Eleonor of Aquitaine is a woman who, over the centuries, has seen many seasons.