Eleanor Of Aquitaine: A Life (2001) - Plot & Excerpts
It’s probably not a good idea to approach a book of medieval history with high entertainment expectations. Life in twelfth-century Europe? A grim, relentless grind of war, disease, famine (or food so bad famine’s almost preferable) and unquestioning obedience to God, king, overlord, husband—even for the Queen of England and duchess of what constitutes most of modern-day France.So my attitude going into Eleanor of Aquitaine—dread, fortified by strong coffee—was just about right. And wouldn’t you know? The book turned out to be kind of a page-turner. Though textually dense, it’s under 400 pages (sans notes and sources) and pretty good about relating the known facts about a medieval woman circumventing some pretty formidable cultural obstacles to shape the history of the continent in a nice, tight narrative.Alison Weir didn’t have a lot of direct source material to work with. At that time, queens mattered for 1) their dowries, 2) their dynastic connections, and 3) their baby yields (Eleanor had nine children who survived infancy), and her name appeared on documents only when she was acting as regent for her invasion-happy husband, Richard II. So Weir primarily relies on contemporary accounts by sometimes-petty, often gossipy, intermittently reliable monks and priests—the only literate members of this society. She’s left to do some speculation and creative storytelling, which works for me. I’d just as soon not read the minutiae of military campaigns and royal rulings.Medieval history isn’t really my thing; I’m more of an early American gal. And while 18th century America may be another country, the things it cares about—individual liberty and self determination, reason, natural rights, etc.—are more or less the same things Westerners care about now. Twelfth century Europe, on the other hand, is another planet, a berserk intermediate zone between hell and purgatory with scant regard for human life and nothing resembling our current conception of justice. (It’s easy to see why this period is a favorite of fantasy and sci-fi writers.) Its ruling classes, including Eleanor’s two husbands and various crowned sons (and occasionally, her) vacillate between unchecked abuse of power—murder, plunder, ruinous taxation—and the donning of hair shirts. This was the age of the Crusades, and Eleanor was famous for accompanying her first husband, Louis VII to the Holy Land. A lot of the West’s current hypocrisies and hysterias concerning Muslims started here (remember when George W. inserted “crusade” into a post-9/11 speech?). And then, as now, the conflict is as rooted in limited land and resources as much as a surfeit of religious feeling.
As if "Timeline" hadn't convinced me enough, life in the Middle Ages was damn hard! This biography was not so much about Eleanor of Aquitaine as about the events and the men that governed her life: feudal wars, countless treaties made and broken, provences switching hands, marriages made and then annulled because of "consanguinity," kings and bishops being crowned and excommunicated, and women being sold in marriage during their early years (earliest was three?) to make good on those treaties. Names ran in the family: many people named Henry, William, Louis, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Alice, and Matilda. I feel as though Weir's prose could have been more elegantly sculpted, but the events that Eleanor's life encompassed are hard to believe. She dressed like a man! She ruled England and France! She lived until the age of 82! (must have been near-unheard of at the time.) Richard the Lion-Heart looks pretty bad. Slimy Prince John looks slimy. In a suprising turn of events my favorite figure turned out to be Saladin who during the Crusades sent an ailing Richard, his mortal enemy, snow and fruit to revive him, agreed to hold a three year truce as Richard went back to England to see how his realms were doing, and offered to show Richard the holy sites of the Holy Land when the crusades failed. This Richard scorned, as he did not want the prize dangled before his eyes when he could not safeguard the Holy Land from the hands of infidels. In conclusion: Don't trust your barons, don't trust the pope, don't trust your husband (who may or may not lock you up in a tower), don't trust your sons (if you are Henry II - they will rebel against you) and do become literate.
What do You think about Eleanor Of Aquitaine: A Life (2001)?
This one was not as easy for me to get through as The Princes in the Tower, but I still enjoyed it. The reason it reads a little slower is just because of the exhaustive notes and the fact that she spends a lot more time on analysis of sources here. Which makes it feel more authoritative, but also a bit more like a textbook. However, Eleanor's life was sexy and interesting enough on its own. It really doesn't need that much help to be a page turner. I finished it and really liked it. Recommended for anyone with a beginning interest in the time period, or Eleanor and a little bit of patience.
—Kelly
Despite the title and the author's ambition to write a balanced account of Eleanor - neither on the side lines nor a romantic heroine - this book is best read as a friendly, accessible history of the early Plantagenets. Something to read if you've enjoyed The Lion in Winter and fancy knowing a bit more about that quarrelsome, competitive family. Sadly Eleanor remains on the sidelines. Weir doesn't discuss the source material so as a reader you can't know if this was her choice or just inevitable given the material she had to work with. Weir could have spent time discussing in general terms what the life of a great Duchess and Queen would have been like, but she prefers to concentrate on the political drama. This is great if you want to know more about Henry II and Richard I, but it does mean that she gives space to discussing events that don't touch on Eleanor, her activities or her relationship with her own lands. Within sight of the end of the book there is a throw away reference to the impact of the town charters that Eleanor issued had on increasing prosperity in Aquitaine. It is the kind of detail that suggests that there was information that Weir could have expanded on that might have brought us closer to Eleanor. The title person taking the back seat in a book that is, apparently, meant to be about her isn't a great sign. However as an account of the early Plantagenets, that striving bunch all struggling against one another for power, it is a decent read.Weir is an amateur historian, I spotted a couple of mistakes (using Turks as a synonym for Muslim makes no sense at all when discussing medieval Sicily and the Truce of God was not a crusader privilege it was like the similarly named Peace of God an agreement that nobles and knights swore to not to fight on certain days and not to harm certain non-combatants in the course of warfare) which makes me wondering how many there were that I didn't pick up on. Weir makes a lot of use of chronicles, it is good that she's taking the time to use primary sources and not just rely on other people's subsequent work, but she does not seem tohave been reading them critically. Chronicles are a bit like newspapers today, they have their political biases and they tend to tell certain types of story while ignoring others, its not advisable to take them at face value (view spoiler)[and the same is true of medieval chronicles (hide spoiler)]
—Jan-Maat
This is an excellent book, and for several reasons. First off, I covers a particularly interesting family during a particularly interesting time. Whether or not you like Eleanor of Aquitaine, you can't deny she's a key player in European history. Of course, this isn't just Eleanor's story. You'll read all about Henry II and their tumultuous brood of children. Eleanor and Henry are definitely the "it" couple of the 1100s, and their lives are so eventful and intriguing that it puts daytime drama to shame.Another high point is the quality of Weir's writing. Weir present a smooth and well-paced narrative that's packed with information. And that's a point that readers should fully appreciate, since there's relatively little historical evidence depicting Eleanor's life. This book is obviously well-researched, giving a clear portrayal of a complex family. And Weir is as objective as one could hope for, showing the bad and good aspects of Eleanor and her contemporaries. I will definitely read more of Weir's work.
—StrangeBedfellows
