April Queen: Eleanor of Aquitaine

by Douglas Boyd

Eleanor of Aquitaine was the only person ever to sit on the thrones of both France and England. In this account of the turbulent adventures of the extraordinary mother of Richard the Lionheart and King John, author Douglas Boyd takes us into the heart and mind of the woman who changed the shape of Europe for 300 years by marrying Henry of Anjou to make him England's Henry II. Brought up in the comfort- and culture-loving Mediterranean civilisation of southern France, she was a European with a continent-wide vision and a peculiarly 'modern' woman who rejected the subordinate female role decreed by the Church. In this biography, using French, Old French, Latin and Occitan sources, Douglas Boyd lays bare Eleanor's relationship and vividly brings her world to life.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Medieval, France

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Deity World · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grew up in the south of France in Aquitaine myself a good homage

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Few female personalities dominate medieval history in the way that Eleanor of Aquitaine does. History is so utterly dominated by men, from kings and princes to bishops, soldiers, merchants, that to encounter an individual like Eleanor, whose influence is still being felt to this day, is beyond refreshing. In an era when noblewomen were little more than pawns to their families' ambitions and political manoeuvring, Eleanor stands out as a truly remarkable figure, no less subject to the actions of the men in her life than any other of her sex, but able in the end to rise above it and exercise real power in her own right.

And what a life she led! Queen of France, Queen of England, Duchess of Aquitaine, mother of Richard the Lionheart and Bad King John. Wife, mother, grandmother, crusader, rebel, regent, prisoner - the list of roles she played throughout her long life goes on. And an extraordinarily long life it was for a medieval woman: Eleanor lived to be 82 in a time when the average life expectancy for a woman was little more than 30. By the time of her death she had become a legend in her own lifetime, wielding influence and power almost unique for a woman in Western European history.

Douglas Boyd's biography contributes little new to the field of study of Eleanor of Aquitaine - at this remove in history it would be almost impossible for any real new information to come to light - but he writes well and the narrative clips along as a fair pace. He has some interesting new conclusions about why Henry made Becket Archbishop of Canterbury and how it fitted into Henry's ambitious plans for control of the European continent, which seem plausible enough albeit little more than informed speculation. But it's any enjoyable read and one I'd recommend as an introductory text to Eleanor of Aquitaine and her time.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. It is the most thorough account of Eleanor that I have ever read. I highly recommend.

[BJ Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It takes a strong personality combining intelligence, wisdom, power, and a good bit of luck for anybody to become the dominant historical figure of their generation. For a woman to do it in a male dominated medieval Europe is a seeming impossibility. Yet that is exactly who Eleanor was. She was the wife of the two most powerful kings of her time as well as a powerful ruler in her own right who never truly gave up her control on Southern France. She was the mother of the most famous European crusader and one of the only women to also go on a Crusade. Eleanor was a person worth knowing and this book is a thorough and well researched single volume biography on her life.

Well the book and history is well researched and written, the characters Boyd writes about, with the exception of Eleanor, are all two dimensional cardboard cutouts of real people. Well many of these people (Bernard, Abelard, Louis, Henry, Becket, Richard, John, etc) are larger than life figures in their own right, Boyd seems to pick a couple adjectives for each and then explain their every action and motive through those. Louis is monkish and vacillating. Richard is impetuous and brash. John is sneaky and ambitious. Bernard is brilliant yet dogmatic, etc.

This weakens a book that had so much potential. This is such a dynamic period of history and Boyd has done a lot of research to bring it to life but his gross oversimplification of the men and motives involved made this a much more tedious and stale read than it should have been. I give it slightly more than three stars but nowhere near enough to round up.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good biography of a fascinating personality who (very unusually for a woman of the time) had a massive influence on European history. Gives a more unified picture of the French and English politics than is usual for English language coverage of the Plantagenets. Marred somewhat by poor copy-editing, which (among other errors) managed to fail to correct the assignment of a four rather than thirteen year reign to William II of England.

[Lemar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Douglas Boyd has done a masterful job of immersing himself in primary source material in order to render this thorough and enjoyable biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine. He keeps an impartial stance throughout with the exception of a noticeable fondness for Eleanor's language, Occitan or langue d'oc. This is hugely helpful to the book because Eleanor, as Queen of France and then Queen of England, remained at heart a daughter of Aquitaine, the region of Southwestern France near the mountains of Spain.

I had heard from my grandmother Marion who was fascinated by her that Eleanor grew up surrounded by troubadors, singers of poems about courtly love and fate. Boyd includes many such poems in their original Occitan, with excellent original translations, and these are a beautiful element in binding the myriad episodes of her life together.

Boyd takes relevant and interesting side trops through the Latin Kingdom of the Crusaders, into the food and dress of the time, weaving a complete tapestry that brings the reader into her time. That there is at times a lack of soaring prose is the only negative thing I can say about this terrific book, I recommend it highly.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Abandoned on page 46 of 335. Some interesting information including a lot of social stuff, which is why I gave it 2 stars. However the organisation is appalling. It’s in a basic chronological order but the author keeps digressing and the book is hard to follow. The author also assumes a knowledge of some people such as Abelard which I don’t have. The book does have some really nice clear diagrammatic maps which show information like the territories involved and are placed within the text rather than one all encompassing map at the start of the book. I wish more books did this.

[Richard Hakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book about a remarkable woman. as the subject matter is 800 years old there are some pretty poor books from this age. It takes a bit of imagination to fill in the gaps in the historical record to create a story that is consistent and an explanation that makes sense.

You do have to be interested.

[Rob Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a very detailed account of one of the few medieval women, who lived at least part of her life outside the mold. In telling her story, the author also brings the 12th century to life with all its horrors, betrayals, and rebellions. It was not a time for the faint of heart. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in midlevel and feminist history.

[Helena Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to get in to this book as I felt it could have been more concise and was very biased towards Eleanor (if you take this books word as gospel, every awful thing you've heard about Eleanor is a vicious lie, but every awful thing you've heard about one of her enemies is true); but I found it more and more enjoyable as time went on. Funnily enough my favourite part of this book was about the Great Revolt and didn't feature Eleanor herself much at all.

[Tomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

And barely worth a “3” rating…so slow! And convoluted…what made it acceptable was the detail about the time period. Richard the Lionheart was a jerk-as were most rulers of the time. The book had less about Eleanor than every other figure of the time. I had to force myself to finish it.

[Mary Mccullough · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very long and confusing keeping all the players and lands straight.

[Busyknitter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t often read biography, but saw this in the library and decided to give it a go. Eleanor of Aquitaine was an extraordinary woman who lived a remarkable life, though one very much defined by the society she lived in. Heiress in her own right to Aquitaine, she married the king of all the Franks, divorced him and then married the soon-to-be king of England. She travelled to the Holy Land on the second Crusade, plotted and strategised across Europe and spent much of adult life imprisoned by one or other of her husbands.

All this is fascinating stuff. The difficulty with this book was that there is very little primary source material available about Eleanor herself, other than narrative accounts written by people who were probably her enemies. Large sections of the book are detailed narrative accounts of key events of the day, where Eleanor barely gets a mention; for example the troubled relationship between Henry II and Thomas a Becket and its bloody end.

I enjoyed the descriptions of courtly life, particularly when Eleanor was young. I got bored later in the book with page after page of consipracy, plot, intrigue, betrayal, battles, raising taxes and gory death.

[Michelle Zapf-bélanger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the best researched biography of Queen Eleanor to date. The author has looked into sources and documents in their original Occitan which have enriched the story immensely. Also, he makes some interesting inferences about what might have been happening in the darker spots of Eleanor's life.

It is very inspiring to read about Eleanor. She is my hero. She blows my mind.

Sometimes I found this book to be a bit disordered. The author skips around a little bit in history, referring to things that haven't happened yet or assuming the readers know more about the period than I did. I would have happily read a book twice as long that had even more info in it.

[Neeuqdrazil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was interesting and well written, although the focus later in the book was on people other than Eleanor.

Expanding a bit more:

Boyd took an interesting approach to Eleanor's life, looking at it through the lens of her native country and language. There were a lot of insertions of Occitan poetry from the troubadours and trobairitz of the period.

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, in depth, balanced (I thought). I love reading books about Eleanor and found this one fascinating.

[Barbara Lynn Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read! I recommend this book.

[Heather Domin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars - To be reviewed for HNR December 2011