Customer Reviews

Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings (Harvard Paperbacks)

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Ms. Kelly's biography of Eleanor is one of the most engaging examples of historical fiction that I have ever read, and as a result, I've re-read this book three times. Ms. Kelly clearly identifies her primary sources and is frank about issues in Eleanor's life that are disputed. She also writes, when appropriate, with a sense of irony that is probably lost on less perceptive readers -- and thus the inappropriate references to "self-righteous" style (an unfortunate misnomer common to those unfamiliar with English in our age of sloppy thinking and writing since the reader probably means "over-wrought" style, which is used in cases where Ms. Kelly is conveying some idea of the weightiness and pomp that are perceptible at courtly occasions. How anyone could be "horrified" by this book is beyond me since that word is more appropriate to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre-type of movie than a fine biography based on scholarship. I think that that particular reader's judgement tells us more about his/her state of mind than it does about this book. Ms. Kelly does us all a great favor by relating something about the huge constellation of important characters who constituted the Renaissance of the 12th Century and who played a role in Eleanor's life. After all, she moved in the most elevated circles of one of the most intriguing eras in history. To those who find it baffling that Ms. Kelly relates information about such key figures as Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbe Suger, Abelard and Heloise, Kings Louis, Philip, Henry, Richard, and John, and that she conveys something about the vast difference in outlook between the "heretical" inhabitants of the langue d'oc versus their couterparts in Paris, I can only ask: why read at all? This was one of the most active periods of philosophical development in the Middle Ages, and Ms. Kelly's discussion of the theological arguments between the nominalists and realists is essential. Perhaps a bit of brushing up on history and philosophy is necessary for some people, and I always have on hand the family trees of the various royal families. How sad that the disgorgement of our public schools seems to have created a demand for dumbing down and stripping out of the very things that go into re-creating the spirit of Eleanor's time. One cannot read a book about this period without having some previous knowledge of history. Otherwise, Ms. Kelly would have had to supply long digressions of instructional material that would have interrupted the story line. In other words, one cannot have a perfect vacuum between one's ears when reading beyond the world of today's political slogans and sport scores.

Kelly is a Harvard academic writing immediately after WWII (this book was published in 1950). With the huge number of historical fiction works now available on Eleanor, it is interesting to see what the primary sources actually say about her, the people who surrounded her, the places and the times. Kelly uses most of the now recognized primary sources so this work is a fairly good summary of the known facts about Eleanor and her period in history.

If you have read any of the historical fiction concerning Eleanor, this is a great reality check. It's fun to find the actual characters upon which some of the fiction was based....for example, the troubadour Bernard, about whom so many tales of romance with Eleanor are built, is carefully followed from his arrival at Henry and Eleanor's first court through the famous lyrics in which he celebrates her beauty and charm. There are many other similar examples, all making Kelly's work well worth the time to read if you are a dedicated fan of Eleanor or this period in France or England.

How depressing that my fellow reviewers can't appreciate the elegance and sophistication of Kelly's writing. A beautiful and fascinating insight into one of history's most remarkable women, and gee, if you have to use the dictionary once in a while, all the better.

For over half a century, readers have turned to Amy Kelly's book for an exciting look at a broad swath of European history. From 1137 through her death in 1204, Eleanor was a principal player on the stage of history. She was married to two kings -- the mediocre Louis VII and the hot-tempered Henry II -- and mother to two other kings -- Richard the Lion-Hearted and King John the chicken-hearted. She had travelled to Constantinople, Jerusalem, Germany, and all around England and France.

Among the characters that pass through this history are St Bernard of Clairvaux, the Abbot Segur, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus, Saladin, King Philip Augustus of France, Thomas Becket, Popes Celestine III and Innocent III, and hundreds of nobles, knights, clerics, and others. This history is a pageant, but one played for keeps. Excommunications and interdicts were bandied about as frequently as harsh words; and every fight had an ecclesiastical dimension.

Is your wife getting long in the tooth? Just get the clergy to declare that the marriage should be annulled because of consanguinity (which consanguinity was of course known by the kings who married their cousins). Just as he is about to wed Ingeborg of Denmark, Philip Augustus has second thoughts; and the outraged Dane betook herself to a nunnery and began a years-long letter-writing campaign that finally got the attention of Innocent III.

After the Norman Conquest of 1066, the Normans held both England and a large part of France. The Capetian kings vainly tried to take pieces of France back from the Angevin kings Henry II and Richard, but only under John Lackland (appropriately named) did they begin to have any measure of success.

Where was Eleanor in all this? To her 83rd year, she was a player. Although the chronicles tended to follow the kings, Eleanor was never far away. While Richard was being held for ransom in Germany, it was she who held the country together while John vainly attempted to forge an alliance with the enemy of his dynasty. Although Kelly's work is scholarly, she keeps her sources in unobtrusive endnotes that do not interrupt the flow of the text. If you want to read a history that is a real page-turner, I heartily recommend this book.

One of the main things I learned from the book is that Richard the Lion-Hearted was not the great hero of the English as he has been portrayed. For one thing, he bankrupted the country twice, first with his crusade and then with his ransome, and he didn't even speak a word of English. And he preferred to spend his time in Normandy.

This biography will probably ranked in my book, one of the best on Eleanor of Aquitaine next to the one written by Alison Weir. While Weir's book is far more readable, Kelly's book sides with a more scholarly approach. This book wasn't meant for the casual reader but for serious mediveal history readers. With that in mind, I thought the book was well written, superbly researched and provides a great deal of insights as well as cause and effects of Eleanor's presence in history.

If you are serious about understanding Eleanor of Aquitaine, I would strongly recommended this book and the one by Weir as the two books that will covered her life with justice and with completeness.

This is a scholarly work that does not attempt to cater to the pop-culture-obsessed masses. If you are looking for a book that is simple and easy-to-read, this one is not for you. Kelly takes an in-depth look at the life of one of the most fascinating people of all time, and she writes for people who already know something about the period. This book was written well before the recent trend towards revisionist and dumbed-down history, and the serious reader is better off for it.

While somewhat dated in language and style, this is an extremely well researched and engaging biography of one of History's most interesting and influential women. As a definitely "historical" biography it covers in scholarly detail the multiple political and religious characters involved with Eleanor and, by association, the causes they espoused. This is not, then, a work for romance readers seeking the mythic chivalry and trappings found in popular works (though the richly detailed descriptions of the age and its nuances present just as compelling a story). This is rather a book for those interested in a comprehensive, historical biography of easily the most fascinating of all Medieval women, and a perceptive glimpse into the forces which surronded her world.

This is one of the best biographies I have ever read, and one of the best works of history.

Eleanor of Aquitaine proves herself a potent match for the lives and events she touched and was touched by: kings, priests, poets, husbands, children, Crusaders. You come away from this story with an understanding of the strange and remarkable twelfth century, as you watch the unique and rival destinies of France and England grow.

Amy Kelly assumes her readers have her own intelligence and curiosity, and will therefore share her passion for her subject. And they will if they don't judge this book by Katherine Hepburn's predictable and mannered interpretation of Eleanor.

This superbly written, meticulously researched book is an excellent presentation of the known facts of Eleanor of Aquitaine's life. It's rare to find a biography that is quite forthright in delineating what we know for certain and what we do NOT know, while still making it an absolutely fascinating tale to read. I highly recommend this book

This book is an indispensable link in the chain of events that constitute French mediaeval history. With Eleanor's marriage to Louis VII in 1137 her dowry, the unruly realm of Aquitaine, in theory merged with the Royal Domains of the Capetians, but remained outside Royal control. In 1152 Louis, in need of a male heir, found Eleanor a willing partner in divorce. Outwitting her former husband the King of France, Eleanor's second marriage to the formidable Henry of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, in reality augmented Aquitaine into the Angevin Empire. Further still, the Conquerors crown of 1066 would find another conquerors head, that of Henry II, the Norman dynasty of England is eclipsed by yet another Duke of Normandy, Henry of Anjou, Eleanor becomes queen for a second time. With fateful consequences this union would involve the heavy tread of a Hundred Years War in pursuit of an inheritance. This too would be the last time a Duke of Normandy overawes the King of France in an ambiguous dual capacity as King of England.

Amy Kelly beautifully catches the reflected fragments to this elusive personality through the world of Kings in which she was a part. By following the biography of this extraordinary woman we meet all the major protagonists of the age, including a Byzantine Emperor from her involvement in the Second Crusade, to Archbishop Beckett, as well as those bequeathed to history by the Queen herself, namely King Richard I, the Lion Heart and King John of England. Kelly clarifies a dynastic web of deception, internecine war and greed, bringing warmth to grim events in the persona of the Queen and her troubadour court of high romance that was so much a part of her lineage from the south.

For those whose appetite has been tantalized, this book forms a distinguished trio in conjunction with; The Normans, by David Crouch; Eleanor, by Kelly, and A Distant Mirror, by Barbara Tuchman which brilliantly covers the Hundred Years War. Taken together they form a rich and scholarly narrative on the Middle Ages and of French and English history in particular. Taken on its own, Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings remains a classic!