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.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Bonnie Wheeler is Director of the Medieval Studies Program at Southern Methodist University. She edits the journal Arthuriana as well as Palgrave’s New Middle Ages series.
John C. Parsons is the author of Eleanor of Castile and co-editor of Capetian Women.
John C. Parsons is the author of Eleanor of Castile and co-editor of Capetian Women.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eleanor of Aquitaine: a total character analysis,
By Robert Fripp "RobertFripp.ca/" (Toronto, ON) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady (Hardcover)
The copy on the flap describes this book well: "The twenty 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." The phrase "fresh context" should perhaps read "total context" because "Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady" studies Eleanor's responses and actions through every facet of her times.
Let's face it, Eleanor's "infamy" is the source and sustenance of our enduring fascination nine centuries on. Had she lived the straightened life expected of her, she would long ago have been forgotten. Eleanor's infamy marks the track of an exceptional lady's refusal to bow to the restrictive, male-centric mores of her times. Another factor is also at work: Had she been Peter Abelard, the Church would have known how to cope with her. But a strong-willed noble female in the twelfth century was beyond the reach of correction or reason. As these scholarly authors dissect Eleanor's times and the mindset that established and reinforced her character they are clearly not considering Mae West's dictum, "Any publicity is good publicity." However, whether they know it or not, they are examining the minutiae of Eleanor's psyche through Mae West's next line: "When I'm good, I'm very good. But when I'm bad, I'm better." Eleanor spent the first fifteen years of her life in the relatively relaxed atmosphere of her father's courts in Poitou and Aquitaine. The full weight of Christianity imposed through faith by rote and censure did not strike her fully until she entered Paris as its queen. In short, Eleanor had experienced a broader, happier world for long enough that her early years made a lasting difference. Refusing to let social and religious constraint limit her scope, she found in herself the courage and character to fight priestly cant and society's cynicism for the rest of her days (while generating plenty of cynicism of her own). "Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady" examines Eleanor and her environments from every possible angle. The book's scholarly analyses are academic and sober: I miss the playfulness of irreverence, the tweaking of clerical and noble noses. That said, "Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady" provides an extraordinarily vivid resource, for scholars, and for general readers who want to understand the woman and the motives for her reactions and counterblasts against her many critics and her times. Robert Fripp, Author... Power of a Woman. Memoirs of a turbulent life: Eleanor of Aquitaine
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Inside This Book
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Eleonor of Aquitaine is a woman who, over the centuries, has seen many seasons. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
image véridique, third martyrology, les gisants, riche rei, émaux limousins, sculpture funéraire, medieval queenship, scandalous desire, roman des sept sages, administrative kingship, aevi scriptores, les émaux, coronation ordo, fairy lady, monastic patronage, roi est mort, ses historiens, previous queens, sovereign desire, dower lands, childless queens, medieval women, religious patronage, des comtes, adulterous desire Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marie Antoinette, Philip Augustus, Middle Ages, John of Salisbury, King John, Queen Eleanor, Gervase of Canterbury, Pipe Roll, Richard of Devizes, Eleanor of Castile, Marie de France, William of Newburgh, Roman de Troie, Duke Robert, Holy Land, William Marshal, William of Tyre, Bernard of Clairvaux, Duke William, Eleanor of Provence, Ralph of Diss, Roger of Howden, Bedos Rezak, Bien-hevrevx Robert New!
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Eleonor of Aquitaine is a woman who, over the centuries, has seen many seasons. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
image véridique, third martyrology, les gisants, riche rei, émaux limousins, sculpture funéraire, medieval queenship, scandalous desire, roman des sept sages, administrative kingship, aevi scriptores, les émaux, coronation ordo, fairy lady, monastic patronage, roi est mort, ses historiens, previous queens, sovereign desire, dower lands, childless queens, medieval women, religious patronage, des comtes, adulterous desire Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marie Antoinette, Philip Augustus, Middle Ages, John of Salisbury, King John, Queen Eleanor, Gervase of Canterbury, Pipe Roll, Richard of Devizes, Eleanor of Castile, Marie de France, William of Newburgh, Roman de Troie, Duke Robert, Holy Land, William Marshal, William of Tyre, Bernard of Clairvaux, Duke William, Eleanor of Provence, Ralph of Diss, Roger of Howden, Bedos Rezak, Bien-hevrevx Robert New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 150
books:
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10
books
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- Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Legend by D. D. R. Owen on 16 pages
- Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography by Marion Meade on 4 pages
- Richard Coeur de Lion: Kingship, Chivalry and War in the Twelfth Century by John F. Gillingham on page 32, page 44, and Back Matter
- Eroticism and the Body Politic (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society) by Lynn Hunt in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- RC Series Bundle: The Location of Culture (Routledge Classics) by Homi K. Bhabha on page 362, and Back Matter
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- Isabelle of France: Capetian Sanctity and Franciscan Identity in the Thirteenth Century (ND TEXTS MEDIEVAL CU) by Sean L. Field in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Writers of the Reign of Henry II: Twelve Essays (New Middle Ages) by Ruth Kennedy in Front Matter, and page 41
- Capetian Women (New Middle Ages) by Kathleen Nolan on page 61, and page 285
- Magna Carta (Greenwood Guides to Historic Events of the Medieval World) by Katherine F. Drew in Back Matter
- Medieval Fabrications: Dress, Textiles, Clothwork, and Other Cultural Imaginings (New Middle Ages) by E. Jane Burns in Front Matter
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