Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England [Hardcover]

Ralph V. Turner PhD (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 2009

Eleanor of Aquitaine’s extraordinary life seems more likely to be found in the pages of fiction. Proud daughter of a distinguished French dynasty, she married the king of France, Louis VII, then the king of England, Henry II, and gave birth to two sons who rose to take the English throne—Richard the Lionheart and John. Renowned for her beauty, hungry for power, headstrong, and unconventional, Eleanor traveled on crusades, acted as regent for Henry II and later for Richard, incited rebellion, endured a fifteen-year imprisonment, and as an elderly widow still wielded political power with energy and enthusiasm.

This gripping biography is the definitive account of the most important queen of the Middle Ages. Ralph Turner, a leading historian of the twelfth century, strips away the myths that have accumulated around Eleanor—the “black legend” of her sexual appetite, for example—and challenges the accounts that relegate her to the shadows of the kings she married and bore. Turner focuses on a wealth of primary sources, including a collection of Eleanor’s own documents not previously accessible to scholars, and portrays a woman who sought control of her own destiny in the face of forceful resistance. A queen of unparalleled appeal, Eleanor of Aquitaine retains her power to fascinate even 800 years after her death. (20100101)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The self-confident and power-seeking Eleanor of Aquitaine (1124–1204) was heir to France's largest duchy. Eleanor became queen of France through her marriage at 13 to the future Louis VII. But Louis's indecisiveness during the Second Crusade and Eleanor's forthright support of her uncle the prince of Antioch's strategy over Louis's provoked the dissolution of her 15-year marriage. She quickly remarried a younger man, the future Henry II, 12th-century Europe's most powerful monarch. She bore him nine children while acting as regent during Henry's long absences in his reign's crucial early years. But Henry's interventions in her own realm of Aquitaine drove Eleanor to urge her three eldest sons to rebel against their father. After Henry's death, she emerged from 15 years of house arrest to play a significant political role in the reigns of her sons Richard I and John. Despite repetitious prose and a somewhat off-putting academic format, Turner's (King John) work is highly readable and informative, fleshing out the adventurous life and times of a spirited, beautiful and ambitious political animal who paid a heavy price for defying medieval expectations of women. Illus., maps. (May)
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From Booklist

Eleanor of Aquitaine comes into her own in Turner’s measured, meticulously researched biography of a queen more often associated with scandal and frivolity than with intelligence and power. Married first to Louis VII of France and then to Henry II of England, the mother of three English kings was a renowned beauty and the daughter of a distinguished French dynasty. During the course of her exceptionally long (1124–1204) and eventful life, she broke a host of gender-based barriers, including accompanying Philip on the Second Crusade, acting as Henry’s regent during his long absences, and becoming actively involved in the political intrigue surrounding the power struggle for the English throne. Imprisoned by Henry for 15 years after plotting against him, Eleanor emerged from her enforced confinement stronger and more determined than ever, eventually becoming the power behind the throne of her two sons, kings Richard I and John. Firmly grounding his subject into historical context, Turner provides a portrait of a passionately ambitious and extremely intelligent twelfth-century queen who transcended societal limitations and expectations. --Margaret Flanagan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (June 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300119119
• ISBN-13: 978-0300119114
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #726,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ralph V. Turner was born on a plantation outside Forrest City, Arkansas, where he attended public schools. He was a history major at the University of Arkansas, where he took his BA and MA. Following graduation, he spent an academic year at Poitiers, France, as a Fulbright Scholar. That year was a life-changing experience, creating a thirst for travel,learning and the scholar's life that has never been quenched. On his return from France, he enrolled at the Johns Hopkins University, where he completed his doctorate in history in 1962, writing his thesis on the English royal courts of justice under King John and Henry III. A revised and expanded version was published as 'The King and his Courts' by Cornell University Press (1968). He joined the history faculty of the Florida State University at Tallahassee after leaving Johns Hopkins, and he spent most of his academic career there, continuing to do research and write on medieval English history, chiefly on the Angevin kings and their government. This interest led him to turn to study of Magna Carta and its impact on Anglo-American government and politics, 'Magna Carta through the Ages' (Pearson 2003). He became interested in writing collective biographies of royal administrators in 12th-century England, and later he tackled biographies of King John (Longman 1994; History Press 2009) of Richard Lionheart co-authored with his former student Richard R. Heiser(Pearson 2000). Yet his interest in French history and civilization remained strong, and he became more and more interested in the Angevin kings' French possessions, an interest whetted by his studies of Richard I and John. His year as a student at Poitiers had aroused a lifelong interest in Eleanor of Aquitaine, and after his retirement from teaching in 2000, he turned to uncovering a true image of that scandal-ridden queen in a new biography. It was published by Yale University Press in spring 2009.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An unfortunate book about a fascinating woman, July 4, 2009

By 

Adrian Brooks (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
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Ralph Turner begins this 300 page book by stating that little is known about the fascinating Eleanor of Acquitaine. He then compensates for the dearth of data by repeating most of his major facts as many as twenty times. I've never read anything where I felt more bludgeoned. It's unfortunate because, if the author had been less concerned with s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-g his text out to traditional book length and had written a crisp 150 page biography, Turner's work would have been far better, and less controlling. If you're determined to learn about the only woman who was ever queen of both France and England, proceed as you will but be advised: this is a numbing read.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meticulous and Thorough, November 3, 2009

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Andrew Rittenburg "aritt" (berkeley, ca) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England (Hardcover)

A wonderful book if you are looking for an in-depth study of the former Queen of France and England. While Turner's study is not as accessible as the famous Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings by Amy Kelly, it presents it's research as much more matter of fact. This account does not romanticize it's subject as most other Eleanor reviews have, but instead posits a fair picture of a woman who is completely remarkable without the embellishment.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Eleanoria, July 30, 2011

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Mark Beaulieu "markbrand" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England (Hardcover)

As a writer on the deep life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, this sits very high on my stack. It gives a good bit more thought to the biography and is a more up to date and scholarly than the ones that first brought my interest (Weir-the researcher, Kelly), yet it has the full scope. Highly recommended for devotees in search of the true Alienor.