Roth family tree » Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen of England (1122-1204)

Personal data Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen of England 

• She was born in the year 1122 in Poitou/Aquitane, France-dtr of Duke Wm 10th.
• She was christened in France (aka Alienor of Guienne').
• Retired in the year 1202, Convent at Fontevraud, Maine-et-Loirre, France.
• (Crusader) in the year 1145 in Jerusalem: to the Holy Land.
• (Prisoner) between 1170 and 1189 in Winchester: of Henry II.
• (Regent) between 1189 and 1199: of the Kingdom of England.
• (Regent) between 1189 and 1199: of the Kingdom of England.
• (Ruled) in the year 1199 in France: as Duchess of Aquitaine.
• She died on March 3, 1204 in Abbey of Fontevraud, Maine-et-Loirre, France, she was 82 years old.
• She is buried on March 31, 1204 in Abbey at Fontrevaud, Maine-et-loirre, France.

Household of Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen of England

She is married to Henry Ii " Curt Mantel" King Of England.

They got married on May 18, 1152 at Poitiers Cathedral, Gironde, France, she was 30 years old.

Child(ren):

1. King John  1166-1216 

Notes about Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen of England

ELEANOR OF AQUITANE: aka Eleanor of Guienne (Alienor), Damsel ofBrittany. Succeeded her father William X as Duchess of Aquitaine. Married and Divorced King Louis VII of France - supposedly because they were too closely related (1152) The southern provinces of France - Poitou, Saintogne, Auvergne, Perigord, Limousin, Angoumois, and Guienne, were named by the Romans as the Province of Acquitaine. The birthplace ofthis Eleanor. Eleanor of Acquitane, at age 15, was named heir to the Province of Acquitaine by her Grandfather, William VII Duke of Aquitaine and Poitou. She was married (1137) to Louis VII, The Young, of France. She made much mischief, and wreaked havoc with the people of France and Champagne, by urging Louis to wage war, in her vendetta againstAdelais of Champagne, and her brother, Thibault, children of Count Thibault ofBlois. After having caused the burning of the village of Vitry, after thetown had surrendered, Eleanor convinced King Louis to do penance, andjoined him on the 2nd Crusade to the Holy Land from 1147 to 1149. Led insermons by St. Bernard, Louis and Eleanor enlisted an army and headed for Jerusalem in 1146. Eleanor took being a "female crusader" quiteseriously, and armed her female retinue "with helmet and hauberk, having golden crosses embroidered on the left shoulder, gilt slippers, glitteringspurs, and silver-sheathed falchions, suspended from the side, and weremounted on richly-caparisoned steeds, and formed a brilliant squadron." They paraded around Paris, calling themselves "The body-guard of the Golden-footed Dame." They stopped in Constantinople, as the guests of Manuel Commenus, on the throne of Constantinople. Comnenus saw ameans to divide and delay the crusade, and persuaded Louis and Eleanor to staya while and enjoy the pleasures of this city. The French army,encumbered by extra baggage for the female troops, and still more acquired in Constantinople, was attacked by the Arabs near Laodicea. The Queenand her escort, leading the way, stopped to admire a peaceful valley bythe Mediterranean, with King Louis and his retinue, with all the baggage, bringing up the rear. After the Moslems attacked the rear guard, theEarl of Warrenne escaped to spread the alarm to the Queen's army, who was escorted by Count Maurienne. The Count took his few soldiers and wentto the rescue of the King. The Arabs plundered all of the baggage,including most of the food, and killed several thousand of the French army. King Louis was rescued, and the rag-tag army made its way to Antioch, andthe castle of Prince Raimond, the uncle of Eleanor. One thing led toanother, and the frustrated and angry King Louis left Eleanor with her uncle,and proceeded to Jerusalem. Eleanor, in the meantime, undertook to convert Saladin to Christianity, an innocent intention which soon began tolook like a love affair. Louis was joined in the fight to liberate Damascusby Baldwin III and Conrad III of Germany, and the part of the French army designated the Knights of the Temple, who had established a hospitalin Jerusalem, under the patronage of King Godfrey. A later organization became the Knights Templar. The crusade faltered, Conrad took hisGerman army home, leaving Louis with about 300 French soldiers, and Eleanorand her female army. He had forbidden Eleanor to have any contact with Saladin, but learned she had convinced her sister Petronella to writehim in her behalf. Enraged and jealous, Louis took Eleanor and theremaining French soldiers - male and female - back to France fromConstantinople. He was determined to ask for a divorce, but was dissuaded by Abbot Suger,who reminded him that with Eleanor came the Province of Acquitane. Back in Paris, the French court was visited ca. 1150 by Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, and his son, Henry. Henry Plantagenet was young andgood looking, and Eleanor soon transferred her attention from Saladin,still in Turkey, to this new young conquest. Meanwhile, Eleanor, tired of the constraints imp osed by her jealous husband, suddenly discovered theywere 4th cousins succeeded in having the Council at Beaugencie set asidethe marriage, in the presence and with the consent of both Louis andEleanor. Louis and Eleanor had two children: 1. Alix (Alice) of France b.1138 2. Mary (Marie) of France b. 1139 Both of whom were left with their Father in the royal court at France. Thus free once more, Eleanor then persued, and allowed young Henry Plantagenet to catch and marry her at Bordeau 1 May 1152. Thus all those provinces of Acquitane became partof the English crown. Her second marriage, only a short month after her divorce, shocked all of Europe. Henry took his bride to live atBayeaux, formerly the home of William the Conqueror. The lately divorced Louisof France then tried to enlist King Stephen (of Blois?), brother ofThibault, to help take Normandy from Henry. Henry's brother, GeoffreyPlantagenet, had taken part in an earlier try to kidnap Eleanor. All wereprevented by Eleanor's calling out of her navy from Bordeaux. Eleanor and hergroom, young Henry, left for Hampshire coast of England in December of 1154.They went to reside in Winchester where they were crowned and returned in triumph to London. From there Eleanor's life reads like a romancenovel, with intrigues, affairs, illigitimate children by an unfaithfulhusband, imprisonment by her husband, and she had much sorrow and disgrace tothe family in later years. Eleanor outlived Henry by 20 years. She triedto make amends for the follies and vices of her early life. Ruled asRegent of England, and also as the head of the house of Acquitane, spent muchof her last years in acts of mercy and beneficence, setting free allpersons confined for breach of English forest laws, and other trivialoffences. While Richard, the son, Couer de Lion, was on crusade, thenimprisoned, she administered the government of England with "prudence and discretion"... At the age of 80 she retired to the convent ofFontevrand, and afte r 3 more years of sorrow at family events, died in Acquitane. MOTHER OF: 1. William Plantagenet b. 1153 2. Henry Duke ofPlantagenet b. 1155 3. Matilda of England b. 1156 4. Richard (Coeur 'd Lion) b. 1157 5. Geoffrey Count of Brittany b. 1158 6. Eleanor of England b. 1161 7. John I Lackland King of England b. 1166 8. JoannaPlantagenet b. 1165

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