Product Description

Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman in Europe, the wife of two kings and mother of three, Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the great heroines of the Middle Ages. At a time when women were regarded as little more than chattel, Eleanor managed to defy convention as she exercised power in the political sphere and crucial influence over her husbands and sons. In this beautifully written biography, Alison Weir paints a vibrant portrait of this truly exceptional woman, and provides new insights into her intimate world. Eleanor of Aquitaine lived a long life of many contrasts, of splendor and desolation, power and peril, and in this stunning narrative, Weir captures the woman— and the queen—in all her glory. With astonishing historic detail, mesmerizing pageantry, and irresistible accounts of royal scandal and intrigue, she recreates not only a remarkable personality but a magnificent past era.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11255 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-03
• Released on: 2001-04-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.com Review
Combining the pace and descriptive quality of a novel with the authority of a textbook, Alison Weir's study of the revered and reviled Eleanor of Aquitaine should be valuable to anyone with an interest in medieval European history. Wife of Louis VII of France and subsequently of Henry II of England, and mother of Richard "the Lion-Hearted," Eleanor played a prominent part in the politics of the 12th century. The author of a number of other books on the medieval period (Life of Elizabeth I, The Children of Henry VIII), Weir brings all the color and ever-present dangers of Eleanor's world to life, filling the text with absorbing background detail and revelatory contemporary anecdotes. She is concerned throughout to make critical analysis of the primary sources, the later myths about Eleanor, and other modern biographies. This results in a fresh and thoughtful perspective on the energetic life of a determined and ambitious woman living with the sexism, excesses, and violence of a society in which the word of a single man could condemn thousands to death. Eleanor of Aquitaine is a vivacious but scholarly book with extensive notes and references, giving an objective and rich account of the staunch Eleanor, her feuding family and her complex and unstable world. --Karen Tiley, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly
As delicately textured as a 12th-century tapestry, royal biographer Weir's (The Life of Elizabeth I, etc.) newest book is exhilarating in its color, ambition and human warmth. The author exhibits a breathtaking grasp of the physical and cultural context of Queen Eleanor's life, presenting a fuller, more holistic appreciation of a dazzling world whose charms can easily be anesthetized by dull narrative. And from the start, her auburn-haired subject, a live wire in a restrictive society, muse of poets and crusaders, seduces the reader. Weir conveys a deep empathy for the relaxed south of France where Eleanor was raised, a natural home for the gospel of courtly love. She paints a Brueghelesque picture of England, where wolves roamed the forests and people made skates in winter out of animal bones. In approaching as complex a subject as feudalism, Weir wears her learning lightly and has a pleasant habit of anticipating all the questions of a curious reader. Her account parades a sequence of extraordinary characters: the saintly abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, who as an adolescent leapt into a freezing pond until his erection subsided; Eleanor's first husband, Louis VII of France, haunted by the screams of burning victims after his assault on a village in Champagne; her lover, Raymond of Poitiers, who could bend an iron bar with his bare hands; and her second husband, Henry II of England, her princely mirror in energy, intelligence and sexuality. Above all, there is the heroine, viewed clear-sightedly in all her intoxicating and imperious irresistibility. Illus. not seen by PW.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The noted British biographer has done Elizabeth I, so why not Eleanor, that tough-talking dame who dumped the king of France for England's Henry II?
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Facts versus Fluff
This biography of a wonderful historical figure is well written and an enjoyable read. When facts about the central figure become gray the author turns to her husbands, political climate and children to draw upon more understanding of Eleanor.

Touching on the political geography of the time as well as the crusades, this book was enjoyable. VERY ENJOYABLE.

Where is Eleanor ?
I expected to learn more about the person when I read "this is a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine." Although Eleanor is mentioned in every chapter,this is a history of Henry II and his conquests in war and lust. Eleanor and her children become peripheral characters in the tale of Henry,Beckett,Louis,Rosamund, and war,battles and conquest.In this book, Eleanor of Aquitaine is lost among the far too many other characters. Ms. Weir writes well researched and utterly dull history books. The kind of reading required in high school and responsible for so many students losing interest in medieval history.I am plodding through her books because I enjoy English history and in between the page after page of detail, I occasionally find an interesting fact.

A Dozen Ways Home Schoolers Can Use This Biography
Alison Weir's book *Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life,* which places Eleanor in the context of her times, provides a microcosm for the medieval world and can be used in a variety of ways to study European culture and history in the Middle Ages. Here are a dozen ways this book can be used: (1) the use of Chapter 7, "All the Business of the Kingdom," as a stand-alone piece, laying out all aspects of medieval culture: kingship, the Church, knighthood, political geography, crime and punishment, art, architecture, music, towns, economy, diet, and science; (2) the conflict between Church and State that so dominated the High Middle Ages, including Henry II's infamous murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury; (3) a study of the Crusades that focuses on the territorial ambitions of the European nobility; (4) the role of marriage as political alliance, including the near arrangement of a marriage between Eleanor's daughter and the Muslim leader Saladin; (5) the importance of genealogy to the study of history, including eight genealogical tables that help the reader understand the relationships of the many individuals in Eleanor's story; (6) the importance of geography to the study of history for which three maps are included; (7) a refutation of the idealistic image of Richard the Lionhearted as portrayed in the Robin Hood legend; (8) a study of the ways that the Arthurian legend served as an influence on the lives of the French and English nobility; (9) an insight into the way historians evaluate and use primary sources of history; (10) a reality check for the usual Hilary-esque treatment of Eleanor of Aquitataine; (11) an insight into the way the foibles of an individual can influence world events; and (12) a heightened awareness of the ways in which medieval women in the Church and the State influenced and even directed history through both beauty and intellect. Weir has given a highly readable, solidly researched, footnoted account of the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of two kings and mother of three, which is both entertaining and educational.