[MR] Eleanor of Aquitane links (Fwd: Aoife-Links Digest, Vol 12, Issue 2)

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In a message dated 10/15/2005 1:03:10 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
aoife-links-request at scatoday.net writes:

Today's  Topics:

1. Female Heros: Eleanore of Aquitane  (Aoife)


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Message:  1
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 18:01:18 -0400
From: "Aoife"  <aoife at scatoday.net>
Subject: [Aoife-Links] Female Heros: Eleanore of  Aquitane
To: <Aoife-Links at scatoday.net>
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Greetings, my Faithful Readers!

This week's  Links List is short but sweet. It's about Eleanor of Aquitaine, 
that  universally recognized leader of Female-ness in the 12th century. Wow!  
What a Woman! She was the Queen of France, the Queen of England, and gave  
birth to (amongst several other notable children) TWO Kings of England!  She 
was instrumental in making Paris a Mecca of Culture, she even went on  
Crusade!

Eleanor had the temerity to divorce a King and live to  tell the tale! Not 
only did she thrive, within weeks she's met Henry II of  England, whom she 
promptly married. Eleanor gave the world the Aquitaine  timepiece (as a way 
to convince her husband, His Majesty, to come home for  a "Hot Date" on 
time). Countless numbers of her female descendants were  names for her. 
Eleanor herself was a descendant of troubadours.

All  in All Eleanor was a woman who decided her own fate and set a course to  
achieve her goals. And That's what we can expect from a Medieval woman  whose 
grandmother's name was Dangereuse....

Cheers!

Aoife

Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon
m/k/a Lisbeth  Herr-Gelatt
Riverouge
Endless Hills
Aethelmearc

Female Heros:  Eleanore of  Aquitane
http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/heroine2.html
(Site Excerpt)  On her way home, while resting in Sicily, Eleanor was brought 
the news  that her fair haired uncle had been killed in battle, and his head  
delivered to the Caliph of Baghdad. Although her marriage to Louis  continued 
for a time, and she bore him two daughters, the relationship was  over. In 
1152 the marriage was annulled and her vast estates reverted to  Eleanor's 
control. Within a year, at age thirty, she married twenty year  old Henry who 
two years later became king of England.

Eleanor of  Aquitaine The Troubadour's  Daughter
http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/England/Angevin/Eleanor.html
(Site  Excerpt) William IX didn't just sing about love. He married for the 
first  time while he was still in his teens, but apparently he and his wife  
Ermengarde didn't get along, and the marriage was annulled. His second  wife 
was Philippa (or Maud) of Toulouse, the widowed queen of Aragon. They  had 
two sons, William and Raymond, and five daughters. When the Troubadour  tired 
of Philippa, she moved to the same nunnery where Ermengard lived.  After 
Philippa's death, Ermengarde tried to force William to take her  back, but 
the duke had other ideas. He had abducted a married woman called  Dangereuse 
("dangerous" in French), and she was now his mistress. In time  the 
Troubadour decided that his elder son, William, should marry  Dangereuse's 
daughter Aenor. (Dangereuse's husband was Aenor's father.)  The younger 
William didn't want to marry Aenor, but he had no choice. The  marriage took 
place in 1121, and a year or so later Eleanor of Aquitaine  was born. She was 
followed by a daughter, Aelith (or Petronella) and a  son, William Aigret.

ORB: Eleanor of Aquitaine: An Annotated  Bibliography Compiled by Stephanie  
Tarbin
http://the-orb.net/bibliographies/eleanor.html
(Site Excerpt)  I have chosen not to include a listing of printed primary 
works since this  bibliography is not intended to be comprehensive and 
because of the  fragmentary nature of the evidence. Contemporary references 
to Eleanor  tend to be dispersed among a range of sources, including 
chronicles and  administrative records. Fortunately, an impressive range of  
twelfth-century material is available in print and evidence for Eleanor's  
life may be gleaned from the more accessible editions.

Henry II  (1154-1189)
http://www.bladezone.com/marshal/henryII.html
(Site excerpt)  The continental empire ruled by Henry and his sons included 
the French  counties of Brittany, Maine, Poitou, Touraine, Gascony, Anjou, 
Aquitane,  and Normandy. Henry was technically a feudal vassal of the king of 
France  but, in reality, owned more territory and was more powerful than his  
French lord. Although King John (Henry's son) lost most of the English  
holdings in France, English kings laid claim to the French throne until  the 
fifteenth century.

Genealogy of Eleanor of Aquitane, Queen of  England
http://www.american-pictures.com/genealogy/persons/per06749.htm

Eleanor's  Early  Life
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/%7Eleonam/555/final/eleanorearlylife.htm
(Site  Excerpt) Eleanor's father believed she should get an education and 
Eleanor  was an excellent student.  When she was young Eleanor's mother and  
little brother died. In 1137 her father died from food poisoning and  Eleanor 
inherited many lands, the most important was called Aquitaine. Now  that 
Eleanor was an orphan and only fifteen years of age, a marriage was  arranged 
for her.  In the Middle Ages women were not allowed to live  alone unless 
they were older widows, and even then they could be married  off.

Carrying Coal to  Newcastle
http://www.as.wvu.edu/mlastinger/vendee/2005/2005-06-14/pres0002.html
(Site  Excerpt) At the time Good King Louis was married to Europe's richest, 
most  beautiful, and most cultivated princess:  Eleanore of  Aquitaine.   
Many 
say that Eleanore was born in this  village.  That's not certain, but it is 
certain that her mother  cherished this site and that she was buried here. 
That's why Good Old  Louis (actually Louis le Jeune, to give you the real 
name of Louis VII),  gave the royal stamp to this abbey.  Of course that was 
before he  divorced Eleanore, due to irreconcilable differences:  she liked  
music, poetry and literature, he liked praying, fasting and  fighting.

Rootsweb: Eleanor of  Aquitaine
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nwa/aquit.html
(Site Excerpt) Eleanor  was a granddaughter of Guillaume (William) IX of 
Aquitaine (1070-1127),  who was one of the first and most famous troubadours. 
He was a cheerful  man and an ardent lover of women, who joined the First 
Crusade. When he  returned from this disastrous crusade early in the century 
in a very  cynical mood, he found his countess, Philippa of Toulouse, taken 
up with  one of those religious movements perennially arising on the soil of  
Aquitaine.

Apple Hollow Farms: History of the Aquitane as a  timepiece (and several 
images of modern interpretations of  Aquitaines)
http://www.applehollow.com/jewelry.html