Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“Historians usually exclude gossip and rumor from their sources, or use them with caution. In her new book about Eleanor of Aquitaine, Karen Sullivan does the opposite. She looks at what friends, enemies, troubadours and chroniclers as late as the 16th century had to say, often relaying it with the phrase
ut dicebatur, ‘as it was said’. . . . Moving between fact, rumor and outright fiction, Sullivan traces Eleanor’s reputation through five phases of her career: as heiress, crusader, patroness of poets, queen mother and aged affiliate of Fontevraud, the nunnery where she is buried.” -- Barbara Newman * London Review of Books *
“A fascinating must-read for all enthusiasts of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Sullivan conducts a survey of Eleanor’s life via a detailed focus on the main historical controversies. The author does not ‘pick a side,’ but instead asks all of us to revisit our preconceptions of this most inspiring medieval queen. The book manages the neat trick of providing much food for thought while being a highly enjoyable read. I look forward to rereading it already!" -- Sara Cockerill, author of 'Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France and England, Mother of Empires'
“This evocative book, both solidly documented and full of original ideas, renews studies on Eleanor of Aquitaine. Reading medieval and modern texts on the queen with finesse and respect, Sullivan takes us into the mentality of their authors, whose interests, sensibilities, and values are at once so close to and yet so far from ours. Piercing the silence that surrounds women of the twelfth century, this book opens the door to a culture of gender so often forgotten.” -- Martin Aurell, University of Poitiers
“A remarkable portrait of Eleanor as the subject of a thousand conversations, this book gives us the queen who haunted the listeners of troubadour songs, shone in the biographies of famous knights, and burned from the acid pens of her enemies. As she weaves these disparate strands together, Sullivan blazes a new trail in the study of celebrated figures in the medieval past, challenging us to rethink assumptions about what is useful about the forces that shaped medieval narratives and how we might read them.” -- Nicholas Paul, Fordham University
Table of ContentsIntroduction
I. The Heiress: Consent in Marriage
The King of France
The Demon Wife
The King of England
II. The Crusader: Infidelity, Marital and Religious
The Prince of Antioch
The Sultan of Babylon
A Knight of Poitou
III. The Courtly Lady: Love and Patronage
The Troubadour
The Courts of Love
The Knight Errant
IV. The Queen Mother: Authority, Maternal and Seigneurial
The Young King
Richard the Lionheart
King John
V. The Old Woman of Fontevraud: The Cloister and the World
Outside the Walls
Living at the Abbey
Dying ad Succurrendum
The Tomb Sculpture
VI. The Lioness in Winter: Poetry, Theater, Cinema
Fair Rosamund
Alys of France
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
