Eleanor of Aquitaine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, times and influence of Eleanor of Aquitaine (c1122-1204) who was one of the most powerful women in Twelfth Century Europe, possibly in the entire Middle Ages. She inherited land from the Loire down to the Pyrenees, about a third of modern France. She married first the King of France, Louis VII, joining him on the Second Crusade. She became stronger still after their marriage was annulled, as her next husband, Henry Plantagenet became Henry II of England. Two of their sons, Richard and John, became kings and she ruled for them when they were abroad. By her death in her eighties, Eleanor had children and grandchildren in power across western Europe. This led to competing claims of inheritance and, for much of the next 250 years, the Plantagenet and French kings battled over Eleanor’s land.
Guests
-
Lindy Grant No other episodes
Professor of Medieval History at the University of Reading - Nicholas Vincent
2 episodes
Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia -
Julie Barrau No other episodes
University Lecturer in British Medieval History at the University of Cambridge
Reading list
-
The Plantagenet Empire, 1154-1224
Martin Aurell (Routledge, 2007) Google Books → -
The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France between the Eleventh and Thirteenth Centuries
Marcus Bull and Catherine Leglu (eds.) (Boydell Press, 2005) Google Books → -
King John: New Interpretations
S. D. Church (ed.) (Boydell Press, 1999) Google Books → -
Queens and Queenship in Medieval Europe
Anne Duggan (ed.) (Boydell Press, 1997) Google Books → -
The Angevin Empire
John Gillingham (Bloomsbury Academic, 2000) Google Books → -
Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power in the Twelfth-Century Anglo-Norman Realm
Susan M. Johns (Manchester University Press, 2003) Google Books → -
Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings
Amy Kelly (Harvard University Press, 1950) Google Books → -
Status, Authority and Regional Power: Aquitaine and France, 9th to 12th Centuries
Jane Martindale (Ashgate, 1997) Google Books → -
Richard Coeur de Lion in History and Myth
Janet L. Nelson (ed.) (King's College Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies, 1992) Google Books → -
The Historia Pontificalis of John of Salisbury
John of Salisbury (trans. Marjorie Chibnall) (Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1956) -
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Ralph V. Turner (Yale University Press, 2009) Google Books → -
A Brief History of Britain 1066-1485
Nicholas Vincent (Robinson, 2011) Google Books → -
Eleanor of Aquitaine, Lord and Lady
Bonnie Wheeler and John C. Parsons (eds.) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) Google Books →
Related episodes
-
Margaret of Anjou
24 May, 2018 940 History of Europe -
Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem
21 Nov, 2019 900 History -
Mary, Queen of Scots
2 Jul, 2020 940 History of Europe -
The Siege of Orléans
24 May, 2007 940 History of Europe -
Tristan and Iseult
31 Dec, 2015 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
Athelstan
1 Jul, 2010 940 History of Europe -
Marie Antoinette
9 Apr, 2020 940 History of Europe -
Alcuin
30 Jan, 2020 270 History of Christianity -
St Hilda
5 Apr, 2007 270 History of Christianity -
Maria Theresa
22 Oct, 2020 940 History of Europe -
Cnut
6 Apr, 2023 940 History of Europe -
Christine de Pizan
8 Jun, 2017 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology -
Gerald of Wales
4 Oct, 2012 940 History of Europe -
The Battle of Lincoln 1217
4 May, 2017 940 History of Europe -
William Cecil
7 Mar, 2019 940 History of Europe -
The 12th Century Renaissance
20 Oct, 2016 900 History -
Boudica
11 Mar, 2010 900 History -
Queen Zenobia
30 May, 2013 930 History of the Ancient World -
The Danelaw
28 Mar, 2019 940 History of Europe -
The Carolingian Renaissance
30 Mar, 2006 940 History of Europe
Programme ID: b06yfhqk
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06yfhqk
Auto-category: 940.1 (Medieval History)