{"id":81191,"date":"2016-09-01T13:26:45","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T03:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/?p=81191"},"modified":"2016-09-03T10:06:53","modified_gmt":"2016-09-03T00:06:53","slug":"eleanor-of-aquitaine-inspiring-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/2016\/09\/01\/eleanor-of-aquitaine-inspiring-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"Eleanor of Aquitaine: my most inspiring French woman"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n


\nREADER CONTRIBUTIONS<\/span>
\nThis article was contributed by reader-member Moira McCarthy<\/strong> following a discussion in our ‘le Bulletin’ member newsletter about inspiring French women<\/strong>. You too can provide the occasional article or suggest article topics as a member of\u00a0MyFrenchLife\u2122 \u2013 MaVieFran\u00e7aise\u00ae.
\n<\/span>To become a member make sure that you sign up<\/span><\/a>! See the red button<\/span><\/a> top right of this site.<\/p>\n<\/address>\n

\"MyFrenchLife\u2122<\/p>\n

In this historic year for women, perhaps the most inspirational is the one who endured in her authority after one of the most tumultuous political marriages of any generation. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Balancing her own political and familial responsibilities, she survived the infidelities of her husband to establish her own social and cultural legacy. This woman emerged in a time of Middle Eastern conflict and participated in strategic discussions in Turkey over the conduct of War. Sounds familiar?<\/p>\n

\"MyFrenchLife\u2122<\/p>\n

Eleanor of Aquitaine: a formidable French woman<\/span><\/h3>\n

The spirited and flame-haired Eleanor of Aquitaine inherited the duchy of Aquitaine on the death of her father in 1137. Three months later, her strategic marriage to King Louis V11 of France brought this province into the French kingdom and later produced two daughters, Marie and Alix.<\/p>\n

\"MyFrenchLife\u2122<\/p>\n

The marriage was ultimately annulled by the Pope in 1152 after the strong-willed Eleanor had failed to produce a male heir and could not be prevailed upon to continue the relationship. Intriguingly, Eleanor soon became involved in a passionate relationship with the dynamic Henry, Duke of Normandy, eleven years her junior.<\/p>\n

Henry became the King of England in 1154 and their union produced eight children: the heroic Richard the Lionheart and the infamous King John being the most contentious of the Plantaganet<\/a>\u00a0dynasty.<\/p>\n

An overlooked icon<\/span><\/h3>\n

So much history has been recorded of the dynastic conflicts that ensued for over three centuries, but often the cultural legacy of Eleanor, Queen of both France and England, has been overlooked. Her formidable intellect fostered art, troubadour poetry and music and she was innovative in drawing on Arabic medicine, mathematics, architecture and science.<\/p>\n

Through her patronage of the poet Chretien de Troyes<\/a>, her daughter Marie de Champagne would revive the Arthurian legend which has remained a chivalrous symbol of kingly power. Eleanor and Marie devised a \u2018code of love\u2019 at Court in which knights and ladies interacted in a context that esteemed the dignity \u2013 and social power \u2013 of women.<\/p>\n

\"MyFrenchLife\u2122<\/p>\n

\u00a0A trail-blazing humanitarian<\/span><\/h3>\n

Extraordinary and \u2018scandalous\u2019 was her departure to the Second Crusade as an Amazon on horseback<\/a> with 300 female supporters. Although derided, this was the first humanitarian group ever assembled to \u2018tend the wounded\u2019 on the battle-field in an era that took no prisoners. Her son Richard would later bring a negotiated conclusion to the Third Crusade with the agreement of Saladin that Christian pilgrims would have access to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Eleanor is a woman who inspires us even today with her courage and achievement while enduring the many betrayals, family conflict and exile imposed upon her by Henry 11. Tragic intervention may have eliminated Thomas A Beckett<\/a>, \u201cthis meddlesome priest\u201d, but Eleanor would remain a challenging presence in his life even in the isolation of prison.<\/p>\n

Their destinies are forever intertwined and they are buried together, near Chinon, in the abbey of Fontevraud<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Which French woman are you inspired by? Historical or modern day, we\u2019d love to hear your stories! <\/strong>Comment below or write in at info.myfrenchlife@gmail.com<\/a> to see your favourite inspiring woman featured here.<\/p>\n

\n
Image credits<\/address>\n
\n
    \n
  1. Feature image: Eleanor of Aquitaine Poiters Cathedral via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Portrait of\u00a0Eleanor\u00a0Gandvik via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Siege of Damascus, the Second Crusade Underlying Ik via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Les gisants d’Ali\u00e9nor d’Aquitaine et Henri II\u00a0Touriste via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/address>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Eleanor of Aquitaine. Fearless queen and skillful diplomat, she might just inspire you too…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":779,"featured_media":81328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[1130,1089],"tags":[1816,4203,3793,4204,4189,4205,4190,4206,4191,4207,4192,4208,4193,4209,4194,4210,4195,4196,213,4197,237,4198,268,4199,281,4200,289,4201,1177,4202],"class_list":["post-81191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vie-francaise-learn","category-vie-francaise","tag-england","tag-chinon","tag-inspiring-women","tag-abbey-of-fontevraud","tag-eleanor-of-aquitaine","tag-humanitarian","tag-plantagenet-dynasty","tag-middle-east-relations","tag-arabic-medicine","tag-women-in-history","tag-marie-de-champagne","tag-arthurian-legend","tag-courtly-love","tag-queen","tag-code-of-love","tag-thomas-beckett","tag-chretien-de-troyes","tag-the-second-crusades","tag-france","tag-king-john","tag-french-history","tag-henry-of-normandy","tag-history","tag-henry-ii","tag-in-english","tag-richard-the-lionheart","tag-islam","tag-king-louis-vii","tag-french-women","tag-amazon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/779"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theproject.com.au\/myfrenchlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}