Eleanor of Aquitaine The Mother Queen Author:Desmond Seward Splendid in person, rank, and fortune, Queen of France -- as the wife of Louis VII -- and then of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine was worshipped by men, loved by her children, and idealised in the songs of the troubadours. She was renowned for her beauty and her generosity. Emerging at the King's death to become regent, she immedia... more »tely ordered the release of prisoners throughout England, announcing: ' By my own experience prisons are hateful to men and to be released from them is a most delightful refreshment ot the spirit.'
Today her glamour, her patronage of the poets, and her throwing off of the ferocious constraints with which convention shackled women in the 12th century, are almost forgotten, as are her very real gifts as a politician and a ruler. This book is an attempt to reconcile the paradoxes in the formidable personality of the 'monstrous injurer of heaven and earth' who was clearly loved and admired by so many.« less