Eleanor Of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England

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The author does not ‘pick a side,’ but instead asks all of us to revisit our preconceptions of this most inspiring medieval queen.

He was there in 1621 when Richard Corbet, the poet Dean of Christ Church, dried up in full flow during an unscripted sermon in the royal chapel. Furthermore, we feel obliged to assess Eleanor within the context of fashionable women's issues, which in my opinion is not a legitimate approach when dealing with historical subjects.Henry made his last visit with Katherine Parr, his sixth wife, during the progress that followed their wedding in 1543. Setting aside your historian's cap and thinking like a mother, how do you rate Eleanor's maternal instinct? Earlier twentieth-century historians found it hard to be objective about Eleanor, and some even drew historical conclusions from the debunked romantic legends.

An alluringly candid portrait of this most public yet elusive woman… A truly epic landscape of twelfth-century Europe in all its blood and glory.Eleanor's interference in politics while married to Louis of France only led to her being sidelined by more powerful forces at court. Film makers do not need to change the facts, for history is already packed with colourful, dramatic stories. The King had a few of the dilapidated rooms fitted up for himself, but his long-suffering courtiers had to sleep in tents outside the palace. It became a favoured summer retreat of Edward III and Queen Philippa, four of whose thirteen children were born there: Edward, Prince of Wales – later known as the Black Prince – in 1330, Isabella, in 1332 – whose baptism was marked by a great tournament, Joan in 1335, and Thomas, later Duke of Gloucester, in 1355 – his birth also being celebrated by a tournament. Eleanor had spent fifteen years married to Louis VII of France before he divorced her, only to be angered when she married his young rival.

Weir, from West Street, Carshalton, has published sever­al historical studies, Elizabeth the Queen (on Elizabeth I); Children of England (about Henry VIII's heirs); Lancaster and York (on the Wars of the Roses); The Princes in the Tower, The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Britiain's Royal Families (a geneological study of the royals).

It was said that she was still ‘indefatigable in every undertaking, although advanced in years; her power was the admiration of her age’. Her famous beauty and the notorious scandals that attached to her name would have attracted attention in any age, but Eleanor was one of the most sought-after heiresses of the Middle Ages, and twice a queen. Moreover, in an age in which history is often perceived to be 'dumbed down', I feel strongly that we can all learn from a study of the past.