Saturday, September 18, 2021



 


ELEANOR THE QUEEN

Norah Lofts (1904-1983)

Eleanor of Aquitaine was probably born in 1122, although the date is not a certain one.  She was raised mostly by a religious order, receiving an excellent education to match her superior intellect.  She was fluent in French and Latin at least and later in English, undoubtedly.  In her late teens, she was slated to be married to Louis the King of France, but, being in love with young Richard de Vaux, she resisted until Richard was accidentally on purpose slain by a sword in the back.  After becoming the Queen of France, she had two daughters over the next few years, but was in disgrace through lack of producing a son and heir to the throne.  The Crusades were well underway by this point and Eleanor took part in the second one, acting as one of the leaders of the French contingent.  Unfortunately, while crossing the Phrygian Mountains in central Turkey, the segment of knights with whom she was traveling got too far ahead of the main army, which was attacked and seriously mauled by native Turks.  Eleanor was blamed, partly, for her part in agreeing to outdistance the rest of the army.  When the Crusaders reached Jerusalem at last, she was mildly ostracized from the leadership, and was thus unable to introduce a sane voice into the squabbling disagreements among the other commanders as to their next goal.  Unfortunately the lure of Damascan wealth was too much for the generals to resist and the army spent its strength and power uselessly in besieging that city's walls.

Soon afterwards, the European members of the force left by boat to return home.  Louis of France then divorced Eleanor ostensibly for not producing a son and not too long afterwards she became somewhat enamored of the Henry II, the Duke of Normandy.  They were married, and upon the death of King Stephen, he became the King of England.  The next few years were mainly taken up with uniting the kingdom under one ruler.  There were around 1100 separate baronies in the country at that time, and all of them spent their time and substance fighting with one another.  Henry succeeded in eliminating most of the petty infighting and through his superior resolve and with his seasoned armed force, managed to unite the country, more or less.

Henry was not a very loyal husband.  He had lots of mistresses and when one of them died, he accused his wife of poisoning her and sealed her up in Winchester Castle.  The real reason, probably, was actually because Eleanor wouldn't agree to allow Henry to depose her son Richard, who was at that time King of Aquitaine.  Henry wanted to remove Richard because he was too good of a tactician and also because he wanted his other son, John, the King of Ireland, to take his place.  The politics of that time were just as involved and contorted as they are today.Anyway, Eleanor spent the next fifteen years in durance vile, so-called, in a cold cell with minimum comforts and clothes.  

Meanwhile, Henry had his own problems.  One of his best friends, Tom Beckett, a sort of Catholic functionary, had done very well in the priesthood and after many years, had been promoted to be Archbishop of Canterbury.  He was ambitious and wanted to spread Catholicism throughout the kingdom and be head of the entire business.  Henry didn't like this too much.  There's no evidence that he said, as Shakspeare would have it, "will nobody rid me of this turbulent priest?", but shortly after, Tom was found dead of multiple stab wounds.  Henry was not a person with very many limits on his personal behavior.  As Ms. Lofts stated once, "Henry's reaction to weakness is to stomp on it".

Henry finally died and Eleanor was released from her cell to become the reigning regent of England and Aquitaine for several years.  The book ends with her in charge and Richard once more in the Holy Land, trying to "free" Jerusalem.

The novel/history was well written.  There was a lot of invented dialogue, of course, but most of it seemed to mesh with the actual facts pretty well.  It was all in English of course, when people of the day actually spoke French or a version thereof - Aquitainian?  The ending was a little abrupt.  Eleanor lived for another twenty years or so.  She helped free her returning son from the prison in which he was incarcerated near the Danube, then moved back to her beloved Aquitaine, living peacefully until she passed away.  Back in England, Richard was about as pugnacious as his father, spending much of his energy and substance in wars with France.  He died in a small siege in that country at the early age of 41.  Richard, Eleanor, and Henry II are all interred in the same place:  the abbey of Fontrevault in France.

I liked this novel quite a bit even though it was a bit dated.  Ms. Lofts is a smooth writer, and this work blends the historical record nicely, logically segueing from one episode to another.  Sort of like lolling about in a canoe on a quiet lake in the sunshine, to be metaphorically extreme, haha...

15 comments:

  1. Eleanor has long been a favorite historical figure for me. This novel sounds faithful to her life as the facts as known. And what a life it was!

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    1. i didn't know a lot about her life and i'm glad i was able to find such a readable introduction. i liked it and i believe i'll keep an eye out for more books by Ms. Lofts...

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    2. But please let me guide you to more accurate books about her life, if you want to read more :)

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  2. I've never heard of Norah Lofts, but this sounds fun. Eleanor of Aquitaine was such a fascinating character. Though, I suppose most of what I know about her comes from Shakespeare & The Lion In Winter, not exactly reliable sources... (What! She didn't look like Katharine Hepburn?!)

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    1. haha... nobody knows what she looked like, actually... that's the oldest repro i could find. NL wrote many books, mostly romances i think, but some subjects from history also. pretty good writer...

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  3. My mom used to have a copy of this book! I never read it, but Eleanor of Aquitaine led quite the life, didn't she? She's always fascinated me.

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    1. she lived about twice as long as anyone else in that period, one of the amazing things about her... i read the Wiki blurb about her life and when she was incarcerated, she actually traveled a lot, only with a guard to make sure she didn't contact the wrong persons, i guess. so NL's portrait of her wasn't entirely accurate even tho it was an interesting book... but i know more about her now than i used to, anyway...

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  4. Excellent review! I love reading biographies of this sort. I'm actually reading the Saxon Chronicles. I'm up to the years 1050s. I have found it to informative of those years I've found a little mysterious, shortly after A.D.

    Richard died at the age of 41...it always surprises me that people who have been famous and legendary for almost a thousand years, were actually on earth a very short time.

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    1. tx, Sharon... i know i read the Saxon Chronicles, but i don't remember much about it... time to reread i guess... altho i find myself forgetting all sorts of things lately... what does this mean, he said, forgetfully (lol)?

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  5. This book would be right up my alley. I'm finding that I'm being drawn more to history lately. Great review! I hope the book is just as good!

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    1. like... it's more of a novel than a real, fact-based history, but i thought it was a good intro anyhow... great to hear from you, i hope your life is going well!

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  6. I love that you loved this book! There's a lot that I want to update/correct because I can't help it, despite the fact that I know it was written in the 1950s and we've learned a lot since then. I just wish we had one true likeness of her.

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    1. it was the first time i'd read a bio of her; i just had it stashed away... i know it was probably out of date... but it was very interesting to find out about her life a bit anyhow... remarkable lady!

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    2. She truly was! I wish so desperately that somewhere, somehow, a little bit of anything written by her will be found. I know it is about a bajillion to one chance of ever happen, but a girl can dream!

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  7. I think I may have read something by this author a long time ago - I wonder if she also wrote under a pseudonym. I could be getting her mixed up with Anya Seton??
    Another author I remember liking was Taylor Caldwell but I never see her books now.

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