A Dozen Ways Home Schoolers Can Use This Biography

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	• Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life Alison Weir Ballantine Books, 2000 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 86 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Dozen Ways Home Schoolers Can Use This Biography

Alison Weir's book *Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life,* which places Eleanor in the context of her times, provides a microcosm for the medieval world and can be used in a variety of ways to study European culture and history in the Middle Ages. Here are a dozen ways this book can be used: (1) the use of Chapter 7, "All the Business of the Kingdom," as a stand-alone piece, laying out all aspects of medieval culture: kingship, the Church, knighthood, political geography, crime and punishment, art, architecture, music, towns, economy, diet, and science; (2) the conflict between Church and State that so dominated the High Middle Ages, including Henry II's infamous murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury; (3) a study of the Crusades that focuses on the territorial ambitions of the European nobility; (4) the role of marriage as political alliance, including the near arrangement of a marriage between Eleanor's daughter and the Muslim leader Saladin; (5) the importance of genealogy to the study of history, including eight genealogical tables that help the reader understand the relationships of the many individuals in Eleanor's story; (6) the importance of geography to the study of history for which three maps are included; (7) a refutation of the idealistic image of Richard the Lionhearted as portrayed in the Robin Hood legend; (8) a study of the ways that the Arthurian legend served as an influence on the lives of the French and English nobility; (9) an insight into the way historians evaluate and use primary sources of history; (10) a reality check for the usual Hilary-esque treatment of Eleanor of Aquitataine; (11) an insight into the way the foibles of an individual can influence world events; and (12) a heightened awareness of the ways in which medieval women in the Church and the State influenced and even directed history through both beauty and intellect. Weir has given a highly readable, solidly researched, footnoted account of the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of two kings and mother of three, which is both entertaining and educational.

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Facts versus Fluff

This biography of a wonderful historical figure is well written and an enjoyable read. When facts about the central figure become gray the author turns to her husbands, political climate and children to draw upon more understanding of Eleanor.

Touching on the political geography of the time as well as the crusades, this book was enjoyable. VERY ENJOYABLE.

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Treachery and plotting......

A woman ahead of her time. Compelling biography that sheds light on both Eleanor of Acquitaine, as well as much information about the age in which she lived.

Who needs soap operas - the lives of royals are always intriguing - scheming, treachery, and plots abound within the royal family and amongst friends and neighbors. A good read, well researched, a fascinating character with a plot line that spans the reaches of both France and England for 80 years - with a Crusade in between.

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Somewhat Deceiving "Biography".

This book purports to be a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and in that respect it is deceptive. As the author states several times throughout the work, there is virtually no source material on the subject. How then to fill almost 400 pages on a subject for which there is no reliable history beyond the obvious?

First, the author fills the book with general 12th century history and facts. There is every bit as much, if not more written about Henry II, the second husband of Eleanor than there is about Eleanor herself. In truth, the book should have been entitled "12th Century European History." The author writes extensively about the Second Crusade, undertaken by Eleanor's then husband, Louis of France, but has virtually nothing to say about Eleanor's role. Understandable, since there are no sources that speak of it. The book deals primarily with the political and martial dealings between the various Kings, Dukes, Earls and Counts of Europe and England.

Second, the author writes generally about the role of women in 12th century Europe and tries to compare and contrast Eleanor's activities in an attempt to paint her as a much more politically savvy and active member of society than most women of the age.

Finally, the author takes very flimsy historical information and tries to expand it to fill the historical gaps and flesh out the subject of the "biography". To her credit, she uses this technique very sparingly and avoids wholesale fiction.

With respect to the author's writing style, I found it to be very dry and at times, merely a recitation of historical facts running for pages at a time. The plethora of names and titles were at times confusing, a situation that was compounded by the style utilized by the author.

We know about Eleanor's family, her titles and estates and and the rough timeline of her marriages, divorce, children and death. Beyond that, with respect to Eleanor herself, we know very little. We do not even have a reliable likeness of her appearance. To sell this work as a "biography" is to give the word a definition with which I am unfamiliar.

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Where is Eleanor ?

I expected to learn more about the person when I read "this is a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine." Although Eleanor is mentioned in every chapter,this is a history of Henry II and his conquests in war and lust. Eleanor and her children become peripheral characters in the tale of Henry,Beckett,Louis,Rosamund, and war,battles and conquest.In this book, Eleanor of Aquitaine is lost among the far too many other characters. Ms. Weir writes well researched and utterly dull history books. The kind of reading required in high school and responsible for so many students losing interest in medieval history.I am plodding through her books because I enjoy English history and in between the page after page of detail, I occasionally find an interesting fact.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman in Europe, the wife of two kings and mother of three, Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the great heroines of the Middle Ages. Despite the fact she lived in an age in which women were regarded as little more than chattel, Eleanor managed to defy convention as she exercised power in the political sphere and crucial influence over her husbands and sons. In this beautifully written new biography, Alison Weir, author of five widely acclaimed chronicles of England's royal rulers, paints a vibrant portrait of this truly exceptional woman, and provides new insights into her intimate life.

Born in 1122 into the sophisticated and cultured court of Poitiers, Eleanor came of age in a world of luxury, intrigue, bloody combat, and unbridled ambition. At only fifteen, she inherited one of the great fortunes of Europe--the prize duchy of Aquitaine--yet her father had been shrewd enough to realize that her future security lay in a powerful marriage. Consequently the sensual Duchess submitted to a union with the handsome but sexually withholding Louis VII, the teenage king of France. The marriage endured for fifteen fraught years, until Eleanor finally succeeded in having it annulled--only to enter an even stormier match with the aggressively virile, hot-tempered Henry of Anjou, who would soon ascend to the English throne as Henry II.

As Weir traces the fascinating intersection of public and private lives in Europe's twelfth-century courts, Eleanor comes to life as a complex, boldly original woman who transcended the mores of society. Eventually, after enduring Henry's flagrant infidelities, she showed herself a formidable and dangerous enemy of the King's interests by plotting to overthrow him with their sons Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey. A tireless political fighter and a born survivor, the humbled Queen emerged from sixteen years of imprisonment, age sixty-seven, to rule England with wisdom and panache during the absence of her son, King Richard the Lion Heart, while he fought in the ruinous Third Crusade.

Eleanor of Aquitaine lived a long life of many contrasts, of splendor and desolation, power and peril, and in this stunning biography, Alison Weir captures the woman--and the queen--in all her glory. With astonishing historic detail, mesmerizing pageantry, and irresistible accounts of royal scandal and intrigue, Weir recreates not only a remarkable personality but a magnificent past era. Eleanor of Aquitaine is the crowning achievement of an extraordinary career.

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