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

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This is a substantial book of 394 pages, and of all the single book biographies it is probably the most authoritative and rigorous, working hard to focus on fact rather than fiction. She says: 'My own son has learning difficulties so I ended up running a school in Carshalton to cater for others like him. Having concentrated mainly in your work on the Middle Ages and Tudor periods, how far into recent history would you travel? But the question remains: why are audiences being sold short by what passes as historical drama these days?

Drawing back the curtains, he shows them the bed he has prepared for them and insists that they use it to good use. In 1189, when King Henry II died, his Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine was released after sixteen years of imprisonment. The first was a history, Eleanor of Aquitaine, sticking closely to facts and examining all sources rigorously. Throughout their monastic lives, Heloise and Abelard maintained a regular and often passionate correspondence. edition, 1st printing) Large, sturdy book, purple covers, very bright gilt lettering to spine, 441 pages plus brief biographical note.She was no shrinking violet, but a tough, capable and resourceful woman who effortlessly wielded authority over men in a male-dominated age, and won their respect. I would love to do Queen Victoria but owing to the saturation of books on her life, that won't be yet. 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). He tells, in graphic detail, of the dreadful massacre at Vitry, for which he says he will never forgive himself. Although Abelard recovered, the loss of his manhood was obviously devastating for both him and Heloise.

At Heloise`s request, his body was buried at the Paraclete, and she was laid to rest beside him in the same tomb on her own death in 1164. Firstly, there is very little of this kind of fiction about nowadays; I was told recently it was a very unfashionable genre when I tried to publish a novel about Lady Jane Grey.Henry made his last visit with Katherine Parr, his sixth wife, during the progress that followed their wedding in 1543. Over the decades, a wedge was driven between the king, fiercely protective of his empire, and Eleanor, who felt restrained in her husband’s shadow. She was scandalous as a young woman, but an absolute inspiration who showed just what a woman can achieve, and what you can do at 67!

Katharine Hepburn's portrayal of Eleanor is masterful, as is Peter O'Toole's portrayal of Henry II in both films.

She bore ten children, two of whom, Richard the Lion Heart and John, became kings of Eng­land, and she lived to the ripe old age of 82 at a time when life expectancy was less than 35. These heads, from the porch of the twelfth/thirteenth century church of Candes St Martin, between Chinon and Fontevrault, are thought to represent Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and date from c. My lands stretched down from the Loire to the Pyreneees, and across from the sea to Massif Centrale. This book charts the early lives of Henry and Eleanor before they became a European power couple and examines the impact of their union on contemporaries and European politics. Where this occurs, I have been very careful to avoid making sweeping asumptions about her movements that cannot be, at least in part, substantiated by contemporary evidence.

She is telling him about a disaster that befell the army on Mount Cadmos, and how everyone has blamed her for it. Weir weaves a fascinating tale without embroidering…Anyone intending to read any kind of saga or romance would find this impressively organised history far more rewarding than fiction. It was said that she was still ‘indefatigable in every undertaking, although advanced in years; her power was the admiration of her age’. Leading historian Alison Weir gave a reading from her latest work, a biogra­phy entitled Eleanor of Aquitaine, at Waterstones in Piccadilly last night. LOUIS is more concerned about the threat posed by Henry's prospects of uniting Anjou, Normandy and England under his rule.When Richard became king, and went away on cru­sades, she even took the reins of power and toured the dominions whipping up support for John (her other son) ahead of his accession to the throne.