Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life

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Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life Page 52

by Alison Weir

57. Ibid.; Herbert of Bosham.

  58. Herbert of Bosham.

  10 "Conjectures Which Grow Day by Day"

  1. Herbert of Bosham.

  2. Materials for the History of Thomas Becket.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Roger of Pontigny; Herbert of Bosham.

  5. J. H. Ramsay, A History of the Revenues of the Kings of England.

  6. Court, Household and Itinerary.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Roger of Pontigny.

  9. Letter of Gilbert Foliot.

  10. Roger of Pontigny.

  11. Roger of Hoveden; Gervase of Canterbury; Edward Grim; Herbert of Bosham.

  12. Herbert of Bosham.

  13. William FitzStephen.

  14. William of Canterbury.

  15. Gervase of Canterbury.

  16. Roger of Pontigny.

  17. Pipe Rolls.

  18. Roger of Pontigny.

  19. Materials for the History of Thomas Becket; John of Salisbury.

  20. William of Newburgh.

  21. Ibid.; Herbert of Bosham; William FitzStephen.

  22. Court, Household and Itinerary.

  23. Robert of Torigni.

  24. Materials for the History of Thomas Becket.

  25. Roger of Hoveden.

  26. Ralph of Diceto.

  27. Robert of Torigni; William of Newburgh; Ralph of Diceto.

  28. For a full discussion of these legends and the literary tradition surrounding Rosamund de Clifford, see Owen, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

  29. Translation by John of Trevisa, 1387.

  30. Ralph of Diceto.

  31. Pipe Rolls.

  32. Pipe Rolls.

  33. Roger of Hoveden.

  34. John of Salisbury.

  35. Court, Household and Itinerary.

  36. It has been suggested by some of her biographers that during her travels she visited Woodstock with the intention of having her child there, only to find Rosamund de Clifford installed, which prompted her to withdraw in anger to Oxford. This is another example of the unsupported fictions that have attached themselves to Rosamund's name, and it is more likely that Eleanor had intended all along to be confined in Oxford, where she had borne her third son, Richard.

  37. Not 1167, the date erroneously given in many history books. 1167 is the date given by Robert of Torigni, but it must be inaccurate: in 1167 Henry was on the continent and Eleanor in England at the time when she would have conceived, and both spent Christmas in Normandy.

  38. Ralph of Diceto; Court, Household and Itinerary, quoting the chronicler Matthew of Westminster, who also gives the date as 1166.

  39. Court, Household and Itinerary.

  40. Pipe Rolls.

  41. Some sources state that she was veiled as a nun of Fontevrault on her deathbed.

  42. Her remains were later removed to Rouen Cathedral.

  43. Ralph of Diceto.

  44. Court, Household and Itinerary.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Robert of Torigni; Gervase of Canterbury.

  48. Some writers claim that Eleanor stayed in Lusignan Castle, but she could not have done, because it was then occupied by the rebel Lusignans.

  49. Bibliotheque Nationale MSS. Latin 5480, Paris.

  50. Robert of Torigni; Chronique des eglises d'Anjou.

  51. L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale.

  52. For this episode, see L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale; Gervase of Canterbury; Roger of Hoveden.

  53. L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale.

  54. William FitzStephen; Ralph Niger.

  55. See below, Chapter 13.

  56. Ralph Niger.

  57. Court, Household and Itinerary.

  58. Giraldus Cambrensis.

  59. Ralph Niger.

  11 "The Holy Martyr"

  1. Gervase of Canterbury.

  2. Robert of Torigni; John of Salisbury. The office of Seneschal of France had previously been bestowed by Louis on another son-in-law, Theobald of Blois.

  3. William of Canterbury.

  4. Robert of Torigni.

  5. William of Canterbury.

  6. Giraldus Cambrensis; Richard.

  7. Herbert of Bosham.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Robert of Torigni.

  10. Ralph of Diceto.

  11. Ibid.; William FitzStephen.

  12. He was a son of Earl Robert of Gloucester, Henry I's bastard son.

  13. Ralph of Diceto.

  14. William FitzStephen.

  15. Court, Household and Itinerary.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Robert of Torigni.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Ralph of Diceto; the date is sometimes given erroneously as 24 May.

  20. A few twelfth-century chroniclers refer to him as Henry III.

  21. William of Canterbury; Matthew Paris.

  22. L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale.

  23. Walter Map.

  24. Geoffrey of Vigeois.

  25. Walter Map.

  26. Ambrose.

  27. Giraldus Cambrensis.

  28. Walter Map.

  29. L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale.

  30. Roger of Hoveden.

  31. Robert of Torigni.

  32. Walter Map.

  33. William of Newburgh.

  34. L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale.

  35. Giraldus Cambrensis.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Adam of Eynsham.

  38. Geoffrey of Vigeois.

  39. Ibid.; Gervase of Canterbury.

  40. Ralph of Diceto.

  41. William FitzStephen.

  42. Materials for the History of Thomas Becket.

  43. Roger of Hoveden.

  44. Robert of Torigni.

  45. Richard.

  46. Ralph of Diceto.

  47. Ibid.

  48. William FitzStephen.

  49. Herbert of Bosham.

  50. Ralph of Diceto.

  51. Roger of Hoveden.

  52. William FitzStephen.

  53. Ibid.

  54. William of Newburgh.

  55. Edward Grim; he knew Becket personally and wrote a biography of him around 1175-1177. There are two other versions of the King's speech in Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, the version given in this text being an amalgamation of all three.

  56. William of Newburgh.

  57. There are nine contemporary accounts of the murder of Becket, four of them by eyewitnesses. The account given here is by one of the latter, Edward Grim.

  58. Edward Grim.

  59. Materials for the History of Thomas Becket.

  60. Ibid.

  61. William FitzStephen.

  62. Edward Grim.

  63. William FitzStephen.

  64. Edward Grim; Ralph of Diceto.

  12 "The Cubs Shall Awake"

  1. Roger of Hoveden.

  2. Ibid.

  3. William of Newburgh.

  4. Roger of Hoveden.

  5. Edward Grim.

  6. English Historical Documents; see also Ralph of Diceto.

  7. Ralph of Diceto.

  8. Ibid.

  9. William FitzStephen.

  10. Materials for the History of Thomas Becket.

  11. Ralph of Diceto.

  12. Roger of Hoveden.

  13. Ibid.; Gervase of Canterbury; William of Newburgh.

  14. Roger of Hoveden.

  15. Henry kept this promise: he established a Carthusian house at Witham, Somerset, refounded Amesbury Abbey as a cell of Fontevrault, and re-founded and greatly enlarged Waltham Abbey in Essex.

  16. Geoffrey of Vigeois; some sources give the date of Richard's investiture as Duke of Aquitaine as 1170 or 1179, but it is clear that Geoffrey of Vigeois is correct.

  17. Richard.

  18. Itinerary of Richard I.

  19. Ralph of Coggeshall.

  20. Ralph of Diceto.

  21. Charter of Eleanor to the Abbey of Fontevrault, 1199.

&n
bsp; 22. Itinerary of Richard I.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Giraldus Cambrensis.

  25. Philip perhaps married Amelie, heiress of Cognac, and became Lord of Cognac. It has been suggested by later writers that a noblewoman, Jeanne de St. Pol, bore Richard a son called Fulk, but there is no contemporary evidence for this.

  26. Chronique de Touraine.

  27. Ralph of Diceto; Roger of Hoveden.

  28. Ralph of Diceto.

  29. Roger of Hoveden; Gervase of Canterbury.

  30. Jordan Fantosme.

  31. Robert of Torigni.

  32. William of Newburgh.

  33. Roger of Hoveden.

  13 "Beware of Your Wife and Sons"

  1. Ralph of Diceto.

  2. Geoffrey of Vigeois.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Ralph of Diceto; Robert of Torigni.

  5. William of Newburgh; Ralph of Diceto; Robert of Torigni.

  6. Ralph of Diceto.

  7. Roger of Hoveden; Gervase of Canterbury; Ralph of Coggeshall.

  8. Roger of Hoveden.

  9. William of Newburgh.

  10. Ibid.

  11. For the rebellion of 1173-1174, see chiefly William of Newburgh; Gervase of Canterbury; Roger of Hoveden; Gesta Henrici Secundi; Peter of Blois; Robert of Torigni; Ralph of Diceto.

  12. Roger of Hoveden does not mention the Young King visiting Aquitaine, but says that the Queen sent her younger sons to France "to join with him against their father the King."

  13. Giraldus Cambrensis.

  14. Patrologiae Latinae; Receuil des historiens.

  15. Gervase of Canterbury. Gervase is the only chronicler to mention Eleanor's arrest, and then does so only to express shock at the fact that she was wearing male attire, which was then considered a serious offence against good order in society and was virtually heresy, as far as the Church was concerned. Gervase does not specify when or where the arrest of the Queen took place, but since he places it between his accounts of the princes' departure for Paris and the outbreak of hostilities in May, it is likely that it occurred in the spring, rather than the autumn, of 1173, as some historians have suggested.

  16. Richard.

  17. Gesta Henrici Secundi.

  18. Roger of Hoveden.

  19. Gervase of Canterbury.

  20. Roger of Hoveden; Ralph of Diceto.

  21. Ralph of Diceto.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Richard le Poitevin; Robert of Torigni.

  24. Gesta Henrici Secundi.

  25. Roger of Hoveden.

  26. Ralph of Diceto.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Roger of Hoveden.

  29. Ralph of Diceto.

  30. Jordan Fantosme.

  31. Ralph of Diceto; Roger of Hoveden.

  32. Roger of Hoveden.

  33. Ralph of Diceto.

  34. Ibid.

  35. Ralph of Diceto, Gervase of Canterbury, and the Gesta Henrici Secundi all state that Eleanor was taken to Winchester; only Geoffrey de Vigeois says she was first taken to Salisbury.

  36. Ralph of Diceto.

  37. Giraldus Cambrensis; Roger of Hoveden.

  38. Gervase of Canterbury.

  39. Roger of Wendover.

  40. Ibid.

  41. Gervase of Canterbury.

  42. Jordan Fantosme.

  43. Gervase of Canterbury.

  44. For this episode, see Jordan of Fantosme; Roger of Hoveden; William of Newburgh.

  45. Ralph of Diceto.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Scodand remained a fief of England until 1189, when Richard I, in need of money for his crusade, revoked the Treaty of Falaise in return for ten thousand marks.

  48. Ralph of Diceto.

  49. Ibid.

  50. The figure usually quoted is £15,000 in Angevin pounds, which is equivalent to £3,750 in English pounds.

  51. For the Treaty of Mondouis, see Ralph of Diceto; Roger of Hoveden; William of Newburgh.

  52. Roger of Hoveden.

  53. Ralph of Diceto.

  54. Giraldus Cambrensis.

  14 "Poor Prisoner"

  1. Gervase of Canterbury.

  2. Pipe Rolls.

  3. Roger of Hoveden; Ralph of Diceto.

  4. Roger of Hoveden; Ralph of Diceto.

  5. Roger of Hoveden.

  6. Ralph of Diceto.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Roger of Hoveden.

  12. Ibid; Ralph of Diceto.

  13. Adam of Eynsham.

  14. Roger of Hoveden.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Bertran de Born.

  17. Roger of Hoveden.

  18. L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale.

  19. Ralph of Diceto.

  20. Roger of Hoveden.

  21. Roger of Wendover.

  22. This is inferred from the fact that Eleanor was at Winchester for Michaelmas in September. Whether she also accompanied Joanna to Southampton is pure speculation, but it seems unlikely.

  23. Ralph of Diceto.

  24. Pipe Rolls.

  25. Her name is variously given as Hawise, Hawisa, Avise, Avisa, or Isabella.

  26. See Owen, Eleanor of Aquitaine; T. A. Archer's article on Rosamund

  de Clifford in the Dictionary of National Biography; and Chambers, "Some Legends concerning Eleanor of Aquitaine."

  27. Roger of Hoveden.

  28. For Rosamund's reburial, see Ranulf Higden's Polychronicon. In the fourteenth century Ranulf Higden stated that Rosamund's "little coffin, scarcely of two foot long" and carved with realistic giants and animals, was still to be seen at Godstow. In the sixteenth century, the antiquary John Leland described how the tomb was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries: "Rosamund's tomb at Godstow nunnery was taken up [of] late; it is a stone with this inscription, 'Tomba Rosamundae.' Her bones were closed in lead, and within that in leather. When it was opened, a very sweet smell came out of it." The stone tomb was broken up, but at the end of the sixteenth century, another antiquarian, John Stow, claimed that the image of a cup had been engraved upon it, which seemed to give credence to the legend that Eleanor had poisoned her rival.

  29. Roger of Hoveden.

  30. Ralph of Diceto; Pipe Rolls.

  31. Roger of Hoveden.

  32. Ibid. 33- Ibid.

  34. Ibid.

  35. Ibid.

  36. Ibid.

  37. Ibid.

  38. The Chronicle of Meaux.

  39. The twentieth-century biographer Amy Kelly claims that Queen Eleanor escorted the princess as far as Bordeaux, but this is highly unlikely and no contemporary source mentions it; in fact, Eleanor is not referred to by the chroniclers during this year.

  40. Roger of Hoveden.

  41. Ralph of Diceto.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Roger of Hoveden.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Ibid.; Ralph of Diceto.

  47. Giraldus Cambrensis.

  48. Ralph of Diceto.

  49. Ibid.

  50. William of Tyre.

  51. Robert of Torigni; Roger of Hoveden.

  52. Roger of Hoveden; Choix des poesies originales des troubadours; Antoine Thomas, Bertran van Born; Cledat, Du role historique de Bertran de Born; Stim-ming, Bertran van Born.

  53. Robert of Torigni; Roger of Hoveden.

  54. Ralph of Diceto.

  55. Roger of Hoveden.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Robert of Torigni.

  58. Roger of Hoveden.

  59. L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale.

  60. Gervase of Canterbury.

  61. Ralph of Diceto.

  62. Ibid.

  63. Ibid.; Roger of Hoveden; Gervase of Canterbury.

  64. Ralph of Diceto.

  65. For the rising in Aquitaine, see Roger of Hoveden and Geoffrey of Vigeois.

  66. Roger of Hoveden.

  67. Gervase of Canterbury.

  68.
Geoffrey of Vigeois.

  69. Walter Map.

  70. Roger of Hoveden; Patrologiae Latinae.

  71. Walter Map; Geoffrey of Vigeois.

  72. Roger of Hoveden.

  73. Ralph of Diceto.

  74. Geoffrey of Vigeois.

  75. Ibid.

  76. Geoffrey of Vigeois is the principal source for the Young King's death.

  77. L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechale.

  78. Ralph of Coggeshall.

  79. William of Newburgh.

  80. Geoffrey of Vigeois.

  81. Roger of Hoveden.

  82. Ralph of Diceto.

  83. Ibid.

  84. Ralph of Coggeshall.

  85. Poedera, Conventiones.

  86. Gesta Henrici Secundi.

  87. Ralph of Diceto.

  88. Roger of Hoveden.

  89. Ralph of Diceto.

  15 "Shame, Shame on a Conquered King!"

  1. William of Newburgh.

  2. Roger of Hoveden.

  3. Gervase of Canterbury asserts that Eleanor was released in 1185 at the instance of Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury, but this is at variance with other sources, which confirm that she was set at liberty in 1183.

  4. Roger of Hoveden.

  5. Gervase of Canterbury.

  6. Chronique de Saint-Denis.

  7. When his tomb in Worcester Cathedral was opened in 1797, John's skeleton was found to measure five feet five inches.

  8. Richard of Devizes.

  9. The Chronicle of Meaux.

  10. William of Newburgh.

  11. Ralph of Diceto.

  12. Matthew Paris.

  13. Roger of Wendover; Matthew Paris.

  14. Matthew Paris.

  15. Roger of Hoveden.

  16. Ibid.

  17. The Chronicle of Meaux.

  18. Roger of Hoveden.

  19. Giraldus Cambrensis.

  20. Pipe Rolls.

  21. Ralph of Diceto.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Pipe Rolls.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Roger of Hoveden; Geoffrey of Vigeois.

  26. Roger of Hoveden.

  27. Her birth date is given as 1184 or 1186, but 1184 is the date accepted by most historians.

  28. Roger of Hoveden.

  29. Henry also declined to accept the crown of Jerusalem for himself.

  30. Roger of Hoveden.

  31. It would be rebuilt in the Gothic style by Bishop Hugh of Avalon from 1192.

  32. Gesta Henrici Secundi; Roger of Hoveden.

  33. Roger of Hoveden.

  34. Gesta Henrici Secundi.

  35. Roger of Hoveden.

  36. William of Newburgh.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Ralph of Diceto.

  39. Roger of Hoveden; Ralph of Diceto.

  40. Ralph of Diceto.

  41. Gesta Henrici Secundi; Giraldus Cambrensis.

 

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