The life of Eleanor of Aquitaine as part of the research for the motion picture script "Eleanor".
Eleanor of Aquitaine is credited with giving birth to Western traditions of romance, chivalry, and courtly love. She was a leader of the Second Crusade to the Middle East. Her battle plan would have brought victory, but her jealous husband King Louis jailed her. The crusade was lost, but the culture she encountered in "modern day" Iraq-Syria-Israel transformed her. Her new view of romantic love changed her and her new courts of love changed the world.
Young Eleanor becomes the Queen of France at 15. She matures as a powerful and seductive leader. At 24 she marches to the Second Crusade. There an amazing transformation of Eleanor takes place, where her battle plans lead to emprisonment by her jealous husband King Louis. In the desert she learns of the noble values of romantic love. Returning as Queen of France, as if that is not enough, she becomes Queen of England at 32. Perhaps her greatest contribution, at the height of her power at 47 is her legendary romantic courts of love. Her main court is centered in Poitier, France while she is the Queen of England. The city is already a pilgrimage for great knights old and new, for Poitier lies near the site of the great battlefield where Charles Martel defeated the Muslims 300 years before. Here in Eleanor's court, a code develops of love, honor, and chivalry. As her culture begins to flourish and grow in fame and influence, and at its very height, her envious husband, Henry II has Archbishop Becket murdered horribly in the Canterbury Cathedral. Fearing Eleanor's power and the upheaval in Europe to march on the murderer, Henry imprisons the 50 year old Queen. After 15 years in jail, her famous son, Richard the Lionhearted, defeats Henry in battle and releases Eleanor from prison. She presides over England while Richard leads the Third Crusade. When Richard is taken captive by his German allies and after raising ransom, Eleanor travels to his dungeon with the ransom to release him. Over time she becomes the master politician of European kingdoms. At 82, a mother of ten, queen of two countries and creator of the great romantic court traditions her life is over. Her children became the royalty of Italy, Germany, Spain, France and England - King Richard the Lionhearted, King John, Queen Eleanor of Spain, Queen Joanna of Sicily, and granddaughter Blanche, Queen of France.
A champion of the human dimensions of love, Eleanor puts an end to the world tradtions of marriage as an arrangements of women as property, . In its place she encouraged a genuine code of love and valuing. In her courts, love is the heart of relationship. Strong testimonies acted before the court were evidence enough to end a marriage, and become the grounds for divorce, a highly controversial notion at the time. She rebalances the value of women, disallows women being the tokens of marriage, elaborates the codes of chivalry, certifies the establishment of the jury by twelve, and becomes the inspiration for thousands of knights. She becomes the motive for many Troubadour songs, and inspires lyrics and stories of the times. The rewrite of King Arthur puts in the legendary story for the first time, Guenivere (Eleanor) and the new and now famous French knights. In Eleanor's domains, women were no longer the object of conquest as the bargaining chips by fathers. Love, especially the love by man for woman became its own quest. The testimonies of the court codified the many rituals of romance practised today- letter writing, courteous behavior, gift giving, engagement rings, Valentine ceremony, refined wine, flower giving, dance and other revels of her form of court. In her court, when love came subject, her judgments ruled love as a primary cause in a relationship - a controversial belief that was ruled heresy.
Reviving ancient Roman styles of life, Eleanor extended this to the humanely elegant form of architecture - the Romanesque. She also imported Spanish Muslim and Persian influences in architecture, customs, dress, cooking, and thought. Her freeing rule helped give birth to what historians call the first European Renaissance. Romance as a social code and individual determination of courage, faith and relationships were important to her sense of life and justice. Love, which gives life, figured heavily into the complex multi-level courts and domains that she ruled. Upon her death, Church and King condemned, expunged and reverted her hard won court practices, legal judgments, and book of love.
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