Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard the Lionheart: The History of the Mother and Son Who Shaped Medieval Europe

Laying next to the tomb effigy of King Henry II of England in France's Fontevraud Abbey is a curious coffin chiseled in the shape of a young woman in repose. The once vibrant paint on the effigy is flaking, and several areas of the centuries-old tombs are chipped, but her general features are still somewhat recognizable. The beautiful, crowned queen, depicted with a soft smile on her face, was dressed in a simple, but elegant gown in white and blue, and an open book in her arms. The effigy is for none other than Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. Over the years, this mysterious 12th century figure has been portrayed in countless ways, from a valiant warrior queen and resourceful politician to a control-obsessed and manipulative siren whose only objective in life was power. What is clear is that during her long life, Eleanor she played an outsized role in both French and English history, and she also had an impact on the course of the Crusades, not just with her first husband, France’s King Louis VII, but also through her offspring with her second husband, Henry II. The enduring figure of the Middle Ages is the chivalrous knight who served as a hero across much of Europe, and nobody played a more defining role in casting the popular image of medieval knights than Eleanor’s son Richard the Lionheart, one of the most famous English kings and crusaders. In many respects, it was ironic that Richard became one of the central characters of the Middle Ages, and his very popular legacy today belies centuries of controversy. Richard I Plantagenet, better known by his nickname “Coeur de Lion” (Lionheart), eventually became King of England, Grand Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Poitou, and Duke of Anjou, but as the third son in a large family, he did not expect to or even want to rule England. Nevertheless, it was he who eventually came to the throne upon his father's death, assisted in great measure by his statesmanlike mother Eleanor. Richard lived in an age when knights were first asserting themselves as capable of being moral forces for good rather than only agents of chaos, and this attitude resolved itself into the mystique of chivalry. As one of the strongest knights of his age, Richard was also considered a flower of chivalry and greatly admired as a model of what it meant to be a knight, both in his lifetime and afterward. However, as the son of the most famous power couple of the age, he could best be described as an expansionist noble fighting over land with other expansionist nobles, which ensured he had many enemies. These enemies portrayed Richard as evil incarnate, a far cry from being an emblem of virtue. As with all such great and controversial figures, the real Richard lay somewhere in between. In many parts of the world today, Richard the Lionheart is remembered not for being a medieval king but for being perhaps the Crusades’ most famous European fighter. During the Third Crusade, Richard was pitted against the legendary Muslim leader Saladin, who like Richard was considered a flower of chivalry by some, a tyrant by others, and even a herald of the Antichrist by Christians. Richard and Saladin's campaign was cast by their contemporaries as a battle between good and evil (though who was good and who was evil depended greatly on the source), but eventually the legend and lore of mutual respect between the two military leaders, and popular contemporary depictions of both, helped cement their legacies. Richard's eventual reputation was bound up as much in the crusading spirit of his age as in his reputation as a fearsome warrior or the history of his tumultuous family. If anything, stories like The Lion in Winter have oversimplified the complex Plantagenets who were Richard's closest kin. View Less