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This was the price that Matilda paid for being a queen who dared to believe she might act like a King. And still the question remained, would a woman seeking this much power always face such outrage? Her daughter-in-law would attempt to find out with just as much determination as Matilda herself. But as the centuries have gone by, Eleanor of Aquitaine's fame has endured less as a she-wolf than as a queen of the romantic world of chivalry and courtly love. In fact we know very little for certain about Eleanor's looks or her emotional life. The only contemporary image of her that survives is this effigy from her tomb at Fontevraud Abbey and it's hard to get a sense of the extraordinary woman behind this mask-like face. One clue to her intellect is perhaps the book she's holding - not a typical prop for a medieval woman but then Eleanor wasn't typical in anything she did. She spent 80 years at the centre of European politics, not as a passive consort but as a dynamic force in her own right. Above all she was a woman who believed in her own agency her ability to determine her own fate. |
