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Eleanor had to rule England because Richard was away on crusade. And unusually for Eleanor's controversial career, her power didn't provoke critical comment. It seemed that a queen mother ruling on behalf of her son, the King, was infinitely more acceptable than a queen ruling in her own right. To establish her son's new regime, Eleanor travelled from city to city and castle to castle at the head of her queenly court, an unusual adjective for the chronicler Roger of Howden to choose, but one that emphasised the rare spectacle of a woman alone at the helm of English government. And she had to do the job for much longer than anyone had anticipated. On his way back from the Holy land, Richard was captured, and spent more than a year behind the walls of a German castle. |
