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Feb 12, 2008

Mike rated it:

A scholarly but lightly-written book on late 12th Century European politics, as told through the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor comes across as a remarkable woman, extremely strong-willed and independent. She originally married the King of France, and even joined him on a Crusade, then abandoned him for the King of England. Later, through her sons - Richard the Lionheart was her favorite - she fostered rebellions against the English King in his French territories. When the rebellions More...

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Aug 17, 2007

Rachel rated it:

I read this book in hardcover when it first came out before giving it to a friend (sorry Amy). At the time I seem to remember Weir saying in the introduction that it was more of a struggle to write this book than her Tudor histories due to the comparative lack and nature of sources (she relied chiefly on contemporary chroniclers, the richer biographical data of letters, diaries, etc no longer existing). Consequently I felt it was more of a struggle to read.

Not this time. I re-read More...

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Apr 02, 2010

Madeline rated it:

Alison Weir spends a lot of time in this book discusses common legends and misconceptions surrounding Eleanor, which was interesting for me because I hadn't heard any of them before. I really wasn't that familiar with Eleanor of Aquitaine before reading this - mostly I just knew that she went on crusade once, was Richard the Lionheart's mother, and was played by Katherine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter. From these three bits of information, we can at least deduce that she was kind of a badass.
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Sep 27, 2011

Kerri rated it:

A historical, non-fiction accounting of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of two kings (France's King Louis VII and England's King Henry II) and mother of three kings (England's Young King Henry, King Richard I and King John). She was born in 1122 and died at the age of 82....quite a phenomenal life span for that time period. Her influence, direct and indirect, helped to shape the history of France, England and quite a bit of the European continent. Eleanor's descendants include Kings and Queens of More...

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Oct 11, 2007

Kim rated it:

I've had a life-long and abiding interest in Eleanor of Aquitaine ever since I read a biography of her when I was 10 years old. I never realized, though, how little I actually knew about the Plantagenets...or how wrong what little I knew was...until I read Weir's book.

My only complaint about this book has less to do with Weir's impeccable scholarship and gift for narrative than it does with the scant record left behind by women, even notable women like Eleanor. (As an aside, it seems More...

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Dec 16, 2009

Kelly rated it:

This one was not as easy for me to get through as The Princes in the Tower, but I still enjoyed it. The reason it reads a little slower is just because of the exhaustive notes and the fact that she spends a lot more time on analysis of sources here. Which makes it feel more authoritative, but also a bit more like a textbook. However, Eleanor's life was sexy and interesting enough on its own. It really doesn't need that much help to be a page turner. I finished it and really liked it. Recommended More...

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Aug 10, 2011

Sigrun rated it:

It took me a lot longer to read this book than I had thought. I kept looking up information on the places I've been, especially in France, but also England, and anything else connected to the history that piqued my interest. Though it is based on Eleanor's life, there is too little known of some of it to fill a book. The only real sense you get of her is in two letters that she wrote to Pope Celestine III when her favorite son, Richard I, was imprisoned by the German Emperor in 1192 on his retur More...

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Jul 29, 2011

Laurie added it

Many biographies and historical novels have been written about Eleanor, and somehow, she always slips away, like an elusive mermaid. Alison Weir tries to limit her sources to contemporary accounts, but since the standards of evidence were not the same in those times, the results are frustrating. In a time when we know what prescriptions were in Michael Jackson or Brittany Murphy's house when they died, it's hard to accept that whole years of Eleanor's life are lost, especially the years when s More...

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Jan 30, 2011

Alex rated it:

There are not many important women of the Middle Ages, but Eleanor of Aquitaine has to be the most prominent and important: wife to King Louis VII of France and King Henry II of Britain and Aquitaine, mother of King Richard the Lionheart and King John of Magna Carta fame.

Quite a few biographies have been written over the years of Eleanor of Aquitaine, but there has never been one so adherent to primary and secondary sources, to the extent that the scenes depicted veritably come to life More...

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Dec 10, 2010

Starling rated it:

What can one say about this book. Certainly it is full of facts about Eleanor and her husbands, but after having read about half the book I have to admit that I really don't know anything about Eleanor at all.

If one needs a book that can tell you where Eleanor and/or her current husband were on a particular month in a particular year, this is the book. If you want to read about WHY Eleanor, or her French husband, wanted to divorce in an era when divorce was very rare, you won't find it More...

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Aug 05, 2010

Kiersten rated it:

I love Eleanor of Aquitaine, and have for a long time, so I was really excited to read this book. Weir's book was very well researched and extremely interesting at parts, but it could also become very pedantic and repetitive even. If you aren't really excited about the life of this 12th century queen, you probably will get bogged down by the middle of the book. Toward the end of her life (Eleanor lived to be 82 years old. Good heavens, that's old for today!) Eleanor was actively ruling her d More...

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Apr 06, 2010

April rated it:

A good, dry history book on a woman who has very little biographical data surviving...

Weir admits this in the introduction, but that doesn't stop her from creating a translucent picture into Eleanor's life. The scandal of her annulled marriage to the King of France on the grounds of their being too closely related only to create scandal by marrying Henry the Second, a man who was even more closely related with less land at the time of marriage.

Together, they ruled Grea More...

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Jan 30, 2010

Steven rated it:

This is another in Alison Weir’s series of historical biographical works. As always, the book is well-written with much historical detail coming from each page. As with some of her other works (such as “Katherine Swynford”), she takes a less than complete record of the person about whom she is writing and creates a plausible rendering of that person’s life. She notes where evidence is slim and makes cautious suggestions as to what might have happened during periods of time with little record of More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 15, 2009

Paul rated it:

I'm two chapters into this book, and I've decided to bail out. This book is almost a textbook on France in the 12th century. The author, in spite of a understandable feminist view of Eleanor, was objective and not necessarily sympathetic to Eleanor. Eleanor was known to play politics, and lovers. She actually got divorced (practically unheard of in the 12th century) and remarried King Henry II of England. Pretty good hook.

Unfortunately, the book is not very compelling. Page after More...

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Dec 10, 2008

Christy rated it:

As if "Timeline" hadn't convinced me enough, life in the Middle Ages was damn hard! This biography was not so much about Eleanor of Aquitaine as about the events and the men that governed her life: feudal wars, countless treaties made and broken, provences switching hands, marriages made and then annulled because of "consanguinity," kings and bishops being crowned and excommunicated, and women being sold in marriage during their early years (earliest was three?) to make good More...

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Aug 11, 2009

Ali rated it:

To me, as someone who is not an historian, the task of trying to resaerch a woman who lived 800 years ago, would seem an impossible one. In her Preface to this book Alison Weir explains how difficult it was to find relieable sources, and how others had warned her it would be impossible to bring Eleanor of Aqitaine to life. Therefore it should not be a surprise that after reading this remarkable book - Eleanor does remain largely a figure shrouded in the mists and mystery of time. I have read som More...

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Mar 30, 2009

Chris rated it:

Alison Weir's books are always entertaining as she provides a good depth to her history and her works tend to be less dry than some others. There are definite trade offs however and in particular I couldn't help but find the first part of the book to be really little more than a recap of Henry II times. Mostly because so little is actually known about Eleanor. This is not a bad thing but she might have retitled the book to reflect more of what this book covers. If it didn't have the story to tel More...

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Nov 29, 2010

F. rated it:

This is an excellent book, and for several reasons. First off, I covers a particularly interesting family during a particularly interesting time. Whether or not you like Eleanor of Aquitaine, you can't deny she's a key player in European history. Of course, this isn't just Eleanor's story. You'll read all about Henry II and their tumultuous brood of children. Eleanor and Henry are definitely the "it" couple of the 1100s, and their lives are so eventful and intriguing that it puts dayti More...

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Jul 28, 2011

Laura rated it:

I read this to compare to the fictionalized life that she also wrote; both were good. The detail here was great, and her writing, while well-notated, flows pretty well and is less 'scholarly' than in the Boleyn book I recently read by her. It was a little frustrating that whole years of Eleanor's life were undocumented, and at times she did need to focus on the men in Eleanor's life because that was where the sources seemed to be. However, Henry II and Richard I were also pretty interesting, More...

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Dec 10, 2009

Awallens rated it:

Renowned in her time for being the most beautiful woman in Europe, the wife of two kings and mother of three, Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the great
heroines of the Middle Ages. At a time when women were regarded as little more than chattel, Eleanor managed to defy convention as she exercised power
in the political sphere and crucial influence over her husbands and sons. In this beautifully written biography, Alison Weir paints a vibrant portrait
of this truly exceptional woman More...

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Dec 17, 2009

Sue rated it:

An amazing woman with an amazing story. Taking place in the 1100's it starts with her marriage to the King of England after her marriage to the King of France.
She is a woman that new how to work politically and had the largest land holdings of any woman in those times. With that she had power albeit limited because in those days the land was ruled by men.
See also "The Lion In Winter" with Katherine Hepburn!

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Oct 22, 2009

Amy rated it:

Going into this I had pretty high expectations. I love historical biographies - especially about British royalty. The Lion in Winter is my favorite movie of all time. And the 11th -13th centuries are my favorite centuries (wait, who has favorite centuries? dorks, right?).

This book pretty consistently delivered. The writing wasn't dry as can happen in many biographies - and was downright witty in place!

From page 236 of my edition: "It is likely that Henry's affair wit More...

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Mar 09, 2009

Lauren rated it:

Extreme well researched non-fiction. Eleanor of Aquitaine is a fascinating woman who was Queen of both France and England, Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, mother of kings (Richard I and John), crusader to the holy land, more than once!. In her 70s, she traveled across the Pyrenees to deliver a bride for her son. It is amazing what she accomplished in her long life, in an era when women were often relegated to the background and little was expected from them. As with non-fiction, Aliso More...

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May 10, 2009

Naomi rated it:

I thoroughly enjoyed Weir's well written account of the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Of course, you would have to be living under a rock to avoid hearing bits and pieces of Eleanor's life and that of her husband and sons, but Weir managed to provide some perspective and interpretation of both the times and the woman herself - the later half of the book was absolutely riveting. I think I made a comment early on in my reading that it was perhaps understandable why men were suspicious of power in More...

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Jun 17, 2011

Donna rated it:

A great powerful woman ahead of her time. Renowned for being the most beautiful woman in the world , 1122-1204, wife of two kings and mother to three she was a powerhouse with land, beauty and brains.
Although her soft spot for her oldest son King Richard and Henry II's pendant for not wanting to part with any of his immense land holdings to his sons, (more than 1/2 actually belonging to Eleanor)resulted in a royal turmoil of 'who is king now?'
A must read as an introduction to this More...

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Sep 04, 2009

Lindz rated it:

I am giving this biography a solid three stars. This is a brilliant beginning into the world of medieval Europe, which for a person who kept on being pulled back in and back in to Early Modern Tudor Stuart England, I am. This is a bio of the time Eleanor lived in and the people around her. The fact she was the wife of both France's and England's King and also the Mother of the likes of Richard the Lion Heart and Nasty King John makes for very interesting reading. Though very much involved in More...

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Jan 24, 2012

Amy rated it:

It’s probably not a good idea to approach a book of medieval history with high entertainment expectations. Life in twelfth-century Europe? A grim, relentless grind of war, disease, famine (or food so bad famine’s almost preferable) and unquestioning obedience to God, king, overlord, husband—even for the Queen of England and duchess of what constitutes most of modern-day France.

So my attitude going into Eleanor of Aquitaine—dread, fortified by strong coffee—was just about right. And w More...

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Sep 10, 2011

Kate rated it:

I was disappointed, as many reviewers have said, that this book focuses so much on the activities of the men surrounding Eleanor, rather than her own activities and motivations. While I understand that the lack of documentary evidence is a hurdle, I would hope that an accomplished historical writer like Weir would either piece together a meaningful narrative, or forbear to write the book altogether. Even when the author was using the evidence at hand, I was disappointed at the lack of analysis p More...

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Aug 20, 2009

Katie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Feb 21, 2011

Jeweleye rated it:

This book was not an easy read as it was full of genealogy, not just of Eleanor's family, but pretty much every nobleman and woman of England and France that lived during her lifetime. Add to that the fact that England and France were constantly at war, with the nobles and vassals switching sides from one conflict to the next. Whew!

Still, I persevered and got out of the book what interested me -- although what that is I couldn't tell you at the moment. Suffice it to say, Thomas Becke More...

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