The saint and the Angevins
This first entry is not medieval at all, but since I mentioned I, Claudius yesterday and the magnificent Welsh actress, Sian Phillips, who played Livia, I feel I should also mention that on August 20, 14 AD, Agrippa Postumus, the grandson of the Emperor Octavian, who’d died the day before, was murdered. Historians do not know who was responsible; some have suggested the new emperor, Tiberius, Livia’s son by her first marriage, gave the order, although he denied it. But I, Claudius pins the blame on Livia again. Interestingly, the actor who played Agrippa Postumus in I, Claudius was John Castle, who also played Geoffrey in one of my all-time favorite films, The Lion in Winter. So you see, there is a connection—sort of-- between this ancient Roman murder and my beloved Angevins!
Also, on August 20th in 1153, Bernard, the abbot of Clairvaux died; he would be canonized in 1174. He was no friend to the Angevins, supposedly saying “From the devil they came, and to the devil they’ll go.” He also spent a lot of time lecturing Eleanor when she was Queen of France; she didn’t listen. He appears as a character in one scene of When Christ and His Saints Slept, where he crosses verbal swords with Henry’s father Geoffrey, the Count of Anjou, and predicts Geoffrey’s death in thirty days. Geoffrey was not impressed, but others might have been when he died prematurely a few weeks later. That particular scene in Saints is also the one where young Henry meets his future wife. Since I really miss writing about Henry, I can’t resist citing it here.
* * *
He’d seen beautiful women before. He’d never seen one so vibrant, though, or so vividly compelling. She was watching the uproar as if it were a play put on her for benefit, those glowing green eyes sparkling with sunlight and curiosity and silent laughter, and when she glanced in Henry’s direction, she held his gaze, a look that was both challenging and enigmatic.
Henry drew a deep, dazzled breath. He was utterly certain that this was Eleanor of Aquitaine, and no less sure that the French king must be one of God’s greatest fools.
* * *
Also, on August 20th in 1153, Bernard, the abbot of Clairvaux died; he would be canonized in 1174. He was no friend to the Angevins, supposedly saying “From the devil they came, and to the devil they’ll go.” He also spent a lot of time lecturing Eleanor when she was Queen of France; she didn’t listen. He appears as a character in one scene of When Christ and His Saints Slept, where he crosses verbal swords with Henry’s father Geoffrey, the Count of Anjou, and predicts Geoffrey’s death in thirty days. Geoffrey was not impressed, but others might have been when he died prematurely a few weeks later. That particular scene in Saints is also the one where young Henry meets his future wife. Since I really miss writing about Henry, I can’t resist citing it here.
* * *
He’d seen beautiful women before. He’d never seen one so vibrant, though, or so vividly compelling. She was watching the uproar as if it were a play put on her for benefit, those glowing green eyes sparkling with sunlight and curiosity and silent laughter, and when she glanced in Henry’s direction, she held his gaze, a look that was both challenging and enigmatic.
Henry drew a deep, dazzled breath. He was utterly certain that this was Eleanor of Aquitaine, and no less sure that the French king must be one of God’s greatest fools.
* * *
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Carol
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Aug 21, 2012 02:24PM
Wow. You are right. I forgot that John Castle was Geoffrey. He was really smarmy in that story, but as you Haney shown in your books he was not quite that bad. I must say I much prefer your portrayal of him. Just think if he had not died in that tournament things may have turned out differently for Richard. Can you account for why Eleanor was not particularly fond of him.
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Carol, I wouldn't say she was not fond of him; in one of her letters to the Pope in 1193 she wrote movingly about the loss of Hal and Geoffrey. (I know she didn't compose them herself, but they certainly expressed her feelings.) But Henry and Eleanor shared a serious failing as parents. They had favorite and let it show. For Eleanor, it was always Richard. For Henry, it was first Hal (what I called him in my books to avoid a surfeit of Henrys) and then John. Henry was more at fault than Eleanor, for she was, of course, confined for 16 years, their sons' formative years. I don't doubt that Henry loved his sons, but he made so many mistakes. In my books, I kept trying to tell him that, but he wouldn't listen to me, a lowly scribe and a female one at that!
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