The Summer Queen (Eleanor of Aquitaine, #1)

by Elizabeth Chadwick

The language of power was exercised in more than just words. It was presence and thought; it was gesture and timing.

Within her the core of rebellion hardened. She would dress as she chose, because clothes and appearance were part of a woman’s armor in this world

Just because you forget the world does not mean that the world forgets you.

having something that meant everything was a double-edged sword. It meant you had so much more to lose.

She had become an expert at wearing masks, so much so that sometimes it was difficult to find her true self beneath the layers:

While writing The Summer Queen, I was constantly told that Alienor was a “woman ahead of her time.” But my own take is that she was a woman of her time doing her best within the boundaries of what society would permit. Any attempt to go outside those boundaries was immediately and sometimes brutally quashed, but she was nothing if not resilient.