Particularize About Books Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life (World Leaders Past & Present )
| Title | : | Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life (World Leaders Past & Present ) |
| Author | : | Alison Weir |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 496 pages |
| Published | : | April 3rd 2001 by Ballantine Books (first published 1999) |
| Categories | : | History. Biography. Nonfiction. Historical. Medieval. Cultural. France. European Literature. British Literature |
Alison Weir
Paperback | Pages: 496 pages Rating: 3.98 | 13238 Users | 630 Reviews
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In this beautifully written biography, Alison Weir paints a vibrant portrait of a truly exceptional woman and provides new insights into her intimate world. 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. Eleanor of Aquitaine lived a long life of many contrasts, of splendor and desolation, power and peril, and in this stunning narrative, Weir captures the woman--and the queen--in all her glory. With astonishing historic detail, mesmerizing pageantry, and irresistible accounts of royal scandal and intrigue, she recreates not only a remarkable personality but a magnificent past era.
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| ISBN: | 0345434870 (ISBN13: 9780345434876) |
| Edition Language: | English URL http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/alison-weir/eleanor-of-aquitaine.htm |
| Series: | World Leaders Past & Present |
| Characters: | Eleanor of Aquitaine |
Rating About Books Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life (World Leaders Past & Present )
Ratings: 3.98 From 13238 Users | 630 ReviewsColumn About Books Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life (World Leaders Past & Present )
Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of historys most formidable women, so inevitably many have had axes to grind regarding her, whether about the immorality and awfulness of her terrible acts and attitudes, or about the ahead-of-her-time awesomeness indicated by those exact same acts and attitudes. And then of course you have the school of historians desperate to prove that everyone throughout history has been just as dull as themselves, and anything interesting must have been made up. Weir tries toAs 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 on those treaties.
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 the
Weir faces some interesting challenges as a historian here: sifting reliable sources about Eleanor from apocryphal stories and putting together a coherent picture of the powerful queen from the traces left in chronicles about the men she influenced. What emerges is a remarkably clear and compelling story of an intelligent and capable woman who married two kings, birthed ten children, marched in two Crusades, ran kingdoms in her husbands' and sons' absences, incited her sons to rebellion, argued
I selected this book as a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, it is almost 500 pages, so I expected to learn a lot about the fascinating life of this famous queen. Unfortunately, not many reliable contemporary sources that record the protagonist life are available to us, and in consequence, my expectations had to be readjusted. Even in this book, Eleanor remains a secondary figure. Many chapters are dedicated to the lives of the queen spouses (King Luis VII of France, Henry II of England), her
Once again Alison Weir has produced another wonderful and exciting biography. In this book on Eleanor of Aquitaine she has told the story of this most interesting person in a manner that had me glued to the pages. I must state that I have not previously read any books on this subject, quite a few on Richard I but nothing on his mother. I usually enjoy military history but this was an excellent story, well researched and well presented with heaps of plots, fighting and treachery. The story may
an incomparable woman... A scholarly introduction to the life of one of the most remarkable medieval women - Eleanor of Aquitaine, a wife of two and a mother of three kings. So few primary sources survive that we do not even have a reliable description of her appearance. Alison Weir provides a balanced portrait- she does not shy away from discussing the circumstantial evidence of Eleanors extramarital affairs in her youth or that of the queen's inciting her sons to overthrow her second husband
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