The Courts of Love: The Story of Eleanor of Aquitaine (64 page)

John neglected his duties—and Philip Augustus was one to take advantage of that. He felt his way cautiously. He made leisurely progress through the country, taking castles as he went. There was little opposition. Nobody wanted to be ruled by John. There was nothing I could do. While I remained in Poitiers, Aquitaine would be faithful to me as long as I lived, but that would not be forever.

And then.         .         .         ?

I had to watch events and see John plunge farther and farther into disaster.

The Lusignans offered a heavy ransom for Hugh le Brun, and foolishly John accepted it, so freeing him and adding to his dangerous enemies.

There was Arthur. What became of Arthur is a mystery. There have been many rumors. There is one story that Hubert de Burgh, the castellan of the castle, was ordered by John to castrate him and put out his eyes and that Hubert found himself unable to perform this dastardly deed. He hid Arthur and told John that he had died while the foul deed was being done and that he had buried him in the precincts of the castle. John, it seemed, was satisfied.

The subject of Arthur would not die down. Where was he? people were asking, including Arthur’s immediate family and the King of France. Suspicion turned on John. Rumor was rife, and John began to be worried. Arthur had disappeared. He was presumed dead, and John was the suspect.

John affected great sorrow, and Hubert de Burgh, not knowing how to deal with such a situation and wondering how he was going to keep Arthur concealed forever, confessed to John that he had not carried out his orders and that Arthur still lived in a secret room in the castle. John assumed great delight, congratulating de Burgh, and Arthur appeared on the streets of Falaise.

Everyone was satisfied.

But, of course, John would not allow Arthur to remain at liberty. He was taken to the castle of Rouen and never seen again.

I think I can guess what happened: John murdered him there and threw his body into the Seine. That is the most likely solution, and I fear there must be truth in it.

I despaired of John.

One by one those places which Henry had been so proud of were falling into the hands of Philip Augustus: Le Mans, Bayeux, Lisieux         .         .         .         and others.

It had happened so quickly that I could scarcely believe it possible. All that Henry, with my help, had built up, to crumble so soon. It would not be long before all our French possessions passed out of our hands.

Rouen itself was in danger. Messages were sent to John in England. Reinforcements were needed. There must be no delay. But John was reveling with his worthless friends; he was spending his nights and half his days in bed with Isabella. That was more important to him than the Plantagenet Empire.

I was helpless. What can an old woman of eighty do? If I had been younger, I would have done everything possible to rid the country of my son John.

I think the final humiliation was the loss of Chteau Gaillard—Richard’s castle, built to hold out against the enemy for centuries. “I will hold it,” Richard had said, “were it made of butter.”

When it fell to the French, I knew that was the end.

I went to Fontevrault. What was there to do now but wait for my departure to another life? So I shut myself away. I follow the quiet life of the nuns; and I am reliving my life by writing of it as I remember it from all those years ago.

I often think of Henry and his dream of possessing the whole of Europe. Women influenced his life more than men; there had been Rosamund, Alais and myself. But for his relationship with the three of us how different would his life have been? And with me it had been men: Louis, Raymond of Antioch, Henry and Richard. All the King’s women and all the Queen’s men—how much had they shaped the course of history?

Looking back, I see that what I had always wanted was love. I had been born into the Courts of Love and all my life I had been trying to return to them—not as they had been in my grandfather’s day but of my own making. With Louis it had been impossible; with Raymond there had been that blissful interlude which was necessarily transient; with Henry I believed I should find what I sought, and how bitterly disappointed I had been; Richard I had loved selflessly, and perhaps that is the best way to love.

But it is all over now. That which Henry had so painstakingly built up is being lost, and soon there will be nothing left but England.

John has done this. John, who should never have been born. Nor would he have been if I had learned of Henry’s perfidy earlier. John was not conceived in love, and all the time I was carrying him I was obsessed by my hatred of his father. It all comes back to me clearly now.

So he was born, this monster, this sadist who tortures and torments, who must know that an empire is disintegrating while he sports in bed with the woman he took from Hugh le Brun.

What more is there to say?

So I lay down my pen and wait to pass out of a life which I have, I think, lived to the full. I am glad to be going at this time for I know my son John will plunge further and further into disaster. What will become of him? What will become of England, which is all that is left to him now?

I shall never know.

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About the Author

JEAN PLAIDY is the pen name of the late English author E. A. Hibbert, who also wrote under the names Philippa Carr and Victoria Holt. Born in London in 1906, Hibbert began writing in 1947 and eventually published more than two hundred novels under her three pseudonyms. The Jean Plaidy books—ninety in all—are works of historical fiction about the famous and infamous women of English and European history, from medieval times to the Victorian era. Hibbert died in 1993.

The Courts of Love

The Story of Eleanor of Aquitaine

Jean Plaidy

A Reader’s Group Guide

About This Guide

Eleanor of Aquitaine remains as intriguing today as she has in centuries past. In
The Courts of Love,
the inimitable Jean Plaidy brings this fascinating queen to life, allowing Eleanor to tell the captivating story of her life and loves in this fictional “memoir.”

Intelligent, independent, and beautiful, at age fifteen Eleanor was named Duchess of Aquitaine, the richest province in Europe. She became Queen of France upon marrying King Louis VII, but their tepid union ended when Eleanor met Henry II, the first Plantagenet King of England. Their tempestuous pairing produced many sons and daughters—two of whom would reign over England—and generated a legend unsurpassed.

A majestic and sweeping story set against a backdrop of medieval politics, intrigue, and strife,
The Courts of Love
is filled with fascinating themes: love, passion, betrayal, loyalty, and heartbreak. This guide is designed to help direct your reading group’s discussion of Jean Plaidy’s unforgettable novel.

Questions for Discussion

1.         Eleanor of Aquitaine is one of the most enduring figures of medieval history and literature. In reading the story of her life in the first person, was Eleanor’s legend enhanced for you? Why or why not?

2.         The book opens with this passage: “When I look back over my long and tempestuous life, I can see that much of what happened to me—my triumphs and most of my misfortunes—was due to my passionate relationships with men. I was a woman who considered herself their equal—and in many ways their superior—but it seemed that I depended on them, while seeking to be the dominant partner—an attitude which could hardly be expected to bring about a harmonious existence.” Do you agree that Eleanor’s relationships with men are what ultimately shaped her fate?

3.         Eleanor repeatedly asks herself why she married Henry: “Perhaps he was not the mighty figure I had imagined him. In fact, he was by no means the man with whom I had fallen passionately in love.         .         .         . Why had I married him?” (page 252) How would you answer that question? Do you think that she knew Henry’s true nature when she married him, or was love blind in her case? How are Henry and her first husband Louis similar and different? How is Eleanor like her husbands?

4.         Throughout the novel, Eleanor fondly refers to her grandfather’s “Courts of Love,” speaking longingly of the troubadours who charmed the crowd with their songs of ardor and devotion, and wishing she could replicate the Courts’ emotion and sensuality in her own court. Why do you think she longed for this time in her life so often?

5.         Eleanor has been described throughout history as one of the world’s greatest female rulers, revered for her superior intellect, extraordinary courage, and fierce loyalty to her children and her land. Does Jean Plaidy’s portrait of Eleanor mirror history’s “snapshot” of her? Where might it differ?

6.         When her father leaves for his pilgrimage, Eleanor’s sister Petronilla asks her to tell her stories of the Courts of Love. Eleanor says, “I remember some of it, but I did not understand it all at the time.         .         .         . Men were very daring in those days and they have changed little. They will sing songs of love and devotion and how they adore you and set you on a pedestal so that they can worship you, and all the time it is merely to lull your feelings into a sense of security, and when you are sufficiently lulled they will take advantage of you. And once that has happened they will tire of you” (page 33). Discuss Eleanor’s opinion of men in terms of her relationships with Louis and Henry. Did she learn from these words?

7.         Although Eleanor was greatly disappointed in Louis’s hesitant and rather indifferent style of romance, she also looked at his sexual inadequacies as an opportunity to control him, saying, “There was something rather timid about him. While that irked me in a way, for perhaps I had dreamed of a masterful lover, in another way it pleased me for I knew at once that I should be able to lead him the way I wanted him to go” (page 38). Was she able to control him throughout their relationship, and after? How so? Where was she not able to control him? Do you think that his lack of attention to her in this manner actually caused her to lose control of herself?

8.         At her coronation as Queen of France, Eleanor takes notice of the men of her court and makes the following observation about one in particular: “[Raoul of Vermandois] had the trick of almost creating a sexual encounter by willing it to take place, a kind of mental seduction. I found it amusing and stimulating; and with a husband like Louis I needed a little stimulation at times” (page 60). Is Eleanor’s frankness about her sexual needs surprising?

9.         Eleanor learns that Petronilla is the mistress (and carrying the child) of Raoul of Vermandois—the same man Eleanor has lusted after. Eleanor is devastated upon this discovery, saying, “It was a great blow to my self-esteem. I began to wonder how sincere any of the men were who cast desirous eyes on me” (page 72). Is it surprising when Eleanor admits that she draws strength from the admiration of men? How does this contradict her feminist notions about the qualities of a female ruler?

10.         Henry’s intense yet torturous friendship with Thomas Becket is very similar to Louis’s close attachment to the monk Bernard of Clairvaux. Eleanor bitterly despises both of these men. What might explain her vitriol and jealousy toward them?

11.         Having been attracted to him from a young age, Eleanor acts on her feelings for her uncle Raymond and they become lovers, their affair ending when Louis abducts her and later when Raymond is tragically killed in battle. “My uncle! My lover! And the most handsome, the most perfect man in the world.         .         .         .         Raymond, my love, so alive, so different, the one I had been waiting for all my life—and now he was dead” (page 145). Was it an accident of fate that the man Eleanor believed to be the greatest love of her life happened to be a close relation? Or do you think Raymond was a deliberate choice on her part?

12.         Discuss the power of religion and the church over Eleanor, her husband, and her father.

13.         What did you think of Eleanor’s decision to repair to the nunnery, Fontevrault, to spend her final days? She says, “I realized that I could be content to spend what was left of my life here. I liked the ways of the convent” (page 543).

14.         When Eleanor finds out about Henry’s lover Rosamund, Eleanor exclaims, “He was actually in love with her. That was what was so galling to me. He cared about her. She was not just a woman of the moment. He had brought her to the palace of Woodstock, and while I was in France taking care of the dominions there, Rosamund was living in my apartments as Queen!” (page 314) In light of Henry’s other infidelities of which she was aware, how would you explain why Eleanor found this one to be so egregious?

15.         After she leads her sons to revolt against their father, Henry incarcerates Eleanor as punishment. In what ways was Eleanor a captive of Henry’s, other than her physical imprisonment?