Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. Hey, this
Speaker 1: is Dana, the host of Noble Blood. Thank you for listening.
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Speaker 1: the episode description. A little bit more housekeeping. I'm so
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Speaker 1: for listening. Let's get into this longer than normal episode.
Speaker 1: But knowing that the subject matter is Eleanor of Aquitaine,
Speaker 1: I think you can understand why I stretched out the
Speaker 1: episode just a little bit. Eleanor of Aquitaine, thirty years
Speaker 1: old and newly single, knew that there was danger lurking
Speaker 1: in the woods on her way back to her home
Speaker 1: in Poitier from her father. She had inherited the vast
Speaker 1: and incredibly wealthy duchies of Aquitaine and Poiito in what
Speaker 1: is now the south of France, and now that her
Speaker 1: marriage to the King of France, Louis the seventh had
Speaker 1: been officially annulled, every nobleman in the area knew that
Speaker 1: if they kidnapped Eleanor and forced her to marry them,
Speaker 1: all of her wealth and power would be theirs. It
Speaker 1: had been Eleanor's choice to annul her marriage to Louis.
Speaker 1: He had been madly in love with her, to the
Speaker 1: point that his barons were a little confused. Eleanor had
Speaker 1: always been a bad fit with the pious and dull Louis.
Speaker 1: She had married him when she was fifteen. Eleanor had
Speaker 1: come from the glamorous Duchy of Aquitaine in the South,
Speaker 1: and she arrived in Paris with an interest in fashion, music,
Speaker 1: and poetry that struck the northerners as indulgent. There's a
Speaker 1: reason Eleanor of Aquitaine has become such a figure of
Speaker 1: popular imagination over the centuries. She inspired bards and balladiers
Speaker 1: and artists. She had accompanied her husband on the Second
Speaker 1: Crusade to the Holy Land with her own retinue of
Speaker 1: ladies who probably didn't but, according to legend, dressed as Amazon's,
Speaker 1: that crusade had been, to put it briefly, a disaster.
Speaker 1: It was the beginning of the end of her marriage
Speaker 1: with Louis. Rumors began to swirl while she was on
Speaker 1: Crusade that Eleanor was having an affair with her own uncle,
Speaker 1: but even then, it wasn't until Eleanor gave birth to
Speaker 1: her second child with Louis, another daughter that Louis gave
Speaker 1: in when she asked for an annulment. Louie's barons had
Speaker 1: been badgering him for someone less controversial see Eleanor's rumored
Speaker 1: affair with her uncle. But the biggest problem was that
Speaker 1: they had been married for fifteen years and she hadn't
Speaker 1: Louis a son. When you are the king and you
Speaker 1: don't have an heir, that is a huge problem. And
Speaker 1: in the twelfth century, and when you are incredibly religious,
Speaker 1: you might read it as a sign that God didn't
Speaker 1: actually want you to be married to this person. After all,
Speaker 1: the Church helpfully annulled Eleanor and Louise's marriage on grounds
Speaker 1: of consanguinity. They were too closely related. In other words,
Speaker 1: they were fourth cousins, although of course that hadn't been
Speaker 1: a concern going into the marriage when money and land
Speaker 1: and title was at stake, but there it was. In
Speaker 1: eleven fifty two, Eleanor got her lands back and she
Speaker 1: was free for the first time in her adult life.
Speaker 1: But being free didn't mean that Eleanor was safe. On
Speaker 1: the the long journey back to Poitier. In her home Duchy,
Speaker 1: there were two kidnapping attempts. First, in the town of Blois,
Speaker 1: the future Count Theobald the Fifth attempted to seize her,
Speaker 1: but Eleanor was warned in advanced and she managed to
Speaker 1: sneak away in the middle of the night on a
Speaker 1: barge down the Loire River. And then a second kidnapping attempt,
Speaker 1: This time by Jeffrey, Count of Nott, But once again,
Speaker 1: someone referred to in a chronicle as her quote, good
Speaker 1: angel warned Eleanor, and she managed to get away by
Speaker 1: avoiding the main roads and taking a less direct but
Speaker 1: more hidden route home. After spending a decade and a
Speaker 1: half trapped in a marriage she didn't want. The last
Speaker 1: thing Eleanor wanted was to be abducted by a different man.
Speaker 1: But for as long as she wasn't married to a
Speaker 1: powerful husband, she would always be in danger, and so
Speaker 1: immediately as soon as Eleanor made it home, she sent
Speaker 1: a messenger to Henry Than, Duke of Normandy, telling him
Speaker 1: to come and marry her as soon as possible. Eleanor
Speaker 1: and Henry had probably made the plan to get married
Speaker 1: in advance, before she had even arranged the annulment with
Speaker 1: her husband, Louis, King of France. If Louis had known
Speaker 1: that she was planning on marrying Henry, he probably never
Speaker 1: would have agreed to the annulment at all. Henry Than,
Speaker 1: nineteen years old, was the biggest threat to the King
Speaker 1: of France's power. For a little bit more context, this
Speaker 1: was an era of feudalism, where people were more loyal
Speaker 1: to local lords than the abstract ideas of patriotism vassals,
Speaker 1: and if the lords were really powerful, then they were
Speaker 1: overlords to other nobles. The Kingdom of France at the
Speaker 1: time was really only a small physical swatch of land
Speaker 1: around Paris, but the King of France was the overlord
Speaker 1: to vast territories, including Aquitaine and Normandy. But Normandy and
Speaker 1: Aquitaine and all of Eleanor and Henry's smaller holdings combined, well,
Speaker 1: that was a vast empire, pretty much the entire western
Speaker 1: and southern parts of modern day France. And add in
Speaker 1: the fact that Henry had a claim to the throne
Speaker 1: of England, for which he wouldn't be a vassal of
Speaker 1: the King of France at all, and you can understand
Speaker 1: why Louis wouldn't have been thrilled about this match. You
Speaker 1: can probably understand why Eleanor and Henry didn't ask King
Speaker 1: Louis's permission to get married, even though they were technically
Speaker 1: supposed to better to ask forgiveness than permission, I'm sure
Speaker 1: they reasoned. And to add insult to injury, Eleanor and
Speaker 1: Henry were even closer cousins than Eleanor and Louis had been,
Speaker 1: But to them this was a golden and promising match.
Speaker 1: Eleanor wasn't going to marry a bumbling, ineffective wallflower. Again.
Speaker 1: Eleanor was beautiful, powerful, sophisticated, and rich. Henry, more than
Speaker 1: ten years her junior, was vital, handsome, active and ambitious.
Speaker 1: He certainly didn't care about Eleanor's scandalous past, or even
Speaker 1: the rumors that Eleanor had actually already had an affair
Speaker 1: with his own father. She was too dazzling a prospect.
Speaker 1: In a few short years, Henry would successfully win the
Speaker 1: throne of England and begin his rule as King Henry
Speaker 1: the Second. As the two of them got married in
Speaker 1: a relatively tiny ceremony at the Cathedral in Poitiers, it
Speaker 1: must have seemed to Eleanor that her future was opening
Speaker 1: up before her. The two of them would rule an
Speaker 1: empire together. Henry, the perfect powerful choice in husband, was
Speaker 1: saving her from the constant risk of abduction that came
Speaker 1: with being an heiress. Eleanor couldn't have known then that
Speaker 1: her marriage to Henry the Second would lead to years
Speaker 1: of imprisonment. She couldn't have known that Henry would cut
Speaker 1: her off from the outside world, moving her from secret
Speaker 1: fortress to secret fortress for sixteen years years, the woman
Speaker 1: who had been queen of both England and France would
Speaker 1: be reduced to status as prisoner for a betrayal that
Speaker 1: was beyond a king's imagination. I'm Dana Schwartz and this
Speaker 1: is noble blood. In eleven fifty four, Henry, Duke of
Speaker 1: Normandy became Henry the Second King of England, the founder
Speaker 1: of the Plantagenet dynasty that would last until the Tutors
Speaker 1: swept in. If you're wondering how Henry managed that upgrade
Speaker 1: for himself, it was through his mother, Matilda. Matilda's father
Speaker 1: had been King Henry the First of England, and his
Speaker 1: only legitimate son had drowned in a drunken boat wreck,
Speaker 1: the White Ship disaster. If that sounds familiar, we did
Speaker 1: an episode on it. Anyway, Without a male heir, the
Speaker 1: king had asked all of his nobles to swear an
Speaker 1: oath of loyalty to his daughter Matilda, which they did,
Speaker 1: and then the king died and the nobles instead decided
Speaker 1: to crown Matilda's male cousin, Stephen. It ushered in a
Speaker 1: period in English history known as the Anarchy. But the
Speaker 1: important part to our story comes when we fast forward
Speaker 1: to Matilda's grown son, Henry, who married Eleanor of Aquitaine
Speaker 1: and then took a fleet from Normandy to England, where
Speaker 1: he waged war until he forced King stephen to make
Speaker 1: him his heir, so at thirty two years old, Eleanor
Speaker 1: of Aquitaine was Queen of England, having already been Queen
Speaker 1: of France. Between Henry and Eleanor, they controlled a vast
Speaker 1: amount of incredibly valuable land and a territory that is
Speaker 1: now referred to as the Anjovin Empire, although they wouldn't
Speaker 1: have called it that at the time. As it turns out,
Speaker 1: King Henry and Eleanor were much better at having children
Speaker 1: than King Louis and Eleanor had been. In the decade
Speaker 1: and a half after Henry and Eleanor got married, Eleanor
Speaker 1: gave birth to five sons and three daughters. The children
Speaker 1: that you need to know for this story are her
Speaker 1: four surviving boys in age order. They are Henry, Richard, Jeffrey,
Speaker 1: and the baby John. In case you're wondering, Eleanor's ex husband,
Speaker 1: Louis remarried to although it would take until his third
Speaker 1: wife for him to actually have his long awaited son.
Speaker 1: For being such a famous medieval figure, the primary source
Speaker 1: writing on Eleanor's day to day life as Queen of
Speaker 1: England is astonishingly lif As historian Alison Weir points out
Speaker 1: in her biography, quote, chroniclers rarely mention Eleanor unless it
Speaker 1: is to record her presence by the king's side on
Speaker 1: various occasions, or the birth of her children, through which
Speaker 1: she was fulfilling her prime function as queen end quote.
Speaker 1: But throughout her life Eleanor would prove to be an
Speaker 1: adept administrator and a strong willed leader. Trust me, proof
Speaker 1: of that will come through. So does that mean that
Speaker 1: when she was married to Henry she wasn't really wielding
Speaker 1: much political power? Well, maybe we know that when Henry
Speaker 1: was away, Eleanor acted as an administrator, and we can
Speaker 1: assume that she did it well enough for Henry to
Speaker 1: trust her. The unfortunate fact is the chronicler's writing about
Speaker 1: the twelfth century as it was happening, were monks who
Speaker 1: just weren't as intrigued by the life of a strong
Speaker 1: female queen as we modern audiences are. They just didn't
Speaker 1: really think that anything Eleanor was doing aside from having
Speaker 1: children was worth mentioning, but whatever her daily life was like.
Speaker 1: In eleven sixty eight, sixteen years after Eleanor married Henry,
Speaker 1: she would leave England altogether and set up her own
Speaker 1: independent court back on the continent in her own duchy
Speaker 1: at Poitier. It was actually a bit of a the
Speaker 1: parent trap situation. She took her favorite son, Richard with
Speaker 1: her because he was the heir to Aquitaine. Why did
Speaker 1: Eleanor leave her husband and England? Even her husband seemed
Speaker 1: to find it a little perplexing at the time, and
Speaker 1: historians have all come up with their own explanations and
Speaker 1: counter explanations to try to understand something that we don't
Speaker 1: really have primary source proof of in either direction. One
Speaker 1: of the big factors that possibly precipitated a falling out
Speaker 1: between Henry and Eleanor was a woman named Rosamond de Clifford. Rosamond,
Speaker 1: the daughter of a knight, was the great love of
Speaker 1: Henry's life, a mistress he seemed to just legitimately adore,
Speaker 1: and she's become a common fixture in art and poetry
Speaker 1: about the twelfth century. According to legend Henry built a
Speaker 1: labyrinth under his hunting lodge at Woodstock for Rosamond where
Speaker 1: he could meet her without Eleanor finding out. That's just
Speaker 1: one of the romantic dramatic stories about their medieval love affair.
Speaker 1: The affair between Henry and Rosamond Clifford probably started around
Speaker 1: eleven sixty five, a few years before Eleanor would abscond
Speaker 1: to the continent. Could that have been why Eleanor left?
Speaker 1: Was she heartbroken, jealous, angry? It's possible, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: quite ring true to me. Henry had had affairs before,
Speaker 1: He had a number of acknowledged illegitimate children that Eleanor
Speaker 1: was well aware of. And even if Rosamond was different
Speaker 1: because Henry was in love, well, Henry had been in
Speaker 1: love with an earlier mistress named Rohesa declare. Was it
Speaker 1: the public humiliation, the fact that Henry was so openly
Speaker 1: involved with Rosamond. Well, Henry would openly flount his relationship
Speaker 1: with Rosamond, but not yet, not for years, not until
Speaker 1: Eleanor was captured and in prison. But that was years
Speaker 1: down the line. So what made Eleanor leave England and Henry?
Speaker 1: We know that King Henry the second was a hard
Speaker 1: man to live with, or at least it seems that
Speaker 1: way to me. The English court in the twelfth century
Speaker 1: was constantly moving, going from castle to castle, sometimes as
Speaker 1: frequently as every few days. It was partly to follow
Speaker 1: weather and to follow hunting, partly for sanitation reasons. Imagine
Speaker 1: several hundred people spending an extended period of time in
Speaker 1: any one place without indoor plumbing. It was also partly
Speaker 1: because Henry was just restless and a slightly chaotic person.
Speaker 1: One effect of a scattershot, itinerant court was that it
Speaker 1: just wasn't very luxurious. It's hard to set up house
Speaker 1: if you're always moving, and Henry just didn't really care
Speaker 1: about expensive things, good wine or good food. There was
Speaker 1: a time when a group of monks from Saint Swithum's
Speaker 1: at Winchester came to the king complaining that their bishop
Speaker 1: was only letting them have ten course meals. Henry's reply,
Speaker 1: and I can't really blame him, Here was quote in
Speaker 1: my court. I am satisfied with three parish your bishop
Speaker 1: if he doesn't cut your dishes down to the same.
Speaker 1: If I had to guess, I would imagine that eleanor
Speaker 1: simply preferred the power of being a duchess in her
Speaker 1: own territory, then the limitations that came with being a
Speaker 1: queen in England. It was probably a lot of ceremonial
Speaker 1: appearances and no real power. Henry was unquestionably the boss
Speaker 1: in England at Poitier, Eleanor was in charge. It had
Speaker 1: been a decade and a half since the two had
Speaker 1: gotten married, and Eleanor had more than done her duty
Speaker 1: in providing Henry children. They had four surviving sons, and
Speaker 1: she had reached middle age, at least by medieval standards,
Speaker 1: past the age where she would likely have more children.
Speaker 1: If love or passion had once existed between Henry and Eleanor,
Speaker 1: it was almost certainly gone, seeing as he preferred his mistress. Plus,
Speaker 1: the people in Aquitaine and Poetout never really took to
Speaker 1: Henry as an overlord, and the region had descended into
Speaker 1: a little bit of chaos. Eleanor going back and reigning
Speaker 1: in her vassals was a smart strategic decision for a
Speaker 1: couple that was ruling over an incredibly vast and diverse empire.
Speaker 1: However understandable her reasons appear. Eleanor's move to her own
Speaker 1: court in Poitier signaled a deep fissure growing in her
Speaker 1: marriage with Henry. Though we can't point to a single
Speaker 1: event or inciting incident, something had grown rotten between the
Speaker 1: pair and it would lead to the most insidious kind
Speaker 1: of civil war, a family turned against itself. It was
Speaker 1: around the time that Eleanor moved her court to Poitier
Speaker 1: that King Henry the second was settling the matter of
Speaker 1: inheritance between his sons. His oldest son, Henry, would receive England,
Speaker 1: Normandy and Anjou crown pickings. At fifteen, King Henry had
Speaker 1: a ceremony crowning his son, also Henry Henry, King of England,
Speaker 1: not to take his place, but just as a sort
Speaker 1: of junior king position. King in training. From this point on,
Speaker 1: to make things clearer, will refer to him as the
Speaker 1: young King. So the young King gets England, Normandy and Anjou,
Speaker 1: and he's married to King Louis of France's daughter from
Speaker 1: his second marriage. Our next son, Richard, gets Acquitaine, which
Speaker 1: is why he goes off with his mother Eleanor, and
Speaker 1: he is betrothed to another French Princess, Alice of France.
Speaker 1: The next son, Jeffrey, will get Brittany and hold it
Speaker 1: as a vassal of his older brother Henry. The baby
Speaker 1: John isn't factored in. Maybe he'll go into the church.
Speaker 1: Henry hasn't really decided yet. Perhaps you're asking yourself why
Speaker 1: King Henry is choosing to divide his property between his sons.
Speaker 1: He built an empire, doesn't it just go to the
Speaker 1: oldest son. Well, it was a really big and diverse kingdom,
Speaker 1: and King Henry was learning firsthand just how hard it
Speaker 1: was to rule over that much land and that many
Speaker 1: different groups of people. He would rather his heirs all
Speaker 1: maintain clear power over smaller dominions than see his land
Speaker 1: crumble apart and fall into the hands of enemies. Plus,
Speaker 1: he really didn't think that any of his sons had
Speaker 1: the ability to rule over an incredibly large and complex empire.
Speaker 1: Henry's sons, young as they were, were also headstrong and spoiled,
Speaker 1: and though King Henry had granted them lands in theory,
Speaker 1: in practice he gave them no real power or control
Speaker 1: even as they got older. That would be a problem
Speaker 1: for him later on. So remember that Henry gave his
Speaker 1: sons titles, but he didn't allow them the independent power
Speaker 1: that went with those titles. Henry was especially restrictive with
Speaker 1: the young King. You'd think that in having a full
Speaker 1: coronation ceremony for a teenage king, Henry was indicating that
Speaker 1: he was prepared to have his son begin to carry
Speaker 1: some responsibility for running the kingdom. You would be wrong.
Speaker 1: The coronation was entirely symbolic, and Henry was nowhere near
Speaker 1: ready to let the young King actually do anything. To
Speaker 1: be fair, the young King sounds well a little annoying.
Speaker 1: At the celebration dinner after this symbolic coronation, King Henry
Speaker 1: came out with a boar's head on a platter to
Speaker 1: serve to his son. He joked, it's surely unusual to
Speaker 1: see a king wait upon a table. The Archbishop of
Speaker 1: York was nearby, and he got into the bit, ribbing
Speaker 1: the young King and adding, it's not every prince you
Speaker 1: can be served at table by a king. But the
Speaker 1: young King did not laugh, he didn't even smile. With
Speaker 1: a dead serious face, he replied, certainly, it can be
Speaker 1: no condescension for the son of a count to serve
Speaker 1: the son of a king. But soon spoiled sons would
Speaker 1: be the least of king Henry's problems, at least temporarily.
Speaker 1: If King Henry the Second of England is best known
Speaker 1: for one thing, although here in America I think it's
Speaker 1: a fair assumption that even that would be generous, it
Speaker 1: would be the possibly accidental murder of Thomas Beckett, Archbishop
Speaker 1: of Canterbury. The incredibly abridged version of it is Henry
Speaker 1: and Thomas Beckett were good friends. He appoints him Archbishop
Speaker 1: of Canterbury, and then Henry begins getting very annoyed at
Speaker 1: the way the Church was allowed to disapp in their
Speaker 1: own if anyone broke the law. Basically, there was a
Speaker 1: separate legal system that meant if someone committed a crime,
Speaker 1: if they had taken holy orders, even if they were
Speaker 1: just a clerk, the church would be the one who
Speaker 1: issued the punishment, and surprise, surprise, those penalties were incredibly light,
Speaker 1: even for bad crimes. So King Henry justifiably was annoyed
Speaker 1: that random clerks were committing manslaughter or even murder and
Speaker 1: getting away with a metaphorical slap on the wrist. While
Speaker 1: Beckett would get mad that King Henry was trying to
Speaker 1: infringe on the holy authority of the church. It is
Speaker 1: more complicated than that. But these two men would bicker
Speaker 1: and slight each other, and then the King of France
Speaker 1: or the Pope would step in and they would kiss
Speaker 1: and make up, and then the psycho would start all
Speaker 1: over again. As the story goes, King Henry was venting
Speaker 1: about Beckett's latest disrespect, and he called out, will no
Speaker 1: one rid me of this troublesome priest. Well four of
Speaker 1: his men took that as an order and went to Canterbury,
Speaker 1: where they murdered Thomas Beckett. It was one of the
Speaker 1: epic historical backfires. Thomas Beckett had been a thorn in
Speaker 1: King Henry's side when he was alive. Now that he
Speaker 1: was dead, he was King Henry's worst nightmare. Immediately, there
Speaker 1: was outcry from the Christian world. An archbishop slain outside
Speaker 1: his church in cold blood. Thomas Beckett was martyred and
Speaker 1: made a saint. People made pilgrimages to his shrine and
Speaker 1: celebrated miracles that they ascribed to him. Thomas Beckett's blood
Speaker 1: would be a stain on King Henry's reputation for the
Speaker 1: rest of his life. Eleanor had defended Henry throughout his
Speaker 1: assorted quarrels with Beckett, but we don't know how she
Speaker 1: felt once Beckett had been killed. Even though Henry claimed
Speaker 1: it had been inadvertent on his part, it was still
Speaker 1: just an incredibly bad look all around, and we have
Speaker 1: to assume that Eleanor probably didn't look too kindly on it.
Speaker 1: While Eleanor was at her own court in Poitier with
Speaker 1: her favorite son Richard, Henry was making a marriage arrangement
Speaker 1: for their youngest son John. It was decided that John,
Speaker 1: who was five years old at this point, wouldn't enter
Speaker 1: the church. After all, he would marry the daughter of
Speaker 1: the Count of Marianne, and as his inheritance he would
Speaker 1: get three castles on the continent and some estate in England. Well,
Speaker 1: that's all well and good, except the land that the
Speaker 1: king was giving to John had already been given to
Speaker 1: Henry's oldest son, the Young King. At this point, it
Speaker 1: was too much for the young King. He was frustrated
Speaker 1: about being stymied at every turn by his father, all
Speaker 1: of the authority he was supposed to have always being undermined,
Speaker 1: and now this land that were his just being taken
Speaker 1: out from under him, as if he didn't exist. King
Speaker 1: Henry sensed the seeds of mutiny in his son, and
Speaker 1: so he made it his business not to let his
Speaker 1: oldest boy out of his sight. He left his other sons,
Speaker 1: Richard and Jeffrey, with Eleanor at Poitier, because surely the
Speaker 1: only insubordination was coming from the young king. In the
Speaker 1: middle of the night, the young king slipped away from
Speaker 1: his father's camp and absconded to Paris, to the Kingdom
Speaker 1: of France, where he met with his father in law,
Speaker 1: King Louis the Seventh, yes Eleanor's first husband. As luck
Speaker 1: would have it, the King of France was more than
Speaker 1: a willing ear to listen to the young king complain
Speaker 1: about the King of England, and Louis encouraged the boy
Speaker 1: to rebel against his father. He crowned, you, didn't he,
Speaker 1: King Louis said, already salivating at the prospect of Henry
Speaker 1: the Second Empire coming tumbling down. You should be the
Speaker 1: one in charge, he whispered. The young king agreed. King
Speaker 1: Henry wrote to Paris, demanding that Louis give his son
Speaker 1: back by the order of the King of England. You
Speaker 1: must be mistaken, Louis wrote back. The King of England
Speaker 1: is here. It was a declaration of war. Henry would
Speaker 1: have to fight King Louis the Seventh, fight all of
Speaker 1: the nobles who had turned against him over the years,
Speaker 1: and fight his own son in order to protect his throne.
Speaker 1: What he didn't suspect was that soon he would be
Speaker 1: fighting three of his sons. The young king managed to
Speaker 1: sneak to Poitier, and he left with his brothers Richard
Speaker 1: and Jeffrey, fighting alongside him. According to one chronicler, the
Speaker 1: two boys quote chose to follow their brother rather than
Speaker 1: their father. In this, they say, following the advice of
Speaker 1: their mother, Eleanor Eleanor of Aquitaine. Whether it was out
Speaker 1: of personal hatred or frustration or bitterness, whether it was
Speaker 1: because she disagreed with Henry's or with the murder of Beckett,
Speaker 1: or whether it was simply because she wanted her sons
Speaker 1: to have the power that was due to them turned
Speaker 1: against her husband. Once she had chosen her side, Poitier
Speaker 1: was too dangerous. It did, after all, still belong to Henry.
Speaker 1: Eleanor's sons had already made it to the safety of Paris.
Speaker 1: Eleanor would follow them back to the hospitality of the
Speaker 1: court of her ex husband war makes strange bedfellows, sometimes
Speaker 1: even past literal bedfellows, and for all their history and baggage,
Speaker 1: Eleanor and Louis were united in this case by a
Speaker 1: common enemy. But Eleanor never made it to Paris. Though
Speaker 1: she changed from women's clothes and disguised herself as a man,
Speaker 1: she was intercepted and arrested by Henry said men, who
Speaker 1: sent her straight to her husband. It's likely that there
Speaker 1: were spies in her camp. Immediately after Eleanor's arrest, four
Speaker 1: prominent men from Poitou were given suspiciously generous grants from Henry.
Speaker 1: Henry quietly transported Eleanor back to England, possibly on a
Speaker 1: ship from Henry's private fleet called Esneca or Snake. The
Speaker 1: symbolism there very Taylor Swift, would have been a complete coincidence.
Speaker 1: The Queen of England was imprisoned secretly in a fortified castle,
Speaker 1: likely either Winchester or Old Sauum. Henry understood rebellion coming
Speaker 1: from his own sons. It was unfortunate, but it happened.
Speaker 1: But a wife rising up against her husband with something else, entirely,
Speaker 1: something unspeakable, It had taken Henry completely by surprise. And
Speaker 1: he would never let that happen again. For a moment,
Speaker 1: it seemed as though the young King would be successful
Speaker 1: in his rebellion, that the chaos of all of the
Speaker 1: rebel forces rising up against Henry the Second would take
Speaker 1: him down. And of course the King of Scots had
Speaker 1: chosen that exact moment to try to invade England, seeing
Speaker 1: as Henry was otherwise occupied. But Henry was an adept
Speaker 1: military leader, and the young King was inexperienced. And though
Speaker 1: King Louis took control from the young King, he was
Speaker 1: as bad at organizing rebels as he had been in
Speaker 1: organizing a crusade all those years ago. When the walls
Speaker 1: had been closing in on Henry, he had ridden to
Speaker 1: Canterbury to pay penance for the part that he played
Speaker 1: in the death of Thomas Beckett, now sainted. Perhaps this,
Speaker 1: his son's rebelling against him, his wife turned against him,
Speaker 1: was some sort of divine punishment. Henry walked to the
Speaker 1: cathedral barefoot, wearing the itchy woolen smunk of a pilgrim,
Speaker 1: and he stayed all day fasting in prayer. He had
Speaker 1: every bishop present give him lashes. He would cleanse his
Speaker 1: soul of sin once and for all, and like a miracle,
Speaker 1: as he rose from his knees, he got word that
Speaker 1: his men had just won a decisive victory and that
Speaker 1: the opportunist King of the Scots had been captured. The
Speaker 1: tide had changed, and Henry's sons had no choice but
Speaker 1: to accept peace. Though Richard fought until the bitter end,
Speaker 1: eventually he threw himself weeping at his father's feet. Henry
Speaker 1: forgave him. Considering the circumstances, the terms Henry settled with
Speaker 1: were more than generous. He gave the young king a
Speaker 1: reasonable allowance and two castles in Normandy, Richard half the
Speaker 1: revenues of Poitou and some castles, and Geoffrey half the
Speaker 1: revenues of Brittany. But there would be no more talk
Speaker 1: of them wielding more power, and young John would get
Speaker 1: those estates from his brother that had been such a
Speaker 1: point of contention in the first place. In fact, John
Speaker 1: would get even more land because John, still a child
Speaker 1: at this point, had been the only legitimate son who
Speaker 1: didn't rise up against his father. He would be his
Speaker 1: father's favorite from that point on. But still Henry forgave
Speaker 1: all of his children. He said they were of a
Speaker 1: quote tender age, and that they had been led astray
Speaker 1: by the people around them, by the scheming King of France,
Speaker 1: and by their mother, Eleanor. Henry would forgive everyone who
Speaker 1: had risen up against him in rebellion, except his wife.
Speaker 1: Eleanor of Aquitaine would remain in custody, cut off from
Speaker 1: the outside world completely, and at her husband's mercy, for
Speaker 1: the rest of Henry's life. She likely moved from castle
Speaker 1: to castle, Her movements kept secret because Henry was well
Speaker 1: aware that if word of her mistreatment got back to
Speaker 1: her home duchies, they might rise up in support of her.
Speaker 1: One of the castles, Old Sarum, was located on a bleak,
Speaker 1: cold hill near what now is Salisbury. Apparently the castle
Speaker 1: was so drafty that clerks singing in the cathedral couldn't
Speaker 1: hear each other over the wind. We know from the
Speaker 1: pipe rolls the financial records that the money being spent
Speaker 1: on Eleanor was meager. She was allowed one personal maid,
Speaker 1: and they shared a bed. Eleanor, queen of two countries,
Speaker 1: mother of a brood of dukes, and well married daughters.
Speaker 1: Once the richest woman in Europe, who had dazzled the
Speaker 1: world as she had set out on Crusade, was fifty
Speaker 1: two years old. At this point. Perhaps you're wondering, why
Speaker 1: didn't Henry just annul his marriage with Eleanor. They were cousins,
Speaker 1: after all, there would be a way to annul the
Speaker 1: marriage without making his children illegitimate. Well, Henry tried. He
Speaker 1: took the first few steps to annul his marriage, even
Speaker 1: going so far as to begin making moves to marry
Speaker 1: Alice of France, the young woman that had been officially
Speaker 1: betrothed to his own son Richard. But Eleanor still owned
Speaker 1: her vast and wealthy property if she wasn't married, and
Speaker 1: Henry would lose claim to that if he and Eleanor
Speaker 1: were divorced. Perhaps more troubling, if Eleanor were no longer
Speaker 1: his wife, she would revert to just being a vassal
Speaker 1: of the King of France, and Henry would have no
Speaker 1: authority for keeping her prisoner. She could go back to
Speaker 1: Aquitaine to raise her own armies to betray Henry again,
Speaker 1: and worse, if they were divorced, she could marry again
Speaker 1: to someone else who could help her do it. The
Speaker 1: last thing Henry wanted was a rich and powerful enemy
Speaker 1: on the southern flank of his empire. Henry tried to
Speaker 1: get Eleanor to become an abbess, but she refused, and
Speaker 1: the archbishop she appealed to backed her up. Henry couldn't
Speaker 1: force Eleanor to become a nun against her will. Eleanor
Speaker 1: wasn't willing to give up her claim to her land
Speaker 1: or her power. She would rather be alone, imprisoned and
Speaker 1: completely isolated, waiting Henry out. Eleanor was allowed no contact
Speaker 1: with her family or the outside world to prevent the
Speaker 1: chance that she would undermine her husband yet again. A
Speaker 1: sympathetic jailer might have told her that her daughter had
Speaker 1: become engaged to William of Sicily. Maybe Eleanor overheard the
Speaker 1: gossip when her first husband, King Louis the seventh of
Speaker 1: France died of a stroke. After six years of complete imprisonment,
Speaker 1: Henry allowed Eleanor slightly more comfort, a slightly bigger household,
Speaker 1: according to the records, and eventually, after years, Henry would
Speaker 1: permit Eleanor back to make appearances at court, even to
Speaker 1: see her sons again, though even then Henry's motive was
Speaker 1: always political. Eleanor was invited to see her children again
Speaker 1: for the first time in eleven eighty four, after Henry
Speaker 1: had once again redistributed their inheritance and he wanted Eleanor's
Speaker 1: help in assigning Aquitaine to the baby John instead of Richard. Eleanor,
Speaker 1: even after years of imprisonment and isolation, refused. Eventually, after years,
Speaker 1: Henry would allow Eleanor to go back to Aquitaine to
Speaker 1: help him get her vassals in line, but she was
Speaker 1: an administrator for him. Though she was getting a modicum
Speaker 1: of freedom in exchange for political service, Henry would never
Speaker 1: grant Eleanor real power. Henry's problems with bickering, selfish sons
Speaker 1: that had plagued him throughout his life didn't end with
Speaker 1: that one rebellion. In fact, in eleven eighty three, the
Speaker 1: young King would rebel again against both his father and
Speaker 1: his brother Richard. It was a disastrous campaign, with the
Speaker 1: young King forced to pillage monasteries in order to try
Speaker 1: to raise the funds to pay his mercenary soldiers. In
Speaker 1: the end, the young King would contract dysentery. As he
Speaker 1: lay dying, he tried to absolve himself of his sins.
Speaker 1: He slept in ashes and sent a message to his
Speaker 1: father begging for his forgiveness and asking him to come
Speaker 1: and see him to say goodbye. King Henry was conflicted.
Speaker 1: He loved his son still, but he was worried it
Speaker 1: might be a trap. Henry sent a sapphire ring and
Speaker 1: a letter telling his son that he forgave him, but
Speaker 1: he didn't come in person. The young king read his
Speaker 1: father's letter before he died. He said he wanted all
Speaker 1: of his possessions donated to the poor, except the ring.
Speaker 1: He wanted to keep the ring so that his maker
Speaker 1: would know before he judged him that his father had
Speaker 1: forgiven him. When Henry heard that his son died, the
Speaker 1: son that had brought arms up against him again and again,
Speaker 1: he wept like a child and fell to the floor.
Speaker 1: He cost me much, but I wish he had lived
Speaker 1: to cost me more, Henry said. According to legend, a
Speaker 1: messenger came to tell Eleanor that her son had died.
Speaker 1: Unlike her husband. Eleanor didn't. She said she had already
Speaker 1: mourned that she had seen a vision in a dream,
Speaker 1: her son lying on his back with his fingers intertwined
Speaker 1: like an effigy on a tomb. In her dream, her
Speaker 1: son wore his crown, and also a circlet of bright white,
Speaker 1: heavenly light, and on his finger she could see the
Speaker 1: sapphire ring that she would have had no way of
Speaker 1: knowing Henry had sent along. His heir was dead, but
Speaker 1: still Henry's sons would fight him. Richard was angry that
Speaker 1: he hadn't been yet married to Alice of France, and
Speaker 1: so he publicly allied with Philip, Alice's half brother, the
Speaker 1: new King of France. By this point, Henry was fifty
Speaker 1: six years old and suffering from a bleeding ulcer that
Speaker 1: would eventually kill him. Too sick to continue to fight,
Speaker 1: he gave in to Richard's demands, which were mostly just
Speaker 1: a matter of pride. Before Henry died, he got word
Speaker 1: that even his youngest son John had turned against him
Speaker 1: in the end and sided with Richard in the fighting.
Speaker 1: Once it was obvious that Richard was going to win,
Speaker 1: Henry's last words, according to legend, were shame on a
Speaker 1: conquered king. Richard, the first Eleanor's favorite son, who would
Speaker 1: eventually be known as Richard the Lion Heart, was finally
Speaker 1: King of England. He immediately sent a messenger sailing up
Speaker 1: from France as fast as possible to order Eleanor's release
Speaker 1: from her imprisonment. Now that Henry was dead, Eleanor would
Speaker 1: finally be free, and she would be installed as ruler
Speaker 1: of England in Richard's name until Richard could get there himself.
Speaker 1: But when the messenger arrived to free her, he was confused.
Speaker 1: Eleanor was already free. Eleanor had heard that her husband
Speaker 1: had died, and everyone knew that her son, Richard was king.
Speaker 1: Her release was a foregone conclusion, and so Eleanor had
Speaker 1: just demanded that the guards release her. She had freed herself.
Speaker 1: That's the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine's imprisonment during her
Speaker 1: marriage to Henry the Second. But keep listening after a
Speaker 1: brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about
Speaker 1: the way Eleanor and Henry's relationship is told in legend.
Speaker 1: It was during Eleanor's imprisonment that Henry stopped trying to
Speaker 1: high his affair with Rosamond. Clifford chroniclers would enjoy the
Speaker 1: pun on her name Rosa mundy meaning rose of the world,
Speaker 1: to Rosa immundi or immodest. In eleven seventy five, Rosamond
Speaker 1: was sent to a nunnery, probably not because she had
Speaker 1: a change of heart about her lifestyle of being a
Speaker 1: mistress and decided to become a nun but more likely
Speaker 1: because she was ill and needed care. She died a
Speaker 1: year later of illness, though that wouldn't stop poets and
Speaker 1: balladers from telling the story that she was actually murdered
Speaker 1: by Eleanor. Stories have Eleanor finding the secret labyrinth where
Speaker 1: Henry was keeping Rosamond and forcing Rosamond to choose between
Speaker 1: either a dagger or a bull of poison. It's a
Speaker 1: dramatic piece of medieval folklore, but its complete fiction. Eleanor
Speaker 1: was completely accounted for in custody when Rosamond died locked
Speaker 1: away in a remote fortress castle. It seems that every
Speaker 1: woman in Henry's life was imprisoned, his wife Eleanor, of course,
Speaker 1: but also poor Alice of France, the daughter of the
Speaker 1: King of France, who was betrothed to Henry's son Richard.
Speaker 1: Instead of allowing that wedding to go forward, Henry used
Speaker 1: Alice as a pawn, keeping her like a glorified hostage,
Speaker 1: contemplating marrying her, and in the end, likely turning her
Speaker 1: into his own mistress. According to legend, the labyrinth that
Speaker 1: Rosamond was forced to stay in was inspired by the
Speaker 1: maze in Greek mythology that Daedalus built to contain the minotaur. Except,
Speaker 1: of course, Rosamond wasn't a man eating monster. She was
Speaker 1: a beautiful woman whose crime was the king being madly
Speaker 1: in love with her, queen, princess and mistress. They all
Speaker 1: shared the same fate in Henry's story. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankee.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Schwortz,
Speaker 1: with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick,
Speaker 1: Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is
Speaker 1: edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali,
Speaker 1: with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.