Inventing Eleanor : the medieval and post-medieval image of Eleanor of Aquitaine / Michael R. Evans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Evans, Michael R., 1967- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Eleanor, of Aquitaine, Queen, consort of Henry II, King of England, 1122?-1204.

Eleanor.

Henry II, King of England, 1133-1189--Marriage.

Henry.

Louis VII, King of France, approximately 1120-1180--Marriage.

Louis.

Queens--France--Biography.

Queens.

Queens--Great Britain--Biography.

France--History--Louis VII, 1137-1180--Biography.

France.

Great Britain--History--Henry II, 1154-1189--Biography.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 p.)

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1124-1204), queen of France and England and mother of two kings, has often been described as one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages. Yet her real achievements have been embellished--and even obscured--by myths that have grown up over eight centuries. This process began in her own lifetime, as chroniclers reported rumours of her scandalous conduct on crusade, and has continued ever since. She has been variously viewed as an adulterous queen, a monstrous mother and a jealous murderess, but also as a patron of literature, champion of courtly love and proto-feminist defender of women's rights. Inventing Eleanor interrogates the myths that have grown up around the figure of Eleanor of Aquitaine and investigates how and why historians and artists have invented an Eleanor who is very different from the 12th-century queen. The book first considers the medieval primary sources and then proceeds to trace the post-medieval development of the image of Eleanor, from demonic queen to feminist icon, in historiography and the broader culture

Contents:

Introduction: Eleanorian exceptionalism

Creating the black legend: the origins of Eleanor's scandalous reputation

Eleanor in historiography

Eleanor and Aquitaine (and Languedoc, and Provence?): the southernness of Eleanor

"A canker'd grandam": Eleanor on the stage before 1900

A lioness in winter: Eleanor on stage and screen in the twentieth century

Eleanor in fiction

Eleanor in the visual arts

Conclusion: Eleanor in the twenty-first century.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781441146038

1441146032

9781474279185

147427918X

9781474210768

1474210767

9781441141354

1441141359

OCLC:

1154860680