In King John, Shakespeare portrayed

Eleanor as a canker d grandam , governed

by lust for power, who schemed against

her husband Henry II - a crime for which

she spent fifteen years in prison - and

dominated her children s lives, ruthlessly

turning them against their father, the

King. It is also well known that she feuded

bitterly with at least one daughter-in-law

and contributed to the death of her own

grandson.

And, yet, there was another side to this

powerful queen consort. Splendid in

person, rank, and fortune, Queen of

France - as the wife of Louis VII - and

then of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine

was worshipped by men, loved by her

children, and idealised in the songs of the

troubadours. She was renowned for her

beauty and her generosity. Emerging at

the King s death to become regent, she

immediately ordered the release of

prisoners throughout England, announc-

ing: By my own experience prisons are

hateful to men and to be released from

them is a most delightful refreshment to

the spirit. She also patronised the great

abbey at Fontevrault, a refuge for the

wives of brutal husbands.

Today her glamour, her patronage of

the poets, and her throwing off of the

ferocious constraints with which conven-

tion shackled women in the twelfth

century, are almost forgotten, as are her

very real gifts as a politician and a ruler.

This book is an attempt to reconcile the

paradoxes in the formidable personality

of this monstrous injurer of heaven and

earth who was clearly loved and admired

by so many.