The Daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine
A Comparative Study of Twelfth-Century Royal Women
By (author) Colette Bowie
By examining the childhoods, marriages, and programmes of patronage and commemoration of Matilda, Leonor and Joanna, this monograph compares and contrasts the experiences of three high-profile twelfth-century royal women, and advances the hypothesis that there may have been stronger emotional ties within the Angevin dynasty than has
The three daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine all undertook exogamous marriages which cemented dynastic alliances and furthered the political and diplomatic ambitions of their parents and their spouses. It might be expected that the choices made by Matilda, Leonor, and Joanna with regard to religious patronage and dynastic commemoration would follow the customs and patterns of their marital families, yet in many cases these choices appear to have been strongly influenced by ties to their natal family. Their involvement in the burgeoning cult of Thomas Becket, their patronage of Fontevrault Abbey, the names they gave to their children, and the ways in which they were buried, suggests that all three women were able, to varying degrees, to transplant Angevin family customs to their marital lands. By examining the childhoods, marriages, and programmes of patronage and commemoration of Matilda, Leonor and Joanna, this monograph compares and contrasts the experiences of three high-profile twelfth-century royal women, and advances the hypothesis that there may have been stronger emotional ties within the Angevin dynasty than has previously been allowed for.
INTRODUCTION: Queenship: Historiographical Trends and Conceptual Themes - Methodology and Sources - Ideology and Representations - Roles and Functions - Ritual - Themes and Approaches CHAPTER 1: Carissima filia nostra: Birth, Childhood and Formative Education: Birth of an Angevin Princess - Childhood Experiences and Emotional Ties: The Childhood Journeys of Matilda, Leonor and Joanna - Emotional History and the History of Emotions - Eleanor of Aquitaine as Mother - Medieval Childhood - An Angevin Education CHAPTER 2: Satisfied as to her beauty: Marriage Negotiations and Political Motivations: Political Motivations for Matilda's Marriage to Henry the Lion - Political Motivations for Leonor's Marriage to Alfonso VIII of Castile - Continuation of Angevin Marriage Policy: Berengaria of Navarre - Joanna's Marriage to William II of Sicily - Political Motivations for Joanna's Marriage - Journeys to Saxony, Sicily and Castile - The Sicilian Ambassadors - Love and Marriage in the Twelfth Century CHAPTER 3: Bodas muy grandes: Marriage, Dowry and Dower Settlements: Matilda's Marriage and Role as Duchess of Saxony - Leonor's Marriage and Dower Settlement - Leonor as Mother - Leonor's Dowry - The Dower of Berengaria of Navarre: Competing Queens and Conflicting Claims - Further Comparisons: The Dower of Margaret of France - Joanna's Marriage and Coronation - Joanna's Dower Settlement - The Crisis of 1189 and the Problem of Joanna's Dower - The Role of the Queen in Sicily CHAPTER 4: The sins of the father: Endowment, Benefaction, and the Cult of Thomas Becket: The Cult of Becket: Henry II from Denial to Appropriation - Royal Appropriation of Saints' Cults - The Role of Henry's Daughters - Joanna and Sicily - Matilda and Saxony - Leonor and Castile - A Different Perspective: Margaret and Hungary - Royal Women and Saints' Cults CHAPTER 5: For the health of our soul: Dynastic Connections, Nomenclature and Commemoration: Dynastic Nomenclature - Fontevrault, Patronage and Family Ties - Burial Patterns and Dynastic Mausolea - Eleanor and Leonor, Fontevrault and Las Huelgas - The Tombs at Fontevrault - The Tombs at Las Huelgas CONCLUSION
- By (author) Colette Bowie
Other Titles in this Series
Making and breaking the rules
succession in medieval Europe, c. 1000-c.1600. Etablir et abolir les normes: la succession dans l'Europe medievale, vers 1000-vers 1600: Proceedings of the colloquium held on 6-7-8 April 2006. Actes de la conference tenue les 6, 7 et 8 avril 2006, In
Volume 9
Pouvoir et solidarites d’une famille seigneuriale
Le Parentat Lusignan entre France, Iles Britanniques et Orient latin (Xe-XIVe siecles)
Volume 24
Similar Books
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs
An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches
Volume 90
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination
Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023
Volume 31
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Power and Women in Southeast and Central Europe in Late Medieval and Early Modern Period (1300-1600)
Volume 10
Tradition, Interpretation, and Change
Developments in the Liturgy of Medieval and Early Modern Ashkenaz
Women in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Studies from Western Europe and North Africa
Volume 44
Women in Textiles
Remuneration, Labour Relations, and Gender in Europe during Industrialization (Eighteenth to Early Twentieth Centuries)
Volume 6
Networking through Biography
Constructing Intellectual Junctions in Antiquity, the Renaissance and the Arabo-Islamic World
Volume 19