♀Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine (born about 1124, died 31 March 1204) was the heiress of the duchy of Aquitaine, who became Queen of France as the wife of Louis VII and then Queen of England as the wife of Henry II. She was the twenty-fifth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), by two separate lines of descent: one through her son John of England (1166–1216), the other through her daughter Eleanor of England (1162–1214).

Heiress of Aquitaine

Eleanor was the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Guillaume X^W, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou, by his first wife, Eleonore, a daughter of Aumary I, Vicomte of Chatellerault. She was born about 1124 and was 13 in 1137. Her first husband was Louis VII, King of France, and the two had two daughters, Marie, who married the Count Palatine of Troyes, and Alice, who married the Count of Blois. The marriage ended in divorce on 21 March 1152.

Queen of England

Fifty-eight days after the divorce, on 18 May 1152, Eleanor married Henry, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou, at Bordeaux. Aquitaine passed to him with the marriage, and in December 1154 he was crowned King of England at Westminster, which made her queen. She and Henry had eight children, born between 1153 and 1166, and four of their five sons lived to be adults.

Henry’s last years were marked by quarrels with and between his sons, and by his separation from their mother. Eleanor spent about ten years in captivity. In 1185, on Henry’s orders, their son Richard resigned the duchy of Aquitaine to her, and she was released.

Widowhood and death

Henry died at Chateau Chinon on 6 July 1189, and his son Richard was crowned that September. Eleanor outlived her husband by nearly fifteen years. She died at Fontevrault on 31 March 1204 and was buried at Fontevrault Abbey^W with Henry.

The family

Henry and Eleanor had eight children, five sons and three daughters. Their son Henry, called the Young King^W, was crowned joint king of England on 14 June 1170 and rebelled against his father in 1173–74 and again in 1183; he died at Martel in Touraine on 11 June 1183 and was buried in Rouen Cathedral. Richard^W was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 3 September 1189 and left England for the Third Crusade^W that December; he died of a crossbow wound on 6 April 1199, and his youngest brother John was king after him. Maud, born in London in 1156, married Heinrich the Lion^W, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, at Minden on 1 February 1168, and Joan, born at Angers in October 1165, married William II, King of Sicily^W, at Palermo on 13 February 1177. Eleanor of England, born at Domfront in Normandy on 13 October 1162, married Alfonso VIII, King of Castile^W, at Burgos in September 1170. She died at Burgos on 25 October 1214, twenty days after her husband, and both were buried at the monastery of Las Huelgas near Burgos.

Lines of descent

Both lines from Eleanor to Nancy Jane Blanchard run down her father’s side, through Kenneth Blanchard (1897–1975). One runs through her son John of England (1166–1216), then John’s son Henry of England (1207–1272) and Henry’s son Edward of England (1239–1307). The other runs through her daughter Eleanor of England (1162–1214), her daughter Berenguela of Castile, Berenguela’s son Fernando III of Castile and Leon, and Fernando’s daughter Eleanor of Castile (died 1290). The lines meet again in Joan of England (1272–1307), whose parents, Edward and Eleanor of Castile, both descended from Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Notes

Sources

Eleanor’s parentage, birth, both marriages, the divorce, her death and burial and her children are from Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry (2nd ed., 2011), vol. I, ENGLAND 2, pp. 5–19, a printed genealogy of the medieval royal family that cites the chronicles, charters and royal rolls. The two daughters of her first marriage are named in a note there, with Marie’s death in 1198 and Alice’s about 1197. Her daughter Eleanor’s marriage and death are from CASTILE 3, pp. 491–492. The coronation of Henry at Westminster on 19 December 1154 is in the same entry. Her death date, place and burial are Richardson’s.

Her birth

Richardson gives the birth as “about 1124 (aged 13 in 1137)” and no day or place.

The captivity

Richardson writes that Henry’s final years “were marked by quarrels with and between his sons, stirred into rebellion by their mother, from whom he was separated,” and that in 1185 Eleanor “was released from her ten years of captivity” when Richard resigned Aquitaine to her. The entry does not say where she was held.