5th Baron, of Elmley Castle
Justicar of Ireland, per WFT V5 # 151 and 1563
Note: John was Isabel's 2nd husband
GIVN Isabel
SURN Bigod
AFN 83XD-4P
DATE 6 MAY 2000
TIME 23:34:55
King Philippe II Auguste of France
One of the greatest of French medieval kings, he doubled size of royal domain; consolidated royal power at expense of feudalism; created advisory council to replace hereditary offices; created royal court of justice with wide powers. Repeatedly at war with England, he supported Arthur I of Brittany against King John, whom he forced to surrender Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. His victory at Bouvines (1214) established France as leading power; his campaigns against Albigenses (1215, 1219) prepared annexation of So. France. Philip joined in the Third Crusade in 1990 but after a quarrel with
Richard I of England returned to France (1191). His reign saw the virtual disappearance of serfdom, the growing prosperity of the cities and the merchant class, and the building of the greatest cathederals.Source: Columbia Viking Desk Encyclopedia
Reigned 1137-1180, continued centralizing policy and took part in 2nd Crusade (1147-49). His divorce from Eleanor of Acquitaine (1152) and her marriage to Henry II of England gave English a foothold in SW France and led to recurrent warfare.
Note: KIng Louis VII and Eleanor were divorced in 1152
Reigned 1137-1180, continued centralizing policy and took part in 2nd Crusade (1147-49). His divorce from Eleanor of Acquitaine (1152) and her marriage to Henry II of England gave English a foothold in SW France and led to recurrent warfare.
Note: KIng Louis VII and Eleanor were divorced in 1152
Princess Eleonore of Aquitaine
Note: KIng Louis VII and Eleanor were divorced in 1152
Note:
From the "Notable Women Ancestors" site:https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nwa/aquit.htmlEleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204), renowned for her cultivatedintelligence and great beauty, was queen to two kings and mother of twoothers. She was one of the most powerful and fascinating personalities offeudal Europe.
Eleanor was a granddaughter of Guillaume (William) IX of Aquitaine(1070-1127), who was one of the first and most famous troubadours. He wasa cheerful man and an ardent lover of women, who joined the FirstCrusade. When he returned from this disastrous crusade early in thecentury in a very cynical mood, he found his countess, Philippa ofToulouse, taken up with one of those religious movements perenniallyarising on the soil of Aquitaine. He abandoned his lady and took up withthe Countess of Chatellerault to enliven his middle years. The newcountess was the mother of a daughter, Anor (Eleanor) by her previousmarriage and this young woman the troubadour married to his own heirGuillaume X, born of Philippa. Anor and Guillaume X were the parents ofEleanor, a sister, Petronilla and a brother, Agret who did not survivechildhood.
The court of Guillaume X was the centre of western European culture.Unlike most of her contemporaries, male and especially female, Eleanorwas carefully educated and she was an excellent student. Eleanor's happychildhood ended with the subsequent deaths of her mother, her littlebrother and, in 1137, her father. Heiress of the duchy of Aquitaine, theorphaned Eleanor was married to Louis VII King of France in 1137 at age15, bringing into the union her vast possessions from the River Loire tothe Pyrenees.
Louis had been brought up for an office in the church, but he had becomeheir to the French throne after the death of his elder brother. He was aweak, dull, grave and pious man and he and the lively Eleanor were illmatched. Louis never understood his young wife, but he appears to haveadored her with a passionate admiration. It wasn't until 1145 that adaughter, Marie, was born.
A few years after her marriage, at age 19, Eleanor knelt in the cathedralof Vezelay before the celebrated Abbe Bernard of Clairvaux offering himthousands of her vassals for the Second Crusade which included "manyother ladies of quality": Sybille, Countess of Flanders, whose halfbrother was King of Jerusalem, Mamille of Roucy, Florine of Bourgogne,Torqueri of Bouillon, Faydide of Toulouse, and scores of others whom thechroniclers could not afford the parchment to enumerate.
No one appears to have asked publicly what these female warriors were toinflict upon the Saracens. The historians do not well explain why hordesof women took up the cross, however, most deplore the fact that thequeen's example made other ladies intractable and to the Second Crusadewent "a good many women who had no business to be included in the army."
A legend tells us that the queen and her ladies disappeared and presentlyreappeared on white horses in the guise of Amazons, in gilded buskins,plumed and with banners and that the queen and her cavalcade gallopedover the hillside of Vezelay, rallying laggard knights. The tale is incharacter, and later allusions to Amazons en route, found in Greekhistories, give some substance to it.
While the church may have been pleased to receive her thousand fightingvassals, they were less happy when they learned that Eleanor, attended by300 of her ladies, also planned to go to help "tend the wounded." Thepresence of Eleanor, her ladies and wagons of female servants, wascriticized by commentators throughout her adventure. Dressed in armor andcarrying lances, the women never fought. In the papal bull for the nextCrusade, it expressly forbade women of all sorts to join the expedition.All the Christian monarchs, including King Louis, agreed to this.
When they reached the city of Antioch, Eleanor found herself deep in arenewed friendship with Raymond, her uncle, who had been appointed princeof the city. Raymond, only a few years older than Eleanor, was far moreinteresting and handsome than Eleanor's husband, Louis. When Raymonddecided that the best strategic objective of the Crusade would be torecapture Edessa, thus protecting the Western presence in the Holy Land,Eleanor sided with his view. But Louis VII, fixated on reachingJerusalem, rejected the plan and a quarrel followed. Louis demanded thatEleanor follow him to Jerusalem. Eleanor, furious, announced to one andall that their marriage was not valid in the eyes of God, for they weredistantly related to an extent prohibited by the Church.
Wounded by her claim, Louis began preparations for his departure andafter dark Eleanor was forcibly conducted from Antioch. Soon the crusadebecame a complete failure and even Louis' brother Robert quickly rushedhome. On their way back to France, Louis and Eleanor visited the pope toplead for a divorce. Instead, the pope tried to reconcile them andinduced them to sleep in the same bed again.
On her way home, while resting in Sicily, Eleanor was brought the newsthat her uncle Raymond had been killed in battle, and that his headdelivered to the Caliph of Baghdad.
Although her marriage to Louis continued for a time, the relationship wasover. In 1152 the marriage was annulled and her vast estates reverted toEleanor's control. Although consanguinity was the official reason for theannulment of their marriage in 1152, basic incompatibility was the realreason. Hardly had her marriage to Louis been dissolved when Eleanormarried Henry of Anjou, soon to become (1154) King Henry II of England.
Eleanor's inheritance passed to the English crown, which, when combinedwith his English possessions, made Henry much more powerful than Louis,and he was a frequently hostile neighbor. The marriage of Eleanor andHenry was as stormy as her first.
Although Eleanor's first marriage had resulted in only two daughters bornin fifteen year, Eleanor bore Henry five sons and three daughters. As thechildren grew up and Henry openly took mistresses, the couple grew apart.Eleanor was 44 years old, when she gave birth to their youngest son, JohnLackland. By then she had discovered the existence of "Fair" RosamundClifford, the most famous of Henry's mistresses. Later Henry even managedto seduce the fiancee of his son Richard, who was a daughter of Louis VIIand his second wife.
In 1169 Henry sent Eleanor to Aquitaine to restore order as its duchess.Her proceedings from the time she resume her residence in Poitou indicatea resolution to cut herself away from feudal kings and to establish aPoutevin domain. She was no mere game piece as were most feudal women, tobe moved like a queen in chess. In this, her third important role inhistory, she was the pawn of neither king, and arrived as her ownmistress, equipped with plans to establish her own assize. She wasresolved to escape from secondary roles, to assert her independentsovereignty, to dispense her own justice, and her own patronage. Thoughcontinuing now and then to cooperate with Henry outside her provinces inthe interests of her other sons, she took measures to establish her ownheir, son Richard, in Poutou and Aquitaine and to restore throughout herprovinces the ancient glories of the native dukes and counts.
Once more the ducal palace at Poitou became the center of all that wascivilized and refined. Troubadours, musicians and scholars were welcomedat Poitiers. There, in 1170 Eleanor reconciled with her first borndaughter Marie of France, countess of Champagne. Marie had a "code oflove" written down in thirty-one articles. They described feminist ideasfar beyond the 12th century cult of chivalry. In addition, Eleanorsponsored the "courts of love" in which men having problems with the codeof love could bring their questions before a tribunal of ladies forjudgement.
When in 1173 their sons revolted against their father, Eleanor backedthem and was subsequently imprisoned by Henry until his death in 1189. Bythen three of their sons had already died and Henry's successor wasEleanor's favourite son, Richard I Lionheart (1157-1199), who appreciatedhis mother's advice. When he went on crusade, Eleanor became regent.Although Richard was reputedly a homosexual, he was supposed to provideEngland with heirs, so Eleanor escorted his bride-to-be to Sicily. WhenRichard was killed in 1199, he was succeeded by his youngest brother,John Lackland (1166-1216). Eleanor returned to Aquitaine and retired inthe abbey of Fontevraud. She remained busy and active and personallyarranged the marriage of her Castilian granddaughter to the grandson ofLouis VII. Thus she lived to be about 82, an extraordinary age in themiddle ages
SURN Aquitaine
GIVN Eleanor of
_UID 6CDAB4844B856D4FA0FF795C4BAD552FFAFD
Eleanor, Queen of France, divorced King Louis VII before she marriedHenry.
This precipitated recurrent warefare between France & England overEleanor's
inheritance of Aquitaine. Eleanor became estranged from Henry over his
infidelity with Rosamond Clifford. IN 1170 she established her own courtat
Poitiers. Eleanor was responsible for collecting the ransom for Richard
"Lionheart", captured in the Third Crusade. She ultimately prevailed in
seeing her two son's Richard & John become kings.
DATE 18 Feb 2001
TIME 22:41:36
SURN Aquitaine
GIVN Eleanor of
_UID 6CDAB4844B856D4FA0FF795C4BAD552FFAFD
Eleanor, Queen of France, divorced King Louis VII before she marriedHenry.
This precipitated recurrent warefare between France & England overEleanor's
inheritance of Aquitaine. Eleanor became estranged from Henry over his
infidelity with Rosamond Clifford. IN 1170 she established her own courtat
Poitiers. Eleanor was responsible for collecting the ransom for Richard
"Lionheart", captured in the Third Crusade. She ultimately prevailed in
seeing her two son's Richard & John become kings.
DATE 18 Feb 2001
TIME 22:41:36Was at different times, Queen of both France and England.Marrying first
Louis VII and Later, after annulment, Henry II. They produced "the Devil`s
Brood"( see note re curse on William IX ). She entrigued against her
husband and children..............
Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122?-1204), queen consort of France (1137-52) andqueen consort of England (1154-1204), born in France. She inherited theduchy of Aquitaine from her father in 1137, the same year in which shewas married to Louis VII of France. She accompanied her husband on theSecond Crusade to the Holy Land, where it was rumored that she committedadultery. The scandal, and the fact that she had not given the king amale heir, resulted in an annulment of their marriage in 1152 under thepretext of blood kinship between her and the king. Later that year,Eleanor married and gave her possessions to Henry Plantagenet, count ofAnjou, who in 1154 became Henry II, king of England. In 1170, the queeninduced her husband to invest their son Richard the Lion-Hearted with herpersonal dominions of Gascony, Aquitaine, and Poitou. When Richard andhis brothers rebelled against their father in 1173, Eleanor, alreadyalienated from the king because of his unfaithfulness, supported hersons. Consequently, she was placed in confinement until 1185. After herrelease, she secured the succession of her son Richard, who had becomeheir apparent at the death in 1183 of his eldest brother. From the deathof King Henry II in 1189 until Richard's return from the Third Crusade in1194, Eleanor ruled as regent. During this time, she foiled the attemptof her son John in 1193 to conspire with France against the new king.After the return of Richard, she arranged a reconciliation between thetwo brothers. Eleanor continued to be prominent in public affairs untilshe retired to the abbey in Fontevrault, France, where she died on April1, 1204.
"Eleanor of Aquitaine," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c)1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
..............
Reigned 1137-1180, continued centralizing policy and took part in 2nd Crusade (1147-49). His divorce from Eleanor of Acquitaine (1152) and her marriage to Henry II of England gave English a foothold in SW France and led to recurrent warfare.
Note: KIng Louis VII and Eleanor were divorced in 1152