Editing Eleanor of Aquitaine (section)

== Sources ==
[[File:France 1154-en.svg|thumb|France, Aquitaine and Poitiers in 1154 with the expansion of the [[House of Plantagenet|Plantagenet]] lands|alt=map of France in 1154 with its various domains, including the Duchy of Aquitaine]]
There is a scarcity of primary sources on Eleanor's life.{{sfn|Duby|1997|p=7}} There are no contemporary biographies, and modern biographies are largely drawn from [[annals]] and [[chronicle]]s, generally written by clerics associated with the royal courts. There are very few surviving records from Aquitaine and she is barely mentioned in records of the French court,{{sfn|Evans|2018|p=105}} and appears to have been actively erased from memory.{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=Introduction}}{{sfn|Parsons|Wheeler|2003a}}{{sfn|Sullivan|2023|pp=3–4}} Consequently, accounts of Eleanor appear largely as a peripheral figure in chronicles of the men around her.{{sfn|Evans|2014|p=48}} Important secular sources from England and Wales include [[Roger of Howden]], [[Walter Map]], [[Ralph de Diceto]], [[Gerald of Wales]] and [[Ralph Niger]]. While some were relatively neutral, Map and Gerald were largely satirical polemic, while Niger's criticisms are mainly directed at Henry II rather than Eleanor. Among the chroniclers are also clerical sources, including [[Gervase of Canterbury]],{{sfn|Canterbury|2012}}{{sfn|Canterbury|2012a}} Ralph of Coggeshall, [[Richard of Devizes]],{{sfn|Devizes|1838}} [[William of Newburgh]]{{sfn|Newburgh|1988}} and [[Ranulf Higden]]. The latter were mainly influenced by their revulsion at the murder of [[Thomas Becket]] (1170). Although Richard of Devizes admired Eleanor's perseverance in supporting her son Richard, all of them expressed negative views about women in power and hinted at some darker attributes that eventually led to a "Black Legend" that became associated with her.{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=Introduction}}{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=347–353}}{{sfn|Evans|2014|pp=19–44}} Twentieth-century writers such as [[Amy Kelly]] and [[Marion Meade]] would create an opposite myth that pervaded many subsequent accounts, of a feminist heroine, referred to as the "Golden Myth",{{sfn|Evans|2014|p=59}} while in the French literature, similar treatment is seen in the work of [[Régine Pernoud]].{{efn|Two types of legend characterise her legacy,{{sfn|Evans|2014|pp=3, 16}} usually referred to as the "Black Legend" ({{lang|fr|la légende noire}}){{sfn|Aurell|2005}}{{sfn|Woodacre|2015}}{{sfn|Turner|2008}} and the "Golden Myth" ({{lang|fr|mythe doré}}). See, for example [[Jacques Le Goff]] {{lang|fr|"a été à la fois victime d’une legende noire et bénéficiaire d’un mythe doré"}} (has been both the victim of a black legend and the beneficiary of a golden myth){{sfn|Le Goff|Armengaud|Aurell|2004}}{{sfn|Evans|2014|pp=166–168}}}}{{sfn|Evans|2014|pp=62–64}}{{sfn|Le Goff|Armengaud|Aurell|2004}} More recent scholarship has sought to correct both of these characterisations.{{sfn|Evans|2014|p=67}}

In the absence of reliable contemporary accounts, legend and speculation have frequently been resorted to;{{sfn|Wheeler|2013}}{{sfn|Sullivan|2023}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=Introduction}} "rarely in the course of historical endeavor has so much been written, over so many centuries, about one woman of whom we know so little".{{sfn|Parsons|Wheeler|2003|p=xiii}}