Editing Eleanor of Aquitaine (section)

=== Revolt and imprisonment (1173–1189) ===
==== Revolt and arrest (1173–1174) ====

From 21 to 28 February 1173, Henry and Eleanor were together at [[Montferrand (district of Clermont-Ferrand)|Montferrand]] for the betrothal of Prince John to Alice of Maurienne.{{efn|Alice died shortly thereafter}} The occasion was marred by open conflict between the two Henrys over the delegation of powers. From Montferrat, the royal entourage moved to [[Limoges]], where matters worsened.{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 8}} The Henrys then headed north in March to Chinon, where they arrived on the 5th. In the morning, Henry II discovered his son had escaped his custody and travelled to Paris and Louis VII. The latter then informed King Henry II that he was now supporting his son as the new reigning monarch. This was the beginning of the [[Revolt of 1173–1174]].{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=198–200}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 8}}

Later chroniclers assigned much of the blame to Eleanor, adding to her deepening reputation and leading to much speculation regarding motive, despite lack of evidence, although they carefully added "so it was said" to their accounts. Other evidence implicates the Young King's father-in-law, Louis VII.{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 8}} From Paris, William of Newburgh recounts, "the younger Henry, devising evil against his father from every side by the advice of the French king, went secretly into Aquitaine where his two youthful brothers, Richard and Geoffrey, were living with their mother, and with her connivance, so it is said, he incited them to join him."{{sfn|Newburgh|1988|loc=[https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/williamofnewburgh-two.asp#7 Book II cap. 27]}}{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=200}} Roger of Hoveden gives a somewhat different account, stating that Eleanor sent the younger sons to France and their older brother "to join with him against their father the King."{{sfn|Hoveden|1853|loc=cited in {{harvnb|Weir|2012|p=200, note 12}}}} Young Henry and his brothers then returned to Paris in the spring and Eleanor encouraged her vassals to support her sons.{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=201}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 8}}

Later, in April, Eleanor too would set out to travel to Paris to join her sons. But she was seized on the road to Chartres and taken to Henry II in Rouen.{{efn|Other accounts place Eleanor's flight to Paris after war broke out and as Henry II's forces approached Poitou, at a later date, in November 1173. The major source for her flight is Gervase of Canterbury{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 8}}}} The King did not announce the arrest publicly but had her confined, and for the next year the Queen's whereabouts were unknown.{{efn|The most likely site of Eleanor's imprisonment is Chinon Castle{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 8}}}} Meanwhile, Louis held court in Paris, where the French nobles swore allegiance to the Young King.{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=202–203}} Of Henry II's sons, only seven-year-old John remained with his father. Hostilities commenced in May, with the forces of Young Henry and Louis VII's invading Normandy, although neither side prevailed during 1173.{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=203–204}} After a brief winter truce, Henry II entered Poitiers in May 1174, and took his daughter Joanna together with other noble ladies back to his stronghold in Normandy.{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=206}} On either 7 or 8 July 1174, Henry II, facing imminent invasion of England, took ship and sailed with Eleanor, John, Joanna and the other ladies from [[Barfleur]] to Southampton, from where Eleanor was taken to an unknown place of confinement.{{efn|Eleanor may have been initially confined at either [[Winchester Castle]] or [[Old Sarum|Sarum Castle]], Salisbury. Turner favours the Salisbury site{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 8}}}}{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=206–207}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 8}}

==== Imprisonment (1173–1189) ====

While Henry II was ultimately victorious and made some concessions to his sons at the Treaty of [[Montlouis-sur-Loire|Montlouis]] on 30 September 1174,{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=209–210}} Eleanor was confined to various degrees for the rest of Henry's life in various locations in England, about which there is very little information, although [[pipe rolls]] refer to [[Ludgershall Castle]] in Wiltshire, to Buckinghamshire and houses in [[Berkshire]] and [[Nottinghamshire]].{{efn|About four miles from [[Shrewsbury]], close by [[Haughmond Abbey]] is a site known as  "Queen Eleanor's Bower", though there is no known connection with Eleanor of Aquitaine{{sfn|Historic England|2012}}}}{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=211}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=caps 8, 9}} Gerald of Wales states that Henry considered having his marriage annulled on the grounds of consanguinity during 1175, requesting a visit from a [[papal legate]] to discuss the matter and meeting with Cardinal [[Pietro Pierleoni]] at Winchester on 1 November. Pierleoni dissuaded him from this course. In early 1176, he tried again, by persuading Eleanor to become a nun at Fontevrault. She then requested the Archbishop of Rouen to intervene and he supported her refusal, prompting Henry to once again attempt to seek papal approval,{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=215–216}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 9}} which was denied.{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=221}}

Meanwhile, Henry continued using his children to forge alliances. In the summer of 1176, Eleanor was at Winchester with Joanna, then eleven. Joanna was sent to Sicily on 27 August, as soon as plans for her marriage to William II were concluded, the marriage taking place on 13 February 1177.{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 9}} On 28 September 1176, John was betrothed to his cousin [[Isabella of Gloucester]].{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=218, 220}} In September 1177, Princess Eleanor left for Castile and was married to [[Alfonso VIII]] in [[Burgos]],{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=221}} while Geoffrey was married to [[Constance of Brittany]] in July 1181.{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=224}}

While Eleanor remained confined, she was not strictly a prisoner, but rather in a form of "[[house arrest]]", although stripped of her revenues. She enjoyed some greater freedoms from 1177 onwards and particularly after 1184, and would witness the deaths of three of her children (Henry, Matilda and Geoffrey), but very little information exists about these years.{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 9}} During her imprisonment, Eleanor became more and more distant from her sons, since Henry II could not afford having her in communication with them, and possibly plotting against him.{{sfn|du Breuil|1657|p=443}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 9}} This was especially so for Richard, her heir in Aquitaine, who had always been her favourite.{{sfn|Boyle|2006|p=4, 18, 22}} She did not have the opportunity to see her sons very often during her imprisonment, though she was released for special occasions such as Easter 1176.{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 9}}

[[Rosamund Clifford]] died in 1176 or 1177 at [[Godstow]], Oxfordshire. Henry erected a tomb in the abbey and gave gifts to the abbey in her memory. Her death would much later lead to myths concerning Eleanor's putative involvement{{efn|The alleged murder of Rosamund by Eleanor is depicted in the 1858 portrait of Eleanor by [[Frederick Sandys]]}} that grew more elaborate over the centuries, and for a long time were accepted as established facts, further building her Black Legend, despite virtually no contemporary evidence to support this.{{sfn|Chambers|1941}}{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=165–166, 218–220}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 9}}

Some chroniclers, including Gerald of Wales, Ralph Niger, Roger of Hoveden and Ranulf Higden state that Henry then began an affair with the sixteen-year-old [[Alys of France, Countess of Vexin|Alys of France]], a matter complicated by the fact that she was betrothed to his son Richard and was also the daughter of Louis VII, who became alarmed on hearing this news. In the meantime, Henry delayed the marriage, which Richard was now resisting and Alys bore Henry several children.{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=220–221}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 9}}

The years of Eleanor's confinement were marked by almost constant warfare, between their sons and rebellious vassals (especially Aquitaine), between each other and with their father. The situation became further complicated by the death of  Louis VII on 18 September 1180, and the succession of his son Philip II. Philip was even more determined than his father to regain the French lands of Henry and his sons, and to exploit the conflicts in that dysfunctional family.{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 9}}{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=221–230}}

During one of these campaigns, Eleanor's son Henry died of dysentery on 11 June 1183, at [[Martel, Lot|Martel]], at age twenty-eight. His dying wishes included a plea for his mother to be set free and that his wife Marguerite be provided for.{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=225–226}} Henry II sent Thomas Agnell, [[Archdeacon of Wells]],{{efn|Ms. S. Berry, senior archivist at the Somerset Archive and Record Service, identified this "archdeacon of Wells" as Thomas of Earley, noting his family ties to Henry II and the Earleys' philanthropies.{{sfn|Fripp|2006|loc=ch. 33, and endnote 40.}}}}  to Eleanor at Sarum to inform her of her son's death. He later described how she told him she had a premonition in a dream. Many years later, in 1193, she related to [[Pope Celestine III]] how much she was tortured by her memories of the Young King. Henry's death changed the family dynamics, leaving Richard as the new heir.{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=229}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 9}}

As a result of the Young King's death and his wish for Marguerite's lands to be protected, Henry II found himself in conflict with Philip II, Marguerite's half-brother.{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=229, 231}} Philip claimed that certain properties in Normandy and England belonged to Marguerite, but Henry insisted that they had once belonged to Eleanor and would revert to her upon her son's death.{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=229}} It was therefore politically expedient that Eleanor be seen in the disputed territories and Henry summoned her to Normandy in late summer 1183. This marked the beginning of a loosening of the restrictions on her. Roger of Hovenden states that the King commanded she "be freed and that she make a progress about her dowerlands".{{sfn|Hoveden|1867|p=1: 305}} Her income also improved. Geoffroy du Brueil states that she remained in Normandy for about six months.{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=231–232}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 9}}

Young Henry's death necessitated a renegotiation of the treaty of Montmirail and the contentious question of Richard's betrothal to Alys, resulting in a further meeting of the English and French kings at [[Gisors]], Normandy on 6 December 1183, at which time Henry revoked much of the land concessions he had made earlier.{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=232–235}} Eleanor returned to England in early 1184,{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=235}} where her daughter Matilda and son-in-law Henry (now in exile) were able to stay with her at Winchester and then [[Berkhamsted]].{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=236}} On 30 November at Westminster, Eleanor and Henry presided over another unsuccessful attempt to bring peace with their warring sons and settle their inheritance, and the family spent Christmas at Windsor.{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=236–237}} In early 1185, they journeyed to Normandy, where a further family council took place in May. She would remain in Normandy for nearly a year, the royal couple returning to Southampton from Barfleur England on 27 April 1186, spending the summer together at Winchester, though her whereabouts are largely unknown from then till 1189. However, even in Aquitaine affairs, it was clear she had little freedom to act, stating that her acts were "with the assent and at the will of her lord Henry, King of England, and of Richard, Geoffrey and John, her sons".{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=238–240}} The family situation changed further when Geoffrey died in Paris on 18 or 19 August 1186, leaving only Richard and John as heirs but conflict between them and with their father continued over their inheritance, and Richard made yet another attempt at adding Toulouse to the Aquitaine domain, bringing Henry and Philip into direct conflict, leading to twenty-seven years of intermittent war. This time Richard and Philip combined their forces against an ailing Henry, forcing him to relinquish much of his French possessions.{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=241}} After John joined this alliance against his father, Henry's health deteriorated further and he died at Chinon on 6 July 1189, aged fifty-six.{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=245–246}} At around this time, Eleanor also received news of Matilda's death.{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=240}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 9}}

Over the last few years Eleanor had often travelled with her husband and was sometimes associated with him in the government of the realm, but still had a custodian. Henry's death ended a marriage which has been described as tumultuous and Eleanor's long years of imprisonment.{{sfn|Barreiros|2016}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=Introduction}}