Editing Eleanor of Aquitaine (section)

==== Return to France and retirement (1194–1199) ====

Eleanor and Richard's stay in England was relatively brief, since feeling the need to defend his French possessions from Philip, Richard departed from [[Portsmouth]] on 12 May 1194. Arriving in Barflueur, neither Richard nor Eleanor would return to England.{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=299}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 10}} There, they effected a reconciliation with John that would last through the rest of Richard's reign, leaving the latter free to defend his territory against Philip, while Eleanor, now seventy-two, retired to Fontevrault and there is very little information available about her for the next few years, though she made the abbey her principal residence for the rest of her life.{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=300–301}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 10}} The marriage of her daughter Joanna to [[Raymond VI of Toulouse]] in October 1196 finally ended Eleanor's dynastic claims on Toulouse, which now passed to her daughter.{{sfn|Weir|2012|p=305}} Richard was in a state of almost perpetual war with the French king following his return to Normandy in 1194, and finally succumbed to a wound on 6 April 1199 at the age of forty-one, with Eleanor at his side.{{sfn|Weir|2012|pp=310–311}}{{sfn|Turner|2009|loc=cap 10}}

Initially, prior to arriving in England, Richard delegated authority to Eleanor ''statuendi quae vellet in regno'', though this was not repeated. During Richard's subsequent prolonged absences, royal authority in England was represented by a succession of [[chief justiciars]]. On Longchamp's dismissal in 1191, government moved to a more conciliar mode (''magnum concilium'' and ''communitas regni'') under Coutance.{{sfn|Wilkinson|1944}}