Oddlet: Eleanor of Aquitaine · 1 min read
Jun 4, 2026
The Woman Who Wouldn't Look Up
She rode on crusade, got hauled out of Antioch in the dead of night, was caught fleeing in men's clothes at fifty, ran England at sixty-seven — and then she designed her own tomb.
Eleanor of Aquitaine inherited the wealthiest duchy in France at thirteen, married the King of France at fifteen, and took the cross at Vezelay at Easter 1146 to ride on the Second Crusade as a queen.
The crusade collapsed. Eleanor kept going.
Louis had her arrested in the middle of the night at Antioch and carried out by force. She got the marriage annulled, and eight weeks later married Henry Plantagenet, soon to be Henry II of England. At fifty she helped her sons revolt against him, was caught riding to join them dressed as a man, and was locked in English castles for sixteen years on a queenly stipend, with hunting and fresh clothes dispatched from London. Released at sixty-seven, she ran England as regent while Richard was on crusade, then raised roughly fifty tons of silver to ransom him out of a German prison. At seventy-seven she crossed the Pyrenees in winter to collect a granddaughter. At eighty her grandson Arthur besieged her at Mirebeau; she stalled him from the ramparts until King John force-marched a hundred miles and caught Arthur at breakfast.
She outlived eight of her ten children.
Then she commissioned her tomb.
At Fontevraud, Henry lies in stone with his eyes closed. Richard lies beside him with his eyes closed. Eleanor lies beside them, propped on a pillow, eyes open, reading a book.
It is, as far as anyone can tell, the only medieval tomb of a person mid-sentence.
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- Wikipedia - Eleanor of Aquitaine — Comprehensive overview with specific dates for crusade itinerary, marriages, children's birth dates, annulment (21 March 1152), and death.
- Britannica - Eleanor of Aquitaine — Encyclopedia entry confirming birth c.1122, death 1 April 1204 at Fontevrault, marriage dates to Louis VII and Henry II, eight children, 1173 revolt, imprisonment, and 1200 Pyrenees journey.
- English Heritage - Eleanor of Aquitaine — Source on her ~16 years of imprisonment, including at Old Sarum, and her regency under Richard I; death age 82 in 1204.
- World History Encyclopedia - Eleanor of Aquitaine — Details the 1173 revolt, 1174-1189 imprisonment, 1190-1194 regency during Richard's crusade, and her personally delivering the ransom for Richard in 1194.
- History Hit - 7 Enduring Myths About Eleanor of Aquitaine — Debunks the Amazon legend, explains the 'Wrath of God' letters as likely the work of Peter of Blois, and traces the bare-breasted Amazon image to the 1968 film The Lion in Winter.
- Penthesilea on the Second Crusade (Michael Evans) - Taylor & Francis / Crusades Vol. 8
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