Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Legend - Brossura

Owen, D. D. R.

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0631201017 ISBN 13: 9780631201014

Casa editrice: Wiley-Blackwell, 1996

Riassunto

Traces the life of Eleanor, who supported her sons in their rebellion against the king

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"Roy Owen′s intimate knowledge of medieval literature and his discrimination in using it enable him to look at Eleanor of Aquitaine both through the legends that built up around her life and through medieval epic and romance .... A stimulating and challenging book that depicts Eleanor sympathetically as a credible person." Marjorie Chibnall, Emeritus Fellow, Clare College, Cambridge

"D. D. R. Owen, well–known for his translations from Cretien de Troyes, has written a fine addition to the already substantial shelf of Eleanor of Aquitaine biography. He has something brand new and convincing to argue: that Eleanor′s personality must have been shaped by the literary milieu in which she grew up, and that legends about her, in turn, shaped some of the literary traditions that developed alongside and after her career. This biography is as much about the literary response, medieval and modern, to the facts of Eleanor′s life as it is a record of the facts themselves." Medium Aevum

"This is a fascinating and scholarly examination of how history and romance have become interwoven in Eleanor of Aquitaine. Recommended for academic and large public libraries." Library Journal

"Eleanor of Aquitaine is the stuff of which rather too much history has been made. It is therefore a relief to read D. D. R. Owen′s new and well–judged assessment of this fascinating and enigmatic figure. This biography succeeds where so many others have failed precisely because of its honesty and its refusal to compromise with the evidence." Historian

Dalla quarta di copertina:

This biography tells the story of one of the most influential figures of the twelfth century, Eleanor of Aquitaine, successively queen of France and of England. Her marriage at fifteen to the young Louis VII was later annulled on the grounds of consanguinity. After her divorce, she married Henry II, then Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy. Henry became king of England in 1154 and Eleanor thereby became queen of potentially the most powerful leader in Europe, whose empire stretched from the Scottish borders to the Pyrenees.

Eleanor bore Henry eight children, two of them future kings of England - Richard (the Lionheart) and John. Her behavior and political motives have always been open to question, not least her siding with her children against Henry. Although their revolt collapsed, Eleanor was kept in close custody in England for much of the next sixteen years. Then, after Henry's death, she lent her unflagging support to his successors Richard and, later, John.

In tracing Eleanor's life story, Professor Owen examines her part in public affairs during the reigns of Louis, Henry, Richard and John, and her role as a literary and cultural patron at the time of the great intellectual revival know as the Twelfth-Century Renaissance. Even in her own day, Eleanor caught the imagination of chroniclers and other writers. Professor Owen follows the development of the legend that built up around her life and considers her possible use as a role-model in the epic and romance of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Wiley-Blackwell
• Data di pubblicazione: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0631201017
• ISBN 13: 9780631201014
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 272