Mercy, it’s been quite a while since I blogged what I’m reading.  Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings, copyright 1963, by Amy Kelly.  Daan brought me home a library discard copy from his school (they throw out some of the neatest things).  It has a great map in the endpaper – I don’t know if that paperback copy Amazon is selling for $16 has that.

Anyway, although Eleanor (Alia-Anor, apparent original spelling, after her mother, Anor) is definitely most of the twelfth century, which is not the 14th century of my current garb construction, she is so influential, and the grandmother of a good deal of 14thc royal Europe, I thought it’d be helpful to learn the lay of the land.

Kelly’s history is a great help.  Her prose is entertaining to read, but also speckled with footnotes and quotes from original sources.  She describes the sense of the time, as well as its luminaries.  I’m only about halfway through – 1172, just after Becket’s martyrdom – but I sat down to my first careful watching of The Lion in Winter and was able to coach several others through the preceeding history.  (Does Alais Capet ever marry anybody?  Flipping forward a decade, she’s still single.)

(Okay, reading that link, the character who pronounces "Kings, Queens, Knights everywhere, but I’m the only pawn…that makes me dangerous!" is all of 13 in The Lion in Winter’s 1183, and she’s Henry’s mistress.  Eewww.  Though the line does sound like a teenager.)

I do wish the book had a standard family tree, with dates and titles, so I can keep straight the duchys and such.  I should probably draw one up.