Mother of Lions: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Part 3

In 1189, Henry was dead and Richard was King of England.  Likely, Eleanor heard the news from William Marshal, who had been sent from Richard to England to order her release.  Richard was almost unopposed as King, but there were problems.  Years before, Henry II had arranged the betrothal of Richard to Alys, daughter of Louis VII by a subsequent marriage and sister of the current King of France, Phillip II, who was no friend of the Plantagenets.  Eleanor and Richard both believed that Alys had been Henry's mistress.  Unwilling to return her and her dowry to Phillip, and also unwilling to marry her to Richard, Eleanor kept Alys in limbo, drifting from castle to castle in England to keep her out of Phillip's possible reach.  Then, there was John.  Contrary to the legend, John was given some lands from his parents' join inheritance, but they were chicken feet compared to what Henry, Geoffrey and Richard got.  Even marriage with a wealthy heiress, Isabel of Gloucester, wasn't enough to placate John, probably because he faced excommunication if he so much as consummated their marriage.

Richard threw more drama into the mix.  He wanted to go on Crusade.  That meant money, men and material.  England had always been the money pit for the Plantagenet family's wars but after the constant strife of Henry's reign finances were strained.  Richard levied new taxes and strained his exchequer to the breaking point.  Levies came from all over the Plantagenet's far-flung empire.  Eleanor devoted her considerable energies to spearheading this effort, both in England and in her own estates.  She was also concerned about finding Richard a wife.  In 1189, she was pushing 70, a ripe old age by any standards.  Still, she traveled in person to the Kingdom of Navarre to escort her chosen bride for her son, the Princess Berengaria, and travel with her to Sicily, where Richard was staging his Crusade.  Afraid to be away from England, lest John flare up, Eleanor left Berengaria with her daughter Joanna and headed back to London.

And, just in time.  John was already beginning to work his way among the barons who had remained at home, furious at the expense of the Crusade and believing that Richard was shirking his duty to England.  It would take all of Eleanor's considerable cunning to keep the barons' allegiance to Richard.  Then, in 1192, as Richard was on his way home from the Crusade, he was captured by agents of Leopold of Austria.  They demanded a heavy ransom and King Phillip of France demanded his sister's return or else an invasion of England.  John also seized that moment to rally the barons for an attempt at the throne.  Eleanor was busy, writing letters to the Pope, to any ruler in Europe who would intercede with Phillip and Leopold to allow Richard to return.  She was also spearheading the ransom effort, in England, Normandy, Aquitaine and anywhere else she could find money or credit.  Richard returned home in 1196, but was soon away, dealing with rebellion in Normandy.  He died in 1199 and John was king, like it or not.

Eleanor was now an old woman and her health was failing.  It was time in the Medieval world for her to be thinking of her soul.  She and Henry II had long patronized Fontevrault Abbey, where Henry II and Richard I lay entombed.  Eleanor retired to the Abbey and lived out her life.  As per custom, just before her death, she took formal vows as a nun.  Her tomb survives today at Fontevrault, though her actual remains were likely scattered during the French Revolution.  Her life ever since has been the subject of artists, poets, novelists and script writers ever since.