Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 2684
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Wood , Charles T.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Fontevraud, Dynasticism, and Eleanor of Aquitaine
  • Source: Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady.  Edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John Carmi ParsonsThe New Middle Ages.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.  Pages 377 - 405.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Burials Commemoration Eleanor of Aquitaine, Wife of Louis VII of France and Henry II of England Fontevrault- l'Abbaye, Maine-et-Loire, France- Abbey, Double House Founded by Robert d'Arbrissel Kings Plantagenets, Dynasty Succession
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles;France
  • Century: 12-13
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract: How Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, and so many of their relatives came to be buried at Fontevraud is the story of chance coupled with a growing sense of dynasticism. Henry II had made other plans, but they came to nought when those in charge of his funeral found Fontevraud much more convenient. Eleanor chose to bury her children Jeanne and Richard there, and before she joined them in death, she probably planned the way in which all of their tombs should be clustered as a family grouping. Nevertheless, the burial wishes of later Plantagenets suggest that the dynastic thinking that drew them to Fontevraud invovled Eleanor's family as much as Henry's, if not more so. [Reprinted with permission of Palgrave Macmillan.]
  • Related Resources: Charles Wood in Chapter 19, "Fontevraud, Dynasticism, and EA," argues that the arrangement of the tombs at Fontevraud reflects not just the importance of the Plantagenet dynasty, but of EA's matrilinear line. The burials of Isabelle of Angouleme and Raymo
  • Author's Affiliation: Dartmouth College [Emeritus]
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2003.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0312295820