Eleanor of Aquitaine

Bonnie Wheeler is the editor of the journal "Arthuriana" and Palgrave's "New Middle Age" series for which she has recently edited "Listening to Heloise". John Carmi Parsons is the author of "Eleanor of Castile" (1995) and co-editor of "Capetian Women".

Eleanor's patrilineal descent, from a lineage already prestigious enough to have produced an empress in the eleventh century, gave her the lordship of Aquitaine. In this collection, essays provide a context for Eleanor's life and further an evolving understanding of Eleanor's multifaceted career.Eleanor's patrilineal descent, from a lineage already prestigious enough to have produced an empress in the eleventh century, gave her the lordship of Aquitaine. But marriage re-emphasized her sex which, in the medieval scheme of gender-power relations relegated her to the position of Lady in relation to her Lordly husbands. In this collection, essays provide a context for Eleanor's life and further an evolving understanding of Eleanor's multifaceted career. A valuable collection on the greatest heiress of the medieval period.