All language subtitles for The Queens That Changed the World s01e05 Eleanor of Aquitaine.eng

Across the centuries

and around the world...

..women have ruled kingdoms
and built empires.

She could not be hidden,
she could not be suppressed.

Now, we discover the real story
of six iconic queens.

She tore the city down.

Despite the fire, despite the
whole city being massacred,

we still have these walls.

In this series,
we follow in the footsteps...

Here it is, the Chapel Royal.

A pretty magical place.

..of history's most important
female monarchs...

She believed that every single man
who fought on the battlefield

in her name was worthy of honour
and respect.

..to find out how they overcome
the prejudices of their times...

She is their mother,
she is their commander.

She is their goddess.

..and the challenges facing
their reigns...

This was a dangerous place to be.

She wouldn't have shown any fear,
but I'm sure she felt it.

..to change their world

and ours.

She is sassy, she is fearless.

She is a badass queen.

1202.

Not far from the banks of the
river Loire, in western France,

lies Fontevraud Abbey,
now home to Eleanor of Aquitaine.

After 65 years of rule, Eleanor,
now about 80, has finally retired.

Fontevraud is where Eleanor's
heart is, it's where she really

spends the last two years
of her life.

So, we can imagine her walking
round these corridors,

walking around this garden.

She would have been part of
the abbey community

and really just enjoyed the last
few years of her life

in reflection and contemplation
of her amazing career.

A career unrivalled by any
other monarch.

As Eleanor is the only woman ever
to be crowned Queen of France

AND Queen of England.

I love Eleanor of Aquitaine because
she's such a fascinating figure.

She's so exciting.

She is the woman that, if you want
to think of a medieval queen,

Eleanor of Aquitaine is the woman
who pops into your mind,

and she is unrivalled in terms of
her power and her position

during the 12th century.

She's the woman that you would look
at and think, "That is power."

Born around 1122,
Eleanor is the eldest child

of Aenor of Chatellerault
and William X,

the Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine.

This is Poitiers.

This is Eleanor's childhood home,
this is where she grows up.

And this is such an important
place to her,

because it's her family's seat,

it's where she wants to come back to
time after time.

Aquitaine is just one of many
provinces during the 12th century

ruled by its own regent.

France in the 12th century
wasn't a unitary state.

By unitary, I mean it wasn't
ruled by one monarch.

There were a series of
principalities

and independent kingdoms ruled
by their own separate kings

or high members of the
aristocratic class.

Eleanor's family controlled
Aquitaine,

which was the largest principality
in France.

It was to the south-west,
and it was hugely powerful.

And, actually, France itself over
which the King of France ruled

was tiny, so he relied,
really, on the loyalty

of the various dukes who commanded
these other territories.

In total, William and Aenor
have three children -

Eleanor, Petronilla and William,

who is heir to the family's duchy.

As the daughter of wealthy
and influential parents,

Eleanor enjoys a privileged
upbringing.

Even though she was female,
therefore not in line to succeed

to the duchy, she was still
incredibly well educated.

Eleanor is surrounded by poetry
and culture, by artists,

by troubadours, and this is going
to have a significant impact

on her life, as well.
She's not led a sheltered life.

She's grown up with an awareness
of the world and, indeed,

what her place might be in it.

1130.

When Eleanor is about eight
years old, tragedy strikes

when her mother, Aenor, dies.

Eleanor was very young
when she lost her mother,

which must have been very difficult,

because a mother played a key role
in the education

of her daughters and the upbringing
of her daughters, as well.

Shortly after the death
of her mother,

the family is torn apart again.

When Eleanor is still young,
her brother, William, dies.

And this is important for Eleanor

not only for the loss of her
brother, but also because he was

the one who was due to
inherit Aquitaine.

For a female to inherit, it has to
be in the absence of male heirs.

So, it usually entails either
the not having brothers

in the first place,
or a brother dying ahead of you.

So, in Eleanor's case, she's the
eldest surviving child of William X

of Aquitaine, so she could inherit.

Before William's death, she knows
that she was going to go off

at some point and perhaps make
a really important marriage

and rule elsewhere. But now
she needs to be more aware

of Aquitaine's importance,
more now than ever,

because this is where she's going
to rule.

Quite often, it's the eldest child
who goes on to be a natural leader.

Sometimes they might take on
responsibility for others,

even to excess.

They might feel a burden
of responsibility,

but they also feel kind of
accustomed to being the top dog,

the one in charge.

And that kind of pattern
of relating to others

can often show itself
throughout life.

Eleanor is now first in line
to inherit Aquitaine.

And her father now needs to decide
who she is going to marry.

It's really important to recognise
that as the sovereign

Duchess of Aquitaine,
she needed to have a protector.

So, she could govern, absolutely.
She could inherit, absolutely.

But it was really important that
she had by her side a consort

who is going to be supportive
of her.

It needed to be someone, ideally,
who was powerful, who could protect

her from those who might seek
to attack Aquitaine.

He would have been thinking
of Eleanor's future

and her marriage potential
and, indeed,

who to arrange her marriage to.

However, at this point,
William still thinks he's got

a longer career ahead of him,

and therefore is keeping an eye
on Eleanor's potential,

but hasn't put anything into place.

Eleanor would have been expecting
to have been married to someone

of at least noble,
if not royal status.

She would have accepted this.

However, she would have
had no choice

in who she was going to marry.

That was simply the way
things happened.

But certainly with her being,
effectively, so valuable,

the options of who she could
sensibly marry were limited.

Within the high Middle Ages,
marriage was not considered

to be something arranged
between two suitors,

as a love match.

I mean, occasionally those
things did happen.

But, primarily, marriages took
place between families,

nations and states.
People married politically.

A young woman of that era would be
brought up knowing that it was

your duty to marry the person that
your family needed you to marry

to forge those alliances.

But marriage was also important
for another reason.

As a daughter of the most powerful
duchy in France,

Eleanor was vulnerable,
she was vulnerable to kidnap.

That was the danger, because
possession of her body

is possession of her lands.

So, if she could be taken, married,

forced to sleep with somebody,

then they would effectively have
control of her lands.

So, it was vital that she
be protected,

and protection equalled marriage.

Before her father can arrange a
marriage, tragedy strikes yet again.

Her father dies quite unexpectedly
while on pilgrimage on the way

to Santiago de Compostela,

and he entrusts Eleanor to
the King of France.

The King of France thought,
"This is the biggest marital prize

"in the realm. I'll have that for
my son. Thank you very much."

It's not something that she was
prepared for.

It's not something that even Duke
William had necessarily planned for.

But he knew by making the King
of France Eleanor's protector,

that Eleanor would be safe
and that Aquitaine would be safe.

Eleanor is now about 15 years old,

and her betrothed, Prince Louis -

King Louis VI's son and heir to the
French throne - is about 17.

She now knows that she is going to
be married to the Prince of France,

and therefore become Queen of France
one day.

In the space of a few short weeks,
her future had dramatically changed.

She would have taken control of
the situation with both hands,

because she's been raised
to be a confident,

assertive woman with the
capabilities of rulership -

and this is now her time.

July 25, 1137...

..the day of Eleanor and Louis's
wedding.

Eleanor and Louis's wedding
ceremony in Bordeaux Cathedral

was a spectacle.

There's going to have been
pageantry around it.

There's going to have been
a procession.

It's going to have been a really
grand occasion for all the people

of Bordeaux and from the surrounding
areas to have come out and viewed.

And a painting from a 14th century
manuscript captures the event.

This depiction of Eleanor's
wedding to Louis

is coded with all these messages
about her wealth,

her power and her desirability.

She's depicted as this incredibly
powerful player

on the European stage.

Her gold dress evokes the gold in
the altarpiece of the scene.

She is the most important figure
in this scene.

Her husband, Louis, is disappearing
into the background.

He's hidden behind her and the
priest that's marrying them.

And we're told in no uncertain terms
that Eleanor is the centrepiece

to this ceremony, that she is the
most important figure there.

Eleanor doesn't know it yet,

but she will eclipse her
husband's power.

Louis was quite studious and quiet
and very pious.

Eleanor was the exact opposite.

Very fiery, very outspoken,
and incredibly ambitious.

And I think from the earliest days
of their marriage,

she was quite frustrated
with her husband.

He wasn't quite the equal partner
that she was expecting.

1137.

Eleanor of Aquitaine has just
married Prince Louis

at Bordeaux Cathedral.

The description we have of their
wedding is that it was so lavish

that it defied description.

We never get to find out what
Eleanor looked like.

There have been assumptions that
Eleanor was strikingly

beautiful, and she was certainly
a dazzling prize

on the international
marriage market.

But, actually, that's based more
on her land and her power

than her actual appearance.

I think she was compelling.

I think she had an attractive
personality,

but we know precious little about
what Eleanor actually looked like.

In fact, the only image of Eleanor
from her lifetime that survives

today is from her tomb,
which lies in Fontevraud Abbey.

This is Eleanor's burial site.

Here we've got her effigy,

and this is where her body would
have been buried.

This effigy is one of the few clues
as to Eleanor's appearance -

but it reveals much about
her character.

In this effigy of Eleanor of
Aquitaine, we see her holding

a book, likely a sarter -
so, a religious prayer book.

She's dressed in traditional
medieval drapery,

the kind of clothes that
we would expect to find her in

during her own life.

And she has relatively lively,
colourful skin.

She's not depicted as deceased,

and this is really unusual,

and what this tells us is
the liveliness of her

during her lifetime.

Her eyes are upward, perhaps they're
pointed to heaven and the afterlife,

or perhaps they are looking back
across an a really extensive life,

a life lived sometimes on the edge,

a life that was shaped
by her own power.

A power that begins when she is
just a teenager.

August 1, 1137.

Having just married Louis,
in Bordeaux, the newlyweds are

on their way to Eleanor's new home
in Paris.

They receive some unexpected news.

King Louis VI is dead.

King Louis VI dies suddenly.

So, now Eleanor and her new husband
are King and Queen of France,

almost overnight.

This is not something that either
of them had expected to happen,

certainly not this quickly.

Despite being only 15, Eleanor
knows what is expected of her

as the new Duchess of Aquitaine -

but becoming Queen
is a different matter.

She immediately has to assume
the role,

a role that she's completely
unprepared for.

There's a huge amount of scrutiny
on her, she has to adjust to life

away from home, away from
everything that she knows.

She must have been homesick.

She must have been really struggling
with taking on all of these aspects

of her life and becoming an adult
almost instantaneously.

But as she adjusts into her
new position of power,

Eleanor decides to bring a bit
of Poitiers to Paris.

One of the things that's most,
associated with Eleanor is this idea

of her presiding over the
courts of love.

Now, what is the courts of love?

That's something that often
seems quite confusing.

But it's this idea that
she presided over a court

that was very cosmopolitan,
it was very cultured.

Again, she brought the idea of the
kind of southern troubador movement

with her to the courts of Paris.

Eleanor was a highly educated
and very cultured woman,

and her court attracted some of the
leading intellectuals of the day -

poets, playwrights, minstrels.

Eleanor seems to have loved it.

She loved being amongst such
stimulating company,

and, really, her court was one of
the most civilised in the world.

Eleanor from the start behaved
like a queen.

She appreciated what it took
to put on a show

and the importance of cultivating
a magnificent court

to impress your subjects,

but also to send out a clear message
about who's in charge.

Louis, however, sees things
very differently.

Louis and Eleanor are very
different personalities.

Louis is not very effective
at handling government,

whereas Eleanor wants to get
stuck in, she wants to rule.

However, Louis' got very strong
opinions about what

their marriage life should be like.

He should be the one focused
on rulership, not Eleanor.

Not only that, but Eleanor
isn't getting pregnant.

It was vital for Eleanor to have
a son and heir.

That's the whole point
of royal marriages.

And the longer she went without
getting pregnant at all,

regardless of whether she had
a boy or a girl,

the more pressure she would have
been under.

You start with all this
great promise,

this incredibly handsome boy.

There is, however,
this massive problem,

which is that he was never meant
to be king.

Louis only became heir
when his older brother died in a hunting accident.

Before that, Louis believed his
future lay with the church.

He had been brought up to be a monk,

and he had in fact been trained
not to want to sleep with women.

Louis would have been heavily
schooled and trained

to think that carnal activities
or lust was a sin.

He would have been given all of
these messages from a young age

because he was destined
for celibacy.

It would have been
incredibly difficult.

Aware of what's at stake,
Eleanor makes a bold move.

Her real grasp of power will depend
upon her giving Louis an heir.

It gets to the point
when she actually goes to

Bernard of Clairvaux, incredibly
influential religious figure,

and says to him, you know,
"Can you help me out here?

"I want children and my husband
won't sleep with me.

"Can you please persuade him
to get into my bed?"

In 1145, Eleanor gives birth
to their first child,

a daughter, Marie.

So far as Louis is concerned,
obviously, he wants a son.

But Eleanor, I'm sure, was delighted
to have any children at all.

But she's still not having
MORE children.

And at the same time there is all
sorts of difficulty brewing

in the Holy Land, and Louis decides
he wants to go on crusade.

The Crusades were a series
of military expeditions

by Christian Europeans to protect
Jerusalem from capture by Muslims.

After the First Crusade,
which started 52 years earlier,

nearby states were established
under Christian rule

to project Jerusalem.

But recently one of those states,
Edessa, has fallen.

The Pope decides it's time to act,

and Louis decides this is
his destiny.

The plan is to cross to Anatolia in
order to destroy the Turkish armies

and recover Edessa.

Eleanor and Louis are fully aware
that, as western European

Christian rulers in the
12th century,

if they want to achieve prestige and
power amongst their western European

competitors, that they need to
position themselves as noble.

One of those ways to be perceived as
noble is to be defending Christendom

and to be part of a process to
recover the Holy Lands.

Any leader in Europe worth their
salt would do this.

This was a campaign sanctioned
by the Pope.

They were seen as having God
on their side.

So, Louis wanted that reputation,
really, as a crusading king,

and Eleanor wanted a part of it.

It's almost like she's seeing this
as her big moment.

This is when she's going to make
her mark as the Queen of France.

She would have been on the road
for months on end.

I mean, thinking about the distance
that she would have had to travel

from northern France all the way
to Jerusalem over land.

So, that would have been
incredible hardship.

As Louis's army marches towards
the Holy Land,

his troops are quickly outnumbered,
ambushed and slaughtered

by the much more organised
Turkish troops.

There are some horrific accounts
of this crusade.

And Eleanor would have seen this,

she was almost in the heart
of the action.

And it had a real impact on her.

Witnessing the horrors first-hand,
Eleanor begins to see

her husband in a new light.

Eleanor must have had plenty of time
to think about,

"OK, this is my husband's project,
and it has gone terribly.

"It's gone terribly for reasons for
which I can legitimately blame him."

You know, he was in charge
of organising this,

and it has been a complete mess.

After a long two years
on the crusade,

Eleanor and Louis are back
in Paris -

and Eleanor makes a decision that
will change the course of history.

The crusade seems to have
decided Eleanor

that she wanted out of
this marriage.

Now, that's not something you did
in the 12th century.

And, in fact, the Pope got involved
and he tried to mediate,

to try to kind of reconcile
this warring couple.

And it seemed to have worked,
because Eleanor fell pregnant.

But the child was a daughter.

She needed a son.

And it was the beginning of the end
for that marriage.

Marriages in the Middle Ages come
down to a number of C's, basically.

It's about consent,
it's about contract,

it's about consummation
and consanguinity.

Those are the issues.

To get out of a marriage,
you have to basically prove

that one of those elements
isn't valid.

So, consanguinity is one
that is normally used.

In theory, you're not supposed to be
related within seven degrees.

Now, if you think about the great
and good of Europe at this time,

everybody is related to someone
in some way, shape, or form.

And that's the get out clause.

Eleanor and Louis are third cousins,
once removed.

It's enough for Eleanor to get
the marriage annulled.

But it means leaving her
two daughters in the care of their father.

That would have been an incredible
hardship for Eleanor,

to leave her two daughters behind,

but it was one of the costs that
came with the end of the marriage.

At least it was decided that Mary
and Alice were legitimate,

and so that was some consolation.

Even if they couldn't come with her,
they were still French princesses,

and they still went on to have
important futures of their own.

1152.

Eleanor is no longer
a married woman.

But she can't stay single for long,
as the threat of kidnap

and the capture of Aquitaine
looms large once again.

However, she's already decided
who her next husband will be.

Henry is the son of the
Duke of Anjou.

He is like Eleanor,
a very fiery character,

very self-confident,
strident personality.

He's actually 11 years younger than
Eleanor, so he's just about 19.

Henry is the son of Count Geoffrey
of Anjou and Empress Matilda.

The Empress Matilda was the rightful
claimant of her father,

Henry I of England.

Now, she unfortunately was unable
to claim the throne fast enough

when her father died, and her
cousin, Steven of Bois,

pipped her to the post
and took the crown.

The settlement that ultimately
arises between Stephen and Matilda

after the death of Stephen's son
is that Stephen will allow Henry

to be his heir to England, as well.

So, at the time that he meets
Eleanor, he's just been made

Duke of Normandy, and he's the heir
to Anjou and the heir to England.

So, he's an up-and-coming young man.

I think we can speculate that
Eleanor was the mover and shaker

in this relationship with
the younger Henry.

We do see Eleanor's agency
in this match.

She's got to think very carefully
about what makes sense for her,

but most importantly what makes
sense for Aquitaine, as well.

Eight weeks after her marriage
to Louis is annulled,

it is here at Poitiers Cathedral
that Eleanor gets married to Henry.

This is no longer a teenager
who's got to wonder how to

navigate the political system.

Eleanor knows now,
she's got that experience,

she's got those capabilities.

1154.

Henry is crowned Henry II,
King of England,

and Eleanor is queen once again.

With this second marriage,
Eleanor saw a clear path

to dominating Europe.

Suddenly, now she had all
of her own lands,

but she had the lands
of her husband.

She could be a queen,
Queen of England.

You don't get much greater prize
than that,

and Eleanor seems to have
relished it.

1154.

Eleanor and Henry are now the most
powerful couple in western Europe -

King and Queen of England,

and rulers of the newly-formed
Angevin Empire.

Now combined, the territories
of Eleanor and Henry

cover over half of France.

As a couple they now live in Chinon,

close to Eleanor's home town,
Poitiers.

We're here in the centre
of Chinon Castle,

and it's really exciting, cos we're
actually in what is a recreation

of Henry and Eleanor's bedroom.

In total, Eleanor and Henry have
eight children together -

five sons and three daughters.

First-born William, who sadly dies
when he is three years old,

followed by Henry, Richard, Matilda,

Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joanna, and John.

Obviously, they have a lot of
children, so we can have

a rough estimate of some of the
activities that took place here.

But, you know, in their early days
they're so in love with one another.

They've got a very passionate
relationship,

they work really well together.

So, this would have been a time
where we can imagine them

getting along and just, you know,
being your average couple, almost,

but just a couple with
a lot of power.

And a stained-glass window in
Poitiers Cathedral that Eleanor

and Henry commissioned
gives us an insight into

how they saw their relationship.

Henry himself rebuilt the walls
around the city,

and it's thought that the couple
rebuilt the cathedral itself.

The stained glass that depicts them
is part of a larger scheme

showing the crucifixion of Christ,

and it's incredibly telling that
the pair write themselves

into this story. They want to be
viewed as pious,

as important patrons of the
cathedral, but also placing

themselves quite literally in close
proximity to Jesus Christ.

We see the couple at the bottom
of the window,

where they're depicted on either
side with their two sons,

Richard and John.

This window must have been made
in a really specific

and important moment
in Eleanor's life.

It's a moment when she's given birth
to all of her children.

So, her youngest son, John,
is visible in the window.

And what we see here is a version
of Eleanor that's not only pious,

she is a perfect partner
to her husband.

Compositionally, she matches him
in the window.

They're a physical echo
of each other.

Their arms and limbs are arranged
in the same way,

they're wearing similar clothing.

She's an equal partner, importantly.

She is very much shown as female,
and Henry shown very much as male.

But other than that, they're very
much a mirror image of each other.

She's shown the same size as him
in the composition.

She is matching him in every way.

Finally, Eleanor is now able to
command the respect and the power

she always felt she deserved.

They operate in what I call kind of
a team players dynamic,

which means that they decided
who needed to be where

for political reasons.

So, there are times when she was
ruling his domains, where she was

left being regent for England while
Henry was on the continent.

There were times when he was
in Aquitaine.

There are times when she was ruling
Aquitaine and he was elsewhere.

So, sometimes they're together
and sometimes they're apart.

Henry and Eleanor do develop
a quite effective personal

and political partnership.

But the partnership will not last.

1167.

Eleanor and Henry have
just separated.

After 15 years, their marriage
is now on the rocks.

Over the years, there's personal
and political rifts

that open up between Henry
and Eleanor.

Henry had mistresses,
more than one mistress,

so he has illegitimate children.

There are issues in terms of how
Henry wants to manage Aquitaine

that Eleanor disagrees with.

So, there are political reasons
why there are divisions

opening up between them.

And then, finally,
there are family reasons.

Having not given Louis any sons,

she gives Henry son after son
after son.

And now that their eldest sons
are coming of age,

they want power and territory
of their own.

Henry is confronting the problem
of having to cede power

to these sons who are now wanting
a role in the empire,

and he is doing very badly
at giving them that.

And he will say,
"Oh, you can have that bit.

"No, no, no,
maybe you can have that bit,"

and then he undercuts all
their decisions.

Six years later, and the situation
is no closer to a resolution.

Young Henry is on the point
of rebellion.

He has been doing some governing in
England and in northern France,

and he has got his own court,
he's got his own supporters.

At the same time, their second son,
Richard, had always expected

to get Aquitaine, and Henry is
messing him about on that.

Both of them get to the point
where they are prepared

to take up arms against Henry
to get a meaningful share

of the land, the power.

Eleanor has to take into account
all of the different layers

of who she is. So, she's Henry's
wife, she's Queen of England,

but she's Duchess of Aquitaine,
she's mother of these sons.

And she realises that every decision
she makes has ramifications

for her family, has ramifications
for her marriage,

but also has ramifications for
her domains in Aquitaine.

Her decision is to back her sons
with a bold grab for power.

By force, she goes for power herself
and for her sons,

she supports them in rebelling
against their own father.

This is deeply shocking.

For a woman to defy her husband
in this way -

but a queen?

It's virtually unheard of.

The idea was that the boys
would strike,

they would take various lands,

and they would be in a position

to negotiate, effectively,
a settlement.

Eleanor helps to orchestrate this
rebellion on the part of her sons

from France, that's her power base.

But it goes wrong.

Before Eleanor and her sons
can take control of any

of Henry's territories, his forces
capture Eleanor and imprison her.

She's taken, first of all, to Rouen,

where she is held in a massive
fortress there,

and then shipped over to England
because she is safer there.

She's further away from her
power base.

When you think of being thrown
into prison,

you think of a dark, damp dungeon.

It wasn't quite like that
for Eleanor.

It was a very honourable
imprisonment.

And typical of Eleanor,
she was active during her years of confinement.

She was doing all sorts of things.

Even Eleanor imprisoned is still
Eleanor Duchess of Aquitaine.

She still has power,
she still has presence,

and she still is going to maintain a
position just because of who she is,

even if she's in this very
difficult condition.

In some ways, she spends more time
with some of her children

during this period instead of
other periods of her life.

So, it's not a period in which
she's completely cut off.

She's by no means inactive,
wiling away her hours

as a typical prisoner might.

She's scheming and she's doing
what she can to still stay

a force to be reckoned with.

Let's not get away from the fact
she was still a prisoner.

And for a woman of Eleanor's
ambition and energy,

that must have been torture.

Although Henry will later
forgive his sons,

he never forgives Eleanor
for her treachery.

Instead, he keeps her held prisoner
in England for 15 years.

During Eleanor's long years
as a prisoner,

her eldest son, Henry,
died of dysentery,

and on his deathbed he begged
for his mother's release.

He was intensely loyal to her.

But it is not the death of her son
that secures her release.

It is the death of her husband.

Probably Henry expected
she'd never come out,

that she would die in prison or,
you know, just fade away.

Of course, what happens
is the reverse.

He has a very, very hard time
with the boys, and dies.

And Eleanor is, at the age
of her mid 60s,

ready to emerge into the world.

1189.

Eleanor is finally free.

And now she must get to work.

As the widow of the King,
Eleanor is now Queen Dowager,

and it is up to her to make sure
her eldest surviving son, Richard,

ascends to the throne.

This is a really important period
of Eleanor's life.

When Henry dies and she is now
the Dowager Queen,

in theory, you'd think that
she was powerless.

But, actually, she becomes at her
most powerful at this point.

So, she regains control
of Aquitaine,

something that she'd always had to
struggle with her two husbands

for control over,
so that's a real win.

And this is a really important time,
the transition between reigns.

Eleanor needs to make sure that
Richard's rule is established,

that his authority is recognised,

particularly before he can come to
England to claim the crown himself.

Even though she's now considered
to be in old age,

Eleanor's energy is greater
than ever.

She travels the kingdom.

In fact, she travels constantly
across the Channel,

spreading the word for
her son, Richard,

garnering support from his
vast territories.

I think without Eleanor,
Richard would have lost his crown.

One of the things that we have
to remember is that,

at this point in her life, Eleanor
is a very experienced politician.

I mean, she's been sovereign
Duchess of Aquitaine,

she's been Queen of France,
she's been Queen of England.

She's been involved in rule
in Normandy, in Anjou,

in all the corners of their empire.

So, she is a really seasoned
politician.

More importantly, Richard knows how
well respected his mother is

and how much he needs her.

This is Eleanor's time now.

Her son, Richard, adores her,
he's loyal to her.

And most importantly,
he's interested in crusading

rather than staying in England.

That leaves the way open for
Eleanor to wield all the power

that she's ever wanted.

As Richard sets out to join the
Third Crusade, Eleanor -

now in her late 60s -
is finally in charge on her own.

She's incredibly effective.

She immediately kind of takes
control of the governance,

plays a very vital role in kind of
maintaining royal authority

in England during this time.

She's holding legal courts,
she's settling disputes,

and she's signing letters
"Eleanor, Queen of England."

There's one particular letter that
really makes it clear

just how much power this woman has.

She signs off "Eleanor, by the wrath
of God, Queen of England."

This is what Eleanor has
always wanted.

She's commanding authority
the likes of which

we have never seen a woman command.

So, she's having a ball.

But this peace and harmony
doesn't last long.

Of course, it all comes crumbling
down so quickly afterwards,

when Richard not only goes
on crusades, but is captured on the way back.

Quarrels between Christian allies
fighting in the crusade

result in Richard being imprisoned,

and a large ransom is demanded
for his release.

Suddenly, she's dealing with
trying to ransom her son,

which obviously is a huge
kind of personal,

as well as political burden.
But she's got her other son

rebelling against her authority
and Richard's.

To make matters worse, John,
her youngest son,

decides to capitalise on
Richard's misfortune.

He wants the English throne
for himself.

Her youngest son, John, is plotting
with the King of France, Philip,

to try and take over England.

Eleanor is supporting Richard.

Eleanor is in a really difficult
position, where she's got to

quash one son's revolt and save
the other son at the same time.

There was a real worry that
the nobility of England -

who knew John much better
than they knew Richard,

because John had been raised
in England -

that they would side with John.

And Eleanor goes round a number
of meetings and addresses

the nobility of England,
and effectively says,

"Don't even think about it.

"You cannot trust him,
and you know what your duty is."

She also travels round England
to get the ransom put together.

She is one of the people whose seal
goes on every case of money

that is going to be sent
to release Richard.

One of the most interesting things
that we have that exist

from Eleanor are the letters
that she writes to the Pope

when she's looking for the
release of Richard.

They're incredibly emotional,
and this is what's so amazing.

Normally when you're dealing
with letters in this period,

particularly letters from
kings and queens,

they're extremely formulaic.

"I'm not free to breathe now from
the tribulations of evil and grief,

"the excessive tribulations
that have come upon us

"I am wasted away by sorrow.

"My guts are torn from me.

"My family is carried off
and removed from me.

"Two sons remain to my solace,

"who today survive to punish me,
miserable and condemned.

"King Richard is held in chains.

"His brother John depletes
his kingdom with iron

"and lays it waste with fire."

She's appealing to this idea
of being a mother.

She's using her femininity
for power here.

She is calling on the language of
tears, of supplication.

She's looking for sympathy
from the Pope.

She's trying to rile him into
action to see that he must

come to her defence and help Richard
in his time of need.

Eleanor is there,
she's negotiating his release,

and ultimately she secures it.

Richard owes his life to his mother.

Eleanor is hugely respected
across the kingdom.

They know that this is a woman
in true command.

She is known to be just.

And she's also a highly capable
ruler, she always has been -

but until now, she hasn't been able
to prove it.

So, Eleanor, really, is the ruler
who everybody looks up to.

Despite her advancing years,

despite the fact that she was
now an elderly woman,

she still stepped up.

She still did what she could do
to both mother her children,

but also to lead the nation.

And I think that tells us a lot
about Eleanor's character,

that right from the word go

she always did what she
thought she had to do

to look after everything
and everyone.

And I think she probably was
still trying to do that

well into her 80s, and possibly
right to the end of her life.

What I really, really admire
in Eleanor is that so much

of what she does is built
on adversity.

I kind of think of her as
a poster girl for resilience.

When I try to evaluate Eleanor from
a behavioural perspective,

I ask myself, you know, was she
just a woman of her times?

In many ways she was a woman
so ahead of her times.

She wasn't just the obedient wife.

She genuinely seemed to want
to lead.

And she also took a number of risks,
as well.

She was very pioneering.

And a woman who really did what she
thought was the right thing to do,

rather than what the time period
would have expected of her.

Eleanor didn't just change
France or England.

She changed the world.

She forever shifted the perception
of female power.

She was an inspiring role model
for future queens.

And she showed society what
women were capable of

in this very prejudiced age,

and that was a lesson that
they never forgot.

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