Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Alison Weir

Author:Alison Weir [Weir, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307831859
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2015-02-09T16:00:00+00:00

13

“Beware of Your Wife and Sons”

On 21 February 1173, in response to overwhelming popular demand, Becket was canonised by Pope Alexander III. His cult had by now spread so widely that, soon afterwards, an order of Knights of St. Thomas of Acre was established in the Holy Land. Many miracles were attributed to the new saint, numerous churches were dedicated to him, as well as a famous hospital in London, and his image appeared everywhere. The shrine erected to him at Canterbury grew rich and remained the most popular place of pilgrimage in Christendom until the Reformation, when Henry VIII dismantled it, appropriated its jewels for the royal treasury, and had Becket’s bones exhumed, tried, condemned, and burned for having dared to oppose his king.

Between 21 and 28 February 1173, Henry and Eleanor and their two eldest sons hosted a week of lavish banquets and festivities at Limoges in honour of Alfonso II, King of Aragon; Sancho VI, King of Navarre; Count Humbert of Maurienne; and Count Raymond V of Toulouse. During this assembly, the betrothal of the Lord John to Alice of Maurienne was finalised, and four-year-old Alice was committed to the care of Henry, who placed her in Eleanor’s household. Count Humbert designated John his heir and gave the King four well-fortified castles.1

Raymond of Toulouse, having finally conceded Eleanor’s ancestral claim to Toulouse, was at Limoges to pay homage to Henry and his sons and acknowledge them as his overlords. He had decided to throw in his lot with the Angevins because he had fallen out with the French King, the rift having occurred when Raymond repudiated Constance of France, Louis’s sister. After that, Louis was no longer inclined to support Raymond’s claim to Toulouse.

Some Poitevin nobles were angry that Raymond had paid homage to Henry and the Young King, rather than just to Richard, whose right to Toulouse had been agreed by King Louis; it is likely that Eleanor was angry too, and that her anger strengthened her resolve to fight for her sons’ rights.

It was during this week that the Young King spoke out publicly against his father’s refusal to delegate power to him and his brothers, and against Henry’s decision to assign to his brother John the castles and lands that were rightly his. He insisted that he had no wish to give John these properties, and that the King had no right to dispose of them without his consent. He also complained of not having been assigned any lands from which he could draw an income suitable to his royal estate.

When Henry refused to accede to his demands, the Young King pointed out that it was King Louis’s wish, and that of the barons of England and Normandy, that he do so. At that moment, Henry realised that there were more forces at work against him than he had suspected, and guessed that Louis and others were actively working to drive a wedge between him and his heir. It does not seem to have occurred to him that Eleanor might be foremost among them.

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