ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

ELEANOR THEMES

Her birth name in French

1124

The 12th-Century was a long time ago. Into it, Eleanor was born, inheriting both a legacy to relish and traditions to change. In some ways, she was a woman from the future, embracing a new sensibility for governance, music, travel, style, education, and inventing a code of love.

Eleanor’s influence on the world

• Romance of Troy - world’s longest poem

• Code of Love - world’s first school of manners

• Troubadours - new school of personal love composers

• Charters of Oleron - she wrote the world’s first maritime law to support world trade 

Illustration is the closest depiction of Eleanor of Aquitaine in her own time. From the Eleanor Psalter.

Legacy influences on Eleanor 

  • • Conquest of England - husband’s forefathers
  • • Bayeux Embrodiery - world’s longest fabric
  • • Domesday Books - world’s largest survey
  • • Latin Schism, Virgin Mary, celibacy  - not even 100 years old
  • • Conquest of Holy Land - her forefathers
  • • Grandfather William  - world’s first troubadour 
  • • Grandmother Dangerossa - set the mold for love over marriage
  • • Fontevrault - Rare dual gender house, run by a Grand Abbess
  • • Abelard & Heloise - Love as a primary drive, love letters

Some of Eleanor’s locations

www.eleanorcode.com

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