Duchy of Aquitaine

Who he is

Name

Eleanor of Aquitaine (Alienor d'Aquitaine)

Title

Duchess of Aquitaine and countess of Poitou; queen of England (dowager)

Since

9 April 1137 by inheritance from her father, Duke William X; ruling in her own person again since Richard's death on 6 April 1199

Born

about 1124 (en.wikipedia: c. 1124, now generally accepted; 1122 in older accounts), so about 75 on 1 January 1200, or 77 on the older date

Family

House of Poitiers. Widow of Henry II. Her living children are King John and Eleanor, queen of Castile (wife of Alfonso VIII); Joan died in September 1199. Grandmother of Arthur of Brittany, of Otto IV and of the Castilian infantas, one of whom she is going to fetch for Louis of France.

Confidence

high

Her own and John's 1199 charters (Epistolae) fix the grant to John, her tour and the officers; Seward (1978) dates the journey south; the homage to Philip at Tours in July 1199 is the standard account of modern biographies and was not re-checked against a source in this run.

Overlord

Philip II of France, to whom Eleanor did homage for Aquitaine at Tours in July 1199. John is lord after her: in 1199 she surrendered Poitou to him as her rightful heir, took his homage, and he gave it back to her to hold for life (John's letter of 1199).

What it holds

• Poitiers: the comital palace with the Maubergeon tower; the provost of Poitiers (William of Lozay in May 1199); the count is lay abbot of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand
• Montreuil-Bonnin: castle and the mint of Poitou (deniers of Poitou)
• Niort: the great double keep of Henry II and Richard, the town and its market
• La Rochelle: the port, its tolls and the wine trade, the provost (Sancio of Beaulieu in 1199); the commune under its mayor
• Saintes, Saint-Jean-d'Angely and the island of Oleron, each with a commune or charter of 1199
• Chize: castle and forest
• Salt and wine dues along the coast of Aunis and Saintonge, and the tolls of the Charente and the Sevre Niortaise
• Overlordship of the counts of Angouleme, La Marche and Perigord; of the viscounts of Limoges, Thouars, Chatellerault, Turenne, Ventadour, Comborn and Rochechouart; of the lords of Lusignan, Parthenay, Mauleon, Pons and the other Poitevin, Saintongeais and Limousin barons (their own records)
• Gascony through its seneschal (Gascony researcher's records)
• Patron of Fontevraud, her abbey, where Henry II and Richard lie

How it was acquired

Inherited in April 1137 from William X; carried to Louis VII (1137, annulled 1152) and to Henry II (1152); invested to Richard as count of Poitou and duke (1172), who ruled it until his death at Chalus on 6 April 1199; back in Eleanor's own hand since then.

Allies and rivals

Allies: John (her heir, who holds of her); Helie of Malemort, archbishop of Bordeaux; Maurice of Blazon, bishop of Poitiers; Henry, bishop of Saintes (witness of the Saintes charter, 1199); Peter Bertin, seneschal of Poitou; Ralph of Exoudun, count of Eu (with her at Poitiers, 4 May 1199); the communes she has just chartered; the routier captain Mercadier. Rivals: Arthur of Brittany and the Poitevins who joined him in autumn 1199 (Aimery VII of Thouars, whose brother Guy married Constance; Andre de Chauvigny); Hugh IX of Lusignan, who holds La Marche by force and by the grant extorted from her; Count Aymer of Angouleme and the young viscount Guy V of Limoges, at war with Richard in 1199 and leaning on Philip; and Philip II himself, her overlord since July 1199.

How things stand that morning

Eleanor holds the duchy for life and John is its acknowledged lord after her. Her officers hold Poitiers, Niort, La Rochelle, Saintes and the coast; most Poitevin barons did homage to John in 1199. The edges are loose: Angouleme and Limoges have not made peace since Richard's war; Hugh IX holds La Marche; Thouars and Chauvigny lean to Arthur. A truce for the Nativity season between John and Philip is holding, and the kings' talks in January will settle the outline of Le Goulet.

Where the duchess is that morning is not pinned: most likely already well on the road south through Poitou or Gascony toward the Pyrenees (Seward: she set out in December 1199 and reached Castile in mid-January 1200).

Wealth

Wine of Aunis and Saintonge shipped from La Rochelle and Oleron to England and Flanders; salt from the marshes of Aunis, Brouage, Marennes and Oleron; tolls of the Charente and the Sevre; the mint at Montreuil-Bonnin; rents, justice and markets of the comital towns; reliefs and wardships of the great fiefs. Her 1199 charters also show her granting away tolls and salt dues to churches and favourites.

Military

No standing host of her own. She relies on routiers (Mercadier led her raid on Angers in April 1199), on the demesne castles (Niort, Poitiers, Chize, Montreuil-Bonnin, Saintes, La Rochelle), on the communes (the 1199 Saintes charter lets the commune use its force against all men saving fealty to her and her heirs) and on barons who serve on their own terms.

Threats

• Arthur's claim to Anjou and Poitou, and his Poitevin partisans
• The Lusignans: Hugh IX holds La Marche and is betrothed to Isabella, heiress of Angouleme, a union that would make them masters of the middle of the duchy
• Angouleme and Limoges unreconciled after the war of 1199
• Philip II as overlord, and the bargain of Le Goulet
• Her age: she is about 75 (77 on the older reckoning)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. mid-January 1200Eleanor reaches the court of Alfonso VIII of Castile and her daughter Queen Eleanor; she stays about two months and chooses Blanca (Blanche) rather than her sister Urraca as Louis's bride.Depends on: A safe winter crossing of the Pyrenees and the January talks between John and Philip holding. Stopped by: Illness or capture on the road; a breakdown of the Anglo-French talks.
2. 28 January 1200At Caen, John takes the homage of Hugh IX of Lusignan for the county of La Marche, accepting the grant Eleanor was forced to make.Depends on: John's need of the Lusignans while Arthur and Philip are still against him. Stopped by: John refusing to accept an extorted grant, which would mean war with the Lusignans at once.
3. Holy Week 1200 (Easter Sunday 9 April)Eleanor and Blanche reach Bordeaux; on Easter Monday, 10 April, Mercadier is killed there in a quarrel with a routier in Brandin's service. Eleanor hands Blanche to Archbishop Helie of Bordeaux for the journey north and retires to Fontevraud.Depends on: The Castilian match going ahead. Stopped by: Anything that stops the marriage plan.
4. 22 May 1200Treaty of Le Goulet: John does homage to Philip and cedes his fiefs in Berry (Issoudun, Gracay) as Blanche's dowry; Louis marries Blanche at Port-Mort on 23 May.Depends on: John and Philip both wanting peace; the Castilian bride being delivered. Stopped by: A renewal of war, which leaves Issoudun and Gracay Angevin and the Blanche marriage void.
5. late June to August 1200John tours Poitou, the Angoumois and Gascony taking homages, and on 24 August marries Isabella of Angouleme at Angouleme, breaking her betrothal to Hugh IX.Depends on: Peace with Philip freeing John to come south; Count Aymer of Angouleme wanting the royal match. Stopped by: John keeping to a foreign marriage (he had sent to Portugal for a bride) or the Lusignan marriage being completed first.

Places of note

• Palace of the counts and Maubergeon tower: The duchess's palace and hall
• Montreuil-Bonnin castle and mint: Comital castle and mint of Poitou, west of Poitiers
• Keep of Niort: Plantagenet double keep on the Sevre
• Chize: Comital castle and forest
• Fontevraud Abbey: Eleanor's abbey and usual retreat, in Anjou

Where the sources disagree

• GM brief speaks of her winter journey to Castile 'in January 1200' with the Lusignan ambush and the grant of La Marche. The evidence points earlier: Seward (1978) has her set out in December 1199 and reach Castile in the middle of January 1200; Hugh IX did homage to John for La Marche at Caen on 28 January 1200 (fr.wikipedia, Hugues IX, citing the act), which needs the grant made before about mid-January; and fr.wikipedia treats Hugh as count from 1199. So the ambush and the grant most likely fell in December 1199, before first light on 1 January, though no source found gives the day. Recommended ruling: La Marche is Hugh's on 1 January and the duchess is already beyond Poitou; the campaign may instead make the ambush the first private event of January for the Lusignan player.
• The campaign notes name no seneschal of Poitou: Eleanor's 1199 charters at Saintes and La Rochelle are witnessed by Peter Bertin 'then seneschal of Poitou' (see Seneschal of Poitou).
• The campaign notes do not name the bishop of Saintes: Eleanor's Saintes charter of 1199 names Henry, then bishop of Saintes, and Ramnulf Barbotin, archdeacon.

Evidence: The 1199 grant to John and the communes of Saintes and La Rochelle rest on charters (Epistolae, Magna Carta Project). The Tours homage of July 1199 is the standard account of modern biographies (not re-checked in this run). The dating of the Castile journey rests on one modern biography plus the Caen homage of 28 January 1200.

On the map: The polygon gives the county the duchess ruled directly; inside it most ground belonged to her vassals, who have their own records. The rest of the duchy (Angoumois, La Marche, Limousin, Perigord, Gascony) is drawn through its own lords.

Primary sources for Angevin lands

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
• Chronicles of Saint-Martial of Limoges, Bernard Itier and other monks of Saint-Martial; Geoffrey of Vigeois for the earlier chronicle (Geoffrey's chronicle to 1184; Bernard Itier's notes about 1195 to 1225). Bernard Itier, librarian of Saint-Martial, kept dated notes through 1200 of what reached Limoges: Richard's death at Chalus in 1199, the viscounts of Limoges and the lords of the Limousin, John's passage through Aquitaine in 1200 and the affairs of Angouleme and the Lusignans, and the abbey's own elections and prices. Read online
• Chronicles of the Churches of Anjou (Saint-Aubin, Saint-Serge, Saint-Florent and others), Various (monks of Angers and the Loire) (11th to 13th centuries; the Saint-Aubin annals run to the 1220s). The Angevin houses' own annals of the succession crisis in their city: Arthur received at Angers in 1199 with Constance and the Breton and Angevin barons, John's counter-moves, the defection of William des Roches and the Angevin lords to John, and the peace of 1200 that left Arthur John's vassal. Read online
• The Great Chronicle of Tours, Anonymous (a canon of Saint-Martin of Tours) (about 1227). The Loire valley's view of the Angevin succession. Read online
• Universal Chronicle of the Anonymous of Laon, Anonymous (an English-born canon of Laon) (about 1219). A Picard chronicle whose author had lived in England and keeps an eye on both kingdoms. Read online
• Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
• Chronicle; Deeds of the Kings, Gervase of Canterbury (Chronica about 1188 to 1199; Gesta Regum about 1199 to 1210). The Chronica stops in 1199, so for 1200 the witness is the briefer Gesta Regum, which notes John's peace with Philip, the coronation of Isabella at Westminster on 8 October 1200, and matters touching Canterbury: the archbishop Hubert Walter as chancellor, the cathedral priory's quarrel with him, and the Lambeth college dispute lately settled by the pope. Read online
• English Chronicle of Ralph of Coggeshall, Ralph of Coggeshall (about 1200 to 1224, in stages). Short but independent entries for 1200 from a Cistercian house in Essex: John's levy on the Cistercians and the carucage, the peace with Philip, the king's new marriage and the queen's coronation, and the death of Hugh of Lincoln. Read online

14 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.