Eleanor Aquitaine In 1122 William X and his wife Aénor of Châtellerault had a daughter be the name of Eleanor who also called herself Aliénor. She grew up in the presence of her father and the troubadours of the court. A young lady who strengthened every situation and marriage she was in and promoted the artistic influence of troubadours through out the land.
She herself was greatly impressed by her grandfather William IX, who was one of the earliest troubadours known by name. He was an outstanding figure in her childhood, the first truly big man in her life, and a hero who must have made an enormous impression on her though he died when she was only five. He was a man of extraordinary complexity, alternately idealistic and cynical, ruthless but impractical. He was no statesman, though aggressive and pugnacious.
His most livid affair was when he stole and seduced Dangerosa of Châtellerault.
Eleanor's Communion Dress
Eleanor's Communion Veil
EleanorHe then kept her in a tower of his palace at Poitiers. She then became known as La Maubergeonne. William died excommunicated in 1127. Eleanor took very much after her grandfather's sarcastic wit and humor in the frivolity of her early years, although never making a clown of herself.
A holy hermit came to Williams IX protesting in God's name at the rape of Dangerosa, and after being received by the dukes usual mocking banter, the hermit placed a curse upon the family. Through both male and female lines they would never know happiness in their children.1 William the X had an unexpected gift of versifying, in a mixture of Lemosin and Poitou. Arab songs he heard from Moorish slave girls, which had been brought home by his father from Spain, may have inspired him. William was also a very competent poet, eleven of whose pieces...