It must not be supposed that the queen was unkindly treated at Winchester, for, on the contrary, she received the attention and respect due to her station. While she was there Louis VII., her divorced husband, died; and shortly after, the death of her eldest son, Henry Plantagenet, followed. This was a great sorrow to the royal couple, and Henry mourned with the deep grief of David over Absalom. Still later, their son Geoffrey was killed in a grand tournament in Paris. In one of her letters to the pope, the queen thus writes about these bereavements: "The younger king and Geoffrey, Count of Bretagne, both sleep in the dust, while their most wretched mother is compelled to live on, though tortured by recollections of the dead.". In 1189, Henry II. died, and was succeeded by his son Richard I., Cour de Lion. About the first act of the new king was to order his mother's release, and from a captive Queen Eleanora at once became a sovereign, for the reins {107} [Illustration: 0111] {109}of government were placed in her hands as regent. Her long confinement must have had a good effect on her, for she went about, from city to city, releasing all the poor people that her husband had cruelly locked up for violating the Norman game laws, and spent her whole time in acts of mercy and charity. Richard was crowned in 1189, but, as his mother's mourning prevented her being present on that occasion, no women were admitted at all. The king then settled a most liberal revenue on his mother, and she went to Aquitaine, the government of which was also restored to her. But she did not stay there; her old age was passed in England, where she assisted her son in governing, and made him, as well as herself, exceedingly popular. Eleanora of Aquitaine is among the very few women who, after an ill-spent youth, have become wise and benevolent in old age. But she had a great deal more trouble to bear before her death. Her life exhibits many traces of a great ruler. If she had only been blessed in her early days with a good, moral education, she would have been one of the greatest women of her time. Slowly and surely she learned the stern lesson of life, which teaches that without virtue, power, beauty and royalty are of slight avail. [[A.D. 1204.]] She was a very old woman when she retired to a convent, where she spent many months previous to her death, which occurred in 1204. She was buried by the side of Henry II., and on her tomb is a reclining statue said to be a good portrait of herself. The features are noble and intellectual. On the head is a hood, above which is a regal diadem; and a blue mantle, figured with silver crescents, is folded gracefully about her form. {110} CHAPTER VII. BERENGARIA OF NAVARRE, QUEEN OF RICHARD I. A.D. 1165-1230.