Notwithstanding this apparent zeal which Eleanor and her court ladies
displayed, their caprices and freaks continued to harass and interfere
with the expedition, during the entire crusade, and Queen Eleanor so
displeased King Louis by her gay and frivolous conduct, that a long
and serious quarrel arose between them, and he declared that he would
obtain a divorce from her. But his ministers tried to prevent this,
as Eleanor possessed the rich kingdom of Aquitaine in her own right,
which would be lost to Louis by a separation. So they returned from
the Holy Land to Paris, still as king and queen of France. But in
about two years after, Eleanor determined to be divorced from King
Louis of France, so that she might marry Prince Henry Plantagenet,
who afterwards became Henry II., of England. Prince Henry’s father
had received the name Plantagenet from a habit he had of wearing a
spray of broom blossom in his cap. The French name for this plant is
_genet_, and so he was nicknamed Plantagenet, and his son Henry II.
was the first king in that family, also called the House of Anjou.
Although Henry II. was king of England, by his marriage with Eleanor,
which took place only a short time after she obtained a divorce from
King Louis of France, Henry gained the great dukedom of Aquitaine,
and as he already possessed Normandy and Anjou, he really was lord of
nearly half of France. He ruled England well, but he cared more for
power than what was right, and he often indulged in such exhibitions
of fierce rage, that he would roll on the floor and bite the rushes
with which it was strewn. At the time of his marriage with Eleanor,
Henry was duke of Normandy, and was only twenty years of age, while
Eleanor was thirty-two; but she was very much in love with him, and as
she could bring him such a rich kingdom, and furnish him men and money
to help him secure the crown of England, which was at that time held
by King Stephen, whom Henry declared was a usurper, he was willing to
accept Eleanor as his wife, although she was nearly twice his own age,
and was also the divorced wife of King Louis. Some historians place
the blame of the divorce upon Eleanor, some upon Louis; but all unite
in condemning her previous conduct, for she occasioned many scandalous
remarks by her undignified, unwifely, and even culpable actions. After
she became queen of England, however, she changed in this respect, and
her after quarrels with Henry were occasioned by her ambitions and
his conduct regarding a lady called the Fair Rosamond, who afterwards
became a nun in a convent near Oxford. Some historians think that
Henry was in reality married to Rosamond before he was persuaded to
espouse Eleanor, in order to gain her rich possessions. Though Eleanor
had equally wronged her former husband, Louis, she made no excuse for
King Henry’s devotion to Rosamond, and when she discovered Henry’s
affection for her, she ordered that she should be shut up in a convent
out of the way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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