238 Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymus of Worms
centered at Poitiers. Though Richard was given a ducal
title, Eleanor retained both power and responsibility. Now
she also had full opportunity to patronize poets and
authors. This relatively happy period ended abruptly
in 1173. Eleanor, angered perhaps by Henry’s marital
unfaithfulness, allied herself with the king of France
against him. Her young sons joined her. King Henry
crushed the rebels and forgave his sons but kept his wife
in semi-imprisonment until he died in 1189.REIGN OF RICHARD
With the accession to the English throne of her favorite
son, Richard, on September 3, 1189, Eleanor regained her
position of influence and control of her property. She
arranged his coronation, and in the winter of 1190/91
she traveled to Iberia to fetch his future wife, Berengaria
(d. 1230) of Navarre, and brought her to SICILYto join
Richard before he left for PALESTINE for the third
Crusade. During his absence she worked with the Coun-
cil of Regency in England, with whom she helped thwart
the treachery of JOHN, her youngest son, and organized
the collection of Richard’s ransom.
On Richard’s sudden death from a wound on April 6,
1199, Eleanor supported John’s claim to succeed to the
English throne against that of her grandson, Arthur of
Brittany (1187–ca. 1203). She herself paid homage to
King Philip II Augustus (r. 1180–1223) of France for
Aquitaine and took control of the duchy. In July 1202,
when John and Philip were at war, Eleanor was besieged
in the CASTLEof Mirebeau by John’s enemies, led by her
grandson Arthur allied to Philip. John defeated the
besiegers and captured his nephew. His mother was
then able to spend her last months in freedom. She died
on April 1, 1204, and was buried at her abbey of
Fontevrault, where her posthumous effigy remains.
See alsoCOURTLY LOVE; TROUBADOURS.
Further reading: Marion Facinger, A Study of
Medieval Queenship; Capetian France, 987–1237 (Lin-
coln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968); Amy Kelly,
Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1950); William W.
Kibler, ed., Eleanor of Aquitaine: Patron and Politician
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976); D. D. R.
Owen, Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Legend(Oxford:
Blackwell, 1993).Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymus of Worms
(Eleazar Rokéah Qalonymus, the Rokéah)(ca. 1165–
1238)Jewish mystic, kabbalist, Talmudist
Born about 1165, Eleazar studied in the best schools of
the Rhenish Jewish communities at Speyer and Metz,
before fleeing when a persecution of the Jews began in- He settled at Worms. In 1196 two crusaders
entered his home, attacked him, wounded his son fatally,
and murdered his wife and two daughters, all in his
Enameled stone effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine from her tomb
in the Abbey of Fontevraud, France(Courtesy Library of
Congress)