Fontevraud, Dynasticism, and Eleanor of Aquitaine

Abstract

In 1204, when Eleanor of Aquitaine died, she was interred at Fontevraud, the double monastery in which three members of her immediate family already lay buried: her husband Henry II, her daughter Jeanne of Toulouse, and her son Richard the Lionheart. Before the century was out, these three and Eleanor were joined by Isabelle of Angoulême, countess of La Marche and former wife of Eleanor’s son John; by Raymond VII of Toulouse, Eleanor’s grandson via Jeanne; and by the heart of John’s son— her grandson—Henry III. Small wonder, then, that this final resting place of so many Plantagenets has long been known as the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud.¹

How Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, and so many of their relatives came to be buried at Fontevraud is the story of chance coupled with a growing sense of dynasticism. Henry II had made other plans, but they came to nought when those in charge of his funeral found Fontevraud much more convenient. Eleanor chose to bury her children Jeanne and Richard there, and before she joined them in death, she probably planned the way in which all of their tombs should be clustered as a family grouping. Nevertheless, the burial wishes of later Plantagenets suggest that the dynastic thinking that drew them to Fontevraud involved Eleanor’s family as much as Henry’s, if not more so.