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Authors: Alison Weir
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birth of a son. The canon found out and, at his instigation, a gang of ruffians broke into Abelard's lodging and castrated him. In grief, Heloise retired to a convent, while Abelard devoted his life to teaching rationalist theory on the Holy Trinity. Bernard, who preached the triumph of faith over reason, was one of Abelard's fiercest critics. In 1136 Abelard had been accused by the Church of heresy, and in 1140, his case still unresolved, he was summoned to a public debate with Bernard at a council held at Sens, which Louis and Eleanor attended, and which resulted in Abelard's being condemned and his theories discredited.
It was at Sens that Bernard saw Eleanor for probably the first time, and his reaction was stiff disapproval. Writing later to a maiden called Sophia, he described the Queen and her ladies so that his young correspondent "may never sully her virginity but attain its reward." Fortunately for the modern historian, his diatribe includes a detailed description of the dress worn by Eleanor and her noble companions:
The garments of court ladies are fashioned from the finest tissues of wool or silk. A costly fur between two layers of rich stuffs forms the lining and border of their cloaks. Their arms are loaded with bracelets; from their ears hang pendants, enshrining precious stones. For headdress they have a kerchief of fine linen which they drape about their neck and shoulders, allowing one corner to fall over the left arm. This is the wimple, ordinarily fastened to their brows by a chaplet, a filet, or a circle of wrought gold.
His description tallies with one by Geoffrey de Vigeois, who also condemned the outlandish French court fashions of the period:
They have clothes fashioned of rich and precious stuffs, in colours to suit their humour. They snip out the cloth in rings and long slashes to show the lining beneath, and the borders of the clothes are cut into little balls and pointed tongues, so that they look like the devils in paintings. They slash their mantles, and their sleeves flow like those of hermits. Youths affect long hair and shoes with pointed toes.
As for the ladies, "you might think them adders, if you judged by the tails they drag after them."
Bernard was shocked by such extravagance, which lent merely superficial beauty: "Fie on a beauty that is put on in the morning and laid aside at night! The ornaments of a queen have no beauty like to the blushes of natural modesty which colour the cheeks of a virgin. Silk,purple and paint have their own beauty, but they do not make the body beautiful." He likened Eleanor to one of those daughters of Belial who, got up in this way, put on airs, walk with heads high and mincing steps, their necks thrust forward, and, furnished and adorned as only temples should be, they drag after them trains of precious material that makes a cloud of dust. Some you see are not so much adorned as loaded down with ornaments of gold, silver, and precious stones, and all the raiment of a court, indeed with everything that pertains to queenly splendour.
After Eleanor's departure, the unrest in her domains had grown worse. The Poitevins in particular objected to French rule, and late in 1137 the citizens of Poitiers formally repudiated Louis's authority and declared themselves a commune. Probably at Eleanor's urging, Louis immediately descended on the city with an army and occupied it without a blow being struck.
Everyone expected the King to dissolve the commune, but he did not. Instead he demanded that the sons and daughters of the chief burghers return with him to France as hostages for their fathers' good behaviour. This provoked an outcry, and Suger, receiving complaints in Paris from horrified Poitevins, hastened to Poitiers, where he found waning children and loaded baggage carts in the square before the ducal palace, ready to depart, the anguished parents looking on. In response to Suger's urgings, Louis rescinded his order and returned to France, having
It was at Sens that Bernard saw Eleanor for probably the first time, and his reaction was stiff disapproval. Writing later to a maiden called Sophia, he described the Queen and her ladies so that his young correspondent "may never sully her virginity but attain its reward." Fortunately for the modern historian, his diatribe includes a detailed description of the dress worn by Eleanor and her noble companions:
The garments of court ladies are fashioned from the finest tissues of wool or silk. A costly fur between two layers of rich stuffs forms the lining and border of their cloaks. Their arms are loaded with bracelets; from their ears hang pendants, enshrining precious stones. For headdress they have a kerchief of fine linen which they drape about their neck and shoulders, allowing one corner to fall over the left arm. This is the wimple, ordinarily fastened to their brows by a chaplet, a filet, or a circle of wrought gold.
His description tallies with one by Geoffrey de Vigeois, who also condemned the outlandish French court fashions of the period:
They have clothes fashioned of rich and precious stuffs, in colours to suit their humour. They snip out the cloth in rings and long slashes to show the lining beneath, and the borders of the clothes are cut into little balls and pointed tongues, so that they look like the devils in paintings. They slash their mantles, and their sleeves flow like those of hermits. Youths affect long hair and shoes with pointed toes.
As for the ladies, "you might think them adders, if you judged by the tails they drag after them."
Bernard was shocked by such extravagance, which lent merely superficial beauty: "Fie on a beauty that is put on in the morning and laid aside at night! The ornaments of a queen have no beauty like to the blushes of natural modesty which colour the cheeks of a virgin. Silk,purple and paint have their own beauty, but they do not make the body beautiful." He likened Eleanor to one of those daughters of Belial who, got up in this way, put on airs, walk with heads high and mincing steps, their necks thrust forward, and, furnished and adorned as only temples should be, they drag after them trains of precious material that makes a cloud of dust. Some you see are not so much adorned as loaded down with ornaments of gold, silver, and precious stones, and all the raiment of a court, indeed with everything that pertains to queenly splendour.
After Eleanor's departure, the unrest in her domains had grown worse. The Poitevins in particular objected to French rule, and late in 1137 the citizens of Poitiers formally repudiated Louis's authority and declared themselves a commune. Probably at Eleanor's urging, Louis immediately descended on the city with an army and occupied it without a blow being struck.
Everyone expected the King to dissolve the commune, but he did not. Instead he demanded that the sons and daughters of the chief burghers return with him to France as hostages for their fathers' good behaviour. This provoked an outcry, and Suger, receiving complaints in Paris from horrified Poitevins, hastened to Poitiers, where he found waning children and loaded baggage carts in the square before the ducal palace, ready to depart, the anguished parents looking on. In response to Suger's urgings, Louis rescinded his order and returned to France, having
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