Eleanor of Aquitaine and her children: an inquiry into medieval family attachment

Eleanor of Aquitaine's relationship with her children provides a test of Philippe Ariès' and Lawrence Stone's views on child rearing, which have proven so controversial among historians of childhood. It is necessary in evaluating medieval childrearing practice to know the agnatic or open-lineage family pattern prevailing among the feudal nobility. Eleanor fits the pattern for mothers in such families, spending little time with her children in their early years. Like other noblewomen, she had wet-nurses, clerks and knights, or other servants to provide care for them. Angevin daughters left for their financés' courts in early adolescence or even earlier. Eleanor's and Henry II's sons had magistri appointed to supervise their upbringing from infancy, and the boys spent much time in households of prominent royal officials. The queen only manifested much interest in her sons once they were capable of playing some part in politics. She contributed to the hostility that developed between them and their father during their adolescent years, and which was almost inevitable in families of feudal aristocrats. Once Richard I and John ascended the English throne, Eleanor showed her strongest feeling for them, working to secure and preserve their power. They, in turn, showed affection for her, granting her higher status at their courts than their consorts had. A look at this Angevin family supports Ariès and Stone's view that the medieval noble family was more an institution for preservation of property than for building character, and that affective ties between parents and their off-spring were less significant than economic or political ones.