In today's lesson, we'll be covering three witches and wizards who lived in three different time periods. Each of these magical figures have their own story to tell, and I assure you, it's an interesting one that will leave you on the edge of your seats.
Eleanor of Aquitaine (1123 CE to 1204 CE)
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As a child, Eleanor received the best possible education a female could get in those times. Though Latin wasn't her first language, she spoke it fluently. Additionally, she excelled in arithmancy, history, and astronomy, and was trained in the more domestic aspects of life as well.
After 15 years of marriage to King Louis VII without the pair producing a son, there was a lot of tension between the couple. For this reason, an annulment was considered and formalized on the grounds that Eleanor was simply "unable" to bear male children. After her marriage was annulled, Eleanor became engaged to Henry of Anjou. Together, to the ironic delight of historians, they had five sons and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor had problems of their own as well, and she was imprisoned in 1173 for being plotting against him with her two sons. She was finally released by her eldest son, Richard I, after Henry's death. She continued to work closely with the court and the governors, building relations with other territories and countries. Ultimately, Eleanor outlived not only both of her husbands, but also her eldest son, who died in 1199. She then took the throne once more along with her youngest son, John, though this period of coregency did not last long, as she passed away five years later.
Some of you may be noting that these facts are easily accessible to those of you who know anything about Muggle history and wondering why we would cover a Muggle in History of Magic. The answer is that there is much more to the story than Muggles are aware of. You may have actually picked up on a few signs of Eleanor's true -- magical -- nature, namely her education, her annulment, and her age.
Little was it mentioned in royal histories, but Eleanor of Aquitaine was actually a pure-blooded witch. Coming from a family of royal blood that was frequently involved with Muggles, it was a risk for anyone to know that every member of said family was able to practice magic. Of all the languages available in the early 1000s, Eleanor's father, William X, insisted that all his children must speak, write, and read fluent Latin as this was the language in which most spells were written in the English-speaking world. William X did his best to train his children completely on his own, based on a curriculum of his own devising -- centered around learning the spell-casting lingua franca (or common language) as well as studying the stars and arithmancy -- so as not to cause political unrest.
Now we move on to the second indicator that something was amiss in this purely Muggle tale. As you hopefully recall from Year One, we discussed that one of the first forms of magic was the power of persuasion. Eleanor too, had a way with words. In those times, a divorce or annulment was seen as taboo and should always be a last resort as it would ultimately result in being shunned by society. Hence, when the proposition of the annulment was mentioned, it was quickly rejected and disapproved by the Pope. However, within the short span of only one week, Eleanor was able to convince the Pope to agree that the marriage never existed and their daughters were duly named legitimate children of her second husband, Henry.
