Rating: 
Summary: Incredible research- stilted prose
Review: Anyone who has seen the spectacular "Lion in Winter" can only surmise what the real Eleanor must have been like if she resembled in any way Katherine Hepburn. This weekend vignette captures the essence of this remarkable woman - perhaps the most remarkable of the Middle Ages. Ms. Kelly has obviously undertaken a labor of love with prodigious research, meticulous documentation and references to primary sources. In many ways the scholarship evidenced here is the outstanding feature. The story is one that is almost familiar - we are in the time of the Crusades, the Normans have conquered England and the Plantagenets are in control. It is simultaneously the story of the rebirth of Britain as an independent political entity. The Aquitaine was a much desired territory with economic, military, religious and historical import. But princess Eleanor did not marry to fuse or protect her kingdom. She apparently possessed a quick, far-reaching mind and knew that a woman in her position could go far. She was a renaissance woman: Devout (financing Crusades and traveling to the Holy Land), scheming and daring (divorced Louis for the up and coming Henry), politically astute and above all a power broker of the first degree. She grew too powerful for Henry who kept her under a form of house arrest. She then had intrigues with her son, Richard I (the Lion hearted) but finally became undisputed ruler of England in all but name. Lastly she became involved in the affairs of her son John. The story is more interesting that the writing which is pedantic at times, occasionally stilted and formal, sometimes almost obtuse in its language and references. This is NOT a tale for the unknowing layman since it presumes a knowledge of the early Middle Ages. Despite all this it is an incredible biography - perhaps the best around - of Eleanor.
Rating: 
Summary: History As It Should Be Written
Review: For over half a century, readers have turned to Amy Kelly's book for an exciting look at a broad swath of European history. From 1137 through her death in 1204, Eleanor was a principal player on the stage of history. She was married to two kings -- the mediocre Louis VII and the hot-tempered Henry II -- and mother to two other kings -- Richard the Lion-Hearted and King John the chicken-hearted. She had travelled to Constantinople, Jerusalem, Germany, and all around England and France.
Among the characters that pass through this history are St Bernard of Clairvaux, the Abbot Segur, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus, Saladin, King Philip Augustus of France, Thomas Becket, Popes Celestine III and Innocent III, and hundreds of nobles, knights, clerics, and others. This history is a pageant, but one played for keeps. Excommunications and interdicts were bandied about as frequently as harsh words; and every fight had an ecclesiastical dimension.
Is your wife getting long in the tooth? Just get the clergy to declare that the marriage should be annulled because of consanguinity (which consanguinity was of course known by the kings who married their cousins). Just as he is about to wed Ingeborg of Denmark, Philip Augustus has second thoughts; and the outraged Dane betook herself to a nunnery and began a years-long letter-writing campaign that finally got the attention of Innocent III.
After the Norman Conquest of 1066, the Normans held both England and a large part of France. The Capetian kings vainly tried to take pieces of France back from the Angevin kings Henry II and Richard, but only under John Lackland (appropriately named) did they begin to have any measure of success.
Where was Eleanor in all this? To her 83rd year, she was a player. Although the chronicles tended to follow the kings, Eleanor was never far away. While Richard was being held for ransom in Germany, it was she who held the country together while John vainly attempted to forge an alliance with the enemy of his dynasty. Although Kelly's work is scholarly, she keeps her sources in unobtrusive endnotes that do not interrupt the flow of the text. If you want to read a history that is a real page-turner, I heartily recommend this book.
One of the main things I learned from the book is that Richard the Lion-Hearted was not the great hero of the English as he has been portrayed. For one thing, he bankrupted the country twice, first with his crusade and then with his ransome, and he didn't even speak a word of English. And he preferred to spend his time in Normandy.
Rating:
Summary: In praise of Kelly's prose
Review: I did a research project into the Early Plantagent Period of History, and this was one of my sources. Although Amy Ruth Kelly has a lot of insight and an interesting tale to tell in this carefully researched and historically acurate book, she tells her story in an obtuse and overly unclear way. This is a very tough read as the prose is archaic and intricate, but the story of Eleanor is absolutly fascinating.
Rating: 
Summary: Good history, tough read
Review: I did a research project into the Early Plantagent Period of History, and this was one of my sources. Although Amy Ruth Kelly has a lot of insight and an interesting tale to tell in this carefully researched and historically acurate book, she tells her story in an obtuse and overly unclear way. This is a very tough read as the prose is archaic and intricate, but the story of Eleanor is absolutly fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Good Solid Background On Eleanor
Review: Kelly is a Harvard academic writing immediately after WWII (this book was published in 1950). With the huge number of historical fiction works now available on Eleanor, it is interesting to see what the primary sources actually say about her, the people who surrounded her, the places and the times. Kelly uses most of the now recognized primary sources so this work is a fairly good summary of the known facts about Eleanor and her period in history. If you have read any of the historical fiction concerning Eleanor, this is a great reality check. It's fun to find the actual characters upon which some of the fiction was based....for example, the troubadour Bernard, about whom so many tales of romance with Eleanor are built, is carefully followed from his arrival at Henry and Eleanor's first court through the famous lyrics in which he celebrates her beauty and charm. There are many other similar examples, all making Kelly's work well worth the time to read if you are a dedicated fan of Eleanor or this period in France or England.
Rating:
Summary: Good Solid Background On Eleanor
Review: Kelly is a Harvard academic writing immediately after WWII (this book was published in 1950). With the huge number of historical fiction works now available on Eleanor, it is interesting to see what the primary sources actually say about her, the people who surrounded her, the places and the times. Kelly uses most of the now recognized primary sources so this work is a fairly good summary of the known facts about Eleanor and her period in history. If you have read any of the historical fiction concerning Eleanor, this is a great reality check. It's fun to find the actual characters upon which some of the fiction was based....for example, the troubadour Bernard, about whom so many tales of romance with Eleanor are built, is carefully followed from his arrival at Henry and Eleanor's first court through the famous lyrics in which he celebrates her beauty and charm. There are many other similar examples, all making Kelly's work well worth the time to read if you are a dedicated fan of Eleanor or this period in France or England.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: The book was well researched and the writing style wasn't bad. It could have used a bit more editing in my opinion. (The term "Angevin rage" is used way too often.)
Rating:
Summary: Great biography but rough read....
Review: This biography will probably ranked in my book, one of the best on Eleanor of Aquitaine next to the one written by Alison Weir. While Weir's book is far more readable, Kelly's book sides with a more scholarly approach. This book wasn't meant for the casual reader but for serious mediveal history readers. With that in mind, I thought the book was well written, superbly researched and provides a great deal of insights as well as cause and effects of Eleanor's presence in history. If you are serious about understanding Eleanor of Aquitaine, I would strongly recommended this book and the one by Weir as the two books that will covered her life with justice and with completeness.
Rating:
Summary: Birth of a history lover
Review: This is a scholarly work that does not attempt to cater to the pop-culture-obsessed masses. If you are looking for a book that is simple and easy-to-read, this one is not for you. Kelly takes an in-depth look at the life of one of the most fascinating people of all time, and she writes for people who already know something about the period. This book was written well before the recent trend towards revisionist and dumbed-down history, and the serious reader is better off for it.
Rating:
Summary: The definitive biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine
Review: This is a scholarly work that does not attempt to cater to the pop-culture-obsessed masses. If you are looking for a book that is simple and easy-to-read, this one is not for you. Kelly takes an in-depth look at the life of one of the most fascinating people of all time, and she writes for people who already know something about the period. This book was written well before the recent trend towards revisionist and dumbed-down history, and the serious reader is better off for it.
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