Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen and Legend

"Roy Owen's intimate knowledge of medieval literature and his discrimination in using it enable him to look at Eleanor of Aquitaine both through the legends that built up around her life and through medieval epic and romance .... A stimulating and challenging book that depicts Eleanor sympathetically as a credible person." Marjorie Chibnall, Emeritus Fellow, Clare College, Cambridge

"D. D. R. Owen, well-known for his translations from Cretien de Troyes, has written a fine addition to the already substantial shelf of Eleanor of Aquitaine biography. He has something brand new and convincing to argue: that Eleanor's personality must have been shaped by the literary milieu in which she grew up, and that legends about her, in turn, shaped some of the literary traditions that developed alongside and after her career. This biography is as much about the literary response, medieval and modern, to the facts of Eleanor's life as it is a record of the facts themselves." Medium Aevum

"This is a fascinating and scholarly examination of how history and romance have become interwoven in Eleanor of Aquitaine. Recommended for academic and large public libraries." Library Journal

"Eleanor of Aquitaine is the stuff of which rather too much history has been made. It is therefore a relief to read D. D. R. Owen's new and well-judged assessment of this fascinating and enigmatic figure. This biography succeeds where so many others have failed precisely because of its honesty and its refusal to compromise with the evidence." Historian