The Waiting Game

Medieval women, even powerful queens, spent a good deal of their lives waiting. Waiting for their husbands to come home from war, for their children to be born, for their sons to grow up. In July of 1137, Eleanor of Aquitaine, newly made duchess by her father’s death, found herself waiting behind the walls of Bordeaux for her fiance’ Louis VII to show up and marry her. I can only imagine how vexing it would be for a woman of power, even at the tender age of fifteen, to sit and wait for the next phase of her life to begin.

Eleanor spent a lot of her life waiting: for Louis to become a stronger man, for Henry to come home from battling and politics. After 1173, Eleanor waited for Henry to set her free from her prison walls, knowing that he probably never would. But each and every time, Eleanor did wait. She never gave up.

Louis never became a strong man, but Eleanor was finally able to annul that marriage and move on. For the first years of their marriage, Henry always did come home to her from his wars and his women. And when he didn’t, in 1167, she took herself and her children home to Aquitaine. And after her rebellion against Henry failed in 1173, Eleanor made it through fifteen years held imprisoned behind castle walls until her favorite son was king, and she was able to rule once more as Queen Dowager and Regent.

The waiting game is one we all must play. But I can think of few people who played it as well as Eleanor.