Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of two countries, mother of two kings, went on crusade to the holy land, helped sons rebel against their father, was locked up for sixteen years, lived for more than 80 years. With a resume like that, it’s no wonder Eleanor of Aquitaine remains a favorite of historical novelists and readers alike. Following up last year’s debut, The Queen’s Pawn (about Eleanor’s relationship with her son’s betrothed, Princess Alais), Christy English tackles Eleanor’s marriage to her first husband, Louis of France – a period of Eleanor’s life that is often overshadowed by her more well-known second marriage to Henry II of England.


As her father’s heir to the beautiful and rich lands of Aquitaine, Eleanor is quite the prize in the marriage market. She is beautiful and learns at any early age the power that beauty and charm can hold over men. She is also intelligent and capable and not quite satisfied to just rule the somewhat troublesome barons that make up Aquitaine’s court. She wants to be queen – of France. Her father promises to make it happen.

But being the Queen of France is not everything she thought it would be. Born a second son and originally destined for the church, Louis becomes heir to the French throne after his older brother dies. Louis is pious, quiet and has been taught to love God and the church above all other things - a lesson he learned all too well. Initially Eleanor is convinced that they can be happy, but she soon realizes she has a powerful rival for her husband’s affections – the church and its officials.

When the marriage fails to improve and Eleanor can’t produce a male heir (although as she points out, it’s not really something she can do by herself…) she begins to think the best thing to do is get a divorce and go back to Aquitaine. But then she meets Henry Plantagenet and everything changes…

The strength of To Be Queen is the obvious passion and admiration English has for her subject. Eleanor has an aura of self-confidence that makes her believe just about anything is possible and above everything else, to believe in herself. As a result, I admired Eleanor as well and at times felt sorry for her (but not in a pitying kind of way). There were also times I wanted to knock her upside the head and yell, “what were you thinking?!!!”. I found the relationship between Eleanor and Louis interesting and was intrigued as they tried to develop something meaningful only to see it all fall apart in the end for reasons that were really no ones fault.

There was something about the writing though that just didn’t quite work for me. In many ways it reminded me of the journalism 101 classes I took my freshman year of college – very short, simple sentences with very short paragraphs (many are no more than a sentence or two long). As a result, the story seemed rather choppy and it didn’t seem to flow very well which distracted me from the story and kept me from enjoying it as much as I think I would have otherwise.  I was also disappointed that one of the rumors regarding Eleanor having a relationship with another man while on crusade made its way into the story (but I won’t say which man it was…).

Still, despite the newspaper/tabloid feel of the way it is written, I enjoyed Eleanor and Louis story.

Worth the cost?  "To be queen one must rip ones heart out. "   Eleanor as she considers what she has to give up in order to be a queen.



In case the FTC asks: The author sent me a copy of the book to review.