Living a long life from 1122 to 1204, Eleanor managed to reign as Queen of both France and England and is known as a fierce forward striking intellect, as well gentle lover of the arts. I have absorbed so much information on her life and influences during my research that it will be hard to keep short! Also apologies if this isn’t written as well as the others, I wrote a huge chunk, time passed, then came back and edited it heavily once I had learnt much more.

As with many women around this period in history, she is often noted for the men she was connected to, especially her husbands and sons, which can make research frustrating for wanting to find out about her in agency as her own person. The books I have found the best for this research as those by Alison Weir and Sara Cockerill.

She was married to Louis VII of France and then Henry II of England, with her sons Richard and John later becoming Kings of England (and her other EIGHT children basically all being high up somewhere or other!). The first two lumps of power being by marriage and the third by motherhood, she also came with her own inherited wealth. This made Eleanor very sought after as a bride, as well as victim to various plots and rumours to discredit what was an incredibly powerful and influential woman.

Indeed most of her actions of influence seemed to be based around this knowledge and skill of networking to build allies, therefore making herself and her descendants stronger. This is while her male counterparts were doing the more visible (therefore praised) work. For example, Richard I is known for being one of the greatest kings of England but in his 10 year reign was in this country for no more than six months. The country mysteriously ran itself. Oh no wait, there was a woman! Queen Eleanor!

Later in history she started getting the recognition she deserved, though like many of the women we cover, it’s never to the same extent, which is a large reason why we do this. Many will know the name, but not the deeds or legacy. Even 16 years imprisonment by her own husband (Henry II) didn’t stop her ambition. There are also a lot of myths around Eleanor to romanticize her, which can take away credit sometimes of the things she actually did do – like riding through the Pyrenees to escort Berengaria of Navarre to Sicily to marry her son, King Richard I….AGED 70.

My eyes twinkled when I read Niketas Choniates accounts of her riding to the Second Crusade in a golden dress with handmaidens dressed in men’s armour, but Sara Cockerill took the joy away by basically debunking it as non contemporary with no other mentions, and not referring to her by name. Boo. However, this again shows how we view the literal front line battle fighting as such a huge glory, which has definitely been hammered in through patriarchal history, whereas often it is though who never drew a blade who had the most impact.

Meeting Eleanor!

Much like Eleanor, I have many skills, including the ability to build a time machine – which I did, to go back in time and meet her! Thanks so much to the Queen herself for showing me around some of her vast lands, unlike her rubbish son John Lackland (literally, lacking lands)

We had a lovely stroll where I got to ask her lots of questions and admire Sherwood Forest and it’s many ancient oaks. I also found out plenty about the history of the forest itself and the time of the Robin Hood tales – what was happening in England at that time. Of course the stories intertwine as Eleanor is indeed mum of both John and Richard – the former renowned for rising taxes to restore the money frittered away by the latter! I also learnt that if there was a Robin Hood, then he wouldn’t have been a fox. Dagnammit.

Designing the Miniature

This took much longer than I imagined, because I got so fascinated with the history, and the back and forthing between rumour, myth and reality. While I know some were keen for a fighting Eleanor a la Angus Mcbride, storming to battle, I wanted to represent her more realistically, and to her strengths.

Of course the pre raphaelites adored the romanticisation of this era and she has been portrayed very much in a flowing locks fantasy princess sort of manner. I’m now getting quite good at medieval fashion, so drew on the information I already knew from researching Black Agnes, though different as she is earlier on. No tippets, for example!

In the Agnes post I was unsure on whether I had designed her in a wimple or gorget, and I can confirm it’s wimple for Agnes, Gorget for Eleanor! I wasn’t sure of the difference but get it now. The gorget is a bit like a helmet strap, not covering the rest of the neck. A chin strap.

A good likeness of Eleanor is her tomb effigy, which she commissioned in life, and shows her reading. I’m not sure whether this is a representation of her love of knowledge and literature, or The Bible, or both! But you know how attached I get to the people I research – if she wanted herself shown with a book, then heck yes I will grant her that! So the mini needs a book.

What else to ramp up her royalty? She’s sometimes shown with a falcon, and we love a good bird-on-arm pose right. So then I got into researching medieval falconry. As one does. The gyrfalcon was reserved for royalty, so definitely one of those. They’re also BIG, which helps for a mini, so it’s not just a lil hard to see thing, you won’t miss this.

A falcon and a book, what more could a gal want? A crown I guess a cape, and a cool dress, though I speak only for myself. And Eleanor! For the clothes design I have gone pretty much straight off the funeral effigy as it’s accurate. I found the cape fastening interesting as it’s very wide.

Regarding the pose, this took me the longest. Also to note: I can’t show you all the references used as I’m not sure 100% on a commercial blog what can be used, so I’m playing it safe. I looked up gyrfalcons of course, and found great photos of people holding them, and how they sit on a hand.

Controversially…. I didn’t want to put a glove on her. But you would really need one, those things puncture! I didn’t want her to be in the process of hawking, more posing with it as a status symbol, as if I was painting her portrait, which is kind of how I’m treating this project. I’ve chosen a perch which she is holding, so her hands are safe, it looks cool, and she doesn’t have a big distracting glove on.

I had my housemate Andy pose in various different ways with the book, as we both walked around the living room holding books and walking looking totally normal to anybody passing by. Acting natural is hard! As with the effigy, I want it to be either representing The Bible or just something else she holds dear to her heart, so she would be holding it carefully and well…. dear to her heart. Nice symbolism Annie. Thanks, Me.

As with all my scribbles, the details are saved for reference pictures to the sculptor, so some aren’t needed, it’s more an idea of the final figure. I’m sure Alan will do something cool with the cloak and dress, so I don’t need to draw exactly where the folds are, for example.

I could keep typing forever but it’s been a long day! And I promised myself I wouldn’t go to bed til this is done, so sleep is winning. I also haven’t proofread this back so apologies if it’s inane ramble.

The sketches are getting better I think, that’s a good thing! Getting the hang of drawing on the tablet (ie directly on the screen) and prefer it to paper now.

What do you think? I wanted to keep this fairly classical but not be boring. As for wargaming figures, she will make a great leader character or on a shared base perhaps with King Louis in the Second Crusade, or King Richard in the third. Or just a cool queeny model.

Night night!

Edit: I didn’t want her to be reading the book as I didn’t want it to look like the tomb effigy had creepily just rose up to vertical!