Ruben PhilipsenStone effigy of Aliénor of Aquitaine, Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, France, 1997.<br>
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Back in 1997 I recorded this 36mm high quality diapositive (transparency) with my analog Minolta 3000i SLR camera depicting Aliénor of Aquitaine. She was the only woman to be crowned queen of both England and France and spent her last years at the Royal Abbey of Fontevraud in the Plantagenet heartland of Anjou. Married first to Louis VII of France and then Henry II of England, Aliénor – Eleanor to the English – died here in 1204 at the remarkable age of 82. More than 800 years later, her painted stone effigy rests in the cavernous nave of the abbey church, exactly as she wanted. In her final years, this educated and feisty lady commissioned her own stone effigy, painted in the bright colours of her royal robes, as well as effigies of her estranged husband Henry and her favourite son, Richard the Lionheart, both of whom had pre-deceased her.<br>
A learned woman who spoke four languages, Eleanor decreed not only that she should be portrayed with an open book, but also that her recumbent likeness be higher than that of her late husband. Henry had imprisoned Eleanor when she took their sons’ side against him, but Eleanor knew how to make a statement.<br>
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