Part 9 Eleanor and Geoffrey of Anjou

 Eleanor was the victim of certain rumours declaring that she had supposedly indulged in an affair with Geoffrey Count of Anjou.  Chronicler Walter Map, a inveterate tittle tattler and inventor of court gossip is at the root of these rumours - written circa 1181. Gerald of Wales, another of the same ilk, repeats them, although he is writing in 1216.  Both sources are highly dubious, although they can't be entirely discounted.  However, exactly when Geoffrey was supposed to have slept with Eleanor and got away with it, isn't told.  Gerald of Wales says it was when Geoffrey was 'seneschal of France.' Which he never was.  I would have thought Geoffrey too busy fighting for his own wife's heritage to have time to conduct an affair with the Queen of France, and Eleanor herself would have been closely guarded in her teen years (married at 13) and herself would not have had opportunity to whisk herself off for a quickie with her husband's neighbour and vassal, devastatingly handsome though he was.   However, they may well have met up at court and flirtations  (and more) may possibly have occurred.  This sort of 'we'll never know' scenario is absolutely perfect for Akashic exploration.  Here are mine and Alison's findings on the matter:  If you believe it, then here is the truth, and if you don't, it's just as close to the truth as anything else that's been written over the last 800 years!

  

To look at Eleanor between 1137 and 1150, and any significant interaction between her and Geoffrey of Anjou.

 Eleanor's heart is warm and she is sitting down, and she's looking down, but I can feel a quivering there, which is a little bit of excitement. It's the excitement of being close to someone she fancies. (Geoffrey).  She is very, very embarrassed by his attention.  He has these luminous eyes and he fixes them on her, and when he does that, she can't meet them. He keeps his face completely straight and serious and gives her this intense look. From the outside it could not be construed as anything salacious at all. He's just being strong I suppose. It would look like a strong, masculine sort of pose, but Eleanor feels it much more deeply and she can't take it for a long period at a time. She has to get up and move about. It's like being in the sun too long; it gets a bit too hot. And even when she walks away and does things at the sideboard, she is so conscious of him still looking at her that she can't behave naturally; it's as if she is on a string. She is so self-conscious of almost giving a performance - as if she is on a stage because she is being watched so much. And afterwards when she gets together with Petronella, they are standing and giggling like mad with their hands over their mouths, and they just put their heads down and they are giggling.  Which is nothing new those two, but is not very approved of.  This might or might not lead anywhere. We need to find out.  Geoffrey was gorgeous and Eleanor here is obviously still very much a young teenager.  She married at 13 in 1137 and into the 1140’s was still an adolescent.  It’s a normal girly response to giggle in the presence of a handsome man in his 20s with powerful sexual charisma. It felt like she was sitting next to a pop star whom she had admired from a distance, and it was very exciting to meet that person.

So go to the closest moment between Eleanor and Geoffrey of Anjou prior to the second Crusade and then their closest moment after the second Crusade, so say 1149

Oooh, Eleanor is very confident here. Eleanor is in control here. This is much more like the older Eleanor that I've seen. You know how in later life she became this very regal, confident person?  I am seeing an element of that in the younger woman here, but this seems to be texual confidence. In other words she is feeling her sexual power. It's a confidence that became more of her public persona later on. This is where it starts from.

She's standing against a pillar, slightly out of the room but on a step above the room. She is feeling very proud and very attractive. She is feeling beautiful. Geoffrey has looked up ‘across a crowded room’ and straight at her, and even licked his lips. She has this invincible pride; it's almost steely. You know how she was really quivering before as a teenager? She is not at all here. It's more her political sense here. It reminds me more of when she was moving soldiers about. It's a feeling of perhaps one in the bag - she's got a political ally, and she uses it like mad. So if she gets the opportunity to walk in front of him, she will emphasise her body as she walks, knowing that he is watching her. She flirts with him unmercifully and she really calls his bluff.

By something she says, or just by her body language?

I am not sure exactly what it is. He is standing sideways on. She is as well and she's got her elbow bent and something in her hand that looks like a walnut or something and she's very flirtingly offering this to him. This is really subtle. She knows what she is doing. He thinks he knows what he's doing. He's been calling the shots; he's been the one who has seemed to be in pursuit and making her feel embarrassed, but it is now as if she is pushing him to get under the pretence, to get under the show on top to see what he's really like underneath. To see what his real feelings are. Which are... real lust. So when he shows her that in his eyes, he also shows her his vulnerability because he has revealed his true feelings. And she is ready to lead him. So she leads him on with this plaything, and when she has got him really gagging for it…then she walks away.

So when you say she leads him on with this plaything, what is she doing then? It's like the carrot before the horse. ‘Have a little taste.’ Takes it away. ‘A little bit further…no hands… a little bit further.’ And then she walks away? Yes when he gets it. Ah, he gets it then? Yes, but then he has to stand there chewing and watching her walk away.

 Go to another significant moment between Eleanor and Geoffrey before the Crusade.

There's that warm feeling again in her chest. I'm getting horse riding movements.. She wants to feel his body close to hers and that's what this warm feeling is about here. She's riding on the back of a horse behind him. They are playing in a silly way. I think if he was a motorcyclist he be going a bit too fast, just to make her scream, but he's actually making the horse rock about at the back too much, up and down. That's it, and then he catches her with his arm as she falls. Then there's a lot of fast riding, but not with her at this time. There seems to be a lot of playfulness in general. It's a group of them being a bit wild.

Bottom line: The chroniclers may have seen smoke and created fire. And perhaps Geoffrey warned his son against Eleanor because she had such powerful sexual charisma as a mature woman. 

I have written a blog about Geoffrey of Anjou at my regular Living The History blog. 
http://livingthehistoryelizabethchadwick.blogspot.com/2011/09/handsome-is-as-handdsome-doesgeoffrey.html