Part 11. The church and an heir

Eleanor and Louis were married in the summer of 1137, but apart from a miscarriage early in the relationship, there was no sign of an heir.  It has been suggested by historians that Eleanor and Louis gave the famous 'Eleanor' vase to St Denis at its consecration in 1144 not just as a gift for the church, but also as an offering in the hopes that a child would be granted to Eleanor's womb.  Eleanor also, apparently, appealed to the 'saintly' Bernard of Clairvaux for advice.  I asked Alison to go and take a look at aspects of this situation.  I have seen suggestions by other historians and some novelists that Louis' giving of the vase to Suger, greatly upset Eleanor.  I wanted to observe her mindset here.

1144

Alison: She feels quite tight across the heart area.  This is an Alienor who is quite worked up.  Tight heart, tight cheeks, tight eyes.  Emotional in an anxious way.  I am getting the words ‘Please God, this has got to work.’  She is angry and not that bothered about the vase.  This is about God.  Her anger is connected to her relationship with God, so this is a direct communication with God.  Suger is just a periphery.  I think this is to do with wanting a boy child.  It doesn’t seem fair.  Why can’t she have what she wants?  She will give anything, it doesn’t matter what, in order to have what she wants.  So the actual item isn’t as relevant as what she wants.  Suger to her is just someone who is doing what’s needed in the circumstances.  Not quite a servant, but a functionary. It’s not up to him, it’s up to God.  That’s how she sees it, although she wouldn’t say it outright.  It wouldn’t be necessary.  She can find Suger a bit annoying but he’s got a job to do.  She’ll let him get on with his job, but this isn’t to do with him really.  It’s to do with God. He’s just a functionary of God. 

So this vase is to be given to God as a plea for her fertility?  It’s more of a demand actually!  She hardly even looks at the vase.  It’s only in her side vision and the main part of her vision is to God. Why the vase and not a different gift?  Well she could give anything.  She doesn’t mind what it is, and it isn’t the only thing she’s given.  She’s given loads of things.  She’s given bags of gems.  She’s given gold coverings to things.  I am seeing one of those gold engraved domes that you put over tombs.  She would rake around and give whatever it took.

Going off on a slight sidetrack: I wonder how Louis feels about Alienor’s childlessness.  He feels he must have done something wrong to displease God in such a way and he is starting to distrust Alienor because just maybe she has done something wrong that he doesn’t know about, or there is something wrong in their relationship.  His mind is working on those old fashioned things like consanguinity and something that’s displeasing to God about them being together.  That’s one part of it.  The other part is someone who is holding back sobs and just wants to cling on to Alienor for comfort in their mutual sadness.  She’s the one who comforts him.  I can see his head on her chest and she is stroking his back and head.

So is this not for want of trying?  Because when she married Henry II, she was having children one after the other.  So let’s take a look, without being salacious,  at the reason for non conception.  I think he’s having difficulties in sustaining the act.  He still wants that closeness in being with her, but the actual finishing off – he’s not sustaining.  To get into the emotions of that… His heart is hurting.  It’s breaking.  He feels he doesn’t deserve so much in terms of Alienor.  Such beauty, such love.  He’s finding it hard to accept.  He keeps going there because outwardly there seems no reason why he shouldn’t have these things, but there’s something inside that’s not opening to accept them.  He does actually cry about it. He’s really upset.

So to the Alienor Vase.  Why did Louis decide to give it to Suger.

Louis loves this man and there seems to be a flowering of this love as Louis gets older.  It seems to be something that sustains him.  He has been able to rely on Suger right from childhood as someone that sustains him.  He just wants to show his appreciation for everything that Suger has done for him and his family in everything that he upholds.  The way that he’s treated in the family.  The way that Suger has dedicated his whole being and life to upholding the family.  What more loyal member of state could you wish for?  It almost brings tears to his eyes.  So how can he show what he feels without bringing something that is very precious, fragile and more than that, luminous, to give to Suger.  It’s something which appears transparent but in certain…ah this is interesting…but in certain lights gives off other colours like a prismatic effect.  That’s why it would be so precious wouldn’t it?  It would be like a real light show. It would complement the windows that Suger had put in his church – like a reflection.  I can feel that Louis feels the emotional preciousness of it in the connection that he has with Alienor.  So it has that emotional resonance as well as the other resonances.  And to give that, all his love, all this beauty, all his connection with Alienor is an enormous gift.  No wonder it brings tears to his eyes.

What does Suger think of this gift?  He is taking it into his stomach, taking it into his treasury. Mmm, yum, nice. 

But then he tarted it up, didn’t he?  That’s to make it his.  It can’t go back; it’s his now.

Yes, he made an inscription to that effect.  So the tarting wasn’t because he felt it needed extra bling?  No, he was putting his own graffiti on it.  So he thinks it’s a worthy gift?  Oh indeed, yes. Has he coveted it before?  Yes, he has!  Has he ever made mention before that it’s a nice piece?  I’ve lost it now, but I just got the feeling he has commented on it before and seen it before, but said things like ‘If only it was a little bit here and a little bit there, it would be perfect, or it would be gorgeous.  He certainly does like it.

Now to April 1144 Alienor at St Denis and any conversation  Eleanor had with Bernard of Clairvaux about her infertility.

Alienor is upset. This is a different Alienor. She is crying. She says ‘I don't mean to burden you with this but I cannot understand it. Why is God punishing me so when I do everything in my power to please him?  By ’him’ she means Louis. ‘And he just rejects me. I cannot see why, I cannot tell why. He says he loves me. He also tells her that she is - I can't quite get the words - the apple of his eye staple of his life, the thing that runs through the centre of his life like lettering on a stick of rock. And yet, he does not find me attractive enough to want to procreate. Please give me the means, whatever the means are to reawaken his interests and the love that I have to give him so that we can do God's work and produce a child for this world and an heir to the throne. I cannot imagine how I have failed him. Therefore I must ask you to throw some light on the situation. Tell me how God sees it, that I may rectify my ways and be more of a wife to him. I do love him dearly and I have no one else. I need to please him in the eyes of God.’ All the time she is saying this, it's very internal. It's as if she's not talking to Bernard. He doesn't feel to be there. She's atlking to herself and generally perhaps to God, yes to God. She's in such a situation that she can't make that connection for herself. She's asking it to be done from the outside.

When I see Bernard of Clairvaux, I see sharks in the water, a very bad sign. I got him, just as the sharks went under the water. He's got a thin bony face and thin lips, and he's smiling with satisfaction, not with the compassion that you'd expect in this situation. He's got her where he wants her.  He says ‘Very well my dear. You have done well to recognise the error of your ways. God has a way of bringing his flock back to him. Now you have accepted what you've done, he will welcome you back into his fold. Leave off all those fripperies, those wicked ways that have come to be so important to you, and forsaking them hold tight to Christ your saviour.’ I've got a sense of holding onto a relic of a cross and I think he might even have put that in her hand at that point. ‘Just as Christ died on the cross to the physical world and rose again, so let your soul die to the physical world and rise stronger and greater than ever before and God will admonish you and test you again and again until he is sure that you are one of his. You may carry his cross and be worthy of it, for this is no easy task to bear the burden of a country upon one's back, and one must be ready for it and worthy of it. Therefore I say, scourge your life and make it as he would wish and you shall be fruitful as you would wish in the ways of the spirit. Gird your loins and prepare for the journey that he has prepared for you, for this is what I tell you: In order to make new life, you must leave behind the old life. You must go forward in sanctity and be at peace with the whole world, which is God's world, and you must do God's work fervently. Do you understand me in this?’

And she looks up with serious eyes and she nods.

He says again, just in case she hasn't got it ‘You must change your ways.’

She swallows and nods again. She can only think if it will bring her closer to Louis, then she will have to do it. She decides to make prayer a very important part of her life, and alms, and fraternising with the clergy. I think this means the female clergy. He says’Good my child.’ He is writing something down.  He says ‘Here take this and give it to the Abbess, and they will purge you of any deleterious spirits. You must stay there for three days on bread and water. Do not ask for the 40 days that Christ endured, but only what your small frame can muster. Hold yourself in that knowledge and place in the scale of things, and you will come to a better understanding of your place in the world.’

Alienor feels quite humbled, but also kind of real. It's as if this has brought her down to the ground. She's breathing in a different way.

Part 10 The first year of marriage

Louis and Alienor's marriage seems to have started off with promise - if a few caveats and pointers to later bones of contention - but on the whole to have been workable. But as conventional history tells us, that changed over the years until there was much bitterness and hostility between them. The Akashics is an unparelleled aid in getting at the mindsets and feelings of the personalities involved. 

Here are Eleanor and Louis in the early days of their marriage.

Now to 1138 and Alienor and her relationship with Louis a year into their marriage.

 I am getting Alienor very still, looking down.  There’s a feeling of a spiritual journey.  I feel that she’s meditating.  I feel that Louis is close by.   It feels as if they are joined as well.  For Alienor it feels as if they are sharing a spiritual moment.

Is it a spiritual moment for Louis?  I’m going to the bit after it (they’ve been making love). Louis  just loses himself in her.  It’s like liquid gold.  He loses the sense of himself as an individual being. It’s like his boundaries are all gone.  His body feels as if he’s not there; it’s just everything.  And afterwards he just feels so peaceful and still.  He’s kind of lost in space.  It’s a meditative state. 

How does this make him feel about her in non sexual circumstances?  It makes him a little bit confused because it makes him feel as if he is the same person as her, and when they pass, he feels as if it’s right because he’s becoming who he is with her, and when she goes past it’s strange and he gets a bit confused.  It’s as if he’s more himself when he’s with her, than he is when he’s not with her.  I’ll try and find a time in normal circumstances when they’ve not been close together.  There’s a level where they can intellectually beat each other.  It’s a bit like playing a board game where they can chatter and disagree with each other and be competitors, but only in that little context, so I suppose that would be like talking policy or planning things. Most of the time she just sucks in his senses.  If you imagine you’re taking a plateful of the most delicious meat to the table and your dog’s in the room.  You know how he follows his nose and his whole body follows afterwards, well that’s how Louis is with Alienor.  He feels her go past and – Alison inhales deeply -  He might not show it on the outside but it’s as if his aura is being sucked into her.

That is really fascinating that it has developed like this in the year since their marriage.  When they first married, it was just like 'driving a new car' as far as he was concerned.  So I think we need to go back and find out how this happened.  But  before we go, let’s find out how she feels about him in their ordinary life a year later.  She has an emotional attachment to him from the heart.  It is sometimes disappointed because it feels frustrated and unfulfilled as if something is not there. It’s like someone not being able to meet you intellectually in a conversation.  For her the emotions are not being met on the same level.  There's the sense that she sometimes thinks he’s a bit of a fool.  He doesn’t see the obvious and he’s stubborn in his stupidity sometimes.  He will stick to something for no real, obvious reason and he can’t really argue his case and it seems the most stupid thing for him to stick to and he won’t be moved, but then she can’t really do anything about it. But she’s happy enough with her sphere and to be honest she has quite a lot of influence in his sphere as well. She feels superior to him.  She feels as if he is servicing her needs in all ways – in her life and in her bed. It’s not the full thing, but it’s an aspect of what she’s sensing. So now she is driving the car.  Yes. She’s now in control.  Yes, powerful lady.  It’s not instinctual.  She is totally consciously making her own directions.

So go to snapshots of their marriage between the wedding and now a year later and find out how she got the control. Go to next time they came together after he had to leave her shortly after the marriage and go to Alienor’s POV. She’s very pleased to see him.  She kneels at his feet and kisses his hand.  I can see them dancing together and it makes them both enlivened and relaxed.  They’re breathing faster.  They are chatting in a very relaxed manner about their time apart and what they’ve been doing.   They’re still in the public arena where they’ve been chatting to each other rather than to anyone else.  The feeling in Alienor is of excitement.  She has got something powerful and interesting here, a new toy, and a new maturity.  There’s a feeling that she has entered the adult world and wants to be a proper part of it.  It’s like she’s been given permission and accepted into the adult world, and that has made her more open to her own feelings.    She is finding out about herself.  She feels very secure in her relationship.  It’s very solid, so she can be as free as open as she likes.  She can do just what she wants within that relationship and no one can say ‘You can’t do that’ or ‘that’s wrong, it shouldn’t have happened.’  Because it’s there for everyone to see and it has been accepted.

 So another snapshot.  What has changed that a year later Alienor is in charge?  When Louis comes home, he is not relaxed.  He’s feeling anxious and tight, like a band across his solar plexus area.  There’s distaste for a great deal that’s going on in the court. He finds that there are only a few people to trust. Issues of trust are very close to the forefront to his thinking, and distrust for the ways of the court.  When I say this, the double dealing, the lack of true integrity, so people are doing this for the wrong reasons and not in line with God.  Things are really heavy to move, to get things done, and to get changes made.  Everybody’s got their own vested interest.  Alienor pushes herself forward into his awareness and her whole being becomes more solid and detailed because of that.  She stands out from the others and she can make him feel like a human being.  So when they’re dancing and relaxing, he can react like a human being instead of like a king.  This is very different for him.  I think coming back to Paris as the King is a real awakening for him.  It’s a very different experience to what he had before or whatever he imagined.  So that in itself has knocked him off the pedestal he used to be on where everything was set along definite tramlines.  That surety has gone.  The tramlines have gone.  Very different.  It’s like he has now to make the tramlines for other people.  He wasn’t expecting that.  With her she doesn’t expect tramlines.

Another snapshot.  Alienor is sitting on a dais at the end of the room.  He’s walking round the room.  He’s working the room as they say, and every so often he’s looking at her and she is giving him a smile and a nod.  She is giving him confidence. Because of what’s been happening between them at a personal level, there’s a connection there and it helps him and she feels it’s perfectly how it should be and her mind is already in intellectual mode, planning.  I’m just trying to see what she’s planning, but it’s everything.  It involves people, projects, buildings, how things should look, everything. 

She’s world building then?  Yes, exactly, and he’s part of the plan.

So how is Louis feeling?  He is feeling so warm and full in the solar plexus.  It goes up to his heart and makes him feel warm and loved, as if his whole world is perfectly full.  What he is doing in the room is just the peripheries.  The real world is his heart.  It’s like a warm sun. This is the nitty gritty.  No one has ever understood him, supported him, known him and accepted him as he is ever before, without recriminations or criticism, just as he is.  And given him love.  He has never had an experience like this before.  All his previous relationships, where there should have been love, there has been an element of cruelty there as well, or indifference at the very least.  He’s never known acceptance love.  It’s been correction love that he’s had before.

Alison said something very pertinent to me during these sessions - something that I knew, but it was good to hear her mention it.  People alter.  They don't stay the same, even if certain traits are ingrained. Life experience and the physical metamorphosis from child to youth,  to adult, to old person, all have their part in changing the sculpture from moment to moment.  So when I write my work, I have to factor in those changes.  That's why, for example, Roger Bigod in The Time of Singing, is slightly different to the Roger Bigod in To Defy A King.  One is a young man, flexible and optimistic.  The other is a seasoned politician with the weight and responsibility of an earldom on his shoulders.

 

Alison said - having observed Louis and Alienor:

 

It’s amazing how relationships go through different dynamics.  I’ve seen this time and again in my job.  You think ‘Oh, that’s a marriage made in heaven’ and about 20 years later, it’s all turned to horror.  Or it can go the other way.  Sometimes a significant event comes along and sets in. It’s as if you’ve put a coloured lens in front of everything, and everything then is a different colour.  You can never see that person the same again. 

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

Part 8

"In my descriptions of people, nearly all the information I get comes from an inside perspective.  It’s what it feels like to be that person.  When they talk directly to us, it’s what it’s like to be in the presence of that person as well. "

Alison to me at a recent Akashic session.

A little bit more on Alienor's sister Petronella and involving Louis' second cousin, the courtier and warrior Ralph or Raoul de Vermandois

Go to Petronella, sister of Alienor of Aquitaine, when she receives the news of their father’s death.

Alison Petronella is so shocked at the news of the death of her father that she can’t breathe, she can’t speak, she’s all stiff.  Daddy, daddy, daddy.  I feel really at a standstill in the centre of my chest.  She wants to give these flowers to him, white daisy flowers, big ones.  She’s got them in her hand.  She wants to know where she can give them to him. Where is he?  She doesn’t understand.  How can he be dead?  He’s not here.  I don’t think she understands the concept of death properly.  She doesn’t understand that it’s final.  She thinks that her father can suddenly be brought into the castle and be there again.  She believes that if she wills it enough, that’s what will happen. ‘Daddy, daddy, I love you.’  She doesn’t want anything to do with Alienor because she thinks it’s Alienor’s fault.  She thinks Alienor sent him away. If it wasn’t for Alienor he would have stayed, and she would have had him all to herself.  She wouldn’t have had to share him with Alienor.  The pain in her chest is just tremendous.  She’s like a lost dog, looking in all directions.  She can’t be consoled.  She keeps asking questions.  ‘When will he come home?  She’s not accepted it; that’s basically how it is.  And as time goes on, it only gradually dawns on her as things change that he’s not going to come home.  She starts to be very, very sad about it.  Depressed, crying.  It’s as if part of her shuts down emotionally and she carries on with the practicalities of what she has to do.

Does she continue to feel like that towards Alienor, or does it ease?  She starts to rely on Alienor a lot as a sort of surrogate parent.  And like a surrogate parent you can rebel against a parent but love them at the same time.  You kick against them but rely on them too.  She seems to rely on Alienor for Alienor’s authority.  Alienor makes decisions as to what’s right and what’s wrong.

And does she still blame her for their father’s death?  No.  I think there’s some jealousy there that Alienor had times with their father that Petronella didn’t and never will and that Alienor had longer with their father, but it’s also something she can draw on, so she can ask Alienor about those time and she can experience them at second hand.  I think she has come to realise it’s not Alienor’s fault through Alienor’s own suffering.   

Petronella going to Paris.

I notice that Petronella has this signature sort of body language where she has her hands clasped together, or something in her hands. A lot about her is heart-shaped like her face.  The top of her body can be heart-shaped.  It’s just that delicate sort of – very much like her grandmother’s physiology.  She’s crying about what she can and can’t take with her, and having to leave behind so much.  When I say leave behind, it’s more like the flagstones of the castle, the walls, the very stones that make the place up.  The sunshine, especially the sunshine.  Pets.  I am seeing a little greyhound type of dog in a very pale colour.  She’s not taking that with her then?  No, it’s got puppies and won’t travel well.  It belongs to the house and she’s being told not to be silly.  I’m seeing a woman who’s telling her these things.  Quite a well dressed woman.  The woman is saying she will be better off without the encumberance of a dog.

And her impressions as they enter Paris and her thoughts on Alienor’s sudden marriage. Petronella is quiet.  Her mouth is down and her eyes are down.  She feels a bit depressed.  There’s a deep emotional pain as well.  She’s lost her sister as well now.  She’s lost her mum, her dad, her sister.  She switches off and is just a body going through the motions.  You wouldn’t know all this was going on from the outside.  You’d just see a proper person doing what she was meant to do but there’s no sparkle there.

And Paris.   Hmmm, she’s very interested.  She likes all the new sensations.  The smells, the sights, the sounds, the tastes.  She enjoys new things and she gets embarrassed as well when people notice her and offer her things.  She’s very sweet. She’s looked after with such pomp and distance in a way that she really wasn’t looked after at home.  There was much more proximity and hands on at home.  In Paris there is definite etiquette about things and she likes that.  Aaaah, and there’s a little dog.  A little fluffy dog like a Pomeranian. That someone’s given her?   I don’t know, but it’s near the hearth and she loves it.

So where did it come from?  It’s just already there, but it’s in the area where she particularly lives.  There’s this big square hearth.  There are other dogs there, but she particularly likes this one.  It sits on her knee as well.

So how does she get on with Alienor’s mother in law the dreaded Adelaide? Adelaide treats her as quite a pet because Petronella is so quiet and pliable.  She looks so sweet, she’s like a chocolate box ideal of a little girl or a little princess. 

And Petronella’s impression of Louis?  She doesn’t like him.  Her mouth purses to one side and there’s a sick feeling coming all the way down her middle.

Why?  She just finds him gruesome.  Sort of smarmy.  He’s always trying to be kind to her and she just finds him really smarmy.  He tries to give her gifts.  Say someone in this situation was trying to give her a bag of sweets, and because she doesn’t like him she doesn’t like the gift either.  The sweets are horrible.  I think it’s like an older brother syndrome.  An older brother with a girl-friend.  Euwwww!  There’s just something sibilant about him.  Something about his lips and something kind of… it’s like the way many male writers write love scenes - sleazy snail-trail stuff.  She finds him disgusting. She’s just happy when he doesn’t notice her.  She’s not happy when he puts his attention on her. She feels that Alienor has changed. She likes this horrible monster Louis.  It’s as if Alienor is all different and all grown up and talking with these other people, and Petronella has to watch her from a distance. 

And Petronella’s views on Alienor sharing a bed with Louis?   She can’t stand the thought of that.  Who’d want anything to do with Louis?  That’s how she feels and she tries not to think of it.  It gives her bad vibes.  I think she can sense his unease with pleasurable things.  I think she picks that up.  I don’t think she trusts him because of that.  It seems false.  I don’t think she’d be able to put her finger on that, but that’s what’s at the base of it.

I wondered about her relationship with Ralph of Vermandois in that first year in Paris?  She gets ever so shy with him and coy.  She’s got a very unusual smile.  I can feel it forming.  Her top lip puckers somehow, all across the top.   She gets totally embarrassed and giggly and looks down.  She hardly dares look up again, but she does.She has a tremendous laugh. It’s quite a deep laugh and she does it just because he looks at her and he has this humour in his expression.  I suppose it’s the vibration he’s sending that triggers something in her. 

So all he needs to do is look at her and she bursts out laughing? Yes, it’s as if he’s told her a very funny joke. I don’t think this is just something that happens without a background.  It’s a reference perhaps to some transaction they’ve done beforehand.

 So investigate it a bit more.  She’s giggling away like mad.  She’s trying to hide it by stroking this little dog and putting her head down.  And then she’s found him standing right in front of her.  She’s been trying to overcome her feelings and look down and cut off.  Then suddenly in front of her there’s this shadow and there he is, right in front of her and she didn’t know he was there! 

Just with him?  Yes!  He’s standing there and admiring her dog and asking about it.  Her mouth’s puckering up again and she’s talking.  There’s a warm, bubbly feeling in her abdomen as she is able to control herself enough to talk about the dog and about something else, perhaps a journey.  I’m not sure.  The conversation settles down and then slows down.  His attention is going somewhere else and she can look up at him with a yearning feeling.

A father figure thing?  It feels like love.  It’s a feeling that this person has given her attention and love and a positive thing and she wants more of it.  She is naturally open to giving her love to him.  It reminds me of her grandmother Dangereuse.  You know how passionate her grandmother was, and when she was fixed on that person that was all she wanted she was so full on.  In a similar way; it has a slightly different flavour, but the focus is the same. Interesting.  We discuss her age – somewhere between 11 and 13.  Certainly no older than that.  I suppose it would be a bit like an older boy in the school noticing you and becoming the centre of his attention and how you would deal with that.  Well in this case it would be more like fancying the headmaster because he’s 35 years older than her!  But what I am saying is that the feelings inside her are like that.  Ah, I see.  So like fancying a boy, not a man. Yes. So let’s see if she notices how old he is.  I think it’s a mixture of this daddy thing and boyfriend thing.  I think the other thing is that a lot of women of Alienor’s age and Petronella’s age were married off to much older men as a cultural norm.  I don’t know whether their focus was on older men – their eye perhaps trained into wealth and standing rather than youth and beauty. I don’t think he was unattractive. I do feel he was an attractive man.

So what did Ralph think of her?  The sort of feelings I’m getting are of him striding from one side of the room to the other and then striding towards her and like having a very complex toy, a little toy like an automaton that is very fascinating to play with.  Then there’s another deeper motive that is to do with power, that realises the very powerful position he is in, in relationship to her.  And this is exciting because it is in relation to personal power not delegated power. It’s not official, it’s something to do with him alone, with his own charisma.  It’s interesting, because he does like to test that out on other ladies as well.  It’s not something new to him, but he gauges people’s reactions.  So it’s like a hobby then?  Alison laughs and half nods.  Is it flirting then?    I think there’s an element of it, yes. 

And what does Alienor think of Ralph?  Alienor has a very fixed gaze on him.  She thinks him very attractive.  This is her view from a distance.  She thinks his body very attractive.  She thinks his mind is busy on things in front of him and doesn’t notice her.  When he does turn his attention on her, he can out-courtesy her.  She’s very good at being courteous but hers is very natural.  His is natural but with an extra edge as well. It has an intent.  She likes him better at a distance than close up because he tends to get too close.  He can invade her privacy.  When he’s speaking to someone smaller than him, he has a habit of bending over right from the middle of his back and putting his hand forward just to be on their level, but the edge of his energy is quite sharp.  It’s like having a metal edge to his fingers somehow, and she doesn’t like that sharp edge.  Although they’ve got things in common, a closer familiarity makes her feel uncomfortable and back away.  But there again, it’s not that she doesn’t trust him, it’s just his manner that she finds uncomfortable. While he’s at a distance, she likes him.

Part 7. The Vase and Suger

 One of the few items remaining from Eleanor's life is the vase she gave to Louis VII at the time of their wedding.  Louis - or Louis and Eleanor together, depending on who you believe, later gave it to Abbot Suger of St. Denis at the consecration of the magnificent new church of St Denis.  Originally the rock crystal vase was unembellished apart from carving on the crystal itself, but Abbot Suger had it beautified with gold and jewels.  Various biographers and novelists have imagined that Eleanor must have been devastated to  see Louis give up that vase to the abbot, but I honestly do not see why that should be the case.  An item such as this would always have been used for religeous purposes and kings and queens were always in the act of giving magnificent gifts to their favourite religeous establishments.  What was more fitting than that the mausoleum and church of the Kings of France should house this gift with Suger as its custodian? It would hardly have stood on Louis' bedroom windowsill before this would it?

But, I digress.  I wanted to find out about this vase in the Akashic sequence, so I asked Alison to take a look at it.  I also asked her to take a look at the personality of Abbot Suger:

For readers interested in the vase in conventional history, there's an excellent piece in Eleanor of Aquitaine Lord and Lady edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John C. Parsons.  The title is The Eleanor of Aquitaine Vase by George. T. Beech.  You can also find out a bit about it at the Louvre website. http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice_popup.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673226029&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673226029&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500778&bmLocale=en

 

To the question of Alienor giving the crystal vase to Louis:

A tall man is stooping down to put this crystal vase in her hands and it seems to have straight sides and then flares out a little bit at the top.  I’m not getting past the bit where I see the vase being put in her hands. I’ll try to get it from her point of view.  She’s feeling good.  Warm, excited.  I can’t get the feeling of the vase in my hands though.  I don’t want you to tell me what it looks like…  No, but I can tell you that it was a family treasure and that it had belonged to her grandfather William IX who got it from Spain.  It had been been passed down the family from him.  It’s quite knobbly and it’s got embellishments at the top. Alison is drawing it and it does have a strong look of the said vase but without the top and base that were added later.

She feels very warm about this. She’s holding this precious thing in her hands and she is walking across to Louis and she’s walking across at a diagonal towards Louis, and because of the preciousness of this object, she is just walking with her feet, she’s not making her knees move.  It’s as if she’s giving this delicate thing which is also her delicate self, her heart to him.  She has no qualms about trusting. She is just doing what she needs to do and trusting in this exchange and this shows the level of her trust.  Louis picks it up and holds it carefully, looks at it, and he kisses her right at the top of her brow.  She feels satisfied.  In fact it feels a bit of a relief because she no longer has to have responsibility for this vase and Louis calls someone to come and look after it.  I can see a ring being exchanged now.  It’s a gold ring with a big red stone in it.  He’s taking it off his own finger and giving it to her. He’s not putting it on her finger, he’s putting it into her hand. 

And the incident from his POV?   When he sees this coming across to him and the vase and the bride, he thinks ‘Yummy.’  Again, he accepts it as what ought to be.  He takes this expansion of his belongings, his well being as just normal.  He takes it for granted.  He doesn’t see a limit to it.  He doesn’t feel it needs to stop there.  He feels the ring is something to bind her closer to him.  It’s the sort of gift he’s used to making from the throne to his magnates and he uses it in a similar way.  It feels the right and proper thing to do and he’s done it now.  And then he looks around at his entourage to see what effect that’s had on them.  It’s because he’s used to using these gifts for political reasons and it’s a habit with him now that he has to see the effect of favouring one person on other people. So it’s not just an actor looking for audience response then?  No, I can’t see that.  It’s just a habit.  You have to be watchful and on your guard if you are going to control all this.  Although on the other hand he can’t control it all.  

Go to Suger first seeing the vase.

I can see him looking at the vase, and I can see it as a vase, without all the embellishment. I can see the light shining through it. It's fantastic. Suger's eyebrows go up. It's kind of amazement and a very smooth feeling inside. Suger isn't a very smooth person, he's always got lots of deals going on inside. This calms it all down and smooths it all out. I suppose it supersedes all that, it overlays all that. It's the beauty of it, it clears everything else out. He has this aesthetic ambition (In history) and I think this is what it is. It calms everything down in him. He gets a sense of being at peace; he's not at peace generally, that's not his nature, but being able to be overwhelmed by something beautiful and magnificent allows him that time of peace where he doesn't have to think. There's no thought going on. I suppose that's the closest to God he can be when he can have that lack of mundane thought. He goes blank and he goes through the moment. He is no longer Suger the ball bobbing along the ocean, it's just all gone and he can be himself. It's not even a desire to have the vase. It's like relief. It's like going to a retreat and thinking ‘Ah, I can just let it all go now. ' So I guess that the beautiful things he collects – his vase collection for example, are what do it for him. Yes I suppose that's why he does it, because it's an important part of his life.  We thought how sort of intricate these things are, and busy. We never guessed that it could bring this calmness. I suppose it's a bit like A mandala, for him then.  Yes, but naturally in an unexpected way. It wasn't premeditated or anything. He doesn't hang onto it at the time because that would lose it. He just allows it to happen. How interesting. It shows why he's got the motivation to do this collecting. I suppose he's only like this when he's in the zone. When showing somebody else he would be in a very different frame of mind. I don't think he'll be able to explain it. He would say, Oh the beauty of this object, the proportions, the size… But he wouldn't be able to explain the feelings, or only in terms of God. God is all beauty. So he would use that experience to tell others what God is, but it would be profane for him to tell people that he got this feeling from physical objects. These are only reflection of God’s might and worth.

Why did Louis decide to give the vase to Suger in 1144?

Louis loves this man and there seems to be a flowering of this love as Louis gets older.  It seems to be something that sustains him.  He has been able to rely on Suger right from childhood as someone that sustains him.  He just wants to show his appreciation for everything that Suger has done for him and his family in everything that he upholds.  The way that he’s treated in the family.  The way that Suger has dedicated his whole being and life to upholding the family.  What more loyal member of state could you wish for?  It almost brings tears to his eyes.  So how can he show what he feels without bringing something that is very precious, fragile and more than that, luminous, to give to Suger.  It’s something which appears transparent but in certain…ah this is interesting…but in certain lights gives off other colours like a prismatic effect.  That’s why it would be so precious wouldn’t it?  It would be like a real light show. It would complement the windows that Suger had put in his church – like a reflection.  I can feel that Louis feels the emotional preciousness of it in the connection that he has with Alienor.  So it has that emotional resonance as well as the other resonances.  And to give that, all his love, all this beauty, all his connection with Alienor is an enormous gift.  No wonder it brings tears to his eyes.

What does Suger think of this gift?  He is taking it into his stomach, taking it into his treasury. Mmm, yum, nice. 

But then he tarted it up, didn’t he?  That’s to make it his.  It can’t go back; it’s his now.

Yes, he made an inscription to that effect.  So the tarting wasn’t because he felt it needed extra bling?  No, he was putting his own graffiti on it.  So he thinks it’s a worthy gift?  Oh indeed, yes. Has he coveted it before?  Yes, he has!  Has he ever made mention before that it’s a nice piece?  I’ve lost it now, but I just got the feeling he has commented on it before and seen it before, but said things like ‘If only it was a little bit here and a little bit there, it would be perfect, or it would be gorgeous.  He certainly does like it.

 Following on from our look at Louis giving Alienor’s vase to Suger, I wanted to look at Alienor’s reaction to this event.  1144

Alison: She feels quite tight across the heart area.  This is an Alienor who is quite worked up.  Tight heart, tight cheeks, tight eyes.  Emotional in an anxious way.  I am getting the words ‘Please God, this has got to work.’  She is angry and not that bothered about the vase.  This is about God.  Her anger is connected to her relationship with God, so this is a direct communication with God.  Suger is just a periphery.  I think this is to do with wanting a boy child.  It doesn’t seem fair.  Why can’t she have what she wants?  She will give anything, it doesn’t matter what, in order to have what she wants.  So the actual item isn’t as relevant as what she wants.  Suger to her is just someone who is doing what’s needed in the circumstances.  Not quite a servant, but a functionary. It’s not up to him, it’s up to God.  That’s how she sees it, although she wouldn’t say it outright.  It wouldn’t be necessary.  She can find Suger a bit annoying but he’s got a job to do.  She’ll let him get on with his job, but this isn’t to do with him really.  It’s to do with God. He’s just a functionary of God. 

So this vase is to be given to God as a plea for her fertility?  It’s more of a demand actually!  She hardly even looks at the vase.  It’s only in her side vision and the main part of her vision is to God. Why the vase and not a different gift?  Well she could give anything.  She doesn’t mind what it is, and it isn’t the only thing she’s given.  She’s given loads of things.  She’s given bags of gems.  She’s given gold coverings to things.  I am seeing one of those gold engraved domes that you put over tombs.  She would rake around and give whatever it took.

Suger  and his character.

Adelaide’s and Alienor’s relationships with Abbot Suger.

Adelaide feels that this is a person she can do business with.  He has stature but he knows his place.  I can see something like a bishop’s mitre and it’s very upright.  She’s on a pedestal above him.  There’s a definite demarcation in their positions but they are both upright, and she can rely on him to fulfil his role.  Sometimes he can be a bit over-zealous and working his own machinations, but generally she feels it is for the purpose of upholding the state so she’s prepared to give him a bit of leeway in that.  There are moments when she pushes against him and it’s as if there is nothing there.  She just takes that as an aberration.  Something that doesn’t quite click.  There’s something that’s not quite right, but there’s not enough of those incidents for her to see the whole thing as not quite right, so generally she disregards those for the benefit of the overall structure.  And there is a glint in both their eyes which shows they understand each other.  They’re on the same wavelength.  There’s a glint of humour as well. Their humour is getting one over on someone and how you do it, and I think they appreciate that in each other as very skilled practitioners.  They recognise when each other has a win. 

Alienor and Suger?  Alienor comes from a position of a supplicant, a person who wants to do right by religion, spirit, God.  She has a wider idea of what religion and spirituality are.  While he is a figurehead and part of the structure of a physical church. I am seeing arches in a cathedral here and as if he is one of those arches that holds it up.  In a similar way, if she pushes against that, it could damage the stability of the church.  So she has to accept his position for the sake of the structure, but she does find him quite rigid, like a column made of metal rather than stone, as if he doesn’t have the spirituality that the rest of the church transmits and yet he is this elegant column and arch that looks right, that looks more than right,  She feels sick, looking at it more emotionally. I find I have to go to two levels with Alienor.  That was the higher level, but the emotional level is a bit lower.  He makes her feel physically sick and I am trying to work out why this is... He pokes into the private lives of other people.  He pokes into places where it’s really, really not appropriate and this very much upsets her.   And yet she doesn’t seem to have the power to stop him or keep him out and he can do it when she’s got no intuition about where he’s going to do it next. I suppose he’s got his talons in Louis so he can manipulate Louis all the time.  She is definitely not treated as a human being by him.  She is not considered to have feelings but only to be part of a unit in this political jigsaw.

  

Abbe Suger and his first feelings on meeting Eleanor when he came to Bordeaux.  He seems to be in a very deep state, perhaps he's asleep. I can feel him washing his hands now and I can see him from a strange angle. There are some squared off pillars ornamented, with a basin in front. Yes it's a basin that's built into a pillar and it's all carved. It's like a water fountain in a garden. He's drying his hands now and saying 'Where is she?' He is being told a whole catalogue of things she has been doing today. Oh I see. He is asking about her and he is being given a lot of detail about her lifestyle. He is saying 'We will see her at prayer.' He is asking how pious she is. He is being told that she is very pious. She knows a lot about the Bible.

FFW. I am hearing a bell; I am seeing a long corridor with lots of people going down it. Then they moved back to allow Suger to pass forward through them. I am getting this contemplative feeling. I feel that I am in the church with Suger and he is in the situation where the choir is alongside the altar. The children, not just Eleanor are brought up to the altar to have communion and he watches her.  His attitude to her is that she is a child and as such like a blank tablet that you can mould. Children are not fully formed people. The outside of her looks fine and he doesn't see any problem with it. I just get the impression that he would regard all children as being the same, just blank objects that he puts form to. So it wouldn't matter who she was really inside, just so long as she met the birth criteria. And as an additional bonus she is very attractive and almost jewel-like in her perfection, so everything seems very satisfactory from his point of view. After all this is a world for grownups.

 

Now to take a look at Suger’s spirituality, particularly in the building of St.Denis.

Oh! Such pride!  His head, it circles round.  It’s so mobile it’s like on the end of a snake.  His lips are pursed.  Exquisite!  He’s so over-arched with pride about this.  It is the apex of what man can do in terms of honouring God and it all is to do with artistic taste and exquisiteness.  He feels he has brought all this together, so it is his creation.  He has sourced everything.  Workmen, artists.  He’s claiming the credit for the whole thing.  Not because he’s designed it, but because he’s brought all the designers together to work on this project. So really he’s claiming himself as an artist here.  He’s gone down in history as the creator of this place and seen as massively spiritual.  Why? Because St. Denis is so spiritual.  Mmm.  It gives people an urge towards spirituality? Yes, like when you enter a cathedral and you get this spiritual soaring feeling towards God.  And this is what St. Denis does, and so everyone thinks that its builder must have had this great spiritual vision and been of that mindset himself.  Which may not necessarily be true.  Not at all. He sees it as he is the one who has done the most magnificent thing for God, so isn’t he wonderful? He’s taking so much credit for it.  Not the designers who actually brought that spirituality in through their work, but because of him because he actually thought of having them in to do it.  Let’s have a look at how he actually gelled all these ideas together so I can make sure what his aesthetic involvement actually is.  Yes, he has actually got aesthetic involvement in the sense that he knows what looks nice.  He would know what garments were the best if he was going to a very big service.  He would want very beautiful, ornate, well embroidered garments – it’s just on a larger scale.  It’s like ordering a very nice cake.  I want it to shine here, I want sparkly bits there and it would be a wonderful setting for him to do his sermons with his nice gear on.  I am seeing gear that is basically silver and white with pale blue, pale yellow, pale green embroidery on – delicate colours on a very light background and that’s the setting he puts himself in.  So he looks like a radiant being as well.  Absolutely.  ‘Oh, my dear ones, you are gathered in my offering to God.’   I mention that St Denis was the resting place of the Capetian kings.  Alison comments that St. Denis also gives Suger a place then where he can preside over the bodies of these dead kings and that Kings have to apply to him for special services.  Alison also comments that all of his deep feeling was aggandisement and everything else seems to be quite mundane and practical.

What were Suger’s feelings towards Alienor?

It’s quite interesting because he feels as if she is sending out these golden rays, every so often prodding him.  So it feels as if she can see through him and he has to protect himself against her and guard himself.  He sees her as someone he has to be careful of.  He recognises her intelligence himself, but probably wouldn’t admit to anything like that.

Part 6 LOUIS AND ADELAIDE

 I'm slightly late posting this weeks's excerpt from my Akashic research notes.  I've been away in London and I've only just returned. 

This is by no means all of the research, but it's still in rough order.  I've been doing the research mostly in a linear, chronological way, but now and again I need to backtrack further down the line and new early pieces come in, so although the general progress will be chronological here, readers may still find moments of back-tracking now and again.

Below, you will find Louis and Eleanor hearing of his father's death, and an introduction to Louis' mother, the formidable Adelaide of Maurienne.

Go to Louis receiving the news that his father has died.

I think Louis is asleep. Yes he is.  He is being gradually awaked by a voice and he comes out of the fog and he immediately goes down on his knees and starts praying. Was he alone in bed?  No, Alienor was in the bed with him. ‘Oh my father, grant him entry into heaven.  He’s asking for Saint Peter to intercede on behalf.  He’s repeating these things over and over.  Alienor is crawling across the bed to find out what’s going on.  She says ‘Oh, my God’ and puts her hand over her mouth.  Immediatelys she is thinking ‘He will be king,’ and everything expands.  She’s a little fazed by it.  The thing was that they were going to be greeted by his family who would have everything ready for them as guests, but now they are going to have to go as the householders.   That’s a whole different thing. I think she’s in shock.  She’s wondering if he realises what it means.  She wants him to stop praying and come back into the bed. So she can comfort him?  Why does she want him to come back to bed?  It’s mostly because she doesn’t want him to be seen vulnerable in public. She doesn’t think it wise. She needs to talk to him about what they’re going to do.  She’s telling him to say thank you to the messenger and let the messenger go.  Practical things like ‘We must get up, we must get ready.  You can have masses said for your father; you don’t have to do them yourself.  She does have a lot of sympathy for him because she knows what it’s like to lose a father.  They are both in the bed sitting up with their knees up.  She has put her arm round him and he has got his head on her shoulder.  Louis has gone quite numb.  He is thinking ‘I must do something’ but he is not very productive in thinking what to do.  I think he is feeling a bit panicked and he is taking comfort  from her.

He obviously has to mourn, but also as Alienor reminds him, he has a duty to his people that he has to fulfil now and make them feel that he’s okay and confident and in control.   

How does Louis feel about Alienor giving him advice and telling him what to do?  He doesn’t see it that way at all.  He feels that he is still in charge. She’s just there to advise him.  It’s just part of the surroundings, therefore it’s his.  He doesn’t see any conflict. Is he grateful to her?  No, he takes it for granted.  It’s what he thinks she should do, but also there’s a bit of naivety there because he’s got no experience of anyone being any different.  It’s just what is.

Louis’ relationship with his mother Queen Adelaide of Maurienne.  To an incident prior to 1137.

He’s got a really strange expression.  His mouth is really pursed.  I am seeing a huge domed ceiling with a point at the end and I am seeing light streaming from that point.  I am seeing lots of people – monks gathered under that light and him looking from one side at this body of men.  I feel that she is behind him.  He is separate from this group of men and then there is her behind him separate again.  There’s no movement.  Just this focus on the men.  I think it must be some kind of religious ceremony.  There seem to be some voices.  I think it’s a service.  He’s joining in with the singing.  He’s finding it absolutely beautiful.  I’m not getting a contact with her.  I’ll go forward. Oh right, this is it!  He’s turned around and realised that she is there and his whole middle has lit up.  This is the most real and excited that I’ve seen him.  He is very excited to see her, but she is much more measured.  ‘Hold on boy,’ sort of thing.  ‘What about the kneeling?’  So he has to kneel  to her and she nods and he has the approval.  She says she has just been speaking to his tutors and she is recounting the areas where he needs to pay attention.  It’s to do with manuscripts and to do with memorising, but otherwise they are very pleased with him.  He just needs to concentrate more on his manuscripts.  She’s not giving away too much praise at all, but he is jumping up and down inside like a little boy!  He adores his mum and I think part of it is because she is so distant and difficult to get approbation from, it makes him more keen to get it.  He absolutely adores her, but he’s a bit scared of her as well.

So another moment?  He’s a little boy.  His body is so tight and happy. I am seeing some weapon practise going on.  He’s been watching, very excited, and now it’s his turn to go on.  His mother had been watching, that’s what this is all about, and he had been standing near her waiting his turn.  She seems to be dressed very formally, very stiff materials.  He’s doing his weapon play.  He’s got a sword.  They’re doing a display or practise.  He’s following specific movements.  There’s a strategy.  At the right moment the opponent falls back. I don’t get the sense that there’s any chance of Louis losing.  It’s just meant to demonstrate his skills at this stage.  He’s so thrilled with himself when he’s finished.  He’s really beaming inside, rays of golden light beaming out of him.  He’s looking at his mother for congratulations and she nods and says ‘Good.’  And then just turns away and walks off.  Oh, the disappointment in him is painful.  All his expectations have gone zoom, straight down.  He’s thinking he must try harder next time.  He must work harder.  He must win her favour.  He watches her go off and pushes his feelings down and turns back to the other men and boys he’s been practising with.  He takes on the challenge again with a lot more bravado.

What does Adelaide think of her son Louis?  This a lofty individual and not particularly emotional.  A calm feeling and a tall feeling.  She’s the sort of person who can categorise things right and wrong very easily. It’s strange, it’s not a maternal feeling.  It’s more a feeling of wanting to give the right training to this person, almost like an employee, to fulfil a role. It’s like she’s trying to mould him, but she’s more interested in her own life.  He is like a job to her.  She’s got other interests, personally.

Her opinion of Louis’ marriage to Alienor? Oh, she’s got very good posture this woman, I should tune into her more often!  It’s a bit of a balancing act for her.  It’s part of fulfilling the role, which is good, but it also means there’s a live bird in the nest and we can’t have that, so it’s a feeling of wanting to constrain and restrict so that it just fits into the nest – like an egg rather than a bird.  She doesn’t want a loose cannon in the family, but she is thinking ‘Well, we shall see.’  She is not particularly approving on first impression.

So go to when her husband dies and she realises she is no longer Queen of France.  She’s got genuine grief about his death. She says ‘He was good in his own way and he looked after me.  There will never be another like him.’ There’s the feeling that this man underpinned an entire  tree.  Everything came from this central trunk.  What can you do when the central pillar is not there?  I feel as if she wants to maintain a structure even though he’s not there, and make it as though he is there and just let Louis the heir be the mouthpiece.  So let Louis take a slightly larger role than he has at the moment, but basically everything is as if he is acting on behalf of his father.  That’s how she feels about it.  Her own role would obviously be to help him implement his father’s role.   And how does she see Alienor in that mix?  She keeps having to try and push her back. She thinks that Alienor has got no idea of social etiquette or what’s right and proper, and she can’t be told.  She’s wild. It just seems as if she has to be completely natural, which is shocking to Adelaide.  If we were all natural, how could there be any kings and queens?  It’s an art.  It’s something you have to perfect.  If we were all to be natural, than anybody could be king or queen, but she sees it as ‘Oh well, these things that come to challenge us,’ and it’s just something she has to deal with.  

Alienor getting to know Adelaide

Adelaide has very fixed, starey eyes that are quite judgemental in their expression.  She’s not a warm person.  There’s a distance between herself and Alienor.  On the other hand she xtends her aura of authority and regalness to include Alienor and she expects Alienor to participate by expressing her own regality and stiffness. I can feel them walking a long a corridor and Adelaide is leading the way.  The whole building is so new to Alienor she is just looking round as she walks.  I’m not getting much emotion from her.  They’re in a more private room now. It’s quite big though.  Adelaide is seeing to it that Alienor has a sit down in a big carved chair.  She’s having her feet washed by some assistants.  She’s having her hands washed too.  She reminds me of a strict schoolmarm, and there’s also a quality of our own queen there as well.  You know when Diana and Sarah Ferguson were brought into the royal family, they were both automatically supposed to be royal and behave like the royal family.  It’s the same kind of attitude here.  Adelaide is just talking about the journey, asking her about the journey, trusting that her son is well.  She is interested about him going off to do his duty, but not a hint of any fear about what might happen to him. This is all completely new for Alienor because it’s so, so unemotional. She’s wondering when the sweetmeats when will be brought on, as in not just the nutrition, but the people with feelings.  Where are they?  It all seems kind of cold and empty.

So go to an incident with them a few years hence.  Say in 1140.

  Oh dear, she’s not feeling happy.  Everything’s going round and round and she wants to cry.  This woman is going round and round her and harrying her, like dogs circling and having a nip at the ankles whenever they can.  Alienor can’t relax.  She’s got to be on her guard.  She’s got to put on an appearance otherwise there’ll be big trouble.  At the same time she is being undermined. It’s mostly about keeping ‘my son happy.’  Little hints about what she could do, and questions about what she is doing to service the son in terms of how she behaves towards him, how she dresses.  It’s like you've got to be the perfect couple on top of the perfect wedding cake.  There’s very little room for Alienor to breathe easy and be free and relax and be herself.  She has to be alert and fully conscious of what’s going and what she’s doing.  There are possibilities of people being her enemies.  I suppose it’s a very political environment and she’s having to deal with it on a 24 hour basis, so she has developed a very mature personality.  

Another incident with Adelaide and Alienor?

I am seeing Alienor with a baby in her arms and Adelaide looking over.  There’s pleasure in her face.  That’s unusual.  This is genuine emotion.  And then she looks up and she has a hard look for Alienor.  So pleasure at the baby and hardness for Alienor.  ‘Maybe you will do better next time my dear.’ Because it’s a girl?  I think so.  But she likes the baby for its own sake.  It’s a good healthy baby.  Also because she’s a grandmother she likes it.  It’s another thing to have power over. For Alienor it’s like being smacked across the face with a wet cloth.  Shall I try and find a nice time between them?  It all seems a bit harsh doesn’t it?  You can try!

They are sitting before a fire in a room.  There’s a youngster sitting on the floor and Alienor has her hand on top of the youngster’s head.  Adelaide is sitting at the side. Adelaide is telling tales of when she was a young girl and what used to happen in the old days and how the winds used to howl outside and how there were dark, dark woods.  It was very cold.  You never knew what danger was lurking outside in the woods.  How the guards used to play tricks on them by bouncing in through the doors and roaring as if they were invaders, just to scare the women.  Adelaide used to have to stand up against them, stand her ground, and use her authority to tell them to get out because otherwise there would have been general marauding and merry making that she’d heard of in other castles.  Like in Aquitaine (wry comment from me).  She hopes that Alienor will remember this and also that the little one will never have to experience anything so uncivilised.  And she sort of gives herself a seal of approval, as if awarding herself a gold medal.  She pats the little girl on the head, thinking ‘she’s got my golden blood in her veins as well.  She’ll be strong; she’ll be a good one.’ Alienor is just non committal.  She’s sitting there taking it in her stride as if she’s heard it all before, but at least she is not being called upon for her opinion this time. So Adelaide will ask her opinions then?

In the sense of the teacher will ask ‘What do you think about this?’ And you are expected to give the right answer.

PART 5. A FEW SMALL BUSINESS MATTERS.

I've just put a word count on the main archive document I'm taking these  excerpts from and so far it stands at 90,000 words. By the time I finish the novel, the Akashic notes will be longer than the novel itself!  This Wednesday, continuing in a chronological fashion, here is the marriage of Alienor and Louis, their wedding night, and Louis coronation as Duke of Aquitaine.

As always, the main text is in ordinary script.  My input is in bold and Alison's in italic.

Go to Alienor at her marriage to Louis of France in July 1137.

Alison: She is very nervous.  There is an anxiety and constriction from the heart down to the solar plexus. I  can see flashing past like a film all these beautiful images – paintings and pictures of saints and animals all in rich colours.  I can see big, high, narrow pillars and beyond that high windows. Alienor feels afraid.  It’s all new to her because she’s got nothing to hang onto.  It’s like being set on the sea in just a little rowing boat without landmarks.  It’s this feeling of being cut off from her old life and everything that was familiar.  She knows she’s got to go from here forever.  It’s very hard and it’s bringing tears to her eyes.  She has spent some time contemplating, looking down, and putting her hands together.  She’s not actually praying, but she has that contemplative state of mind.  I think it’s something she’s dreading.  It’s a feeling of being in the waiting room at the dentists.  She finds herself walking.  She’s had the call to go forward.  I can see a really big, round font.  Everyone kneels suddenly.  There’s a tremendous feeling in her heart as everyone kneels.  Just in front of the font, I think,  Louis takes her hand and they walk ceremonially forward in exact step and then they stand and face each other and the marriage vows are taken.  When I say that I mean that the service or ceremony is being conducted.  I’m seeing a series of things I don’t understand.  Objects being placed between them, objects being put in their hands or being wound round their hands.

What sort of objects? The first one that I saw was like a tap but it had more than four lever things, and that was made out of decorated metal – very bright.  I saw a cord being wound round her hand.  I saw a small object being put in her palm, I’m not sure what. 

What do they do with this tap?  Did they keep holding it?  No, they didn’t hold it.  The clergyman just sort of put it between their hands and pulled it out again.  She’s still scared and she feels that she’s being tied into something that there’ll be no escape from.  She’s feels quite frightened.  There’s another part of her that’s quite alert and is looking at the congregation.  She is quite astute with people.  She recognises people.  She knows about them.  If there’s a group of people there she will know each one.  They’re like objects and she is like a curator of these objects and knows them individually.  It’s solid and real, but it doesn’t feel like an emotional thing; it’s more like a physical thing.  There are lots of people there that she doesn’t recognise, but the ones that she does, she’s clocking.  There’s a little girl inside her that’s separate from the older more conscious person, and it’s the little girl that’s frightened.  The older person is more detached.  They’re turning now and she’s moving very carefully because this turning involves moving all her skirts round.  She’s got a long train and she has to do it carefully.

What colour is she wearing?  Pale gold.  Her head dress is the most interesting thing.  It’s very plain. It’s a pale cream silk, not at all showy, but very soft.  And then she’s got a crown on top of it that is really beautiful and glowing.  Within the pale gold there are some very subtle blues within the pattern of the fabric.  The whole fabric is patterned. She’s got blue slippers on with pointed toes and gold braid edging.  By the time she reaches the door she’s got a smile – a kind of wry smile.  A bit like someone who’s been on the big dipper. ‘I’ve done it now.’  She feels quite relieved when she gets outside.  It’s a feeling of just wanting to lift off and raise her arms up.  Everything is well organised.  She’s just waiting her turn to go to the next thing.

And this incident from Louis’ POV?  He’s feeling quite the young man.  It’s a bit testosterone driven.  It’s like someone having a very good new car - something to show to the neighbours.  At this stage he’s waiting.  He’s wearing a fairly loose-fitting tunic but very ornately patterned. He’s smiling reassuringly at Alienor as they meet.  He likes the feeling of her fingers on his hand.  He’s taking an interest in the ceremony as if he’s taking an interest in the actions that are going on, rather than his own feelings.  When he turns after the mariage, he feels an enormous surge of success.  The singing that starts up at that moment is like applause.  It completely coincides with his feeling of success. Walking out of the door, this is the most relaxed, happy, normal that I’ve seen him.  He just feels quite blissful.  Outside he’s going with the flow and he is very happy because of success.  He’s succeeded in this great political alliance.  He’s got lots of money – a new car basically.  He has the acclaim.  He’s the one who has actually achieved this, although it reflects on the rest of the domain. 

He’s fulfilled his role and achieved what he’s meant to achieve, and it’s good for him.  Self-satisfied would be my description of it.  Everything is in its place as the Lord wants it and as it should be and he's been a part of it.

Now to Taillebourg where they spent their wedding night.

Well if I thought he was happy then, he’s even more proud now.  I can feel the feathers rising and the chest puffing out.  It’s not the upper chest but the lower chest.  He’s beaming. This feeling of everything looking right, being in a good mood, everybody smiling and fulfilling their role – it’s as if he’s taller than everyone else and is looking down on this undulating cobbled surface.  And each surface is a head and each in its right place.  He’s being led into a very tall building.  It seems as though Alienor wasn’t riding alongside him but in a covered vehicle of some kind, so he’s had to wait for her to get to him.  They don’t walk in together.  It’s like a procession. Inside, it seems as though there’s a line of soldiers who are doing like a weapons salute/parade.  They make a noise altogether.  There’s the bang and the tap and the putting down of things.  There’s tremendous singing.  There’s one voice then a group, then one voice.  It’s a call and then a response.  Louis is standing in the middle of this room. Alienor is brought up to his side. They’re taking an acclaim.  I suppose this is the secular version of what was happening in the church.  They’re being recognised by the assembled people. They are receiving people who kneel at their feet.  Again, Louis is taking all this in his stride and finding it not that interesting to be honest.  He wants to be away.  He wants to kiss her.

He’s getting bored with this anyway and there seems to be such a long line of people who want to do this.  He’s trying to think of a way out of it.  He’s calling to his steward to ask if he can let them do it with written acknowledgements or whether they can do it a bit later on.  Apparently they can’t  If he doesn’t allow people to do this, it won’t bode well for him.  When he gets that answer, his stomach sinks and he feels sick.  He starts looking quite morose.  He’s looking quite the seasoned prince.

FFW to when it’s all finished.  He’s so fed up that the pleasant mood has gone entirely and there’s a tightness just above his stomach and a dull, darting look in his eye.  Quite a sour expression.  I can see him walking quite quickly.  He’s taken from the room and down a corridor into another room that seems to be all done out in wood.  Here there’s going to be quite a formal but intimate meal.  There’s a big table set out in the middle.  I’m quite concerned for them because they’ve not had a chance to get themselves together at all.  They’re having a meal and he’s settling down a bit more now.  He’s becoming a bit more confident and authoritative.  I think it’s because of the bad mood that was on him.  It gives him a bit more solidity somehow.  Every so often he takes Alienor's hand.  They don’t seem to be having much conversation.

Alienor’s POV.  Alienor is keen to have some food.  She is being quite objective about everything and watching everything that’s going on.  Recognising people.  Again there’s this recognition. When Louis touches her hand she just thinks that this is part of the new thing she’s going to have to get used to.  It doesn’t do anything for her one way or the other.  It’s just a new manner to learn, but once she looks at his face and looks at him, there is speculation in her feelings.  In what way?  About him as a person and this is the initial part of her learning about a new person.  She is very perceptive with people in the sense that she likes to see them as they are, rather than make up what they might be.  There’s a slight excitement there.  This is a frisson, the element of them being in a male/female relationship now.  She is breathing very deeply and feeling quite defensive as in ‘Nobody’s going to make me do something I don’t want to do’ and that applies to everyone, not just Louis.

FFW to when they retire.  I can see that there is a magnificent bed.  It is really luxurious with big curtains.  Alienor finds that really a nice comfortable thing.  It’s like arriving at a very, very nice hotel and everything’s there for you.  This is all from the outside, she’s not in the bed yet, but I sense that he is.  He’s calling for her to come as well.  She does.  It’s really romantic.  She opens the curtain just by the pillow on her side.  If I’m looking towards the bed, she’s on the right and he’s on the left, and just looking at her face, the freshness of it, the downy sort of skin, it’s really romantic, and her wondering what’s going to happen and him smoothing the sheet for her.  He’s lying on one elbow and he’s got a sort of white shirt on.  She’s wearing something that I would consider a dress.  Not her wedding dress?   No.  The reason I thought it looked like a dress was that it has got a straight neckline and it’s stiff and I can see reddish colours – brick-red.  I can see a white chemise-like garment underneath.   She climbs onto the bed and sits up with her knees crossed. The covers are drawn back a little bit but she hasn’t pulled them over her.  She sits there and looks down at him.  She wants him to talk to her.  She says ‘What are we going to do?’  He’s not saying anything, but the images that are flashing through is mind are quite specific.  I think that he thinks it doesn’t require words.  

I wondered with his background whether he was experienced or had any idea?  Yes, he has an idea, and he has an urge as well!  He doesn’t say anything and just goes ahead.  He’s not being forceful or anything; he’s being quite gentle and quite sensuous.  He’s removing her clothes as they go.  Alienor can hardly breathe.  It’s not quite panic but it’s heading that way.  It’s apprehension.  It’s not too bad until the final bit which she doesn’t really like.  When it’s over and done with, what do they do then? Just go to sleep?  Yes.  She feels let down. It’s like an anti-climax – an ‘is that all there was to it?’ sort of feeling.  No sense of a duty fulfilled?  No, the duty seems to be to do with external things of having married him, but once in that marriage it’s personal.

And Louis?  He’s very pleased with himself.  He’s driven his new car now!  He’s done his bit and acquitted himself well in his own opinion; what more could a man ask?  I am seeing a square of light opening up as if the morning will bring new excitements.  He can go out for a ride and things like that.  He’s a man of the world and all is as it should be. I tried just then to feel into the other side of his life  (the religeous one) and that feeling did come back, but it wouldn’t go together with the ones of now.  He keeps them so separate.  Which is the greater and which is the lesser?   Where he is with Alienor is how it should be in the sense of everything in its place and he is a tremendous man for everything in its right place.  The other is much more intense and much deeper.  Sort of more turgid colours and gripping feelings in the stomach. 

 His feelings for Alienor now – are they still just of a nice car? Yes, the feeling is ‘Well, why would you ask that?’ Well the chronicles speak about this tremendous passion he had for Alienor.  Well you would love your car wouldn’t you?  I don’t think he has much idea of what goes on internally for other people, especially women.  It doesn’t compute with him – that’s how it feels at the moment.

Now to Louis being made Duke of Aquitaine in St Peter’s Cathedral - his and Alienor’s feelings about this.

This is real pride.  This is how it should be and a bit.  He’s a very fortunate person isn’t he?  He’s not come across any knock backs in this at all yet. He’s a bit more than head and shoulders above everyone else at the moment – almost half way down his arms as well.  He just seems as if he’s been made for this moment.  He has a proprietorial interest in everything around him – the art work, the scroll work of the columns, the stone work.  It’s as if he’s checking it to say ‘that’s right, that’s right.’  Running his judgement over things.  Feeling that he really lives up to this moment because he has all the qualities for this task innately.  I think that feeling is there in part because people defer to him so much.  He’s bringing Alienor forward and the feeling is one of completion.  He’s got the full set.  This makes the complete circle that no one can penetrate or question. 

And Alienor’s POV  She is very still at first. There’s a part of her that when she thinks about it is very, very upset, because this is the position her father had and it’s terrible to think that he’s not there and this stranger is filling his shoes.  She knows nothing about Louis and there’s that feeling again of nothing there, as if everything has gone.  And strangely that feeling as if she has nothing, as if she has to just live by her wits now.  I think that this whole thing brings up her feelings of loneliness and grief that she hasn’t recovered from.  She absolutely loved her dad and depended on him and there’s a sense again of this foreigner in a position of authority in the centre of that old place that she knew, and as she leaves the cathedral she’s feeling more mature and that’s because her feelings are melding together, her feelings of grief and her feelings of keeping going – of hope and determination.