Touring Chinon And Fontrevaud

The "family reunion" of Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their sons Richard, John, and Geoffrey in The Lion In Winter is imagined by the playwright to have taken place at Christmas in the castle at Chinon.  In fact, no such meeting occurred.  But it might as well have.  The movie is one of those "imagination and metaphor are truer than facts" experiences.

And, in fact, Henry, Eleanor, and their sons spent considerable time at Chinon, sometimes together.
When Henry's sons became disenchated enough with his succession plans to revolt, Eleanor supported them.  She tried to flee to Philip II's court in Paris (as her son Geoffrey had done) but was intercepted by some of Henry's vassals.  Henry put her under house arrest in various locations and degrees of strictness in England from 1173 to his death in 1189.  It's this period of their lives that's depicted in the film.

Henry died at Chinon.  He was buried at Fontrevaud because he died in July and it was impossible to send his corpse to England while his enemies controlled large parts of Normandy.  Eleanor outlived Henry by 17 years.  She remained active in high-stakes politics.  She had endowed and expanded Fontrevaud Abbey in her own middle age.  She visited often and spent her final years there.  Medieval nobility displayed their piety; it was useful political symbolism.  But abbeys and monasteries also provided the only semi-privacy available to them.  So retreat to an abbey could be a kind of vacation.  Eleanor asked to be buried at Fontrevaud, and was.

Chinon and Fontrevaud are just above "TOURAINE" on this map.

Chinon was an ancient fortress on the River Vienne, gradually expanded and improved over the centuries.  It was an occasional royal residence for 300 years.  It commanded both the river and the approaches to Blois, Orleans, and Paris to the north and Poitiers and other major towns to the south. 

A garrison behind high walls on a high hill could hold out for a looonng time before the invention of gunpowder.

The plaque on the wall commemorates the meeting of (the future) King Charles VII of France and Joan of Arc, 250+ years after Henry and Eleanor used the place.  Charles had been run out of Paris and was holed up at Chinon.  Joan arrived with the news that God had commanded her to lead his armies in battle to assert his claim to the throne.  This news was a bit hot to handle, so he sent her on to Poitiers for her theological "examination."  Weeks later she was back, "certified," so to speak, with the news that it was time to fight, and led the army that raised the siege of Orleans.

The Abbey at Fontrevaud.

Kitchen at Fontrevaud.  If you have a lot of people to feed, you need a lot of bread.  Each of the lower chimneys is for an oven or  a broiler.  The smaller chimneys are to cool the cooks.

The church at Fontrevaud Abbey.  The interior is minimalist compared to lay churches and cathedrals.

The effigy tombs of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II in the church at Fontrevaud.  They were moved inside the church long after their deaths.  Eleanor was originally buried in the Nuns' graveyard and Henry was buried in the regular cemetery.  Later these effigy tombs were created.  It was unusual for a woman's effigy tomb to display her with a book, symbolizing learning.  Women were usually portrayed as pious.  You can imagine some interesting conversations here over the past 700 years or so.