“Dearest love”, “splendid animal” or “Jezebel”?

There’s no getting away from it: medieval queen-consorts had a fiendishly demanding role. They were expected to emulate the biblical Queen Esther, who was humble, self-effacing, passive, obedient and modest, yet gifted with inner strength. They were also required to be faithful, wise, just and compassionate. Above all, they were exhorted to mirror the virtues of the Virgin Mary and appear gracious, charitable and merciful. A queen who failed to meet these expectations might be branded a ‘Jezebel’, likening her to the most notorious queen in the Bible.

As the king’s bed was a symbol of majesty, so the queen’s was the basis of the influence she could exercise in private. Her bedchamber was not just her private domain, but also the seat of her power, the place where she had sex with the king and where heirs to the throne were born. It was because the queen was entrusted with reproducing the royal bloodline that she had to be above reproach sexually. Adultery was a particularly serious offence, since it jeopardised the succession.

Of course, not every woman met the onerous demands required of medieval queens. Eleanor of Aquitaine (1124–1204) was beautiful and tempestuous, one of the towering female figures of the Middle Ages. Yet, by extension, that meant she was about as far away from the passive, dutiful wallflower of the queenly ideal as you could possibly get.

At the age of 13, Eleanor was married to Louis VII