Nothing is ever simple when it comes to researching Eleanor of Aquitaine. her family and her affiliations. One of the secondary characters in my novel THE SUMMER QUEEN, is Eleanor’s sister Petronella (who just may have also been called Aelith) who has proven fascinating but frustrating to research.
If Eleanor’s birth date of 1124 took some digging, then Petronella’s proved totally elusive. All that can be said is that if Eleanor was born in 1124, then Petronella was a younger sibling. We know their mother died in 1130 and that Petronella was old enough to be involved in a sexual relationship by 1141, and that she bore a child circa 1143/44. It seems therefore likely that she was born fairly close to Eleanor, perhaps in 1125 or 1126. However, we have no birth date for their brother William Aigret, who died around the same time as their mother in 1130. Some biographers say he was first born, others that Eleanor was first born. (here we go again with the biographies not being reliable in their evidence) No one seems to know, and William’s birth order may have affected the dating of Petronella’s birth. Still, in the great scheme of things, it’s a minor conundrum. Some time after 1124 and before 1130 is the bottom line.
With regard to Petronella’s alternative name, I do wonder if she was baptised Aelith but known as Petronella. Perhaps because her birth date was close to the feast of St. Petronella on the 31st of May, and perhaps because St. Petronella had associations with Charlemagne from whom she and Eleanor claimed descent. It may also be telling that the cathedral in Poitiers is dedicated to St Peter, who seems to have loomed large in the lives of the Dukes of Aquitaine and Petronella is the feminine form of the name. Or she could have been baptised Petronella and called Aelith. Or Eleanor may have had two sisters – perhaps Aelith was illegitimate. The mention of Aelith comes from existing documentation concerned with the Abbey of St Mary of Saintes. Perhaps Aelith was a nun? I feel probably not, but it is still a consideration when pondering all the possibilities.
Here is a letter from 1140 naming the sister known as Aelith. It’s also interesting to see ‘Eleanor’ rendered in Medieval Latin. I have bolded Aelith’s name in the text.
Original letter:
1140, December 28
Ego Helienordis, Francorum regina, et Willelmi ducis Aquitanici filia, hoc donum, sicut rex vir meus concessit Beate Marie Xancton[ensi] ecclesie, sic concessi et hujus [sign of cross] impressione confirmavi, et in perpetuo habendum Sancte Marie et Agneti amite mee ejusdem loci abbatisse, et omnibus ejus successoribus in eadem die, non in eodem loco, confirmavi; videntibus Aienrico de Niela, Aelith, sorore mea, Maengo de Bono Occulo, Arveo panetario, et pluribus aliis.
Translated letter:
I Eleanor, queen of the Franks, and daughter of William duke of Aquitaine, have granted and confirmed by this mark, the gift as the king my husband granted it to the church of Blessed Mary of Saintes, to be held in perpetuity by St. Mary and Agnes, my aunt, abbess of that place, and all her successors, I confirmed it on the same day not in the same place: with witnesses Aienric (Henry?) of Niela, Aelith my sister, Maengo of Bono Occulo, Arveo my steward, and many others.
We do know that in 1142, Petronella, then in her early or mid teens, began an affair with King Louis’ much older, war-scarred second cousin, Ralph of Vermandois. He had lost an eye in a siege, when struck by an arrow, but as well as being a warrior, he was a valued and experienced courtier. He also had a reputation for liking the ladies. Chronicler John of Salisbury tells us that even when ordered to abstain from intercourse by his doctors, he paid them no heed because he was ‘very uxorius’. He was married to one Leonora. Some biographers say she was the niece of Count Theobald of Blois (Ralph Turner, Douglas Boyd, Marion Meade, Desmond Seward, Marjorie Chibnall, Amy Kelly) some say his sister (Alison Weir, Wikipedia) and some say first cousin (Ivan Goubry). I haven’t investigated these sundry claims because I didn’t specifically need the information for the novel, but it’s there as a loose end.
Pertronella and Ralph were keen to wed and three bishops – including Ralph’s brother, Simon Bishop of Noyon, annulled Ralph’s marriage to Leonora. The Pope, on receiving a complaint from Theobald of Champagne on his disparaged sister’s/niece’s/cousin’s behalf, immediately reversed the annulment and put Ralph and Petronella under interdict.
Without going into masses of political detail, it caused tremendous political upheaval and was one of several reasons that war broke out between France and Champagne.
Ralph and Petronella weathered the storm and Petronella bore Ralph either two or (here we go again) 3 children. Sometime in the early 1150’s she died…. Or did she?
Wikipedia says:
“Raoul divorced in 1151, as he remarried the next year. Petronilla remained a member of the French royal court and a constant companion to her sister Eleanor while she was imprisoned by her husband King Henry II in England and Wales. After Henry’s death, Eleanor was freed, and Petronilla planned on returning to France. Yet, records of Petronilla after 1189 are scarce. It is believed that she came down with a fever on her voyage from England back to France and died in early 1190 before her arrival at port. “
There are no sources given for this bit of information, although the entire article is quoted as sourced from a French work by Patrick van Kerrebrouck (2000). Les Capétiens 987–1328. Since I have no access to this work, I can’t check the veracity or whether Petronella’s death is mentioned in it. Records of Petronella before 1189 are hardly leaping out of the woodwork, and I suspect that here ‘scarce’ is a euphemism for ‘non existent.’ The article erroneously says that Eleanor was imprisoned some of the time in Wales which is untrue.
French Wikipedia says Petronella died after 1151 and that Ralph was widowed. ‘devenu veuf’ In 1152 he married his 3rd wife Lauretta of Alsace.
Chronicler John of Salisbury writing circa 1164 says ‘She (Petronella) did not survive for long; and though she bore a son and two daughters before her death.’…’ ‘As for Count Ralph, he married his 3rd wife, a daughter of Thierry count of Flanders called Laura.’This being from primary source it’s more promising.
Then I came across this online
url.http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/AQUITAINE.htm#AelisPetronilledied1153
[Petronille] d’Aquitaine ([1125]-after 24 Oct 1151, bur St Arnould in Crépy). The Chronicle of Alberic de Trois-Fontaines specifies that “Alienor Guilielmi filia comits Pictavorum et Aquitanie ducis” had two sisters one of whom married “Radulfus…comes Perone et Veromandie“, although he does not name them. The Historiæ Tornacenses record the wife of “Radulfem comitem” as “germanam Alienore regine Francorum” but also does not name her. Robert of Torigny refers to the mother of the infant children of “Radulfus de Perrona comes Viromandorum” as “iuniore filia Willelmi ducis Aquitanorum” but he does not name her either The Chronique de Guillaume de Nangis names “Eléonore et Pétronille” as the two daughters of “Guillaume comte de Poitou et prince d’Aquitaine“, recording in 1142 that Pétronille married “Raoul comte de Vermandois” after he repudiated his first wife. The above source has Petronella buried at the Priory of Saint Arnould de Crepy. Note the mention of two sisters in the above source details. Which brings us back to Aelith and Petronella as separate individuals rather than the same person.
Now, to further muddy the waters, the English Pipe Rolls of 1155 to 1158 carry at least a hint that Petronella was still alive after Ralph’s remarriage to Laura of Flanders and hadn’t died as John of Salisbury says. There is a reference to a Petronille in close proximity to mention of the Queen with reference to payment of Danegeld in the Pipe Roll for Essex of 1155, and it might be her sister. Then again it could be Petronella Countess of Leicester, we don’t know. In the pipe roll of 1158, there is a reference to a payment for the passage of the Queen’s sister (it doesn’t name her and the wording might refer to the King’s sister – in which case it would be an illegitimate one, very likely Emma who was one of Eleanor’s ladies until circa 1173).
Alison Weir states: ‘During the period 1154-58, there are regular payments of generous sums for wine for Petronilla.’
Having trawled these same pipe rolls, I can find only one such entry and it involves bread as well as wine and does not name Petronella herself and is therefore ambiguous. The entries are far more likely to refer to Henry II’s illegitimate sister Emma, above mentioned, later to marry Dafydd ap Owain Gwynedd, prince of North Wales.
Conclusion. Until more evidence turns up, my personal belief, based on the seriously muddled and contradictory evidence is that Eleanor definitely had a sister called Petronella and that she married Ralph of Vermandois. They divorced, and Petronella either died or disappeared from the scene in the early 1150’s. I think it very safe to say that the Wikipedia statement about her still being alive in 1189 is not true. I suspect it has been taken from a novel rather than being a provable fact. As everyone knows, while Wikipedia is a good starting point, it’s never, ever to be trusted. Having come across Pipe roll name mudling before on behalf of the biographers, I am going to take it that the unnamed sister of the queen is actually her sister in law Emma, a daughter of henry II’s father, Geoffrey Count of Anjou.
My inner jury is also out on the Aelith business. Two sisters, or one with dual names? It’s an interesting conundrum.