Fanfiction: Time and Chance
Jul. 27th, 2015 05:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakA few months ago, when the History Exchange announced itself, I looked at the conditions, saw that the minimum word count was only 500, and thought, hey, I'm busy, but I can easily do that in between stuff. If I volunteer for people I already know about, I won't even have to do research.
Famous last words, etc. The end result was one of the longest things I've written outside Yuletide, and I don't regret a single thing. Eleanor of Aquitaine will do that to you. The prompt asked for an AU, which got me thinking not of one AU but several. Well, there's a certain format for this. I've repeatedly written "Five Things..." tales about fictional characters; there was no reason not to do it for a rl one. Especially since said format, at least in the way it works for me, also provides the opportunity to portray the main character "in canon", so to speak, via several angles.
So, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France, Queen of England, survivor extraordinaire who still travelled across the Pyrenees on political missions when in her 70s, something that would be remarkable even today, let alone in the Middle Ages. Her life was often so unlikely that fiction couldn't trump it. However, of course there were plenty of opportunities where with just one circumstance changed, her resulting existence would have been just as remarkable (imo), if in a different (or not?) way. After mulling it over (and reading one of the newer biographies, since the last time I did research on Eleanor was more then 20 years ago), I came up with five scenarios which each became its own story. You can read all five here:
Time and Chance (16069 words) by Selena
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 12th Century CE RPF, When Christ and His Saints Slept - Sharon Kay Penman, Devil's Brood - Sharon Kay Penman, Historical RPF, Henry II Trilogy - Sharon Kay Penman, The Lion in Winter (1968)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eleanor of Aquitaine/Henry Plantagenet, Eleanor of Aquitaine/Louis VII of France, Eleanor of Aquitaine & Thomas Becket, Eleanor of Aquitaine & Matilda I of Boulogne, Eleanor of Aquitaine & Raymond of Antioch, Peter Abelard/Heloise (background)
Characters: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, Thomas Becket, Bernard of Clairveaux, Petronilla de Chemillé, Mahault of Anjou, Matilda I of Boulogne, Stephen of England, Eustace IV Count of Boulogne, Louis VII of France, Robert de Dreux, Raymond of Antioch, Melisande of Jerusalem - Character, Thierry Galeran, Henry the Young King, William X. of Aquitaine, Petronilla of Aquitaine
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Historical, POV Female Character, Female Friendship
Summary:
A few more remarks on those five roads not taken:
1.) Eleanor the Nun: chosen because not only was it a likely existence for a female noblewoman in that age, but also because Fontevrault really did become one of Eleanor's favourite places in rl, and it did have those intriguing rules - to be headed by an Abbess not an Abbot despite harboring both nuns and monks, the Abbess to be a widow with experience in the world. What's more, during those last decades since I did my era research the theory that Hersende, the co-foundress, was Heloise's mother, gained traction, and that was irresistable to use. Along with the Council of Sens, and Bernard of Clairvaux, whom Eleanor clearly is destined to clash with in any 'verse.
2.) Eleanor's alternate way of becoming Queen of England: came to be because the original prompt among other things suggested a scenario where Eleanor is Queen of England and Henry the Duke of Aquitaine. Now, there's no way Henry would have been the Duke of Aquitaine, but if instead of marrying his son Eustace to Constance of France as a child Stephen had managed to get young Eleanor, she would have had a shot at the English throne without marrying Henry first. Stephen did really try to get Eustace crowned in his own lifetime. This - a King crowning his intended successor while still alive and ruling himself - was a continental habit at the time, and will come up in other scenarios as well. It was also a way to avoid succession trouble, which explains why Stephen, whose own hold on and right to the throne was dubious, tried to do it (and failed). Henry II., otoh, did have his and Eleanor's oldest surviving son crowned in rl. The disastrous consequences ensured no English ruler ever tried that one again, but more about that in Life 5.
Eleanor growing up at Stephen's court the way Constance did in reality would have meant she was raised by Stephen's wife Matilda, who was his most important ally and supporter, and so her relationship with Eleanor became important to who Eleanor is in this scenario. Incidentally: this era boasts of an overabundance of Matildas in important positions, which is why I had to use different versions of that name for different characters: Henry's mother the Empress is Maude, Stephen's wife remains Matilda, and Henry's aunt the later Abbess of Fontevrault (a Prioress in Life 1) is Mahault.
This AU was also fun to write because Eleanor gets to negotiate with Thomas Becket. What she thought of him and vice versa in rl, given their respective relationships with Henry, remains anyone's guess, but here I had the chance to them size each other up before he becomes a factor in their lives.
3.) Eleanor in Outremer: the second Crusade was generally a military disaster from the view of the participants. (Well, not Saladin's uncle Nur-ed-Din, who got plenty of power.) It was also the beginning of the end of Eleanor's first marriage. By killing Louis off in the battle of Laodicea before that could happen, I created a scenario where she could push her own strategy through, but the heart of this particular story is really the Eleanor and Melisande encounter. Melisande was another fascinating and powerful woman of the era, and it was irresistable to wonder what they'd made of each other.
Speaking of irresistable: Eleanor's line about wanting to be not a, but the Queen is the only Game of Thrones quote you'll find here, but I just had to use it.
4.) Eleanor remains Queen of France: if her second child with Louis had been a boy, this is what would have happened. With a son to inherit the realm, her own investment in France's future would have been different. While plotting this out, I idly wondered whether she'd have prevented the 100-Years-War that way, but probably not. The English Kings being also Dukes of Normandy and thus subjects of the French King was bound to create a clash sooner or later, even without them having an additional claim on Aquitaine.
This is the scenario where Henry finally shows up in person, after having been mentioned in the others. Now Eleanor and Henry are one of my historical OTPs, which of course means that I'm not giving them a happily ever after. This being Eleanor and Henry, the challenge is instead to find NEW creative ways in which they can be rivals in addition to being made for each other, and set up a future dysfunctional family life. After all, if the future Plantagenets must have both Henry's and Eleanor's genetic heritage in them, one way or the other...
5.) Eleanor wins her war: and immediately has the "what to do with Henry?" problem. (Well, technically Hal/ Henry the Young King has that problem, but he's about to find out Mum is as much an autocrat as Dad when it comes to who gets to make the hardcore decisions in the Angevin Empire.) There's the dark fic solution of regicide, but I like to think Eleanor wouldn't have gone with that anymore than Henry did with her, and thus my story takes another direction.
(Btw, all the recent Tudor saga versions reminded me how truly different the ages and the rulers were: Henry VIII. had two of his wives executed for adultery, and in the first case had a show trial so shoddy and obvious it didn't even convince the majority of his subjects who hated the woman in question that this was the true reason. Henry II. had a wife who took place in an uprising/war against him which included an alliance with his enemies, whose responsibility in this regard was never debated (least of all by her), and once she became his captive, executing her for, say, high treason never seems to have been even considered as an option.)
This is also the "what went wrong with Eleanor and Henry?" story, and I hope I got both their povs across.
6.) The "Life not lived" scenario reality offers but which I didn't use at all: in rl, Eleanor after the annulment of her first marriage on her way back to Aquitaine was nearly captured twice by ambitious nobles who wanted to to become Dukes of Aquitaine the easy way. One of them, Thibaut de Champagne, years later became her son-in-law (he married her younger daughter by Louis); the other was Henry's younger brother Geoffrey. (Eleanor found out about both would be kidnappers in time and avoided them both, made it back to Aquitaine and married Henry.) So of course it would have been possible to imagine a tale where either of these men succeeds. But this would have involved rape. And if there's one thing you don't write unasked for a ficathon as a gift about a character the recipient cares for, it's a story where the protagonist gets raped. Also, while I could imagine Eleanor's reaction (it wouldn't involve a long life afterwards for either Thibaut or Geoffrey), writing such a story wouldn't given me any joy, either. As opposed to all these other alternate lives. And so I didn't.
In conclusion: writing a "Five Lives" type of story about Eleanor of Aquitaine turned out to be one of my favourite writing experiences. I hope it will be a good reading experience for you as well.
Famous last words, etc. The end result was one of the longest things I've written outside Yuletide, and I don't regret a single thing. Eleanor of Aquitaine will do that to you. The prompt asked for an AU, which got me thinking not of one AU but several. Well, there's a certain format for this. I've repeatedly written "Five Things..." tales about fictional characters; there was no reason not to do it for a rl one. Especially since said format, at least in the way it works for me, also provides the opportunity to portray the main character "in canon", so to speak, via several angles.
So, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France, Queen of England, survivor extraordinaire who still travelled across the Pyrenees on political missions when in her 70s, something that would be remarkable even today, let alone in the Middle Ages. Her life was often so unlikely that fiction couldn't trump it. However, of course there were plenty of opportunities where with just one circumstance changed, her resulting existence would have been just as remarkable (imo), if in a different (or not?) way. After mulling it over (and reading one of the newer biographies, since the last time I did research on Eleanor was more then 20 years ago), I came up with five scenarios which each became its own story. You can read all five here:
Time and Chance (16069 words) by Selena
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 12th Century CE RPF, When Christ and His Saints Slept - Sharon Kay Penman, Devil's Brood - Sharon Kay Penman, Historical RPF, Henry II Trilogy - Sharon Kay Penman, The Lion in Winter (1968)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eleanor of Aquitaine/Henry Plantagenet, Eleanor of Aquitaine/Louis VII of France, Eleanor of Aquitaine & Thomas Becket, Eleanor of Aquitaine & Matilda I of Boulogne, Eleanor of Aquitaine & Raymond of Antioch, Peter Abelard/Heloise (background)
Characters: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, Thomas Becket, Bernard of Clairveaux, Petronilla de Chemillé, Mahault of Anjou, Matilda I of Boulogne, Stephen of England, Eustace IV Count of Boulogne, Louis VII of France, Robert de Dreux, Raymond of Antioch, Melisande of Jerusalem - Character, Thierry Galeran, Henry the Young King, William X. of Aquitaine, Petronilla of Aquitaine
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Historical, POV Female Character, Female Friendship
Summary:
Five lives which Eleanor of Aquitaine never lived.
A few more remarks on those five roads not taken:
1.) Eleanor the Nun: chosen because not only was it a likely existence for a female noblewoman in that age, but also because Fontevrault really did become one of Eleanor's favourite places in rl, and it did have those intriguing rules - to be headed by an Abbess not an Abbot despite harboring both nuns and monks, the Abbess to be a widow with experience in the world. What's more, during those last decades since I did my era research the theory that Hersende, the co-foundress, was Heloise's mother, gained traction, and that was irresistable to use. Along with the Council of Sens, and Bernard of Clairvaux, whom Eleanor clearly is destined to clash with in any 'verse.
2.) Eleanor's alternate way of becoming Queen of England: came to be because the original prompt among other things suggested a scenario where Eleanor is Queen of England and Henry the Duke of Aquitaine. Now, there's no way Henry would have been the Duke of Aquitaine, but if instead of marrying his son Eustace to Constance of France as a child Stephen had managed to get young Eleanor, she would have had a shot at the English throne without marrying Henry first. Stephen did really try to get Eustace crowned in his own lifetime. This - a King crowning his intended successor while still alive and ruling himself - was a continental habit at the time, and will come up in other scenarios as well. It was also a way to avoid succession trouble, which explains why Stephen, whose own hold on and right to the throne was dubious, tried to do it (and failed). Henry II., otoh, did have his and Eleanor's oldest surviving son crowned in rl. The disastrous consequences ensured no English ruler ever tried that one again, but more about that in Life 5.
Eleanor growing up at Stephen's court the way Constance did in reality would have meant she was raised by Stephen's wife Matilda, who was his most important ally and supporter, and so her relationship with Eleanor became important to who Eleanor is in this scenario. Incidentally: this era boasts of an overabundance of Matildas in important positions, which is why I had to use different versions of that name for different characters: Henry's mother the Empress is Maude, Stephen's wife remains Matilda, and Henry's aunt the later Abbess of Fontevrault (a Prioress in Life 1) is Mahault.
This AU was also fun to write because Eleanor gets to negotiate with Thomas Becket. What she thought of him and vice versa in rl, given their respective relationships with Henry, remains anyone's guess, but here I had the chance to them size each other up before he becomes a factor in their lives.
3.) Eleanor in Outremer: the second Crusade was generally a military disaster from the view of the participants. (Well, not Saladin's uncle Nur-ed-Din, who got plenty of power.) It was also the beginning of the end of Eleanor's first marriage. By killing Louis off in the battle of Laodicea before that could happen, I created a scenario where she could push her own strategy through, but the heart of this particular story is really the Eleanor and Melisande encounter. Melisande was another fascinating and powerful woman of the era, and it was irresistable to wonder what they'd made of each other.
Speaking of irresistable: Eleanor's line about wanting to be not a, but the Queen is the only Game of Thrones quote you'll find here, but I just had to use it.
4.) Eleanor remains Queen of France: if her second child with Louis had been a boy, this is what would have happened. With a son to inherit the realm, her own investment in France's future would have been different. While plotting this out, I idly wondered whether she'd have prevented the 100-Years-War that way, but probably not. The English Kings being also Dukes of Normandy and thus subjects of the French King was bound to create a clash sooner or later, even without them having an additional claim on Aquitaine.
This is the scenario where Henry finally shows up in person, after having been mentioned in the others. Now Eleanor and Henry are one of my historical OTPs, which of course means that I'm not giving them a happily ever after. This being Eleanor and Henry, the challenge is instead to find NEW creative ways in which they can be rivals in addition to being made for each other, and set up a future dysfunctional family life. After all, if the future Plantagenets must have both Henry's and Eleanor's genetic heritage in them, one way or the other...
5.) Eleanor wins her war: and immediately has the "what to do with Henry?" problem. (Well, technically Hal/ Henry the Young King has that problem, but he's about to find out Mum is as much an autocrat as Dad when it comes to who gets to make the hardcore decisions in the Angevin Empire.) There's the dark fic solution of regicide, but I like to think Eleanor wouldn't have gone with that anymore than Henry did with her, and thus my story takes another direction.
(Btw, all the recent Tudor saga versions reminded me how truly different the ages and the rulers were: Henry VIII. had two of his wives executed for adultery, and in the first case had a show trial so shoddy and obvious it didn't even convince the majority of his subjects who hated the woman in question that this was the true reason. Henry II. had a wife who took place in an uprising/war against him which included an alliance with his enemies, whose responsibility in this regard was never debated (least of all by her), and once she became his captive, executing her for, say, high treason never seems to have been even considered as an option.)
This is also the "what went wrong with Eleanor and Henry?" story, and I hope I got both their povs across.
6.) The "Life not lived" scenario reality offers but which I didn't use at all: in rl, Eleanor after the annulment of her first marriage on her way back to Aquitaine was nearly captured twice by ambitious nobles who wanted to to become Dukes of Aquitaine the easy way. One of them, Thibaut de Champagne, years later became her son-in-law (he married her younger daughter by Louis); the other was Henry's younger brother Geoffrey. (Eleanor found out about both would be kidnappers in time and avoided them both, made it back to Aquitaine and married Henry.) So of course it would have been possible to imagine a tale where either of these men succeeds. But this would have involved rape. And if there's one thing you don't write unasked for a ficathon as a gift about a character the recipient cares for, it's a story where the protagonist gets raped. Also, while I could imagine Eleanor's reaction (it wouldn't involve a long life afterwards for either Thibaut or Geoffrey), writing such a story wouldn't given me any joy, either. As opposed to all these other alternate lives. And so I didn't.
In conclusion: writing a "Five Lives" type of story about Eleanor of Aquitaine turned out to be one of my favourite writing experiences. I hope it will be a good reading experience for you as well.
