Eleanor of Aquitaine : Love + Rebellion

With Love + Rebellion, Mark Richard Beaulieu delivers the long-awaited fifth volume of the extraordinary Eleanor Code cycle that redefines historical fiction with deeply researched stories and credible speculation.


After forty years of traveling the world and having given twelve births, Eleanor of Aquitaine begins the project of her life arriving at her home in Poitiers in 1168 as Queen of England. She establishes the finest cultured court in all of Europa and founds a unique Academy to raise her children and educate friends who will run future courts. There is one problem. This program does not agree with her all-powerful husband, King Henri II.


Travel with strong-willed Eleanor to her castles and abbeys, to forests, mountains, rivers, and sandy beaches from Poitiers to the borders of Spain as she develops her engaging life. Budding chevaliers and damisels learn hawking, horsemanship, high manners, dressing in rich style, and Love – a subject for which the French courts will become famous. At the origin, the academy is not just letters, manners, song, and the art of flirtation, but the proper action of heart and character aided by a dual-gender religious sect whose mission is to alleviate the suffering of the world. Young men become handsome, smart knights, and damisels become intelligent and alluring, fulfilling crusader Eleanor’s idea of how future kings and queens should sustain family ties in Europa. Initially, Henri has little regard for his heirs and heiresses, but when they become of age, he uses them to serve his needs. He botches his son’s own coronation to keep power. A rich cast of householders, troubadours, knights, and lords distinguish this landmark series that deconstructs famed heroic stories of Chretien of Troyes and Mary de France, the people of her court whose theme is love and rebellion.

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In development sixteen years and based on the latest scholarly research, these stories significantly update earlier historical fictions of the medieval queen. Discover how she will become one of the most powerful and enigmatic women of the middle ages as she develops her own Eleanor Code. Born Alienor d'Aquitaine in 1124, died in 1204, she twice becomes a queen, once for France with King Louis 7th, then for England with King Henri 2nd.

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Mark Richard Beaulieu is an expert on the 12th century life of Eleanor of Aquitaine. He is an accomplished author, collected painter, award-winning photographer, and innovative software technologist. Trained as a studio artist Mark holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California at Davis, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

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Jun 21 2017 Edition