April 29, 2025 • 19 mins
Eleanor of Aquitaine's younger sister Petronilla was attractive and wealthy, but she remained unmarried until she was 19 and met the charming Ralph of Vermandois. There was one big problem with the match though, and it would have bloody consequences.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. In eleven
forty one, Eleanor of Aquitaine went with her little sister
Petronilla on the summer holiday in Poitou. This wasn't unusual,
as the two were inseparable throughout their lives. Petronilla and
(00:24):
Eleanor spent their childhood joined at the hip. Even when
Eleanor got married to the King of France, Louis the Seventh.
Petronilla joined her household, following her from orlean to parents,
but Eleanor was a little worried about her little sister.
By eleven forty one, Petronilla had reached, as historian Marian
(00:47):
Meade puts it, quote, the spinsterly age of nineteen without
finding a husband. Petronilla was an attractive bachelorette. She was
known for her beauty, She had plenty of property to
her name in Burgundy, and she wielded political power by
nature of her position in the royal court. But no
(01:07):
one had come calling on her and she remained single.
That was all about to change on this trip. Petronilla's
brother in law Louis the seventh had brought along the
dashing Count Ralph of Vermandois, Sanchell of France. Petronilla and
Ralph had actually met before at Louis and Eleanor's wedding,
(01:30):
but it wasn't until this trip that sparks really began
to fly. Even though he was thirty five years older
than Petronilla and had one eye missing from battle, Ralph
was known for being quite the seducer. According to a
contemporary he was quote always dominated by lust. Petronilla also
(01:53):
had a reputation for quote possessing a strong sex drive
and few inhibitions, in the words of Marion Meade. As
the court noticed them getting closer and closer, it was
clear that this affair was hardly platonic. It seemed, after
all this time Petronilla had found her winning suitor. But
(02:16):
there was one big problem. Ralph of Vermandois was already married.
His wife was Eleanor of Blois, either a sister or
a niece of Count Theobald, the fourth of Plois, one
of the most powerful nobles in France. That did nothing
to deter Petronilla, who insisted that she would have no
(02:41):
other husband, regardless of the cost. I'm Dana Schwartz, and
this is noble blood. Even though it was certainly controversial
to set up her sister with a married man, Eleanor
of Aquitaine actually supported Petronilla's union if you discount the
(03:01):
whole already married thing. Ralph was a good match for
Petronilla as a close relative of the king and one
of the most powerful lords in France. Moreover, a marriage
between Petronilla and Ralph would have several political advantages. Eleanor
hated Theobald, the relative of Ralph's current wife, and she
(03:24):
took particular pleasure in the thought of potentially alienating him
from the royal family. Her sister's union would also shore
up King Louis succession plan, because if Eleanor failed to
produce a child, Ralph could have claimed the ducal title.
Better that he be married to Eleanor's little sister to
keep the title and power within the close family, so
(03:48):
to speak. Besides, if Petronilla married Ralph, Eleanor would get
to keep her sister near by, and so Eleanor encouraged
Ralph to have his current marriage annulled and worked on
getting her own husband to throw his weight behind that decision.
At Eleanor's prompting, King Louis agreed to the match, and
(04:09):
so with the royal blessing, Ralph left his wife and
moved in with Petronilla. Now all they needed to do
was wait for Ralph's annulment to be officially granted. At
the end of fourteen eleven, Louis found three bishops, one
of whom was Ralph's own brother, who were willing to
perform the annulment on grounds of consanguinity. They alleged that
(04:33):
Ralph and his soon to be ex wife shared a
common ancestor, rendering their marriage forbidden, even though there was
no actual evidence that proved it. No matter, the annulment
was performed, and shortly after, in the beginning of eleven
forty two, those same bishops officiated Ralph's wedding to Petronilla.
(04:56):
But the happy couple wouldn't have longed to enjoy the
honey moonfase Ralph's ex wife moved in with her powerful relative,
Count Theobald, the fourth of Plois, who was not at
all pleased with the way the situation had unfolded. Theobald
drew up documents aiming to reverse the bishop's decision. He
(05:17):
alleged that Ralph's annulment and remarriage were invalid because Ralph
had not asked for the Pope's permission and had in
fact gone behind the Church's back by appealing to King
Louis Instead. Louis, by conscripting three bishops to perform the annulment,
was flouting the authority of the church and interfering with
(05:39):
what was clearly a spiritual matter. Bernard of Clervaux, a
powerful abbot, intervened in the conflict on the side of
Count Theobald. But Bernard wasn't exactly unbiased. A decade earlier,
he had actually beefed with Eleanor and Petronilla's father, Duke
(05:59):
William the Tix, because the Duke initially refused to support
Pope Innocent the Second. This only fueled Bernard's resentment of
Ralph's marriage to Petronilla, and he wrote an angry letter
to Pope Innocent decrying the marriage. That summer, the Pope
arranged a church council in Champagne. He sent over a
(06:22):
papal legate from Rome to preside over the council, who,
in the end reaffirmed the validity of Ralph's first marriage
and excommunicated Ralph, Petronilla and the three bishops who had
performed the annulment. Louis and Eleanor were incensed. Separating Ralph
(06:43):
and Petronilla could potentially cause even more drama now in
the royal household, because Petronilla was pregnant. Louis refused to
acknowledge the legate's sentence, which he saw as a threat
to his authority. He would stop at nothing to keep
Ralph and Petronilla together and to get revenge on Theobold,
(07:06):
even if it meant turning to war. In January eleven
forty three, Louis the Seventh led an army into Champagne.
This was Theobold's domain, and Louis aimed to punish him
for meddling in the Petronilla and Ralph affair. Louis took
refuge in an encampment on the Lfortia Hills, watching his
(07:29):
troops march towards Theobold's castle. Arrows reined down on Louis's
forces from the castle towers, but his archers fired back
by launching flaming arrows over the walls. The castle burst
into flames, which soon engulfed the entire town. Townspeople took
shelter in the parish church, but soon it caught fire
(07:53):
as well, burning to death several hundred people trapped inside,
among them many women and child children. By the end
of the battle, over a thousand people had died. It
was a gruesome scene, according to Marian Mead, Louis's army
left behind a carpet of ravaged fields and smoking villages,
(08:17):
corpses pierced by lances, and disemboweled horses lying in frozen
raspberry pools. King Louis watched from his encampment, filled with
guilt and grief. For many days after, he would not
get out of bed, refusing to speak. He returned to
Paris ashamed and depressed, haunted by the massacre. Eleanor was
(08:42):
dismayed to find her husband so traumatized by the events
that had taken place at Vitry. The King would wake
up in the middle of the night sobbing, or spend
hours of the day staring into space, completely numb. Eleanor
tried to convince him that the massacre was not his fault,
and that this war against Theobald was warranted given that
(09:06):
it protected the honor of their family, but Louis was
not convinced. He didn't think that victory over count Theobold
had called for so much bloodshed and so much innocent bloodshed. Still,
he went back to Champagne, and the war continued, and
his army marched through the countryside. After months of fighting,
(09:30):
Louis and Eleanor presented a peace treaty to count Theobold.
The royal couple promised to restore his possessions if he
reversed Ralph and Petronilla's excommunication and allowed them to marry.
Abbot Bernard again stepped into the conflict, suggesting that Pope
Innocent accept Louis and Eleanor's demands for long enough for
(09:54):
Louis to recall his troops and then reinstate Petronilla and
Ralph's excommunication immediately after he wrote quote. Thus, artifice would
be outwitted by artifice, and peace obtained without the tyrant
gaining anything. Sure Enough, according to Bernard's plan, the Pope
(10:15):
undid the excommunication and Louis extracted his troops from Theobald's territory.
Then the Pope asked Ralph to leave Petronilla. Ralph refused,
and the Pope excommunicated them both again. Louis, in a frenzy,
sent his army back to Champagne, and the war continued.
(10:35):
Bernard wrote Louis a letter condemning him for the destruction
he had wrought, writing quote, I can tell you that,
provoked by constant excesses you commit almost daily, I am
determined that in the future, to the best of my
limited capacity, I shall expose the whole truth about you.
I have spoken harshly because I fear an even harsher
(10:56):
fate for you. By this summer of a life forty three,
it seemed as though the conflict would never be resolved.
Louis the Seventh refused to back down, and Theobold was
threatening to involve the entire north of France in the war.
The enmity between Louis and Theobold grew even stronger when
(11:17):
Louis accused Theobold of hypocritically flouting the Church's rules by
setting up consanguineous marriages for his relatives. Bernard fired back
at Louis, quote, how has the king got the effrontery
to try so hard to lay down laws for others
about consanguinity when it is clear that he himself is
(11:37):
living with his cousin with the third degree. There actually
was nothing to back up his allegation that Louis and
Eleanor were related, but Bernard figured that if Louis and
Eleanor could make up false rumors, he could too. Any
attempt to resolve this impasse stalled. When Pope Innocent died
on September twenty fourth, eleven forty three, there was the
(12:00):
opportunity for his successor to lift the second excommunication on
Petronilla and Ralph and finally put an end to this conflict,
but the new pope refused. In early fourteen forty four,
Bernard arranged a peace conference that devolved into chaos when
a baron accused Louis of being Ralph's puppet. Finally, in
(12:24):
October eleven forty four, Eleanor of Aquitaine had it towards
a deserted chamber of the Abbey of Saint Denis to
meet privately with Bernard of Clervaux. We don't know whether
Louis or Bernard, or even the Queen herself had been
the one to call the meeting, but its results would
determine once and for all if the war would continue.
(12:48):
It was in Eleanor's hands. Despite being two of the
most powerful figures in France. Before this meeting, Bernard and
Eleanor of Aquitaine had actually never met. When they were
in the same room together, they had regarded each other
from a distance. Bernard was suspicious of women in general,
(13:09):
seeing them as quote Snares of Satan. Legend has it
that Bernard once looked at an attractive girl and was
filled with such shame that he threw himself into an
icy pond and stayed there until he almost froze. Because
no one else was in the room during this meeting
between Bernard and Eleanor, we don't know for sure how
(13:33):
things went down. That said one of Bernard's hey geographers
recorded an account of what happened as the more powerful
one in the room. Allegedly, Eleanor started off emphatically pleading
her case, trying to convince Bernard to pardon Petronilla and
Ralph and allow them to marry, But over the course
(13:55):
of their conversation Bernard took the other hand. Bernard ordered
Eleanor to stop interfering in political matters, perhaps shocked by
his harshness, or perhaps realizing that her sister's marriage was
a lost cause. Eleanor allegedly burst into tears. She explained
that she had thrown herself into politics as a means
(14:17):
of escaping her personal woes. She had a miscarriage during
the first months of her marriage and had not gotten pregnant.
Since she worried that her infertility was God's punishment for
defending Petronilla's bigamous marriage, she asked Bernard if he could
plead to God on her behalf to grant her a child.
(14:40):
Bernard replied that if she convinced Louis to make peace
with Theobald, she would have a child within weeks. Louis
removed his troops from Theobold's territory, while the pope continued
to hold his ban on Petronilla and Ralph's union. Even
though Eleanor did not successful campaigned for her sister's marriage,
(15:02):
she did get something she wanted. In eleven forty five,
Eleanor conceived and gave birth to a daughter, Marie, Countess
of Champagne. Meanwhile, even though Ralph and Petronilla were still excommunicated,
they tried to remain in the good graces of the
church by establishing religious houses Eleanor and Louis continued to
(15:24):
press the couple's case before they left on Crusade in
eleven forty seven. Finally, when Ralph's first wife died in
eleven forty eight, Pope Eugenius the Third recognized the validity
of Ralph and Petronilla's marriage. This good news was likely
a relief to Petronilla, Ralph, Eleanor, and Louis, who had
(15:46):
all been fighting tirelessly for the couple's official recognition for years.
But Bernard of Clervaux couldn't help but interfere one more time.
He responded with two ominous predictions that their marriage would
not last long and that their children would have no
children of their own. Both of these predictions would ultimately
(16:11):
come true. Ralph died just four years later on October fourteenth,
eleven fifty two, and though the couple had three children,
they would not have any grandchildren. Their son died in
his early twenties, and their two daughters married four times
between them, but did not produce any children of their own.
(16:34):
It seems that God might have had something to say
about their marriage, after all, that's the story of Petronilla
of Aquitaine. But stick around after a brief sponsor break
to hear about how a charged interaction between Bernard of
Clervaux and Petronilla's father became a myth. In eleven thirty one,
(17:03):
Eleanor and Petronilla's father, Duke William the tenth of Aquitaine,
refused to support Pope Innocent after a conflict about papal succession.
Bernard of Clervaux, a fierce supporter of Pope Innocent, headed
to Aquitaine to change his mind. According to legend, Bernard
invited Duke William to a mass at the Church of
(17:26):
La Caldre. William stood by the door since he was
under threat of excommunication because of his refusal to align
with the new pope. In a dramatic flourish, right as
communion was being passed out, Bernard marched right up to
the Duke and begged him not to despise God as
(17:47):
he did God's servants. At that moment, William fell to
his knees and pledged his allegiance to Pope Innocent. Dramatic
as that scene sounds, it's unlikely that it actually happened.
In reality, Duke William didn't yield to Pope Innocent. Authority
until eleven thirty five, but this image of Duke William's
(18:10):
quote conversion became a common motif in Catholic art. Depictions
of Bernard placidly offering the Eucharist while William is fainting
or falling over appear in churches and museums throughout Europe.
In most of these images, William's crown lies on the
ground as a symbol of his submission. It makes for
(18:33):
a pretty good painting. Noble Blood is a production of
iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood
is hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and
research by Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and
(18:57):
Julia Milani. The show is at It Did and produced
by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il Kaali and
executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. In eleven
forty one, Eleanor of Aquitaine went with her little sister
Petronilla on the summer holiday in Poitou. This wasn't unusual,
as the two were inseparable throughout their lives. Petronilla and
(00:24):
Eleanor spent their childhood joined at the hip. Even when
Eleanor got married to the King of France, Louis the Seventh.
Petronilla joined her household, following her from orlean to parents,
but Eleanor was a little worried about her little sister.
By eleven forty one, Petronilla had reached, as historian Marian
(00:47):
Meade puts it, quote, the spinsterly age of nineteen without
finding a husband. Petronilla was an attractive bachelorette. She was
known for her beauty, She had plenty of property to
her name in Burgundy, and she wielded political power by
nature of her position in the royal court. But no
(01:07):
one had come calling on her and she remained single.
That was all about to change on this trip. Petronilla's
brother in law Louis the seventh had brought along the
dashing Count Ralph of Vermandois, Sanchell of France. Petronilla and
Ralph had actually met before at Louis and Eleanor's wedding,
(01:30):
but it wasn't until this trip that sparks really began
to fly. Even though he was thirty five years older
than Petronilla and had one eye missing from battle, Ralph
was known for being quite the seducer. According to a
contemporary he was quote always dominated by lust. Petronilla also
(01:53):
had a reputation for quote possessing a strong sex drive
and few inhibitions, in the words of Marion Meade. As
the court noticed them getting closer and closer, it was
clear that this affair was hardly platonic. It seemed, after
all this time Petronilla had found her winning suitor. But
(02:16):
there was one big problem. Ralph of Vermandois was already married.
His wife was Eleanor of Blois, either a sister or
a niece of Count Theobald, the fourth of Plois, one
of the most powerful nobles in France. That did nothing
to deter Petronilla, who insisted that she would have no
(02:41):
other husband, regardless of the cost. I'm Dana Schwartz, and
this is noble blood. Even though it was certainly controversial
to set up her sister with a married man, Eleanor
of Aquitaine actually supported Petronilla's union if you discount the
(03:01):
whole already married thing. Ralph was a good match for
Petronilla as a close relative of the king and one
of the most powerful lords in France. Moreover, a marriage
between Petronilla and Ralph would have several political advantages. Eleanor
hated Theobald, the relative of Ralph's current wife, and she
(03:24):
took particular pleasure in the thought of potentially alienating him
from the royal family. Her sister's union would also shore
up King Louis succession plan, because if Eleanor failed to
produce a child, Ralph could have claimed the ducal title.
Better that he be married to Eleanor's little sister to
keep the title and power within the close family, so
(03:48):
to speak. Besides, if Petronilla married Ralph, Eleanor would get
to keep her sister near by, and so Eleanor encouraged
Ralph to have his current marriage annulled and worked on
getting her own husband to throw his weight behind that decision.
At Eleanor's prompting, King Louis agreed to the match, and
(04:09):
so with the royal blessing, Ralph left his wife and
moved in with Petronilla. Now all they needed to do
was wait for Ralph's annulment to be officially granted. At
the end of fourteen eleven, Louis found three bishops, one
of whom was Ralph's own brother, who were willing to
perform the annulment on grounds of consanguinity. They alleged that
(04:33):
Ralph and his soon to be ex wife shared a
common ancestor, rendering their marriage forbidden, even though there was
no actual evidence that proved it. No matter, the annulment
was performed, and shortly after, in the beginning of eleven
forty two, those same bishops officiated Ralph's wedding to Petronilla.
(04:56):
But the happy couple wouldn't have longed to enjoy the
honey moonfase Ralph's ex wife moved in with her powerful relative,
Count Theobald, the fourth of Plois, who was not at
all pleased with the way the situation had unfolded. Theobald
drew up documents aiming to reverse the bishop's decision. He
(05:17):
alleged that Ralph's annulment and remarriage were invalid because Ralph
had not asked for the Pope's permission and had in
fact gone behind the Church's back by appealing to King
Louis Instead. Louis, by conscripting three bishops to perform the annulment,
was flouting the authority of the church and interfering with
(05:39):
what was clearly a spiritual matter. Bernard of Clervaux, a
powerful abbot, intervened in the conflict on the side of
Count Theobald. But Bernard wasn't exactly unbiased. A decade earlier,
he had actually beefed with Eleanor and Petronilla's father, Duke
(05:59):
William the Tix, because the Duke initially refused to support
Pope Innocent the Second. This only fueled Bernard's resentment of
Ralph's marriage to Petronilla, and he wrote an angry letter
to Pope Innocent decrying the marriage. That summer, the Pope
arranged a church council in Champagne. He sent over a
(06:22):
papal legate from Rome to preside over the council, who,
in the end reaffirmed the validity of Ralph's first marriage
and excommunicated Ralph, Petronilla and the three bishops who had
performed the annulment. Louis and Eleanor were incensed. Separating Ralph
(06:43):
and Petronilla could potentially cause even more drama now in
the royal household, because Petronilla was pregnant. Louis refused to
acknowledge the legate's sentence, which he saw as a threat
to his authority. He would stop at nothing to keep
Ralph and Petronilla together and to get revenge on Theobold,
(07:06):
even if it meant turning to war. In January eleven
forty three, Louis the Seventh led an army into Champagne.
This was Theobold's domain, and Louis aimed to punish him
for meddling in the Petronilla and Ralph affair. Louis took
refuge in an encampment on the Lfortia Hills, watching his
(07:29):
troops march towards Theobold's castle. Arrows reined down on Louis's
forces from the castle towers, but his archers fired back
by launching flaming arrows over the walls. The castle burst
into flames, which soon engulfed the entire town. Townspeople took
shelter in the parish church, but soon it caught fire
(07:53):
as well, burning to death several hundred people trapped inside,
among them many women and child children. By the end
of the battle, over a thousand people had died. It
was a gruesome scene, according to Marian Mead, Louis's army
left behind a carpet of ravaged fields and smoking villages,
(08:17):
corpses pierced by lances, and disemboweled horses lying in frozen
raspberry pools. King Louis watched from his encampment, filled with
guilt and grief. For many days after, he would not
get out of bed, refusing to speak. He returned to
Paris ashamed and depressed, haunted by the massacre. Eleanor was
(08:42):
dismayed to find her husband so traumatized by the events
that had taken place at Vitry. The King would wake
up in the middle of the night sobbing, or spend
hours of the day staring into space, completely numb. Eleanor
tried to convince him that the massacre was not his fault,
and that this war against Theobald was warranted given that
(09:06):
it protected the honor of their family, but Louis was
not convinced. He didn't think that victory over count Theobold
had called for so much bloodshed and so much innocent bloodshed. Still,
he went back to Champagne, and the war continued, and
his army marched through the countryside. After months of fighting,
(09:30):
Louis and Eleanor presented a peace treaty to count Theobold.
The royal couple promised to restore his possessions if he
reversed Ralph and Petronilla's excommunication and allowed them to marry.
Abbot Bernard again stepped into the conflict, suggesting that Pope
Innocent accept Louis and Eleanor's demands for long enough for
(09:54):
Louis to recall his troops and then reinstate Petronilla and
Ralph's excommunication immediately after he wrote quote. Thus, artifice would
be outwitted by artifice, and peace obtained without the tyrant
gaining anything. Sure Enough, according to Bernard's plan, the Pope
(10:15):
undid the excommunication and Louis extracted his troops from Theobald's territory.
Then the Pope asked Ralph to leave Petronilla. Ralph refused,
and the Pope excommunicated them both again. Louis, in a frenzy,
sent his army back to Champagne, and the war continued.
(10:35):
Bernard wrote Louis a letter condemning him for the destruction
he had wrought, writing quote, I can tell you that,
provoked by constant excesses you commit almost daily, I am
determined that in the future, to the best of my
limited capacity, I shall expose the whole truth about you.
I have spoken harshly because I fear an even harsher
(10:56):
fate for you. By this summer of a life forty three,
it seemed as though the conflict would never be resolved.
Louis the Seventh refused to back down, and Theobold was
threatening to involve the entire north of France in the war.
The enmity between Louis and Theobold grew even stronger when
(11:17):
Louis accused Theobold of hypocritically flouting the Church's rules by
setting up consanguineous marriages for his relatives. Bernard fired back
at Louis, quote, how has the king got the effrontery
to try so hard to lay down laws for others
about consanguinity when it is clear that he himself is
(11:37):
living with his cousin with the third degree. There actually
was nothing to back up his allegation that Louis and
Eleanor were related, but Bernard figured that if Louis and
Eleanor could make up false rumors, he could too. Any
attempt to resolve this impasse stalled. When Pope Innocent died
on September twenty fourth, eleven forty three, there was the
(12:00):
opportunity for his successor to lift the second excommunication on
Petronilla and Ralph and finally put an end to this conflict,
but the new pope refused. In early fourteen forty four,
Bernard arranged a peace conference that devolved into chaos when
a baron accused Louis of being Ralph's puppet. Finally, in
(12:24):
October eleven forty four, Eleanor of Aquitaine had it towards
a deserted chamber of the Abbey of Saint Denis to
meet privately with Bernard of Clervaux. We don't know whether
Louis or Bernard, or even the Queen herself had been
the one to call the meeting, but its results would
determine once and for all if the war would continue.
(12:48):
It was in Eleanor's hands. Despite being two of the
most powerful figures in France. Before this meeting, Bernard and
Eleanor of Aquitaine had actually never met. When they were
in the same room together, they had regarded each other
from a distance. Bernard was suspicious of women in general,
(13:09):
seeing them as quote Snares of Satan. Legend has it
that Bernard once looked at an attractive girl and was
filled with such shame that he threw himself into an
icy pond and stayed there until he almost froze. Because
no one else was in the room during this meeting
between Bernard and Eleanor, we don't know for sure how
(13:33):
things went down. That said one of Bernard's hey geographers
recorded an account of what happened as the more powerful
one in the room. Allegedly, Eleanor started off emphatically pleading
her case, trying to convince Bernard to pardon Petronilla and
Ralph and allow them to marry, But over the course
(13:55):
of their conversation Bernard took the other hand. Bernard ordered
Eleanor to stop interfering in political matters, perhaps shocked by
his harshness, or perhaps realizing that her sister's marriage was
a lost cause. Eleanor allegedly burst into tears. She explained
that she had thrown herself into politics as a means
(14:17):
of escaping her personal woes. She had a miscarriage during
the first months of her marriage and had not gotten pregnant.
Since she worried that her infertility was God's punishment for
defending Petronilla's bigamous marriage, she asked Bernard if he could
plead to God on her behalf to grant her a child.
(14:40):
Bernard replied that if she convinced Louis to make peace
with Theobald, she would have a child within weeks. Louis
removed his troops from Theobold's territory, while the pope continued
to hold his ban on Petronilla and Ralph's union. Even
though Eleanor did not successful campaigned for her sister's marriage,
(15:02):
she did get something she wanted. In eleven forty five,
Eleanor conceived and gave birth to a daughter, Marie, Countess
of Champagne. Meanwhile, even though Ralph and Petronilla were still excommunicated,
they tried to remain in the good graces of the
church by establishing religious houses Eleanor and Louis continued to
(15:24):
press the couple's case before they left on Crusade in
eleven forty seven. Finally, when Ralph's first wife died in
eleven forty eight, Pope Eugenius the Third recognized the validity
of Ralph and Petronilla's marriage. This good news was likely
a relief to Petronilla, Ralph, Eleanor, and Louis, who had
(15:46):
all been fighting tirelessly for the couple's official recognition for years.
But Bernard of Clervaux couldn't help but interfere one more time.
He responded with two ominous predictions that their marriage would
not last long and that their children would have no
children of their own. Both of these predictions would ultimately
(16:11):
come true. Ralph died just four years later on October fourteenth,
eleven fifty two, and though the couple had three children,
they would not have any grandchildren. Their son died in
his early twenties, and their two daughters married four times
between them, but did not produce any children of their own.
(16:34):
It seems that God might have had something to say
about their marriage, after all, that's the story of Petronilla
of Aquitaine. But stick around after a brief sponsor break
to hear about how a charged interaction between Bernard of
Clervaux and Petronilla's father became a myth. In eleven thirty one,
(17:03):
Eleanor and Petronilla's father, Duke William the tenth of Aquitaine,
refused to support Pope Innocent after a conflict about papal succession.
Bernard of Clervaux, a fierce supporter of Pope Innocent, headed
to Aquitaine to change his mind. According to legend, Bernard
invited Duke William to a mass at the Church of
(17:26):
La Caldre. William stood by the door since he was
under threat of excommunication because of his refusal to align
with the new pope. In a dramatic flourish, right as
communion was being passed out, Bernard marched right up to
the Duke and begged him not to despise God as
(17:47):
he did God's servants. At that moment, William fell to
his knees and pledged his allegiance to Pope Innocent. Dramatic
as that scene sounds, it's unlikely that it actually happened.
In reality, Duke William didn't yield to Pope Innocent. Authority
until eleven thirty five, but this image of Duke William's
(18:10):
quote conversion became a common motif in Catholic art. Depictions
of Bernard placidly offering the Eucharist while William is fainting
or falling over appear in churches and museums throughout Europe.
In most of these images, William's crown lies on the
ground as a symbol of his submission. It makes for
(18:33):
a pretty good painting. Noble Blood is a production of
iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood
is hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and
research by Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and
(18:57):
Julia Milani. The show is at It Did and produced
by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer rima il Kaali and
executive producers Aaron Manke, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Dana Schwartz
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