ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE AND THE BROTHER THAT NEVER WAS.

 Here's a bit of historical sleuthing that was occupying me a few weeks ago.  It begins with quotes from biographies of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Marion Meade and Alison Weir.

"Although William X had two illigitimate sons, William and Joscelin, he now resolved to beget a male child to inherit his duchy."  Marion Meade in Eleanor of Aquitaine a Biography.

"The Pipe Rolls show that the Queen was paid allowances for the two boys, and also record that she was supporting in her household her sister Petronella and their two bastard brothers William and Joscelin.' Alison Weir in  Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the wrath of God, Queen of England.

I think other biographers have referenced this relationship too, although Meade and Weir are the only ones where I can find it indexed.
I was interested in this relationship, because writing a novel about Eleanor, I needed to know about her childhood experiences with these aforementioned brothers and how much a part of her household they were prior to her coming to England.  So I set out to trawl.  At first I found nothing, but since the mention of them was in the Pipe Rolls 1154-58 according to Weir, I went to have a look for myself to see if I could glean anything else about this elusive pair.
I also have a pipe roll of my own for the dates 1176-1177 and here I turned up 'Regina, Ioscelinusm frater ejus. in the index. Heading to the referenced page of 191, I came across this entry for Sussex.
'Iosecelinus, frater regine debet .cc. m. pro fine facto cum uxore Willelmi de Perci.
Now my Latin is rubbish, but I think I understand that 'Joscelin the brother of the queen renders 200? marks in a fine and that it is something to do with either his wife or the wife of William de Perci. The salient points to note are his name, the county, and the de Perci name.

In the Pipe roll for the 4th year of Henry II we have an earlier reference to this Joscelin the brother of the queen, again in the Sussex Pipe Roll.  'Et Josc, Fri Regine - IX Li Xiiis.  Or again in the 2nd year and again in Sussex. 'Et Joscel fri Regine XLVI s. (I think.  The text of the sum is difficult to read, but it doesn't matter.  Again the pertinent thing is the identification of Joscelin as the brother of the queen in the accounting for Sussex).

Right.  So the queen has a proven brother Joscelin who is active in Sussex.  But now we come to the kicker which seems to have been overlooked along the way.  The Pipe rolls don't say which queen, they just say 'Regine'.

A previous queen of England, who still went by her title of 'queen' long after she gave up her regnal position and married royal steward William D'Albini, was Adeliza of Louvain.  And guess what.  She had an illegitimate brother called Joscelin; he was her constable at Arundel in Sussex, and she gave him lands in Sussex at Petworth.  She also sorted him out a rather lucrative marriage with Agnes, heiress of William de Percy.  All the evidence clearly points to the Joscelin in question being Joscelin of Louvain, (d.circa 1180) half-brother of former queen Adeliza and NOT a half-brother of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Was the other illegitimate brother of the queen named William?  the jury is out on that one.  I can't tie him to Adeliza, but since I can't tie him to Eleanor either, and since I've not come across any mentions elsewhere, it's a definite case of caveat emptor.  I shall be leaving him out of the equation.
It's definitely a lesson in not taking for granted everything you read in non fiction!

Speaking of which and still with Eleanor of Aquitaine, I was somewhat surprised to read in Ralph Turner's Eleanor of Aquitaine that Geoffrey le Bel went on the 2nd crusade and that he ended his life by drowning. But at least Turner follows the latest research that Eleanor was actually 13 at her marriage and not 15.  More on that in a later blog post. Sean MyClynn meanwhile, tells us that Eleanor had 'a dark complexion, black eyes, black hair and with a curvaceous figure that never ran to fat even in old age.' (fantasy wish fulfilment?) There is no physical description of Eleanor in existence.  Even the supposed one at the chapel of St. Radegone is now generally thought by the experts to be a man.
I guess that brings me onto another massive bugbear.  The use of personal opinions in biographies that have no underpinning in fact and are just  guesswork.  Statements preceded by 'Doubtless' 'likely' 'probably' 'must have' are not firm ground for scholarship. Even worse when the biographer misses these signals out and just states opinion as if it's fact, or states the emotional responses of the personalities involved without the primary source evidence.  Then it becomes just another novel.  It's a minefield for an author trying to do justice to his or her characters and maintain integrity!

Of the books concerned with Eleanor so far,  Eleanor of Aquitaine, Lord and Lady edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John c. Parsons is one of the most forthright and best, although it's a series of essays rather than a biography.  The same for The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine edited by Marcus Bull and Catherine Leglu.  I have been finding the French viewpoint Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen and Rebel from Jean Flori very good on Eleanor's early life, but am told he loses his path when Henry II enters the scene and his rationality goes a bit to pot.  Not having read that far, I can't comment, but for now at least it's avoiding the wall bang!

Post Script.  I've been dabbling why I had five minutes between one thing and another and I revise my  opinion about brother 2, William.  This looks as if he has a likely tie with Eleanor.  Look on the entry here - lines 4 and 5.  Et fr Regine. Will de Pciters.  Is that a scribe's rendition of Poitiers?   If so, (and I suspect it is) then this may be a bastard half brother.  This is in the roll for Kent for the second year of Henry II.