Petronilla of Aquitaine Had Chosen Her Husband

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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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

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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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, 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 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 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, 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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, 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 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

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 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. 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,

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 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 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 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.

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, 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 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

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

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 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 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.