Poetry of Reading

Like the other two in the series (The Summer Queen and The Winter Crown), The Autumn Throne takes you back in time to medieval England, France, Normandy, Germany, and even the road to Jerusalem. Miss Chadwick’s writing is such that you feel you are there traveling with Eleanor (Alienor), living with her in her prison, listening to her giving orders and commands, watching her rule in her son’s stead. You feel the bleak cold of winter and the simmering heat of summer. The terror of impending war, the sadness of imminent death.

The Autumn Throne begins with Alienor having already served two years of what was to be fifteen years of imprisonment. She had already suffered the indignation of being publicly usurped by her husband’s mistress, and now, adding insult to injury, she has been incarcerated, with few luxuries and little or no company. Over the course of her fifteen years of confinement, she is occasionally summoned by her husband for various reasons - but always because he requires something from her. Occasionally she is given a few luxuries, but always her freedom is curtailed; however, never does she compromise her integrity to please Henry or to earn herself more comforts, and often she is sent back into cold penury because of his anger at her obstinacy. In the end, it brings her cruel imprisonment to an end by the sudden death of Henry, and Richard honors his mother publicly as Queen of England.

Elizabeth Chadwick portrays Henry II as a cold and distant man; a man who never shows weakness and who seems undisturbed at the deaths of his children - and that portrayal is spot on. He seems to have been a man who was afraid to delegate power in case it diluted his own; this is borne out because he was shown to be a reasonably loving and caring father whilst his children were young but treated his sons as rivals once they grew to young adulthood.

Elizabeth Chadwick’s characters are beautifully drawn and developed and she brings the various members of the family and other peripheral characters to brilliant and vibrant life. My particular favorites are Richard and John. Richard, Alienor’s favorite son and the heir to her dominions of Gascony, Aquitaine, and Poitou, is a stunning character, tall and golden, a god amongst men - truly worthy of his nickname of ‘Lion Heart’. In contrast, John is shown from an early age as being a sly troublemaker who wheedles his way into his father’s affections for his gain - but as he is his father’s son, he has no real depth of feeling and cares for few. In the end, he leaves his father alone to die a degrading and undignified death.

Alienor outlived all but one of her sons. In this book, the events leading up to Richard’s death - her frantic race to be by his side - and her dreadful sorrow are palpable and empathetically portrayed by this author who has expertly mixed her vast historical knowledge and research with her immense talent for transporting us into the moment.

A beautiful conclusion to this tale of Alienor of Aquitaine. Rich and vibrant details bring to life the golden years of her life. A powerful novel about a woman who possessed and exercised significant power in a time when most women were treated as little more than chattel and broodmares.