she is the author of The Jacquerie of 1358: A French Peasants’ Revolt (2021) and Violence and the State in Languedoc, 1250-1400 (2014).
Firnhaber-Baker applied the "Page 99 Test" to her new book, House of Lilies: The Dynasty That Made Medieval France, and reported the following:
From page 99:Learn more about House of Lilies at the publisher's website.…unsuccessful expedition in 1141 to capture Toulouse, which Eleanor claimed by right of her grandmother. Louis’s anger at these failures and Thibaut’s assault, as they saw it, on Petronilla’s happiness and indeed her salvation, grew white hot when it became known that Thibaut was sheltering the pope’s preferred candidate for the see of Bourges. By August 1142, Louis had invaded Champagne, and when his army reached the town of Vitry, whose unarmed inhabitants fled from the violence of his ravaging soldiers, he ordered the massacre that still haunted him years later.A conflicted king, a powerful queen (Eleanor of Aquitaine, no less!), a saint, a crusade, a massacre of innocents, and a family drama that changes the fate of a nation: It’s all there on page 99. House of Lilies is a history of the Capetian dynasty that ruled France from 987 to 1328. It follows the intertwined stories of this royal family and the nation it ruled – and in many ways built – over these formative centuries in European political and cultural history. When the first Capetian king was crowned, national borders were still fluid, kings were weak relative to their position in later centuries, and iconic elements of medieval life, like chivalry, gothic architecture, and crusading, had yet to be invented. But by the time the last Capetian king died, all those things – and much more – had come into being, in no small part because of the Capetians themselves.
As the war in Champagne dragged on, Queen Eleanor, too, began to have doubts. She had not yet carried a pregnancy to term, a fact which suggested God’s displeasure. Although her influence on her husband’s reign during these unhappy early years is hard to prove – the sources are scant and coloured by knowledge of her later actions – she does seem to have gained some say in the kingdom’s governance soon after her marriage, and many blamed its ‘confused and chaotic’ character on her. Certainly, Bernard of Clairvaux faulted her for Louis’s aggressive policy toward Champagne and his unwillingness to settle with Count Thibaut or to concede to the pope’s wishes for the see of Bourges. When Bernard came upon Eleanor praying for a child during the reopening festivities for Abbot Suger’s renovated Saint- Denis in June 1144, he seized the opportunity and promised her that God would finally bless her womb, but only if she dropped her obdurate stance and worked zealously for peace. She agreed, and his prediction proved correct. Once Thibaut and Louis were reconciled and the pope’s candidate took up the see of Bourges – though at the cost of Louis breaking his sacred oath never to allow it and incurring yet another sin to weigh on his conscience – Eleanor did at long last bear a child, albeit a disappointingly female one.
The queen was far from alone in agreeing to do what Bernard asked of her. The honey-tongued abbot had a talent for convincing people to do things, and it was he who convinced the kingdom to undertake Louis’s crusade. The dubious nobles at Louis’s Christmas court had promised to seek Bernard’s advice, and he in turn sought guidance from the pope, who was more than happy to have Bernard…
On page 99, we meet King Louis VII, first husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine, as he is trying to get the Second Crusade off the ground, partly to expiate his sin in burning 1,300 people alive in a church while warring against one of his barons. The crusade will be preached by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, whom we also meet on page 99, where he promises Eleanor that if she influences Louis VII for good then she will get pregnant. Eleanor and Louis’s barren marriage – which only produced two daughters in fifteen years – was the reason that Louis eventually divorced her. This proved to be a terrible decision because Eleanor then immediately married King Henry II of England, one of the most dangerous foes France ever faced. Heiress to vast duchy of Aquitaine in southern France, Eleanor brought these lands to Henry, who ruled not only England but also a collection of French lands much larger than the Capetians’ own. (Adding insult to injury, Eleanor then gave Henry baby after baby after baby, five of them boys.) Louis VII’s son and grandson would conquer most of these lands – and even invade England itself in 1216 – but Gascony, the last remnant of Eleanor’s duchy, stayed in English hands until the end of the Hundred Years War (1338-1453), the beginning of which is where my book ends.
--Marshal Zeringue
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