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Date Posted: 04:47:40 02/26/01 Mon
Author: Alienor (not quite d'Aquitaine)
Subject: Hmmmmm, there were so many Alienors, Alianoras, Eleanors etc. at that time
In reply to: Kris 's message, "Hmmmmmmmmmm" on 11:50:30 02/22/01 Thu

but Chaucer's benefactress must be Alianor Holand, Countess of March and Ulster, Countess of Salisbury, married to (1)Roger Mortimer, Earl of March and Ulster and (2) Thomas Montague, Earl of Salisbury. All of them had roots in the Plantagenet family, Mortimer was a great-grandson of Edward III Plantagenet, King of England. Through her daughter with Mortimer Alianor Holand was a great-grandmother of Richard III Crookback.

Mortimer died in July 1398, so if Alianor was still Countess of March when she provided for Chaucer it probably had to be before that date, and definitely before she married again in May 1999 and became Countess of Salisbury.
I'm not sure if the subforester job was really kind of an old age pension for a poor poet because Chaucer was very active and held many high ranking and well paid offices until he died in 1400. Also, he was granted an annuity of 20 pounds by Richard II, which was comfirmed and added to by Henry IV.

As far as can be told Chaucer seems to have been very sociable, and he definitely liked to share his wine with good company.

The Plantagenet roots make Alianor Holand a guesstimated [6-8x]great-granddaughter of Alienor d'Aquitaine, who too was a very well educated, sociable and charitable lady. That she was also a pretty sharp politician, equal to her second husband Henry II Plantagenet, King of England, and even more so than her first husband Louis VII, King of France, or her sons Richard Lionhart and John Lackland, didn't make her too many friends among male politicians through the centuries. I would love to see her deal with some of our contemporary politicians!

Anyway this is the Alienor I chose as my namesake. And as she was born in 1120 or 1022 and lived to the incredibly high age of 82, I have about 250 more years to gather knowledge and maybe even a little wisdom. And I always share my wine!

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