A letter from Eleanor of Aquitaine (1193)

Translated letter:

To her revered father and lord Celestine, highest pontiff by the grace of God, A., wretched and to be pitied — if only she were — queen of the English, duchess of Normandy, countess of Anjou, to show himself the father of mercy to the suffering mother.(1) I am prevented by invidious distances, blessed father, from speaking to you in person, but I must lament my grief a little. And who will grant that my words be written? I am in such anguish within and without, that my words are filled with grief. Fears without, fights within.(2) I am not free to breathe now from the tribulation of evils and grief, the excessive tribulations that have come upon us. I am wasted away by sorrow, my bone clings to the consumed flesh of my skin, my years decline in sighs — would that they might give out altogether, that the blood of my already dead body, the brain in my head, the marrow of my bones might dissolve in tears, that I might completely vanish in weeping. My entrails are torn from me, I have lost the staff of my old age and the light of my eyes; it would answer my prayers if God condemned my unfortunate eyes to perpetual blindness so they might no longer see the ills of my people. Who will let me die for you, my son? Mother of mercy, look on a mother of such misery, or if your son, an endless font of mercy, exacts the sins of the mother from the son, let him exact them only from the one who sinned, let him punish the impious, not laugh at the punishments of the innocent. Who began [my life], let him destroy me, let him take his hand and cut me off; and let this be my consolation, that afflicting me with pain, he not spare me. Pitiful and pitied by no one, why have I come to the ignominy of this detestable old age, who was ruler of two kingdoms, mother of two kings? My guts are torn from me, my family is carried off and removed from me. The young king [Henry +1183] and the count of Britanny [Geoffrey +1186] sleep in dust, and their most unhappy mother is compelled to be irremediably tormented by the memory of the dead. Two sons remain to my solace, who today survive to punish me, miserable and condemned. King Richard is held in chains. His brother, John, depletes his kingdom with iron [sword] and lays it waste with fire. In all things the Lord has turned cruel to me and attacked me with the harshness of his hand. Truly his wrath battles against me: my sons fight amongst themselves, if it is a fight where one is restrained in chains, the other, adding sorrow to sorrow, undertakes to usurp the kingdom of the exile by cruel tyranny. Good Jesus, who will grant that you protect me in hell and hide me until your fury passes, until the arrows which are in me cease, by which my whole spirit is sucked out? Death is my wish, my life is loathsome, and since I die incessantly, I desire to die fully; I am compelled to live against my will so that life is to me the food of death and the matter of torture. Happy those who are blessedly aborted before they can experience the mockery of this life and the unexpected events of our uncertain condition! What am I doing? Why do I survive? Why do I, wretched, delay and not go to see the one whom my soul loves, conquered by poverty and iron? how could a mother forget the son of her womb for so long? Affection for their offspring softens even wild tigers and demons. But I waver in doubt. If I go, deserting my son’s kingdom, that is laid waste on all sides with grave hostility, it will be deprived of all counsel and comfort in my absence. If I remain, I shall not see the face I most desire, of my son. There will be no one to zealously procure the freedom of my son and, what I fear even more, with the impossible quantity of money, that very delicate youth, impatient at such affliction, will be pressed by his torments and driven to death by his tortures. O impious, cruel, terrible tyrant, who did not fear to lay your sacrilegious hands on the anointed of the Lord; neither the royal unction, nor reverence for holy life, nor the fear of God kept you from such inhuman action. But the prince of apostles still reigns and rules in the apostolic see and judiciary rigor is established there. May it remain there so that you, Father, unsheath the sword of Peter which he set for this purpose over peoples and kingdoms. The cross of Christ preceded the eagles of Caesar, the sword of Peter the sword of Constantine, and the apostolic see passes sentence on imperial power. Is your power from God or from men? Did the God of Gods not speak to you, saying to the apostle Peter: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven?” Why, therefore, do you delay so long, so negligently, indeed so cruelly to free my son, or do you not dare? But you say this power was committed to you for souls not bodies. So be it: it is certainly sufficient for us if you bind the souls of those who hold my son bound in prison; it is easy for you to free my son while the fear of God overpowers human fear. Give my son back to me, man of God, if you are a man of God and not a man of blood. if you are sluggish in the freeing of my son, may the Highest exact his blood from your hand. Alas, alas, if the highest shepherd is perverted into a mercenary, if he flees before the wolf, if he abandons the little sheep committed to his care, indeed the ram, the chosen leader of the Lord’s flock to the jaws of the cruel beast! A good shepherd instructs other shepherds, teaches them not to flee when they see the wolf coming but to offer their lives for their sheep. I ask that your life/soul be safe while you strive to procure with swift legations, with salutary admonitions, with thundering threats, with general interdictions, with terrible judgments, the freedom not of your sheep but of your son. Truly you should offer your life for him, you who until now have not wanted to say or write one word. The son of God, by the witness of the prophet, descended from heaven to lead the vanquished from the lake in which there was no water. Is not what was fitting for God fitting for the servant of God? My son is tormented in chains and you do not descend nor send to him; you are not moved by Joseph’s grief. Christ sees this and is silent; but the work of God abundantly repays with the highest severity those who act negligently. Legates have now been promised to us three times but have not been sent; if I may speak truth, they are more “ligates” [bound] than legates. If my son were prospering, they would swiftly come at his simple call, because they would expect rich handouts to their legation from the magnificent munificence and from the public profit of the kingdom. And what more glorious request could they receive than to free a captive king, to give peace back to his people, tranquillity to the religious, and joy to all? Now, however, the sons of Ephraim are converted to war, bending and loosing their bows, and in a time of anguish, while the wolf broods over the prey, the mute dogs can not or do not wish to bark. Is this the promise that you made to us at Châteauroux with such love and protestation of faith? What benefit was it to you to give words to the simple, to delude the desires of the innocent with foolish faith? So king Achab is said to have once made a compact of friendship with Benadab, and we have heard what an inauspicious outcome their mutual love had. Heavenly dispensation favored the battles of Judas, John, the brother of Simon Maccabee with happy omens; when their legation was sent confirming the friendship of the Romans, they lost the help of God, and not once but often their venal intercourse turned to sobs. You alone compel me to despair who alone after God are my hope, who were the confidence of our people. Cursed is he who trusts in man. Where is my expectation now? You are, Lord, my God. To you, Lord, who consider labor, the eyes of your handmaid are turned. King of kings and Lord of lords, look in the face of your Christ, give power to your child and save the son of your handmaid; do not punish in him the crimes of his father or the malice of his mother. We have learned from a reliable public account that after the death of the bishop of Liège, whom he is said to have killed with a long hand by deadly sword, the emperor constrained by wretched imprisonment the bishop of Ostia and four of his fellow provincial bishops, as well as the archbishops of Salerno and Trani and, what apostolic authority ought in no way to hide, occupied by tyrannical usurpation Sicily, which from the times of Constantine has been the patrimony of St. Peter, despite legations, supplications, and threats from the apostolic see. With all this his furor is not abated but his hand is still stretched forth. He has done serious things, but you can most certainly expect more serious soon. For those who ought to be the columns of the church are moved like light reeds in any wind. Would that they remembered that because of the negligence of Eli, the priest ministering in Shiloh, the glory of the Lord of Israel was transferred. This is not a parable of the past but of the present, since the lord rejected the tabernacle of Shiloh, his tabernacle where he lived among men, and gave their strength into captivity, their beauty into the hands of the enemy. It will be imputed to their pusillanimity that the church is trampled, the faith endangered, liberty oppressed, that deceit, suffering and iniquity are nourished with impunity. Where is what the lord promised his church: “you shall suck the milk of nations, you shall suck the breasts of kings, I will make you the proud in the world, a joy from age to age”? The church once trampled the necks of the proud and sublime with its own power, and the laws of emperors followed the sacred canons. Now, however, with order disrupted, I shall not say the canons, but the framers of canons are restricted by depraved laws and abominable customs. The scourges of the powerful that should be detested are tolerated and there is no one who dares to mumble; meanwhile canonical rigor is exercized against the sins of the poor. Not undeservedly does the philosopher Anacharsis compare laws and canons with the webs of spiders, which retain weaker animals but let the strong pass through. The kings of the earth stood by and princes came together as one against the anointed of the Lord, my son. One torments him with chains; another lays waste his lands with cruel hostility. And, if I may use a common expression, "one shaves, another pulls the hair, one holds the foot, another excoriates.”(3) The highest pontiff sees this and suppresses the sword of Peter which he has replaced in its sheath. So he adds horns to the sinner and his silence is taken for consent. For he seems to consent who, when he can and ought, does not reprove, and when patience, the concealer of hidden association, does not lack scruple. The time of dissension, as the apostle foretold, is imminent, when the son of perdition will be revealed and dangerous times draw near, when the seamless tunic of Christ will be cut, the net of Peter torn, and the solidity of Catholic unity will be dissolved. These are the beginnings of evils: we experience grave things, we fear more grave. I am not a prophetess, I am not a daughter of the prophet; yet grief gave me many things to say about future disturbances, but those words which it suggested, it snatches away. Sobs hinder my spirit, sorrow, sapping the strength of my soul/life cuts off the path of my words with anxiety.

Original letter:

Reverendo Patri, et domino Coelestino Dei gratia summo pontifici A. misera, et utinam miserabilis Anglorum regina, ducissa Normanniae, comitissa Andegaviae, miserae matri exhibere se misericordiae patrem. Invidente locorum distantia prohibeor, beatissime papa, vobis praesentialiter loqui; necesse tamen est, ut plangam paululum dolorem meum. Et quis mihi tribuat ut scribantur sermones mei? Tota interius et exterius anxior: unde et verba mea dolore sunt plena. "Feris sunt timores, intus pugnae" (II Cor. VII); nec ad momentum mihi respirare liberum est "a tribulatione malorum et dolore" (Psal. CVI), "a tribulationibus, quae invenerunt nos nimis" (Psal. XLV) Tota dolore contabui, pellique meae consumptis carnibus adhaesit os meum (Psal. CI). "Defecerunt anni mei in gemitibus" (Psal. XXX), et utinam omnino deficiant. Utinam totus sanguis corporis mei jam emortui, cerebrum capitis, ossiumque medullae ita dissolvantur in lacrymas, ut in fletus tota pereffluam. Avulsa sunt a me viscera mea, baculum senectutis meae, "et lumen oculorum meorum" perdidi (Psal. XXXVII), meisque votis accederet, si Deus infelices oculos meos ne mala gentis meae ulterius videant, perpetua caecitate damnaret. "Quis det mihi ut pro te moriar, fili mi?" (II Reg. XVIII.) Matrem tantae miseriae respice misericordiae mater, aut si filius tuus fons misericordiae inexhaustus, peccata matris requirit a filio, ab ea quae sola deliquit, totum exigat, puniat impiam, et de poenis innocentis non rideat. "Qui coepit, ipse me conterat, tollat manum suam, et succidat me: et haec sit consolatio mea, ut affligens me dolore, non parcat" (Job VI). Ego misera, et nulli miserabilis, cur in hujus detestandae senectutis ignominiam veni, duorum regnorum domina, duorumque regum mater exstiteram: avulsa sunt a me viscera mea; "generatio mea ablata est, et revoluta est a me" (Isa. XXXVIII). Rex junior et comes Britanniae in pulvere dormiunt, et eorum mater infelicissima vivere cogitur, ut irremediabiliter de mortuorum memoria torqueatur. Duo filii mihi supererant ad solatium, qui hodie mihi miserae et damnatae supersunt ad supplicium. Rex Ricardus tenetur in vinculis. Joannes frater ipsius regnum captivi depopulatur ferro, et vastat incendiis. "In omnibus versus est mihi Dominus in crudelem, et adversatur mihi in duritia manus suae" (Job XXX). Vere pugnat ira ejus contra me; ideo et filii mei pugnant inter se; si tamen pugna est, ubi unus vinculis arctatus affligitur; alius addens dolorem super dolorem ipsius crudeli tyrannide sibi regnum exsulis usurpare molitur. Bone Jesu, quis mihi tribuat, ut in inferno protegas me, et abscondas me, donec pertranseat furor tuus (Isa. XXVI), donec cessent sagittae, quae in me sunt, quarum indignatione spiritus meus totus ebibitur. Mors in voto mihi est, et vita in taedio, et cum sic moriar incessanter, in desideriis tamen habeo mori plenius; vivere compellor invita, ut vita mihi sit pabulum mortis et materia cruciatus. O felices, qui inexperti ludibria vitae hujus, et inopinatos eventus conditionis incertae beato praevenerunt aborsu! Quid facio? cur subsisto? quare moror misera, et non vado ut videam "quem diligit anima mea" (Cant. III), "vinctum in mendicitate et ferro?" (Psal. CVI.) utquid enim tanto tempore mater potuit oblivisci filii uteri sui? Tigrides erga fetus suos, et lamias etiam saeviores emollit affectio. Fluctuo tamen in dubio. Si enim abiero, deserens filii mei regnum, quod undique gravi hostilitate vastatur, erit in absentia mea omni consilio et solatio destitutum. Si autem substitero, desideratissimam mihi faciem filii mei non videbo. Non erit, qui liberationem filii mei studiose procuret, et, quod magis vereor, ad impossibilem pecuniae quantitatem delicatissimus adolescens tormentis urgebitur, tantaeque afflictionis impatiens facile in mortem suppliciis adigetur. O impie, crudelis et dire tyranne, qui non es veritus manus sacrilegas immittere in christum Domini, nec te regalis unctio, nec sanctae viae reverentia, nec Dei timor a tanta inhumanitate cohibuit! Porro princeps apostolorum adhuc in apostolica sede regnat et imperat, et in medio constitutus est judiciarius rigor; illudque restat, ut exeratis in maleficos, Pater, gladium Petri, quem ad hoc constituit super gentes et regna. Christi crux antecessit Caesaris aquilas, gladius Petri gladio Constantini, et apostolica sedes praejudicat imperatoriae potestati. Vestra potestas a Deo est, an ab hominibus? Nonne Deus deorum locutus est vobis in Petro apostolo dicens: "Quodcunque ligaveris super terram, erit ligatum et in coelis; et quodcunque solveris super terram, erit solutum et in coelis?" (Matth. XVI.) Quare ergo tanto tempore tam negligenter, imo tam crudeliter filium meum solvere differtis, aut potius non audetis? Sed dicetis hanc potestatem vobis in animabus, non in corporibus fuisse commissam. Esto: certe sufficit nobis, si eorum ligaveritis animas, qui filium meum ligatum in carcere tenent; filium meum solvere, vobis in expedito est, dummodo humanum timorem Dei timor evacuet. Redde igitur mihi filium meum, vir Dei, si tamen vir Dei es, et non potius vir sanguinum, si in filii mei liberatione torpeas, ut sanguinem ejus de manu tua requirat Altissimus (Gen. IX). Heu, heu, si summus pastor in mercenarium pervertatur, si a facie lupi fugiat, si commissam sibi oviculam imo arietem electum, ducem Dominici gregis, in faucibus cruentae bestiae derelinquat! Bonus pastor alios pastores instruit, et informat, non ut fugiant, si viderint lupum venientem, sed animas suas pro ovibus suis ponant (Joan. X). Anima tua tibi, quaeso, salva sit, dummodo non dicam ovis tuae sed filii tui liberationem crebris legationibus, salutaribus monitis, comminationum tonitruis, generalibus interdictis, sententiis terribilibus studeas procurare. Sane vero vestram pro eo animam poneretis, qui pro eodem adhuc unum verbum dicere, aut scribere noluistis. Dei Filius, testimonio prophetae, de coelo descendit, ut educeret vinctos de lacu, in quo non erat aqua. Nunquid quod decuit Deum, dedecet Dei servum? Filius meus torquetur in vinculis, nec ad eum descendis, nec mittis, nec moveris super contritione Joseph. Christus hoc videt, et silet; sed opus Dei negligenter agentibus abundanter in summa districtione retribuet (Jer. XLVIII). Legati nobis jam tertio promissi sunt, nec sunt missi: utque verum fatear, ligati potius quam legati. Si filius meus in prosperis ageret, ad simplicem ejus vocationem festinantius accessissent, quia de magnifica ejus munificentia, et de publico regni quaestu suae legationis uberes manipulos exspectarent. Et quis quaestus eis gloriosior esse posset, quam regem liberare captivum, reddere pacem populis, religiosis quietem, et gaudium universis? Nunc autem "filii Ephrem intendentes et mittentes arcum in die belli conversi sunt" (Psal. LXXVII), et in tempore angustiae, dum lupus praedae incubat, canes muti latrare aut non possunt, aut nolunt. Haeccine promissio illa est, quam nobis apud castrum Radulphi cum tanta dilectionis et fidei protestatione fecistis? Quid profuit vobis simplicibus dare verba, et illudere vota innocentium inani fiducia? Sic olim rex Achab foedus amicitiae contraxisse cum Benadab perhibetur, illorumque mutuam dilectionem eventus habuisse infaustos audivimus; pugnas Judae, Joannis, Simonis Machabaeorum fratrum coelestis dispensatio felicibus prosperabat auspiciis; missa vero legatione sibi firmantes amicitiam Romanorum, Dei perdiderunt auxilium, nec eis semel, sed saepius venalis eorum familiaritas versa est in singultum. Solus desperare me cogitis, qui solus post Deum spes mea, populique nostri fiducia fueratis. "Maledictus qui confidit in homine" (Jer. XVII). Ubi est ergo nunc praestolatio mea? tu es, Domine, Deus meus. Ad te, Domine, qui laborem consideras, sunt oculi ancillae tuae. "Tu rex regum et Dominus dominantium" (I Tim. VI), "respice in faciem Christi tui" (Psal. LXXXIII), "da imperium puero tuo, et salvum fac filium ancillae tuae" (Psal. LXXXV), nec in eo punias delicta sui patris, aut malitiam matris suae. Ex certa et publica relatione cognovimus, quod imperator post Legiensis episcopi mortem, quem funesto gladio, longa tamen manu dicitur occidisse, Ostunensem episcopum, et quatuor episcopos comprovinciales ejus, Salernitanum etiam et Tranensem archiepiscopos coarctat miseria carcerali, et quod auctoritas apostolica nullatenus dissimulare debuerat, Siciliam, quam a temporibus Constantini constat esse patrimonium S. Petri, post legationes, post supplicationes, post comminationes apostolicae sedis, in perpetuum Romanae Ecclesiae praejudicium, usurpatione tyrannica occupavit. In omnibus his non est aversus furor ejus, sed adhuc manus ejus extenta. Gravia quidem intulit, sed certissime potestis exspectare in proximo graviora. Hi enim, qui debuerant esse columnae Ecclesiae, in omnes ventos arundinea levitate moventur. Utinam recolerent quod, propter negligentiam Heli sacerdotis ministrantis in Silo, gloria Domini de Israel translata est (I Reg. I); nec jam parabola temporis praeteriti est, sed praesentis; "quia repulit Dominus tabernaculum Silo, tabernaculum suum, ubi habitavit in hominibus, et tradidit in captivitatem virtutem eorum, et pulchritudinem eorum in manus inimici!" (Psal. LXXVII.) Imputatur eorum pusillanimitati, quod Ecclesia conculcatur, periclitatur fides, opprimitur libertas, dolus, patientia et iniquitas impunitate nutritur. Ubi est, quod Dominus Ecclesiae suae quandoque promisit: "Suges lac gentium, et mamilla regum lactaberis; ponam te in superbiam saeculorum, gaudium in generationem et generationem?" (Isa. LX.) Ecclesia olim superborum et sublimium colla propria virtute calcabat, legesque imperatorum sacros canones sequebantur. Nunc autem ordine turbato, non dicam canones, sed canonum conditores pravis legibus, et consuetudinibus exsecrandis arctantur. Detestanda potentum flagitia tolerantur; nec est, qui mutire audeat et in pauperum peccata duntaxat rigor canonicus exercetur. Ideo non immerito Anacharsis philosophus telis aranearum leges et canones comparabat, quae animalia debiliora retinent, fortia autem transmittunt. "Astiterunt reges terrae et principes convenerunt in unum adversus Christum Domini" (Psal. II), filium meum. Unus eum torquet in vinculis; alter terras illius crudeli hostilitate devastat. Et, ut verbo vulgari utar, "unus tondet, alter expilat; unus pedem tenet, alter excoriat." Haec videt summus pontifex, et gladium Petri supprimit in vagina repositum. Sic addit cornua peccatori, ipsaque taciturnitas ejus praesumitur ad consensum. Videtur enim consentire, qui cum possit et deberet non corripit, et dissimulatrix patientia societatis occultae scrupulo non carebit. Imminet, sicut praedixit apostolus, tempus dissensionis, ut perditionis filius reveletur, instantque tempora periculosa (II Tim. III), ut scindatur tunica Christi inconsutilis, ut rumpatur rete Petri, et catholicae unitatis soliditas dissolvatur. Initia malorum sunt haec (Matth. VIII): sentimus gravia, graviora timemus. Nec prophetissa, nec filia sum prophetae; plura tamen de futuris turbationibus dolor dicere suggerebat: sed ipsa verba, quae suggerit, subripit. Spiritum enim singultus intercipit, et animae vires moeror absorbens vocales meatus anxietate praecludit. Vale.

Historical context:

Eleanor addressed three letters to the pope during her son Richard’s captivity in Germany which lasted some sixteen months. This third letter includes still more strong expressions of personal suffering with conflicts between maternal affection and public responsibility, more allusions to papal failures in duty and imperial crimes and usurpations, greed on all sides, and reminders of an avenging God, and an appeal to the mother of God. Eleanor eventually raised the needed ransom and Richard was released into her custody in 1194. (For a discussion of the authorship of the letters, see ep. 139 html.)

Scholarly notes:

(1) The Latin plays heavily on the root miser (misera, miserabilis, misericordiae) which is lost in the translations (wretched, to be pitied, mercy, suffering).
(2) This is a reversal of the passage in II Corinthians 7:5: “disputes without and fears within.”
(3) This descent from biblical language and Latin rhetoric to daily [probably vernacular] speech may well have come from Eleanor, the granddaughter of Guillaume IX, versed in the sometimes crude, sometimes exalted language of Provençal poetry, rather than from a royal secretary writing for a queen to a pope.

Printed source:

PL206 ep4 c1268-72, also Rymer, Foedera, 1.24-5 (3rd ed.).

Date:

1193