Eleanor of Aquitaine--here called by her proper name, Alienor--is a difficult figure to write. I think it's because we tend to believe that a strong woman of any era would be just like the "strong women" of our era. Authors either turn Eleanor/Alienor into a 21st century grrrl power heroine in medieval garb, or they go in the complete opposite direction. The second Alienor is a breathless, swooning object of desire, totally misunderstood and unfairly portrayed by historians and chroniclers.

"The Summer Queen" gives us what I think is the first halfway accurate depiction of Alienor's personality. She's strong, to be sure, and independent--for a woman of her time. She's a leader, but she's still a woman; and in a time when women were severely undervalued.

Another piece of ground Chadwick hits that's often overlooked in retellings of Alienor's life is her first marriage. Alienor is remembered so often as an English queen that we often forget she was not only a French native, but the one-time queen of France. The best part here is that Chadwick doesn't dismiss Alienor's marriage to King Louis as bad from the start. Despite his religious hangups, how could Louis not be attracted to the beautiful, fiery Alienor? It's only as he grows older and more fanatical that he turns against his wife, and she him. It was kind of refreshing to see the union portrayed as something that fell apart over time, rather than being doomed from the start.

The only thing I can really critique is that some Chadwick's decisions were a little... eh. She makes one major plotline happen on the basis of some historical guesswork on her part. Not only does it take away from what could have been an even juicier storyline--it just doesn't seem likely. But it doesn't detract from the book as a whole, which I wholeheartedly recommend.