James Goldman has set his screenplay in an appropriate historical context and used the known facts to weave a credible tale. He was the first Plantagenet king, the founder of England’s most successful and longest-ruling dynasty. How do you feel about the recent prominence in best sellers Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire and The Gentleman's Daughter*! Her marriage to Henry II saw the establishment of a great Plantagenet empire, but their early passion gave way to a stormy and tempestuous relationship.

I have always found her an enigmatic and elusive figure, and writing her biography was a labour of love - something I had wanted to do for over a quarter of a century.James Goldman has used what is known of the Plantagenets to paint a credible scenario of the tensions between them: the love-hate relationship between Henry and Eleanor, her contempt for, and fear of, his younger mistress, who also happens to be affianced to Henry's son, Richard the Lionheart, who is portrayed as an anguished man coming to terms with his homosexuality. Some discussion with DANGEROSA follows, then ALL PLAYERS exit as a mighty chord from a cathedral organ rings out as the roses are removed from the backdrop and the altar is moved to centre stage.

It is time for Heloise, whose story is perceived as being eternally entwined with Abelard`s, to be allowed a separate identity, and to stand in her own right alongside such heroines of the twelfth century as Hildegarde of Bingen, the Empress Matilda and Eleanor herself. Afterwards, when the parliamentary surveyors viewed the devastation, they found the building almost uninhabitable and rifled most of the stone, leaving only the gatehouse and a few rooms. But I admit to foaming at the mouth when hearing of a television director who believed it to be 'demeaning' to have to follow the facts of history - a breathtakingly arrogant view, in my opinion. When Richard became king, and went away on cru­sades, she even took the reins of power and toured the dominions whipping up support for John (her other son) ahead of his accession to the throne. The lives of women were often governed by everyday cus­toms, the sort of domestic details that male historians have tended to gloss over.And, yes, Eleanor was allowed out of custody to spend Christmas with her family, although we have no record of what went on between them all. It explores the birth of the Angevin Empire that spread from Northumberland to the Mediterranean, and the causes of the disintegration of that vast territory, as well as the troublesome relationships between Henry and his sons, who dragged their father to the battlefield to defend his lands from their ambitious intriguing.

It was a stage play set at a time of dramatic tension within the Angevin family, a chance to explore relationships in depth. The conversation resumes, and turns to the scandalous affair between Eleanor's sister, Petronilla, and Raoul, Count of Vermandois.

When Eleanor, wearing men’s clothing, was arrested on her way to Paris, where she planned to seek the support of her former husband, King Louis, Henry had her shut away for a year, then took her to England, where she spent the last fifteen years of his reign mainly confined at Old Sarum or Winchester. There have been some marvelous movies made about Henry II - Becket (starring Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole) and The Lion in Winter with Katharine Hepburn and Richard Harris. Yet history is not the sole preserve of academics; it belongs to us all and can be accessed by us all; in that sense, it can be popular. Above all, there is the heroine, viewed clear-sightedly in all her intoxicating and imperious irresistibility. Her unusual longevity afforded her more scope to astonish, impress and shock her contemporaries; moreover, she seemed to delight in defying the conventions of her time.