ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE: Laugh and Learn through the Middle Ages

All the core content you want in one (mildly amusing) place! Role-Play the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine in a humorous introduction to medieval life and its impact on the modern world!
 PART ONE: ARRANGED MARRIAGE, or, THE HEIR AND THE SPARE explores the days before feminism, when even a woman as rich and powerful as Eleanor must submit to a marriage arranged by her family.
 In PART TWO, THE SECOND CRUSADE, Saint Bernard calls for a holy war against unbelievers and Eleanor invents cosplay during an invasion of the Middle East.
 PART THREE: COURTS OF LAW AND COURTLY LOVE demonstrates the absurdity of torture and the “trial by ordeal”, as Henry II lays the foundation of modern law. Eleanor improves public health by insisting that knights use a different knife when carving the roast or stabbing a friend in the back.
 In PART FOUR, CHURCH AND STATE BEFORE THEY WERE SEPARATED, students act out the conflict between Henry and his friend Thomas Becket, a violent quarrel over the separation of Church and State, as well as the inspiration for Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
 PART FIVE: KING JOHN AND MAGNA CARTA, spotlights Eleanor’s children, Richard the Lionhearted and wicked King John, as special guest star Robin Hood teaches John a lesson in due process of law, habeas corpus and the Magna Carta.
And all our lives are changed because of a startled pig who frightened a horse that threw a prince into a lethal manure pile and…
Includes six supplemental reading essays and worksheets to be used as study guides or quizzes.