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Keepers of the Dead

At Eleanor of Aquitaine’s court in Poitiers, fourteen year old lady Joanna is seduced by Eleanor’s married son, prince Henry. When Joanna’s aunt, Alice, complains, Eleanor responds by inviting them both to be Her attending-ladies. Subsequently, Alice and Joanna experience a period of security and luxury they’ve never known, while becoming the closest confidantes of Eleanor and Her daughter, princess Marie. They are immersed in the romantic and refined troubadour culture of the court, interspersed, however, with bloody hawking excursions. They travel to the austere – but peaceful – abbey of Fontevrault for retreats and keep Christmas with the royal family at the wild, barbaric castle of Chinon in the Loire. They are witness to the increasingly fractious relationship between Eleanor and Her estranged husband, King Henry II of England, as he continuously interferes with Her barons in Aquitaine.

Henry’s autocratic rule inspires rebellion in those closest to him, including his sons and the powerful Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. When the feud with Becket ends tragically, Eleanor risks everything in order to regain freedom for Herself and Her sons, drawing Alice and Joanna into a world of intrigue, danger and adventure.