title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: The king of France, known as Louis the Fat, was also gravely ill at that time, suffering from a bout of dysentery from which he appeared unlikely to recover. Yet despite his impending death, Louis's mind remained clear. His eldest surviving son, Louis, had originally been destined for monastic life, but had become the heir apparent when the firstborn, Philip, died in a riding accident in 1131.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: The death of William, one of the king's most powerful vassals, made available the most desirable duchy in France. While presenting a solemn and dignified face to the grieving Aquitainian messengers, Louis exulted when they departed. Rather than act as guardian to the duchess and duchy, he decided to marry the duchess to his 17-year-old heir and bring Aquitaine under the control of the French crown, thereby greatly increasing the power and prominence of France and its ruling family, the House of Capet. Within hours, the king had arranged for his son Louis to be married to Eleanor, with Abbot Suger in charge of the wedding arrangements. Louis was sent to Bordeaux with an escort of 500 knights, along with Abbot Suger, Theobald II, Count of Champagne, and Raoul I, Count of Vermandois.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: On 25 July 1137, Eleanor and Louis were married in the Cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux by the archbishop of Bordeaux. Immediately after the wedding, the couple were enthroned as duke and duchess of Aquitaine. It was agreed that the duchy would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest son became both king of France and duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave Louis a rock crystal vase , currently on display at the Louvre. Louis donated the vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor of Aquitaine that still survives.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Louis's tenure as count of Poitou and duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while he and Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned king and queen of France on Christmas Day of the same year.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provençal wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with horror. Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticised by church elders, particularly Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her behaviour baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cité Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Louis soon came into violent conflict with Pope Innocent II. In 1141, the Archbishopric of Bourges became vacant, and the king put forward as a candidate one of his chancellors, Cadurc, while vetoing the one suitable candidate, Pierre de la Chatre, who was promptly elected by the canons of Bourges and consecrated by the Pope. Louis accordingly bolted the gates of Bourges against the new bishop. The Pope, recalling similar attempts by William X to exile supporters of Innocent from Poitou and replace them with priests loyal to himself, blamed Eleanor, saying that Louis was only a child and should be taught manners. Outraged, Louis swore upon relics that so long as he lived Pierre should never enter Bourges. An interdict was thereupon imposed upon the king's lands, and Pierre was given refuge by Theobald II, Count of Champagne.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Louis became involved in a war with Count Theobald by permitting Raoul I, Count of Vermandois and seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife Eleanor of Blois, Theobald's sister, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, Eleanor's sister. Eleanor urged Louis to support her sister's marriage to Count Raoul. Theobald had also offended Louis by siding with the Pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (1142–44) and ended with the occupation of Champagne by the royal army. Louis was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of Vitry. More than a thousand people who sought refuge in the church there died in the flames. Horrified, and desiring an end to the war, Louis attempted to make peace with Theobald in exchange for his support in lifting the interdict on Raoul and Petronilla. This was duly lifted for long enough to allow Theobald's lands to be restored; it was then lowered once more when Raoul refused to repudiate Petronilla, prompting Louis to return to Champagne and ravage it once more.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: In June 1144, the king and queen visited the newly built monastic church at Saint-Denis. While there, the queen met with Bernard of Clairvaux, asking him to use his influence with the Pope to have the excommunication of Petronilla and Raoul lifted, in exchange for which King Louis would make concessions in Champagne and recognise Pierre de la Chatre as archbishop of Bourges. Dismayed at her attitude, Bernard scolded Eleanor for her lack of penitence and interference in matters of state. In response, Eleanor broke down and meekly excused her behaviour, claiming to be bitter because of her lack of children (her only recorded pregnancy at that time was in about 1138, but she miscarried). In response, Bernard became more kindly towards her: "My child, seek those things which make for peace. Cease to stir up the king against the Church, and urge upon him a better course of action. If you will promise to do this, I in return promise to entreat the merciful Lord to grant you offspring." In a matter of weeks, peace had returned to France: Theobald's provinces were returned and Pierre de la Chatre was installed as archbishop of Bourges. In April 1145, Eleanor gave birth to a daughter, Marie.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Louis, however, still burned with guilt over the massacre at Vitry and wished to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to atone for his sins. In autumn 1145, Pope Eugene III requested that Louis lead a Crusade to the Middle East to rescue the Frankish states there from disaster. Accordingly, Louis declared on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges his intention of going on a crusade.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor of Aquitaine also formally took up the cross symbolic of the Second Crusade during a sermon preached by Bernard of Clairvaux. In addition, she had been corresponding with her uncle Raymond, Prince of Antioch, who was seeking further protection from the French crown against the Saracens. Eleanor recruited some of her royal ladies-in-waiting for the campaign as well as 300 non-noble Aquitainian vassals. She insisted on taking part in the Crusades as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. She left for the Second Crusade from Vézelay, the rumoured location of Mary Magdalene's grave, in June 1147.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: The Crusade itself achieved little. Louis was a weak and ineffectual military leader with no skill for maintaining troop discipline or morale, or of making informed and logical tactical decisions. In eastern Europe, the French army was at times hindered by Manuel I Comnenus, the Byzantine Emperor, who feared that the Crusade would jeopardise the tenuous safety of his empire. Notwithstanding, during their three-week stay at Constantinople, Louis was fêted and Eleanor was much admired. She was compared with Penthesilea, mythical queen of the Amazons, by the Greek historian Nicetas Choniates. He added that she gained the epithet "chrysopous" (golden-foot) from the cloth of gold that decorated and fringed her robe. Louis and Eleanor stayed in the Philopation palace just outside the city walls.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: From the moment the Crusaders entered Asia Minor, things began to go badly. The king and queen were still optimistic—the Byzantine Emperor had told them that King Conrad III of Germany had won a great victory against a Turkish army when in fact the German army had been almost completely destroyed at Dorylaeum. However, while camping near Nicea, the remnants of the German army, including a dazed and sick Conrad III, staggered past the French camp, bringing news of their disaster. The French, with what remained of the Germans, then began to march in increasingly disorganised fashion towards Antioch. They were in high spirits on Christmas Eve, when they chose to camp in a lush valley near Ephesus. Here they were ambushed by a Turkish detachment, but the French proceeded to slaughter this detachment and appropriate their camp.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Louis then decided to cross the Phrygian mountains directly in the hope of reaching Raymond of Poitiers in Antioch more quickly. As they ascended the mountains, however, the army and the king and queen were horrified to discover the unburied corpses of the Germans killed earlier.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: On the day set for the crossing of Mount Cadmus, Louis chose to take charge of the rear of the column, where the unarmed pilgrims and the baggage trains marched. The vanguard, with which Queen Eleanor marched, was commanded by her Aquitainian vassal, Geoffrey de Rancon. Unencumbered by baggage, they reached the summit of Cadmus, where Rancon had been ordered to make camp for the night. Rancon, however, chose to continue on, deciding in concert with Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, Louis's uncle, that a nearby plateau would make a better campsite. Such disobedience was reportedly common.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Accordingly, by mid-afternoon, the rear of the column—believing the day's march to be nearly at an end—was dawdling. This resulted in the army becoming separated, with some having already crossed the summit and others still approaching it. In the ensuing Battle of Mount Cadmus, the Turks, who had been following and feinting for many days, seized their opportunity and attacked those who had not yet crossed the summit. The French, both soldiers and pilgrims, taken by surprise, were trapped. Those who tried to escape were caught and killed. Many men, horses, and much of the baggage were cast into the canyon below. The chronicler William of Tyre, writing between 1170 and 1184 and thus perhaps too long after the event to be considered historically accurate, placed the blame for this disaster firmly on the amount of baggage being carried, much of it reputedly belonging to Eleanor and her ladies, and the presence of non-combatants.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: The king, having scorned royal apparel in favour of a simple pilgrim's tunic, escaped notice, unlike his bodyguards, whose skulls were brutally smashed and limbs severed. He reportedly "nimbly and bravely scaled a rock by making use of some tree roots which God had provided for his safety" and managed to survive the attack. Others were not so fortunate: "No aid came from Heaven, except that night fell."


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Official blame for the disaster was placed on Geoffrey de Rancon, who had made the decision to continue, and it was suggested that he be hanged, a suggestion which the king ignored. Since Geoffrey was Eleanor's vassal, many believed that it was she who had been ultimately responsible for the change in plan, and thus the massacre. This suspicion of responsibility did nothing for her popularity in Christendom. She was also blamed for the size of the baggage train and the fact that her Aquitanian soldiers had marched at the front and thus were not involved in the fight. Continuing on, the army became split, with the commoners marching towards Antioch and the royalty travelling by sea. When most of the land army arrived, the king and queen had a dispute. Some, such as John of Salisbury and William of Tyre, say Eleanor's reputation was sullied by rumours of an affair with her uncle Raymond. However, this rumour may have been a ruse, as Raymond, through Eleanor, had been trying to induce Louis to use his army to attack the actual Muslim encampment at nearby Aleppo, gateway to retaking Edessa, which had all along, by papal decree, been the main objective of the Crusade. Although this was perhaps a better military plan, Louis was not keen to fight in northern Syria. One of Louis's avowed Crusade goals was to journey in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and he stated his intention to continue. Reputedly Eleanor then requested to stay with Raymond and brought up the matter of consanguinity—the fact that she and her husband, King Louis, were perhaps too closely related. Consanguinity was grounds for annulment in the medieval period. But rather than allowing her to stay, Louis took Eleanor from Antioch against her will and continued on to Jerusalem with his dwindling army.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Louis's refusal and his forcing her to accompany him humiliated Eleanor, and she maintained a low profile for the rest of the crusade. Louis's subsequent siege of Damascus in 1148 with his remaining army, reinforced by Conrad and Baldwin III of Jerusalem, achieved little. Damascus was a major wealthy trading centre and was under normal circumstances a potential threat, but the rulers of Jerusalem had recently entered into a truce with the city, which they then forswore. It was a gamble that did not pay off, and whether through military error or betrayal, the Damascus campaign was a failure. Louis's long march to Jerusalem and back north, which Eleanor was forced to join, debilitated his army and disheartened her knights; the divided Crusade armies could not overcome the Muslim forces, and the royal couple had to return home. The French royal family retreated to Jerusalem and then sailed to Rome and made their way back to Paris.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: While in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor learned about maritime conventions developing there, which were the beginnings of what would become admiralty law. She introduced those conventions in her own lands on the island of Oléron in 1160 (with the "Rolls of Oléron") and later in England as well. She was also instrumental in developing trade agreements with Constantinople and ports of trade in the Holy Lands.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged, and their differences were only exacerbated while they were abroad. Eleanor's purported relationship with her uncle Raymond, the ruler of Antioch, was a major source of discord. Eleanor supported her uncle's desire to re-capture the nearby County of Edessa, the objective of the Crusade. In addition, having been close to him in their youth, she now showed what was considered to be "excessive affection" towards her uncle.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Home, however, was not easily reached. Louis and Eleanor, on separate ships due to their disagreements, were first attacked in May 1149 by Byzantine ships. Although they escaped this attempt unharmed, stormy weather drove Eleanor's ship far to the south to the Barbary Coast and caused her to lose track of her husband. Neither was heard of for over two months. In mid-July, Eleanor's ship finally reached Palermo in Sicily, where she discovered that she and her husband had both been given up for dead. She was given shelter and food by servants of King Roger II of Sicily, until the king eventually reached Calabria, and she set out to meet him there. Later, at King Roger's court in Potenza, she learned of the death of her uncle Raymond, who had been beheaded by Muslim forces in the Holy Land. This news appears to have forced a change of plans, for instead of returning to France from Marseilles, they went to see Pope Eugene III in Tusculum, where he had been driven five months before by a revolt of the Commune of Rome.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eugene did not, as Eleanor had hoped, grant an annulment. Instead, he attempted to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, confirming the legality of their marriage. He proclaimed that no word could be spoken against it, and that it might not be dissolved under any pretext. He even arranged for Eleanor and Louis to sleep in the same bed. Thus was conceived their second child—not a son, but another daughter, Alix of France.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: The marriage was now doomed. Still without a son and in danger of being left with no male heir, as well as facing substantial opposition to Eleanor from many of his barons and her own desire for annulment, Louis bowed to the inevitable. On 11 March 1152, they met at the royal castle of Beaugency to dissolve the marriage. Hugues de Toucy, archbishop of Sens, presided, and Louis and Eleanor were both present, as were the archbishop of Bordeaux and Rouen. Archbishop Samson of Reims acted for Eleanor.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: On 21 March, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree; Eleanor was Louis' third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France. Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. Children born to a marriage that was later annulled were not at risk of being "bastardised," because "[w]here parties married in good faith, without knowledge of an impediment, ... children of the marriage were legitimate." [Berman 228.] ) Custody of them was awarded to King Louis. Archbishop Samson received assurances from Louis that Eleanor's lands would be restored to her.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: As Eleanor travelled to Poitiers, two lords—Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, brother of Henry II, Duke of Normandy—tried to kidnap and marry her to claim her lands. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to Henry, Duke of Normandy and future king of England, asking him to come at once to marry her. On 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry "without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank."


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou, wife of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais, and they were also descended from King Robert II of France. A marriage between Henry and Eleanor's daughter Marie had earlier been declared impossible due to their status as third cousins once removed. It was rumoured by some that Eleanor had had an affair with Henry's own father, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, who had advised his son to avoid any involvement with her.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: On 25 October 1154, Henry became king of England. A now heavily pregnant Eleanor, was crowned queen of England by Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on 19 December 1154. She may not have been anointed on this occasion, however, because she had already been anointed in 1137. Over the next 13 years, she bore Henry five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan. Historian John Speed, in his 1611 work "History of Great Britain", mentions the possibility that Eleanor had a son named Philip, who died young. His sources no longer exist, and he alone mentions this birth.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor's marriage to Henry was reputed to be tumultuous and argumentative, although sufficiently cooperative to produce at least eight pregnancies. Henry was by no means faithful to his wife and had a reputation for philandering; he fathered other, illegitimate children throughout the marriage. Eleanor appears to have taken an ambivalent attitude towards these affairs. Geoffrey of York, for example, was an illegitimate son of Henry, but acknowledged by Henry as his child and raised at Westminster in the care of the queen.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: During the period from Henry's accession to the birth of Eleanor's youngest son John, affairs in the kingdom were turbulent: Aquitaine, as was the norm, defied the authority of Henry as Eleanor's husband and answered only to their duchess. Attempts were made to claim Toulouse, the rightful inheritance of Eleanor's grandmother Philippa of Toulouse, but they ended in failure. A bitter feud arose between the king and Thomas Becket, initially his chancellor and closest adviser and later the archbishop of Canterbury. Louis of France had remarried and been widowed; he married for the third time and finally fathered a long-hoped-for son, Philip Augustus, also known as Dieudonné—God-given. "Young Henry", son of Henry and Eleanor, wed Margaret, daughter of Louis from his second marriage. Little is known of Eleanor's involvement in these events. It is certain that by late 1166, Henry's notorious affair with Rosamund Clifford had become known, and Eleanor's marriage to Henry appears to have become terminally strained.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: In 1167, Eleanor's third daughter, Matilda, married Henry the Lion of Saxony. Eleanor remained in England with her daughter for the year prior to Matilda's departure for Normandy in September. In December, Eleanor gathered her movable possessions in England and transported them on several ships to Argentan. Christmas was celebrated at the royal court there, and she appears to have agreed to a separation from Henry. She certainly left for her own city of Poitiers immediately after Christmas. Henry did not stop her; on the contrary, he and his army personally escorted her there before attacking a castle belonging to the rebellious Lusignan family. Henry then went about his own business outside Aquitaine, leaving Earl Patrick, his regional military commander, as her protective custodian. When Patrick was killed in a skirmish, Eleanor, who proceeded to ransom his captured nephew, the young William Marshal, was left in control of her lands.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Of all her influence on culture, Eleanor's time in Poitiers between 1168 and 1173 was perhaps the most critical, yet very little is known about it. Henry II was elsewhere, attending to his own affairs after escorting Eleanor there. Some believe that Eleanor's court in Poitiers was the "Court of Love" where Eleanor and her daughter Marie meshed and encouraged the ideas of troubadours, chivalry, and courtly love into a single court. It may have been largely to teach manners, something the French courts would be known for in later generations. Yet the existence and reasons for this court are debated.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: In "The Art of Courtly Love", Andreas Capellanus, Andrew the chaplain, refers to the court of Poitiers. He claims that Eleanor, her daughter Marie, Ermengarde, Viscountess of Narbonne, and Isabelle of Flanders would sit and listen to the quarrels of lovers and act as a jury to the questions of the court that revolved around acts of romantic love. He records some twenty-one cases, the most famous of them being a problem posed to the women about whether true love can exist in marriage. According to Capellanus, the women decided that it was not at all likely.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Some scholars believe that the "court of love" probably never existed since the only evidence for it is Andreas Capellanus' book. To strengthen their argument, they state that there is no other evidence that Marie ever stayed with her mother in Poitiers. Andreas wrote for the court of the king of France, where Eleanor was not held in esteem. Polly Schroyer Brooks, the author of a non-academic biography of Eleanor, suggests that the court did exist, but that it was not taken very seriously, and that acts of courtly love were just a "parlour game" made up by Eleanor and Marie in order to place some order over the young courtiers living there.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: There is no claim that Eleanor invented courtly love, for it was a concept that had begun to grow before Eleanor's court arose. All that can be said is that her court at Poitiers was most likely a catalyst for the increased popularity of courtly love literature in the Western European regions. Amy Kelly, in her article, "Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Courts of Love," gives a very plausible description of the origins of the rules of Eleanor's court: "In the Poitevin code, man is the property, the very thing of woman; whereas a precisely contrary state of things existed in the adjacent realms of the two kings from whom the reigning duchess of Aquitaine was estranged."


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: In March 1173, aggrieved at his lack of power and egged on by Henry's enemies, his son by the same name, the younger Henry, launched the Revolt of 1173–1174. He fled to Paris. From there, "the younger Henry, devising evil against his father from every side by the advice of the French king, went secretly into Aquitaine where his two youthful brothers, Richard and Geoffrey, were living with their mother, and with her connivance, so it is said, he incited them to join him." One source claimed that the queen sent her younger sons to France "to join with him against their father the king." Once her sons had left for Paris, Eleanor may have encouraged the lords of the south to rise up and support them.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Sometime between the end of March and the beginning of May, Eleanor left Poitiers, but was arrested and sent to the king at Rouen. The king did not announce the arrest publicly; for the next year, the queen's whereabouts were unknown. On 8 July 1174, Henry and Eleanor took ship for England from Barfleur. As soon as they disembarked at Southampton, Eleanor was taken either to Winchester Castle or Sarum Castle and held there.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor was imprisoned for the next 16 years, much of the time in various locations in England. During her imprisonment, Eleanor became more and more distant from her sons, especially from Richard, who had always been her favourite. She did not have the opportunity to see her sons very often during her imprisonment, though she was released for special occasions such as Christmas. About four miles from Shrewsbury and close by Haughmond Abbey is "Queen Eleanor's Bower", the remains of a possible triangular timber castle which is believed to have been one of her prisons.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Henry lost the woman reputed to be his great love, Rosamund Clifford, in 1176. He had met her in 1166 and had begun their liaison in 1173, supposedly contemplating divorce from Eleanor. This notorious affair caused a monkish scribe to transcribe Rosamund's name in Latin to "Rosa Immundi", or "Rose of Unchastity". The king had many mistresses, but although he treated earlier liaisons discreetly, he flaunted Rosamund. He may have done so to provoke Eleanor into seeking an annulment, but if so, the queen disappointed him. Nevertheless, rumours persisted, perhaps assisted by Henry's camp, that Eleanor had poisoned Rosamund. It is also speculated that Eleanor placed Rosamund in a bathtub and had an old woman cut Rosamund's arms. Henry donated much money to Godstow Nunnery in Oxfordshire, where Rosamund was buried.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: In 1183, the young King Henry tried again to force his father to hand over some of his patrimony. In debt and refused control of Normandy, he tried to ambush his father at Limoges. He was joined by troops sent by his brother Geoffrey and Philip II of France. Henry II's troops besieged the town, forcing his son to flee. After wandering aimlessly through Aquitaine, Henry the Younger caught dysentery. On Saturday, 11 June 1183, the young king realized he was dying and was overcome with remorse for his sins. When his father's ring was sent to him, he begged that his father would show mercy to his mother, and that all his companions would plead with Henry to set her free. Henry II sent Thomas of Earley, Archdeacon of Wells, to break the news to Eleanor at Sarum. Eleanor reputedly had a dream in which she foresaw her son Henry's death. In 1193, she would tell Pope Celestine III that she was tortured by his memory.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: King Philip II of France claimed that certain properties in Normandy belonged to his half-sister Margaret, widow of the young Henry, but Henry insisted that they had once belonged to Eleanor and would revert to her upon her son's death. For this reason Henry summoned Eleanor to Normandy in the late summer of 1183. She stayed in Normandy for six months. This was the beginning of a period of greater freedom for the still-supervised Eleanor. Eleanor went back to England probably early in 1184. Over the next few years Eleanor often travelled with her husband and was sometimes associated with him in the government of the realm, but still had a custodian so that she was not free.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Upon the death of her husband Henry II on 6 July 1189, Richard I was the undisputed heir. One of his first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders to release Eleanor from prison; he found upon his arrival that her custodians had already released her. Eleanor rode to Westminster and received the oaths of fealty from many lords and prelates on behalf of the king. She ruled England in Richard's name, signing herself "Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England". On 13August 1189, Richard sailed from Barfleur to Portsmouth and was received with enthusiasm. Between 1190 and 1194, Richard was absent from England, engaged in the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1192, and then held in captivity by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. During Richard's absence, royal authority in England was represented by a Council of Regency in conjunction with a succession of chief justiciars—William de Longchamp (1190–1191), Walter deCoutances (1191–1193), and finally Hubert Walter. Although Eleanor held no formal office in England during this period, she arrived in England in the company of Coutances in June 1191, and for the remainder of Richard's absence, she exercised a considerable degree of influence over the affairs of England as well as the conduct of Prince John. Eleanor played a key role in raising the ransom demanded from England by HenryVI and in the negotiations with the Holy Roman Emperor that eventually secured Richard's release. Evidence of the influence she wielded can also be found within the numerous letters she wrote to Pope Celestine III regarding Richard's captivity. Her letter dated 1193, presents her strong expressions of personal suffering as a result of Richard's captivity and informs the Pope that in her grief she is "wasted away by sorrow".


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor survived Richard and lived well into the reign of her youngest son, King John. In 1199, under the terms of a truce between King PhilipII and King John, it was agreed that Philip's 12-year-old heir-apparent Louis would be married to one of John's nieces, daughters of his sister Eleanor of England, queen of Castile. John instructed his mother to travel to Castile to select one of the princesses. Now 77, Eleanor set out from Poitiers. Just outside Poitiers she was ambushed and held captive by Hugh IX of Lusignan, whose lands had been sold to HenryII by his forebears. Eleanor secured her freedom by agreeing to his demands. She continued south, crossed the Pyrenees, and travelled through the kingdoms of Navarre and Castile, arriving in Castile before the end of January 1200.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Castile, had two remaining unmarried daughters, Urraca and Blanche. Eleanor selected the younger daughter, Blanche. She stayed for two months at the Castilian court, then late in March journeyed with granddaughter Blanche back across the Pyrenees. She celebrated Easter in Bordeaux, where the famous warrior Mercadier came to her court. It was decided that he would escort the queen and princess north. "On the second day in Easter week, he was slain in the city by a man-at-arms in the service of Brandin", a rival mercenary captain. This tragedy was too much for the elderly queen, who was fatigued and unable to continue to Normandy. She and Blanche rode in easy stages to the valley of the Loire, and she entrusted Blanche to the archbishop of Bordeaux, who took over as her escort. The exhausted Eleanor went to Fontevraud, where she remained. In early summer, Eleanor was ill, and John visited her at Fontevraud.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor was again unwell in early 1201. When war broke out between John and Philip, Eleanor declared her support for John and set out from Fontevraud to her capital Poitiers to prevent her grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, posthumous son of Eleanor's son Geoffrey and John's rival for the English throne, from taking control. Arthur learned of her whereabouts and besieged her in the castle of Mirebeau. As soon as John heard of this, he marched south, overcame the besiegers, and captured the 15-year-old Arthur, and probably his sister Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany, whom Eleanor had raised with Richard. Eleanor then returned to Fontevraud where she took the veil as a nun.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey next to her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible and is decorated with representations of magnificent jewellery; such effigies were rare, and Eleanor's is one of the finest of the few that survive from this period. However, during the French Revolution the abbey of Fontevraud was sacked and the tombs were disturbed and vandalised – consequently the bones of Eleanor, Henry, Richard, Joanna and Isabella of Angoulême were exhumed and scattered, never to be recovered. By the time of her death she had outlived all of her children except for King John of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Contemporary sources praise Eleanor's beauty. Even in an era when ladies of the nobility were excessively praised, their praise of her was undoubtedly sincere. When she was young, she was described as "perpulchra"—more than beautiful. When she was around 30, Bernard de Ventadour, a noted troubadour, called her "gracious, lovely, the embodiment of charm", extolling her "lovely eyes and noble countenance" and declaring that she was "one meet to crown the state of any king". William of Newburgh emphasised the charms of her person, and even in her old age Richard of Devizes described her as beautiful, while Matthew Paris, writing in the 13thcentury, recalled her "admirable beauty".


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: In spite of all these words of praise, no one left a more detailed description of Eleanor; the colour of her hair and eyes, for example, are unknown. The effigy on her tomb shows a tall and large-boned woman with brown skin, though this may not be an accurate representation. Her seal of shows a woman with a slender figure, but this is probably an impersonal image.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Judy Chicago's artistic installation "The Dinner Party" features a place setting for Eleanor, and she was portrayed by Frederick Sandys in his 1858 painting, "Queen Eleanor".


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Henry and Eleanor are the main characters in James Goldman's 1966 play "The Lion in Winter", which was made into a film in 1968 starring Peter O'Toole as Henry and Katharine Hepburn in the role of Eleanor, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Jean Plaidy's novel "The Courts of Love", fifth in the 'Queens of England' series, is a fictionalised autobiography of Eleanor of Aquitaine.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Norah Lofts wrote a fictionalized biography of her, entitled in various editions "Queen in Waiting" or "Eleanor the Queen", and including some romanticized episodes—starting off with the young Eleanor planning to elope with a young knight, who is killed out of hand by her guardian, in order to facilitate her marriage to the King's son.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: The character Queen Elinor appears in William Shakespeare's "The Life and Death of King John", with other members of the family. On television, she has been portrayed in this play by Una Venning in the "BBC Sunday Night Theatre" version (1952) and by Mary Morris in the BBC Shakespeare version (1984).


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: In Sharon Kay Penman's Plantagenet novels, she figures prominently in "When Christ and His Saints Slept", "Time and Chance", and "Devil's Brood", and also appears in "Lionheart" and "A King's Ransom", both of which focus on the reign of her son, Richard, as king of England. Eleanor also appears briefly in the first novel of Penman's Welsh trilogy, "Here Be Dragons". In Penman's historical mysteries, Eleanor, as Richard's regent, sends squire Justin de Quincy on various missions, often an investigation of a situation involving Prince John. The four published mysteries are the "Queen's Man", "Cruel as the Grave", "Dragon's Lair", and "Prince of Darkness".


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor is the subject of "A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver", a children's novel by E. L. Konigsburg.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Historical fiction author Elizabeth Chadwick wrote a three-volume series about Eleanor: "The Summer Queen" (2013), "The Winter Crown" (2014) and "The Autumn Throne" (2016).


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: In "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood", Howard Pyle, retelling the ballad "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine", made the queen Queen Eleanor to fit historically with the rest of the work.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: She has also been introduced in "The Royal Diaries" series in the book "Crown Jewel of Aquitaine" by Kristiana Gregory.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor has featured in a number of screen versions of the "Ivanhoe" and "Robin Hood" stories. She has been played by Martita Hunt in "The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men" (1952), Jill Esmond in the British TV adventure series "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1955–1960), Phyllis Neilson-Terry in the British TV adventure series "Ivanhoe" (1958), Yvonne Mitchell in the BBC TV drama series "The Legend of Robin Hood" (1975), Siân Phillips in the TV series "Ivanhoe" (1997), and Tusse Silberg in the TV series "The New Adventures of Robin Hood" (1997). She was portrayed by Lynda Bellingham in the BBC series "Robin Hood". Most recently, she was portrayed by Eileen Atkins in "Robin Hood (2010)".


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: In the 1964 film "Becket", Eleanor is briefly played by Pamela Brown to Peter O'Toole's first performance as a young Henry II.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: In the 1968 film "The Lion in Winter", Eleanor is played by Katharine Hepburn, who won the third of her four Academy Awards for Best Actress for her portrayal, and Henry again is portrayed by O'Toole. The film is about the difficult relationship between them and the struggle of their three sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John for their father's favour and the succession. In the 2003 television film version, Eleanor was played by Glenn Close alongside Patrick Stewart as Henry.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: She was portrayed by Mary Clare in the silent film "Becket" (1923), by Prudence Hyman in "Richard the Lionheart" (1962), and twice by Jane Lapotaire in the BBC TV drama series "The Devil's Crown" (1978) and again in Mike Walker's BBC Radio 4 series "Plantagenet" (2010). In the 2014 film "Richard the Lionheart: Rebellion", Eleanor is played by Debbie Rochon.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Her life was portrayed on BBC Radio 4 in the drama series "Eleanor Rising", with Rose Basista as Eleanor and Joel MacCormack as King Louis. The first series of five 15-minute episodes was broadcast in November 2020, a second series in April 2021, and a third series of two 60 minute episodes in September 2022.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor and Rosamund Clifford, as well as Henry IIand Rosamund's father, appear in Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Rosmonda d'Inghilterra" (libretto by Felice Romani), which was premiered in Florence, at the Teatro Pergola, in 1834.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Eleanor of Aquitaine is thought to be the queen of England mentioned in the poem "Were diu werlt alle min," used as the tenth movement of Carl Orff's famous cantata, "Carmina Burana".


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: "Flower and Hawk" is a monodrama for soprano and orchestra, written by American composer, Carlisle Floyd that premiered in 1972, in which the soprano (Eleanor of Aquitaine) relives past memories of her time as queen, and at the end of the monodrama, hears the bells that toll for Henry II's death, and in turn, her freedom.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: Queen Elanor's Confession, or Queen Eleanor's Confession, is Child ballad 156. Although the figures are intended as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, and William Marshall, the story is an entire invention.


title: Eleanor of Aquitaine

text: In the 2019 video game expansion "", Eleanor is a playable leader for the English and French civilizations.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Alcatraz Island () is a small island in San Francisco Bay, offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison. In 1934, the island was converted into a federal prison, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. The strong currents around the island and cold water temperatures made escape nearly impossible, and the prison became one of the most notorious in American history. The prison closed in 1963, and the island is now a major tourist attraction.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Beginning in November 1969, the island was occupied for more than 19 months by a group of Native Americans, initially primarily from San Francisco, who were later joined by AIM and other urban Indians from other parts of the country, who were part of a wave of Native American activists organizing public protests across the US through the 1970s. In 1972, Alcatraz was transferred to the Department of Interior to become part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Today, the island's facilities are managed by the National Park Service as part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Visitors can reach the island in less than 15 minutes by ferry ride from Pier 33, located between the San Francisco Ferry Building and Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. Hornblower Cruises, operating under the name Alcatraz Cruises, is the official ferry provider to and from the island.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Alcatraz Island is the site of the abandoned federal prison, the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States, early military fortifications, and natural features such as rock pools and a seabird colony (mostly western gulls, cormorants, and egrets). According to a 1971 documentary on the history of Alcatraz, the island measures by and is at highest point during mean tide. The total area of the island is reported to be .


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Landmarks on the island include the Main Cellhouse, Dining Hall, Lighthouse, the ruins of the Warden's House and Social Hall, Parade Grounds, Building 64, Water Tower, New Industries Building, Model Industries Building, and the Recreation Yard.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: The first European to document the islands of San Francisco Bay was Spanish naval officer and explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala during Spanish rule of California; he charted San Francisco Bay in 1775. He named today's Yerba Buena Island as ""La Isla de los Alcatraces"", which translates as "The Island of the Gannets" but is commonly believed to translate as "The Island of the Pelicans" (the modern Spanish word for 'pelican' is "pelícano"), from the archaic Spanish "" ("pelican"). There are no gannets native to the Pacific coast, making the older Spanish usage more likely.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Yerba Buena Island was labeled on Ayala's 1775 chart of San Francisco Bay as "Isla de Alcatraces". The name was later applied to the rock now known as Alcatraz Island by Captain Frederick W. Beechey, an English naval officer and explorer.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Over the years, the Spanish version "Alcatraz" became popular and is now widely used. In August 1827, for instance, French Captain Auguste Bernard Duhaut-Cilly wrote "... running past Alcatraze's (Pelicans) Island ... covered with a countless number of these birds. A gun fired over the feathered legions caused them to fly up in a great cloud and with a noise like a hurricane." The California brown pelican ("Pelecanus occidentalis californicus") is not known to nest on the island today. The Spanish built several small buildings on the island and other minor structures.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: The earliest recorded private owner of the island of Alcatraz is Julian Workman, to whom it was given by Mexican governor Pio Pico in June 1846, with the understanding that Workman would build a lighthouse on it. Julian Workman is the baptismal name of William Workman, co-owner of Rancho La Puente and a personal friend of Pio Pico. Later in 1846, acting in his capacity as Military Governor of California, John C. Frémont bought the island for $5,000 in the name of the United States government from Francis Temple.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: In 1850, President Millard Fillmore ordered that Alcatraz Island be set aside specifically as a United States military reservation, for military purposes based upon the U.S. acquisition of California from Mexico following the Mexican–American War. Frémont had expected a large compensation for his initiative in purchasing and securing Alcatraz Island for the U.S. government, but the U.S. government later invalidated the sale and paid Frémont nothing. Frémont and his heirs sued for compensation during protracted but unsuccessful legal battles that extended into the 1890s.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, the island mounted 85 cannons (increased to 105 cannons by 1866) in casemates around its perimeter, though the small size of the garrison meant only a fraction of the guns could be used at one time. At this time it also served as the San Francisco Arsenal for storage of firearms to prevent them falling into the hands of Confederate sympathizers. Alcatraz, built as a "heavily fortified military site on the West Coast", was to form a "triangle of defense" with Fort Point and Lime Point, but the contemplated work on Lime Point was never built. The first operational lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States was also built on Alcatraz. During the war, Fort Alcatraz was used to imprison Confederate sympathizers and privateers on the west coast, but its guns were never fired at an enemy.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Studies of the island and its fortifications have included archeological surveys relying on contemporary technology. In 2019 "Binghamton University archaeologist Timothy de Smet and colleagues located historical remains beneath the former recreation yard of the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary." Using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data and georectifications, Smet and colleagues discovered structures, including "a 'bombproof' earthwork traverse along with its underlying vaulted brick masonry tunnel and ventilation ducts," in surprisingly good condition. Archaeologists also found the remains of ammunition magazines, and tunnels below the penitentiary that was built later.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Because of the isolation created by the cold, strong currents of the waters of San Francisco Bay, as early as 1859, Alcatraz was used to house soldiers convicted of crimes. By 1861, the fort was the military prison for the Department of the Pacific. It housed Civil War prisoners of war (POWs) as early as that year.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Starting in 1863, the military also held private citizens accused of treason, after the writ of habeas corpus in the United States was suspended. Hundreds of troops were trained on the island, with more than 350 military personnel in place by April 1861. As enlistees were assigned to units, new green troops reported for training. In early 1865, the number of men reached 433, the peak of the war.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: During the Civil War-era, rapid changes in artillery and fortification were generated. Alcatraz's defenses were obsolete by the postwar years. Modernization efforts, including an ambitious plan to level the entire island and construct shell-proof underground magazines and tunnels, were undertaken between 1870 and 1876 but never completed (the so-called "parade ground" on the southern tip of the island represents the extent of the flattening effort). Instead, the army switched the focus of its plans for Alcatraz from coastal defense to detention, a task for which it was well suited because of its isolation.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: In 1867, a brick jailhouse was built (previously inmates had been kept in the basement of the guardhouse), and in 1868, Alcatraz was officially designated as a long-term detention facility for military prisoners. The facility was later discontinued for Prisoners of War in 1846. Among those incarcerated at Alcatraz were Confederates caught on the West Coast and some Hopi Native American men in the 1870s, who refused orders to send their children away from their families to Indian boarding schools.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: In 1898, due to the Spanish–American War, the prison population rose from 26 to over 450. From 1905 to 1907 it was commanded by U.S. Army General George W. McIver. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, civilian prisoners were transferred to Alcatraz for safe confinement. On March 21, 1907, Alcatraz was officially designated as the Western U.S. Military Prison, later Pacific Branch, U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, 1915.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: In 1909 construction began on the huge concrete main cell block, designed by Major Reuben Turner, which remains the island's dominant feature. It was completed in 1912. To accommodate the new cell block, the Citadel, a three-story barracks, was demolished down to the first floor, which was below ground level. The building had been constructed in an excavated pit, creating a defensive dry moat. The first floor was incorporated as a basement to the new cell block, giving rise to the popular legend of "dungeons" below the main cell block. The US Disciplinary Barracks was deactivated in October 1933 and transferred to the Bureau of Prisons.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: During World War I, the prison was used to hold conscientious objectors, including Philip Grosser, who wrote a pamphlet entitled "Uncle Sam's Devil's Island" about his experiences.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: The United States Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz were acquired by the United States Department of Justice on October 12, 1933, and the island was designated as a federal prison in August 1934. Alcatraz was designed to hold prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons. At 9:40 am on August 11, 1934, the first batch of 137 prisoners arrived at Alcatraz, arriving by railroad from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, to Santa Venetia, California. They were escorted to Alcatraz, while handcuffed in high security coaches and guarded by 60 special FBI agents, U.S. Marshals and railway security officials.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Most of the prisoners were notorious bank robbers and murderers. The prison initially had a staff of 155, including the first warden James A. Johnston and associate warden J. E. Shuttleworth, both considered to be "iron men". The staff were highly trained in security, but not rehabilitation.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: During the 29 years it was in use, the prison held some of the most notorious criminals in American history, including gangsters such as Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (the "Birdman of Alcatraz"), George "Machine Gun" Kelly and Bumpy Johnson, and political terrorists such as Rafael Cancel Miranda, a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party who attacked the United States Capitol building in 1954. Others included Mickey Cohen, Arthur R. "Doc" Barker, and Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, who served more time at Alcatraz than any other inmate. It also provided housing for the Bureau of Prisons staff and their families.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Contrary to popular belief, it was possible to escape and swim all of the way to shore. However, during its 29 years of operation, the penitentiary claimed that no prisoner successfully escaped. A total of 36 prisoners made 14 escape attempts, two men trying twice. 23 were caught alive, six were shot and killed during their escape, two drowned, and five are listed as "missing and presumed drowned". The most violent incident occurred on May 2, 1946, when a failed escape attempt by six prisoners led to the Battle of Alcatraz. Perhaps the most famous is the intricate escape, carried out on June 11, 1962, by Frank Morris, John Anglin, and Clarence Anglin. The three men are believed to have drowned in their attempt.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Although most escapees were caught or drowned, in 1962, prisoner John Paul Scott made it to the shore. However, he was so weary that police found him unconscious and in hypothermic shock. The annual Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon includes a required swim from the island to the bay shore.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: There are several reasons that Alcatraz closed as a penitentiary in 1963. The penitentiary cost much more to operate than other prisons (nearly $10 per prisoner per day, as opposed to $3 per prisoner per day at Atlanta). Half a century of salt water saturation had severely eroded the buildings and three people had escaped in 1962. After its closure, George Moscone received public proposals to repurpose Alcatraz Island.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Alcatraz Island was occupied by Native American activists for the first time on March 8, 1964. The protest, proposed by Lakota Sioux activist Belva Cottier and joined by about 35 others, was reported by, among others, the "San Francisco Chronicle" and the "San Francisco Examiner".


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Beginning on November 20, 1969, a group of Native Americans called United Indians of All Tribes, mostly college students from San Francisco, occupied the island to protest federal policies related to American Indians. Some of them were children of Native Americans who had relocated in the city as part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) Indian termination policy, which was a series of laws and policies aimed at the assimilation of Native Americans into mainstream US society. It encouraged Native Americans to move away from the Indian reservations and into cities to take advantage of health, educational and employment opportunities. A number of employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs also occupied Alcatraz at that time, including Doris Purdy, an amateur photographer, who later produced footage of her stay on the island.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: The occupiers, who stayed on the island for nearly two years, demanded that the island's facilities be adapted and new structures built for an Indian education center, ecology center, and cultural center. The American Indians claimed the island by provisions of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) between the US and the Sioux; they said the treaty promised to return all retired, abandoned, or out-of-use federal lands to the native peoples from whom they were acquired. Indians of All Tribes claimed Alcatraz Island by the "Right of Discovery"; as historian Troy R. Johnson states in "The Occupation of Alcatraz Island", generations of indigenous peoples knew about Alcatraz at least 10,000 years before any European knew about any part of North America. Begun by urban Indians of San Francisco, the occupation attracted other Native Americans from across the country, including American Indian Movement (AIM) urban activists from Minneapolis.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: During the nineteen months and nine days of occupation by the American Indians, several buildings at Alcatraz were damaged or destroyed by fire, including the lighthouse keeper's home, the warden's home, the Officers' Club, the recreation hall, and the Coast Guard quarters. The origin of the fires is disputed. The US government demolished a number of other buildings (mostly apartments) after the occupation had ended. Graffiti from the period of Native American occupation is still visible at many locations on the island.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: During the occupation, President Richard Nixon rescinded the Indian termination policy, designed by earlier administrations to end federal recognition of many tribes and their special relationship with the US government. He established a new policy of self-determination, in part as a result of the publicity and awareness created by the occupation. The occupation ended on June 11, 1971.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: In 1972, the National Park Service purchased Alcatraz along with Fort Mason from the U.S. Army to establish the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Under "An Act to Establish the Golden Gate National Recreation Area" President Richard Nixon allocated $120 million for land acquisition and development of the area. It has since been under the direction of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and now operates as a tourist site and museum dedicated to its time as a federal penitentiary. Operating costs still remain one of its biggest challenges today.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area since 1972, the entire Alcatraz Island was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. In 1986 it was designated as a National Historic Landmark, the highest recognition.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: In 1993, the National Park Service published a plan entitled "Alcatraz Development Concept and Environmental Assessment." This plan, approved in 1980, doubled the area of Alcatraz accessible to the public, in order to enable visitors to enjoy its scenery and bird, marine, and animal life.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: American Indigenous groups, such as the International Indian Treaty Council, occasionally hold ceremonies on the island, most notably, their "Sunrise Gatherings" every Columbus Day and Thanksgiving Day.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Around 2007, the Global Peace Foundation proposed to raze the prison and build a peace center in its place. Supporters collected 10,350 signatures – sufficient to have it placed as a proposition on the presidential primary ballots in San Francisco for February 5, 2008. The proposed plan was estimated at US$1 billion. For the plan to pass, Congress would have to have taken Alcatraz out of the National Park Service. Critics of the plan said that Alcatraz is too rich in history to be destroyed. On February 6, 2008, the Alcatraz Island Global Peace Center Proposition C failed to pass, with 72% of voters rejecting the proposition.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: The coastal environment of the San Francisco Bay Area has caused deterioration and corrosion of building materials throughout Alcatraz. Beginning in 2011, the National Park Service began major renovations on the island, including the installation of solar panels on the cell house roof, slope stabilization near the Warden's House, and the stabilization and rehabilitation of the outer cell house walls.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Now one of San Francisco's major tourist attractions, Alcatraz drew some 1.7 million visitors annually according to a 2018 report. Visitors arrive by ferry, operated under contract by Alcatraz Cruises LLC at Pier 33.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: The 2018 report indicated that "former prison buildings are being conserved and seismically upgraded and additional areas of the Island are opened to the public as safety hazards are removed". During the COVID-19 pandemic, the buildings and the island remained closed to the public for more than a year (and ferry services were suspended), reopening in March 2021.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Alcatraz has been home to several art installations. In 2014, Chinese artist/dissident Ai Weiwei staged an exhibition which explored "questions about human rights and freedom of expression" called @Large. This exhibition included Lego portraits of famous political prisoners. The creation of the exhibition was featured in a 2019 documentary film, "Yours Truly". In 2016, Nelson Saiers used math and prison slang as central elements in a six-month installation that called attention to the imposition of long prison sentences.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Gardens planted by families of the original Army post, and later by families of the prison guards, fell into neglect after the prison closure in 1963. After 40 years, they are being restored by a paid staff member and many volunteers, thanks to funding by the Garden Conservancy and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. The untended gardens had become severely overgrown and had developed into a nesting habitat and sanctuary for numerous birds. Now, areas of bird habitat are being preserved and protected, while many of the gardens are being restored to their original state.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: In clearing out the overgrowth, workers found that many of the original plants were growing where they had been planted – some more than 100 years ago. Numerous heirloom rose hybrids, including a Welsh rose (Bardou Job) that had been believed to be extinct, have been discovered and propagated. Many species of roses, succulents, and geraniums are growing among apple and fig trees, banks of sweet peas, manicured gardens of cutting flowers, and wildly overgrown sections of native grasses with blackberry and honeysuckle.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Alcatraz Island appears often in media and popular culture, including films dating from 1962: "The Book of Eli" (2010), "" (2006), "Catch Me If You Can" (2002), "The Rock" (1996), "Murder in the First" (1995), "Escape from Alcatraz" (1979), "The Enforcer" (1976), "Point Blank" (1967) ", Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962) and J. J. Abrams' 2012 television series "Alcatraz".


title: Alcatraz Island

text: It also was featured in the "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters" anime, in the book "Al Capone Does My Shirts", in the video game "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4" as a playable level. It is also showcased as a playable racetrack in the 1997 arcade racing video game "". Alcatraz has also been portrayed often as a safe haven or base of operations in many post-apocalyptic movies, such as "The Book of Eli".


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Alcatraz was featured in the video game "" in a downloadable zombie survival map called "Mob of the Dead" in which players could explore the Main Cellhouse, the Boat Dock, and a fictional area called the Catacombs which runs through the island. A segment of Alcatraz' Cellhouse makes a cameo appearance in "" in the downloadable zombies survival map "Revelations". The map was then remastered in "" zombie mode as "Blood of the Dead" in which the playable area of the map was expanded to include the Model Industries Building, New Industries Building, and the Warden's House. "" also has a seasonal game mode in Alcatraz Island. ""'s Rebirth Island is also based on Alcatraz Island.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Alcatraz even appears in "The Alchemyst" and "" by author Michael Scott and is depicted as a prison for the immortal Perenelle Flamel.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: Alcatraz is featured in the episode "Bird Mummy of Alcatraz" in the children's program, "Mummies Alive!" and was also featured in a mission in the video game "Watch Dogs 2". Alcatraz is also featured as a downloadable map in the video game "The Escapists."


title: Alcatraz Island

text: "Escape from Alcatraz" and "The Rock" are two films that show how inescapable the island is. "Escape from Alcatraz" is based on the true story of a few inmates trying to flee the island. "The Rock" on the other hand, just depicts life in Alcatraz.


title: Alcatraz Island

text: In the 2003 video game "Hulk", Alcatraz is the location of a secret base of operations called "Freehold" for the supervillain Leader.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: Raven-Symoné Christina Pearman-Maday () (née Pearman; born December 10, 1985), also known mononymously as Raven, is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She has received several accolades, including five NAACP Image Awards, two Kids' Choice Awards, three Young Artist Awards, and three Daytime Emmy Award nominations. In 2012, she was included on VH1's list of "100 Greatest Child Stars of All Time".


title: Raven-Symoné

text: Raven-Symoné began her career as a child actress, appearing as Olivia Kendall on "The Cosby Show" (1989–1992) and Nicole Lee on "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" (1993–1997), both of which earned her a number of awards and nominations. When she was 15 years old, she landed a role of Raven Baxter on the Disney Channel television series "That's So Raven" (2003–2007), for which she was nominated for numerous accolades. Her film credits include "Dr. Dolittle" (1998), its sequel "Dr. Dolittle 2" (2001), "The Princess Diaries 2" (2004), and "College Road Trip" (2008), which were all box office successes. Her television film credits include "" (1999), its second sequel "" (2004), "The Cheetah Girls" (2003), its sequel "The Cheetah Girls 2" (2006), "For One Night" (2006), and "Revenge of the Bridesmaids" (2010). Raven-Symoné has also lent her voice to the animated series "Kim Possible" for the character Monique, and films such as "Tinker Bell" (2008). Raven-Symoné has reprised her role as Raven Baxter on "Raven's Home" (2017–present), for which she was nominated for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In music, Raven-Symoné released her debut studio album at the age of seven, "Here's to New Dreams" (1993), which saw the moderate commercial success of the single "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of". Her subsequent studio albums, "Undeniable" (1999), "This Is My Time" (2004), and "Raven-Symoné" (2008) saw some commercial success on the "Billboard" 200 chart in the United States. She also contributed vocals to several soundtracks from her Disney projects, including "The Cheetah Girls" (2003), "That's So Raven" (2004), "That's So Raven Too!" (2006), and "The Cheetah Girls 2" (2006), several of which were certified platinum and gold. She was also a co-host of the ABC daytime talk show "The View" from 2015 to 2016. She will host and executive produce the new reality show "What Not to Design".


title: Raven-Symoné

text: Raven-Symoné was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Lydia (Gaulden) and Christopher Pearman. She has a younger brother, Blaize. As an infant, she worked for Atlanta's Young Faces Inc. modelling agency and was featured in local print advertisements. At the age of two, she worked with Ford Models in New York City and appeared in ads for Ritz crackers, Jell-O, Fisher-Price, and Cool Whip. At age three, her family moved to Ossining, New York where she attended Park School.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 1989, Raven-Symoné auditioned for a role in the Bill Cosby movie, "Ghost Dad". At the age of three, she was considered too young for the role, but Cosby liked her so much that he found a role for her on his show, "The Cosby Show", as his step-granddaughter Olivia. She made her debut in the premiere episode of the show's sixth season and remained until the series finale in 1992. She then appeared as the younger version of Halle Berry's starring character, a headstrong biracial enslaved woman, in the TV movie "Alex Haley's Queen", based on the book "" written by Alex Haley.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 1993, one year after "The Cosby Show" ended, Raven-Symoné landed the role of Nicole Lee on the show "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper". She made her debut in the first episode of the show's second season and remained until the series finale in 1997. In 1994, during her time on the show "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper", she had her first film role in "The Little Rascals", playing Stymie's girlfriend. "The Little Rascals" earned $67.3 million worldwide during its theatrical run.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 1998, she was cast in the Eddie Murphy comedy "Dr. Dolittle", as Charisse Dolittle, the oldest daughter of Murphy's character. "Dr. Dolittle" earned $294.5 million worldwide during its theatrical run. In 1999, she appeared in "" as Nebula, her first production under Disney.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2001, she reprised the role of Charisse Dolittle in the sequel Eddie Murphy comedy "Dr. Dolittle 2". "Dr. Dolittle 2" earned $176.1 million worldwide during its theatrical run. In the same year, she participated in two episodes of the comedy series, "My Wife and Kids" as Charmaine, Claire's pregnant friend, her first production under ABC.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2001, Raven-Symoné auditioned for a role on an upcoming series for the Disney Channel titled "Absolutely Psychic", about a teenager with psychic abilities. She actually auditioned for the recurring role of Chelsea Daniels, but her role was changed to the lead character Raven Baxter and the series name changed to "That's So Raven". The series debuted on January 17, 2003, and ended on November 10, 2007, becoming responsible for many firsts for Disney Channel including becoming the channel's highest-rated and longest-running series at 100 episodes (until it was surpassed by "Wizards of Waverly Place" in October 2011). The title character draws on her talent, ingenuity, psychic powers, and a variety of disguises to get in and out of amusing adolescent and pre-adolescent situations. It spawned a franchise including soundtracks, dolls, episode DVDs, and video games. "That's So Raven" was nominated for Outstanding Children's Program during the 2005 and 2007 Emmy Awards. "That's So Raven", was the first Disney Channel series to have four seasons and 100 episodes. Merchandise has earned to date $400 million. The show also launched the channel's first spin-off series, "Cory in the House".


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2002, Raven-Symoné was given the voice role of Monique on "Kim Possible" as the best friend of Kim Possible. She had a recurring role, as she was featured in all seasons of the show, and participated in the two films for the series, "" (2003) and "" (2005).


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2003, she starred as lead singer Galleria Garibaldi in "The Cheetah Girls", a Disney Channel Original Movie about four city girls who dream of becoming superstars. The film was the channel's first musical and was the basis for another franchise, including dolls, video games, and platinum-selling soundtracks. The film also starred Adrienne Bailon as Chanel Simmons, Sabrina Bryan as Dorinda Thomas, and Kiely Williams as Aquanette Walker. The film was directed by Oz Scott, and produced by Grammy-winner Whitney Houston. It attracted more than 6.5 million viewers opening night, making it (at the time) Disney Channel's most-watched movie and highest-rated Disney Channel broadcast of 2003. The film soundtrack, "The Cheetah Girls", debuted at No. 33 on the "Billboard" Top 200 and is certified for Double Platinum sales by the RIAA for sales of 2 million copies. It was the second-best-selling soundtrack of 2004, behind "Shrek".


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2004, during her time on the show "That's So Raven," she provided the voice of Danielle in the movie "Fat Albert". It had a moderate performance at the box office, earning $48,551,322 worldwide during its theatrical run. She made an appearance in "" as Princess Asana, during which she sang a duet with Julie Andrews. It was her first film with Walt Disney Pictures and it earned $134.7 million worldwide during its theatrical run. In the Disney Channel Original Movie, "", Raven-Symoné reprised her role as Nebula Wade. It had over 1.3 million viewers the night it premiered. The same year, after the unexpected success of the film and its soundtrack, a TV show based on "The Cheetah Girls" was pitched to the ABC network. It was never picked up as a series due to Raven-Symoné not being able to be in two series at the same time.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2006, she starred in the drama "For One Night", which was based on a true story. Its premiere was on February 6, 2006, with the station Lifetime Movie Network. She portrayed the role of Briana McCallister, inspired by the true story of a black teenager who shook up a small town where high school proms had been racially segregated for decades. During this time, she also disengaged from the "Disney Channel". In the same year, she continued her role in "The Cheetah Girls 2", The film was directed by Kenny Ortega and produced by Grammy-winner Whitney Houston. She served as executive producer of the film. The film brought in more than 8 million viewers opening night, making it (at the time) Disney Channel's most-watched movie and highest-rated Disney Channel program of the year 2006. She starred in the Disney Channel Crossover Episode "That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana" alongside Miley Cyrus, Dylan Sprouse and Cole Sprouse.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: Later that year, she provided her voice for Marti Brewster in, "Everyone's Hero", which was distributed by 20th Century Fox, and released theatrically on September 15, 2006. "Everyone's Hero" had a moderate performance at the box office, earning only $16 million worldwide during its theatrical run, but the film was not released in several major countries. Symone recorded music for "That's So Raven Too!"s second original television soundtrack. The soundtrack debuted and peaked at No. 44 on the "Billboard" 200 and selling about 200,000 copies up to April 2007, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album contains five new songs written and sung by Raven, includes the single, "Some Call It Magic", friendship songs like "Friends" with Anneliese van der Pol, there are also collaborations with Orlando Brown for "Little by Little" and Kyle Massey for "Let's Stick Together". The film's soundtrack, "The Cheetah Girls 2", debuted at No. 5 on the "Billboard" Top 200 and is certified for Platinum sales by the RIAA for sales of 1.3 million copies. This soundtrack contained three unreleased songs their soils and seven other songs as part of the group The Cheetah Girls.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2008, "" began production, however Raven-Symoné did not return for the final film in "The Cheetah Girls" series. While "catfights" and "territorial issues" were initially stated to be the reason, Symoné revealed that she did not appear in the third film due to feeling "excluded" and "ostracized" on the set of the second film, likely due to the fact that the three other girls had spent so much time together after being put together in the real-life Cheetah Girls recording group.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2008, she starred in her first leading role. The comedy "College Road Trip" surrounds Melanie Porter a 17-year-old college-bound girl who is eagerly looking forward to her first big step towards independence, when she plans a girls-only road trip to check out prospective universities. But when her overbearing police chief father (Martin Lawrence) insists on escorting her instead in hopes to sway her decision, soon finds her dream trip has turned into a nightmare adventure full of comical misfortune and turmoil. In its opening weekend, the film grossed approximately $14,000,000 in 2,706 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking as the No. 2 film at box office. It went on to gross more than $60,000,000 worldwide. From 2008 to 2014, she provided the voice of the character Iridessa, the light-fairy, as a part of the Disney Fairies franchise and direct-to-DVD "Tinker Bell" film series. She appeared in Chris Rock's 2009 documentary "Good Hair".


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2010, Raven-Symoné starred alongside Joanna Garcia in an ABC Family film titled "Revenge of the Bridesmaids". The film chronicles two childhood friends who attempt to thwart the wedding of a no-good, money-hungry ex-friend by going undercover as bridesmaids so that true love can prevail. The film garnered 2.5 million viewers on its premiere, making it the number 1 movie on basic cable in women 18–34, and ranked among the Top 5 programs in its time period in Total Viewers that week.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: She also made a guest appearance on the Disney Channel Original Series "Sonny with a Chance" alongside Demi Lovato. She portrayed the character Amber Algoode, the president of Chad Dylan Cooper's fan club. She was a guest performer, along with pianist Chau-Giang Thi-Nguyen, and jazz trumpeter and pianist Arturo Sandoval, at the performance of December 9 of Debbie Allen's new dance-theater piece, "The Hot Chocolate Nutcracker", at UCLA's Royce Hall. Proceeds from the performance, as well as from its run from December 10–11, benefited the children of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2011, Raven-Symoné starred in her first television series in four years as the main character of ABC Family's multi-camera comedy pilot "State of Georgia". The project, from ABC Studios, centers on her character named Georgia, an exuberant and curvy performer from the south who is trying to make it big as an actress in New York City. The pilot was written by author Jennifer Weiner ("In Her Shoes") and Jeff Greenstein ("Desperate Housewives"). The series premiered in June 2011. The season concluded August 17, 2011 with twelve episodes, and ABC Family cancelled the show on September 16, 2011.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: On January 31, 2012, it was confirmed that the actress would be in the Broadway musical "Sister Act" as Deloris van Cartier, marking her Broadway debut in a lead role. Her run started on March 27, 2012. Her contracted final performance coincided with the closure of the show on Broadway on August 26, 2012.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2013, she filmed a cameo in "See Dad Run" alongside former "Hanging With Mr. Cooper" co-star Mark Curry. In early 2014, she began filming "Loose", an independent film co-starring Meagan Good, in Mississippi. In February 2015, the first of her appearances was revealed to be a guest appearance on the new Fox series "Empire". She also appeared in 2 episodes of the Disney Channel Original Series "K.C. Undercover" in which she portrayed the character of Simone Devereaux, making this her first appearance on Disney Channel since her guest appearance in "Sonny With a Chance" back in 2010.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: Also in 2015, she began a guest starring role as Rhonda Johnson, the sister of Anthony Anderson's character Andre, on the ABC comedy series "Black-ish". In June 2015, Raven-Symoné joined the ABC daytime talk show "The View" on a permanent basis after she guest hosted on the show multiple times earlier in the year. In June 2015, she starred in the independent film titled "A Girl Like Grace", alongside Meagan Good, Garcelle Beauvais, and Romeo Miller. On October 27, 2016, she announced she would leave "The View" before the end of 2016 to focus on executive producing and starring in a "That's So Raven" spin-off. The spinoff was revealed to be titled "Raven's Home" in April 2017, and premiered on July 21, 2017. The series has been renewed for four additional seasons; for her performance, she earned a nomination for a Daytime Emmy Award.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 1992, Raven-Symoné began her singing career at the age of seven, when she signed with MCA Records. She spent that year and the next taking vocal lessons from Missy Elliott. Her debut album, "Here's to New Dreams", was released on June 22, 1993, which spawned two singles: "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of" and "Raven Is the Flavor". "That's What Little Girls Are Made Of" reached No. 68 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The album however was not successful, and due to low sales, she was dropped from MCA Records in 1995. The album sold over 73,000 copies in the US.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 1996, Raven-Symoné and her father founded RayBlaze Records, in which she signed a distribution deal with Crash Records for her second album "Undeniable", which was released in May 1999. The album sold over 2,000 in US. The album yielded one single: a cover of Stevie Wonder's "With a Child's Heart". To support the album "Undeniable", she went on tour as the opening act for fellow Jive artist 'N Sync's The 'N Sync Tour in 1998/1999.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2003, she recorded the classic Stevie Wonder song "Superstition" as the main theme for the film "The Haunted Mansion". She signed a deal with Hollywood Records, a Disney-owned label.The following year, she released a five-track EP with Hollywood Records on January 1, 2004 containing the songs “Backflip", "Bump", "Overloved", "What Is Love?", and "Mystify". Released to promote the full-length album, the EP was only available in select stores and is now very rare. On September 21, 2004, she released her third studio album, "This Is My Time", which included the single "Backflip". It received heavy rotation on Disney Channel and premiered on BET via an "Access Granted" special. "This Is My Time" debuted at number 50 on the U.S. "Billboard" Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and at number fifty-one on the official "Billboard" 200. It had moderately successful first week sales of 19,000 copies (best debut in the chart to date), making it Raven-Symoné's first album to enter the charts in the United States. It was in the top 100 for thirteen weeks, selling about 235,000 copies up to February 2, 2007, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The four songs from the album were incorporated into soundtracks from Disney films: "The Lion King 1½" ("Grazing in the Grass"); "" ("This Is My Time"); "Ice Princess" ("Bump"); and "Go Figure" ("Life Is Beautiful"). In the same year, she also recorded music for "That's So Raven"s first original television soundtrack. The soundtrack debuted and peaked at No. 44 on the "Billboard" 200 and is now certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of 500,000 copies.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: After the success of her third album, "This Is My Time" (2004), Crash Records sold their rights to the material on "Undeniable" to TMG Records, who in cooperation with RayBlaize and her then-current label Hollywood Records, re-released it on October 31, 2006, as "From Then Until". The re-release included the music video for "With A Child's Heart" as well as some behind-the-scenes footage and live performances. The album sold over 8,000 in US. In support of her third studio album and the "That's So Raven Too!" soundtrack, which was the second soundtrack album from the series. Raven-Symoné embarked on her first headlining tour. The This Is My Time Tour kicked off on May 19, 2006, in Richmond, VA and concluded on October 21, 2006, in Columbia, SC.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: Her fourth studio album "Raven-Symoné" was released on April 29, 2008. The album features production by Sean Garrett (Beyoncé), The JAM (Leona Lewis), Knightwritaz, and The Clutch (Timbaland, Ciara). The only single released was "Double Dutch Bus", a cover of Frankie Smith's 1981 funk track. The single was released to radio on February 9, while the video was released on February 18, 2008. The album debuted at No. 159 on "Billboard"s Top 200. To promote the album she planned to headline her first all-arena tour "The Pajama Party Tour" in Spring 2008, but due to what promoters call "unforeseen difficulties" the tour was postponed until further notice. During her 2008 Summer tour, it was officially announced that after completing her two-CD deal with Hollywood Records, she would not renew her contract with the label.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In late 2009, Raven-Symoné announced that she would return to the studio to record her next album. She said that the album will be "R&B, most definitely...with an alternative base for the lyrics". She said, "It's good to go out there and spread your wings and find new talent and work with people you haven't worked with before. I'd love to find the next Timbaland or the next someone who's coming up and no one really knows yet. At the same time, I'd love to work with the Clutch and the J.A.M. again".


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In January 2011, she told to OnTheRedCarpet.com that she has been working on her fifth album. Da Beat Kadetz formerly known as The TriGz may be working on the project, with Manny Streetz (from Da Beat Kadetz) as executive producer. Raven revealed to "Billboard" that she would like to work with Sean Garrett again and that it will be R&B with an "alternative base for lyrics". In an interview with Broadway.com in March 2012, she confirmed that she has no plans to release a new album, saying that she "couldn't quite get it together" and that the music she had been working on "wasn't going to be something sellable." She added that the album "might come later in life when I'm able to say what I need to say."


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In May 2016, she released two new tracks via online streaming, "Sarafina" and "Cruise Control". It was the first time in eight years she released new music since her self-titled project in 2008.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: Raven-Symoné released the single "Spacetruck" and the extended play "InfraSounds" under her mononym, Raven (stylized in all caps), in April 2020. She is set to release a studio album titled "The Reintroduction".


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In August 2013, Raven-Symoné commented on the legalization of same-sex marriage, stating that she was "excited to hear today that more states legalized gay marriage" and that it was "great to know [she] can now, should [she] wish to." In an October 2014 interview with Oprah Winfrey, she explained her rejection of labeling herself and of identifying as either African-American or gay, specifying that she was an "American" and a "human who loves humans." She was named Grand Marshal of the 2016 Montreal Pride Parade.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: Raven-Symoné was in a relationship with model and actress AzMarie Livingston from 2012 to 2015. In June 2020, she married social media manager Miranda Maday.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: In 2013, she briefly retired from acting and enrolled at Academy of Art University to pursue an associate degree in fine arts, which she completed in 2016. She came out of retirement in 2015 as a co-host of "The View". In the 2016 presidential election, she endorsed Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson.


title: Raven-Symoné

text: Symoné's accolades include five NAACP Image Awards, two Kids' Choice Awards, three Young Artist Awards, and three Daytime Emmy Award nominations.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Marcia Gay Harden (born August 14, 1959) is an American actress. She is the recipient of accolades including an Academy Award and a Tony Award, in addition to nominations for a Critics' Choice Movie Award and three Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Born in La Jolla, California, Harden began her acting career appearing in television programs throughout the 1980s. In 1986, she appeared in her first film role, with her breakthrough coming in the 1990 Coen brothers-directed "Miller's Crossing". For her portrayal of artist Lee Krasner in the 2000 biographical film "Pollock", she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She received a second Academy Award nomination for her performance as Celeste Boyle in the drama film "Mystic River" (2003). Her other notable film credits include "The First Wives Club" (1996), "Flubber" (1997), "Space Cowboys" (2000), "Mona Lisa Smile" (2003), and the "Fifty Shades" film trilogy.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden made her Broadway debut in 1993, starring in Tony Kushner's epic play "" / "Angels in America: Perestroika" for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She returned to Broadway in 2009 as Veronica in Yazmina Reza's comedic play "God of Carnage", with her performance earning her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden's television credits include the HBO series "The Newsroom", the CBS series "Code Black", the ABC series "How to Get Away with Murder", and the Apple TV+ series "The Morning Show". She received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her role as FBI Special Agent Dana Lewis in the crime drama series "", and earned a second Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her performance as Janina Krzyżanowska in the television film "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler" (2009).


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden was born in La Jolla, California, the daughter of Texas natives Beverly Harden (née Bushfield), a housewife, and Thad Harold Harden (1932–2002), who was an officer in the United States Navy. She has three sisters and one brother.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden's brother is named Thaddeus, as are her father and her former husband. Harden's family frequently moved because of her father's job, living in Japan, Germany, Greece, California, and Maryland.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden graduated from Surrattsville High School in Clinton, Maryland in 1976. She received a Bachelor of Arts in theater from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980. Harden received a Master of Fine Arts from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1988.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden's first film role was in a 1979 student-produced movie at the University of Texas. Throughout the 1980s, she appeared in several television programs, including "Simon & Simon", "Kojak", and "CBS Summer Playhouse". She appeared in "The Imagemaker" (1986), her first movie screen role, in which she played a stage manager. She appeared in the Coen brothers' "Miller's Crossing" (1990), a 1930s mobster drama in which she first gained wide exposure. Even so, at the time, living in New York City, she had to go back to doing catering jobs "because I didn't have any money".


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden debuted on Broadway in the role of Harper Pitt (and others) in Tony Kushner's "" in 1993. The role earned her critical acclaim and she received a Tony Award nomination (Best Featured Actress in a Play).


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden played actress Ava Gardner alongside Philip Casnoff as Frank Sinatra in the 1992 made-for-TV miniseries "Sinatra". Throughout the 1990s, she continued to appear in films and television. Her notable film roles include the Disney sci-fi comedy "Flubber" (1997), a popular hit in which she co-starred with Robin Williams; the supernatural drama "Meet Joe Black" (1998), playing the under-appreciated daughter of a tycoon (Anthony Hopkins, co-starring Brad Pitt); "Labor of Love" (1998), a Lifetime television movie in which she starred with David Marshall Grant; and "Space Cowboys" (2000), an all-star adventure-drama about aging astronauts.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: In 2000, Harden won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of painter Lee Krasner in the biographical film "Pollock". In 2004, she received a second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the mystery crime drama "Mystic River".


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden guest-starred as FBI undercover agent Dana Lewis posing as a white supremacist in "Raw", an episode of the popular crime drama "". This role earned Harden her first Emmy Award nomination for best guest actress in a drama series in 2007. She reprised the role in the series' eighth-season premiere and again in the 12th-season episode "Penetration" as a rape victim.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden appeared in several 2007 films, including Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" and Frank Darabont's "The Mist" (opposite Thomas Jane and Laurie Holden), based on the novella by Stephen King. Also in 2007, she shared top billing with Kevin Bacon in "Rails & Ties", the directorial debut of Alison Eastwood. Harden played a woman who has a mastectomy in "Home" (2008). (Her character in "Rails & Ties" also had a mastectomy.) One scene required her to bare her breasts, with the missing breast removed using computer-generated imagery. In "Home", her co-stars include her daughter, Eulala Scheel. Harden starred in the "Christmas Cottage", a story of the early artistic beginnings of the Painter of Light Thomas Kinkade.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden appeared as a regular on the FX series "Damages" as a shrewd corporate attorney opposite Glenn Close and William Hurt in 2009. She received a 2009 Emmy nomination for her role in "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler", a TV film also starring Oscar-winner Anna Paquin. She was a Best Supporting Actress in a TV Movie/Miniseries nominee and lost to Shohreh Aghdashloo. If she had won this Emmy, Harden would have entered the elite group of "triple-crown" actors, those who have won the profession's three highest honors: the Academy Award (film), the Tony Award (stage), and the Emmy Award (television).


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden co-starred with Elliot Page and Drew Barrymore in 2009's "Whip It", which proved a critical success. She also appeared in the comedy "The Maiden Heist" (2009) with Christopher Walken and Morgan Freeman.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden returned to Broadway in Yasmina Reza's "God of Carnage", co-starring with James Gandolfini, Hope Davis and Jeff Daniels, in 2009. All three actors were nominated for a Tony Award; Harden won Best Actress in a Play.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden reunited with her former Broadway co-star Jeff Daniels as a new cast member on HBO's series "The Newsroom" in 2013. She played Christian Grey's mother, Grace Trevelyan Grey, in the "Fifty Shades" film series from 2015 to 2018. Also in 2015, she began a starring role in the TV series "Code Black". She stars in the 2022 CBS drama "So Help Me Todd".


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: In 1996 Harden married Thaddaeus Scheel, a prop master, with whom she worked on "The Spitfire Grill". They have three children: a daughter, Eulala Grace Scheel (born September 1998), and twins Julitta Dee Scheel and Hudson Harden Scheel (born April 22, 2004). In February 2012, Harden filed for divorce from Scheel.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden has owned a property in the Catskills and a townhouse in Harlem. She sold the Harlem townhouse in 2012.


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden is an avid potter, which she learned in high school, and then took up again while acting in "Angels in America".


title: Marcia Gay Harden

text: Harden is a practitioner of "ikebana", the art of Japanese flower arrangement, which her mother learned while they lived in Japan. She gave a brief demonstration in 2007 on "The Martha Stewart Show" and presented some works of her family, as well. In May 2018, a memoir called "The Seasons of My Mother: A Memoir of Love, Family, and Flowers" was published. The book details the story and bond of mother and daughter throughout time and how they are dealing with the largest struggle yet, her mother's Alzheimer's disease. Harden created works of "ikebana" specifically for this book to illustrate the different seasons of her mother's life.


title: Pete Sampras

text: Petros "Pete" Sampras (; born August 12, 1971) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. His professional career began in 1988 and ended at the 2002 US Open, which he won, defeating longtime rival Andre Agassi in the final. Sampras won 14 major singles titles during his career, which was an all-time record at the time of his retirement: a then-record seven Wimbledon titles, two Australian Opens and a joint Open Era record five US Open titles. He won 64 singles titles in total. He first reached the world No. 1 ranking in 1993, and held that position for a total of 286 weeks (third all time), including an Open Era record of six consecutive Year-End No. 1 rankings from 1993 to 1998. A right-handed player with a single-handed backhand, his precise and powerful serve earned him the nickname "Pistol Pete". In 2007, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.


title: Pete Sampras

text: Petros Sampras () was born on August 12, 1971 in Washington, D.C. He is the third child of Soterios "Sammy" and Georgia (née Vroustouris) Sampras. His mother emigrated from Sparta, Greece, and his father was born in the United States to a Greek father, Costas "Gus" Sampras, and a Polish-Jewish mother, Sarah Steinberg. He attended regular services of the Greek Orthodox Church on Sundays. At the age of 3, he discovered a tennis racket in the basement of his home and spent hours hitting balls against the wall.


title: Pete Sampras

text: In 1978, the Sampras family moved to Palos Verdes, California, and the warmer climate there allowed the seven year-old Sampras to play tennis for most of the year. From early on, his great idol was Rod Laver, and at the age of 11, Sampras met and played tennis with the legend. The Sampras family joined the Jack Kramer Club, and it was here that Sampras's talent became apparent. As a teenager, Sampras trained with tennis coach Robert Lansdorp. The forehand he learned from Lansdorp was the same forehand he used throughout his career. The key was an emphasis on driving through the ball and not hitting extreme topspin. He was spotted by Dr. Peter Fischer, a pediatrician and tennis enthusiast, who coached Sampras until 1989. Fischer was responsible for converting Sampras's double-handed backhand to single-hand with the goal of being better prepared to win Wimbledon.