The love story of Abelard and Heloise is one of the most famous and popular love stories
of all time.
And it’s a good one: filled with passion, romance, secret affairs, self-sacrifices and,
well, you’ll see.
There’s even a secret marriage, which is always fun.
It is 12th c Paris.
And Abelard, a famous French philosophers, moves into the house of Notre Dame’s Canon
Fulbert.
Heloise, Fulbert’s niece, is also living in this house with her uncle.
And of course, she is a young, beautiful maiden, who was also one of the most well-educated
women of her time.
Abelard, taken with her beauty and intelligence, convinces Fulbert to allow him become Heloise’s
tutor.
Now you can already see where this is going.
The two fall in love, and have a passionate, secret affair.
They made love in the kitchens of convents, in the boudoir of the girl's uncle.
They were really just passionately in love, physically everywhere.
They wrote hundreds of love letters, and not before long, Heloise was pregnant.
Of course.
Now, there’s a couple things impeding the couple’s happily ever after.
Heloise’s age has been up for debate, but it’s been estimated that she was anywhere
between 17 and 27 years of age, while Abelard would have been in his late 30’s -so that’s
about a 10 - 20 year age gap.
He would lose his job because of this relationship, it’s kind of an embarrassing thing for a
man of his position.
Plus, her uncle.
Her uncle would not be happy.
Seeing as it’s pretty difficult to hide a baby bump, Heloise flees to Brittany, Abelard’s
place of birth, and she stayed with him sister until she give birth to their baby boy, Astrolabe.
When her uncle Fulbert found, he wasn’t too thrilled.
In fact, he was furious that Abelard had ruined his niece.
Abelard offered to marry Heloise but but Heloise refused, in part saying that marriage would
impede his work.
It would bring disgrace upon him.
Heloise preferred to be his whore rather than his wife, preferring freedom over chains.
But, Abelard refused to give up, and eventually, he convinced her to return to Paris and they
wed in secret.
Fulbert, wanting to punish Abelard for ruining his reputation, decided to start spreading
news of their secret marriage, causing a little bit of a problem.
Abelard sent Heloise out to the convent of Argenteuil for safety, or maybe, you know,
trying to recover his reputation for having a baby momma, but then denying it, and having
a secret marriage.
You know, either one.
Fulbert, however, believed that Abelard was trying to get rid of Heloise by turning her
into a nun.
Oh Boy, this is where it gets a little bit dark.
In his rage, Fulbert hired some henchmen to break into Abelard’s quarters, and they
castrated him.
Yup..
Once recovered, in his humiliation, Abelard decided to enter the Abbey of St Denis and
took his vows as a monk.
At Abelard's insistence, Heloise also became a nun, despite having to leave her son behind.
Despite their separation, their love continued through what is now their famous love letters.
"Men call me chaste," she writes.
"They do not know the hypocrite I am."
Even during the celebration of Mass, she confesses, "lewd visions" of the pleasures she shared
with Abelard "take such a hold upon my unhappy soul that my thoughts are on their wantonness
instead of on prayers.
I should be groaning over the sins I have committed, but I can only sigh for what I
have lost."
This love story is by no means a perfect fairytale.
In fact, when we read it, there’s a lot of questions to be had.
Today, when we think of a Teacher-student relationship?
Kinda gross, and irresponsible.
Heloise, despite being well educated, wasn't a feminist heroine either.
She gets married even though she didn't really want to, she becomes a nun just because he
told her to..
There's so much intensity and sacrifice in their relationship that it all seems quite
foreign.
But the tragedy of their relationship has a kind of grandeur to it that has captured
the imagination and attention of everyone around the world.
Six hundred years later, Josephine Bonaparte, the first wife of Napoleon I, was so moved
by their story that she ordered that the remains of Abelard and Heloise be entombed together.
To this day, lovers or lovelorn singles from all over the world visit the tomb leave letters
at the crypt, in tribute to the couple or in hope of finding true love
I hope you guys enjoyed this videos, and in celebration of Valentine's day this February,
I’m going to be releasing a couple more videos, similar to this one, of some famous
love stories.
So if you enjoyed it, be sure to like and subscribe for more videos.
I’ve already done one famous love story, which is the story of Cupid and Psyche, which
you can definitely already check out.
And in a couple of days be sure to come back for the next installment.
Thanks so much for watching, and I’ll see you guys next time
But their Love [motorcycles] Oh my god.
What the.
Whyyyyyyy?