Heloise

Heloise (other names not known) b. 1090–97; d. 16 May 1163/4. She was the daughter of Herenade, who may have been a scion of the Montmorency family (as possibly was Heloise’s father) in the region of Paris. Up to about 1116 she was educated at the convent of Argenteuil where she later returned as a nun after her affair with Abelard*, the birth of their son, and Abelard’s castration after their clandestine marriage (1117-18) to which she was a most unwilling partner. Their separation after these events was also against her will; her love for her husband never wavered. In 1129, when the nuns were expelled from Argenteuil, Abelard gave her the school called The Paraclete. She became Prioress...