Home > Eleanor of Aquitaine

The eldest of three children, she became heiress to the province of Aquitaine, largest and richest of the provinces that would become modern FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents., when her only brother died as a baby. As soon as her father died in 1137Events Louis VII is crowned King of France. He subsequently marries Eleanor of Aquitaine, daughter of William X. Births Amalric I, Latin king of Jerusalem Deaths April 9 William X, Duke of Aquitaine Louis VI, King of France 1137., when she was 15 years old, Eleanor became the target of marriage proposals from all parts of Europe. She married King Louis VII of France, bringing to the marriage her vast possessions from the river LoireLoire Details Information Number42 Region Rhone-Alpes Prefecture Saint-Etienne Subprefectures Montbrison Roanne Population Total ( 1999) Density Ranked 27th 728,524 152 /km² Area 4,781 km² Arrondissements 3 Cantons 40 Communes 327 President of the general to the PyreneesFor other meanings see: Pyrenees, Victoria and Montes Pyrenaeus. The Pyrenees ( Spanish Pirineos French Pyrenees Catalan Pirineus Basque Aunamendi are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain. They separ, most of what is now the west of France. She also gave him a wedding present that is still in existence, a rock crystal vaseWhen Eleanor of Aquitaine married Louis VII of France in 1137, she gave him the rock crystal vase on the left as a wedding present. The inscription on it says he, in turn, gave it to the Abbey of St. It is now in the Louvre in Paris and is the only artifa. She took part in the Crusades with some female contemporaries but as the feudal leader of the soldiers from her duchy. The story that she and her ladies dressed as AmazonsIn Greek mythology, as told by men in a patriarchal society, the Amazons were either an ancient legendary nation of female warriors or a contemporary land of women at the outer edges of the world. The legends appear to have a nugget of factual basis in wa is disputed by serious historians, and her conduct was repeatedly criticized by Church elders as indecorous. However her testimonial launch of the Second CrusadeThe Second Crusade was called in response to the fall of the County of Edessa in 1144. The prosperity of the Kingdom of Jerusalem led to a weakening of the military spirit, and internal strife crippled the resources of the kingdom. On December 24, 1144, t from Vezalay, the rumored location of Mary Magdalene's interment, dramatically emphasized the role she led women to play in the campaign. While in the eastern Mediterranean countries, she learned about maritime conventions developing there that were the beginnings of what would become the field of admiralty law, and she later introduced those conventions in her own lands, on the island of Oleron in 1160, and then into England, while she was acting as regent for her son, King Richard.

Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged as vigor and piety clashed. She sided with her flamboyant, handsome uncle, Raymond of Toulouse, in his desire to re-capture the County of Edessa. Louis preferred to visit Jerusalem which eventually led to a debilitating campaign. When Eleanor declared her intention to stand with Raymond for Edessa, Louis had her brought with him by force. Eleanor's imprisonment disheartened her Aquitaine knights and Magdalene followers and the divided Crusade armies could not overcome the Muslim forces. For reasons unknown Louis and the Crusade kings targeted Damascus, an ally until the attack. Failed, they retired to Jerusalem and sailed home. When they passed through Rome on the way to Paris, the Pope himself tried to reconcile Eleanor and Louis, and Eleanor did conceive their second daughter (Alix (or Alice) Capet, the first being Marie de Champagne), but there was no saving their marriage. In 1152 the marriage to Louis was annulled on the grounds of consanguinity. Her vast estates reverted to her and were considered no longer a portion of the French royal properties.

Within a year, Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Anjou, who was shortly to become king of England. She was eleven years older than he and related to him in the same degree as she had been to Louis. She bore Henry five sons and three daughters — ( William, Henry the Young King, Richard I "the Lionheart", Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, John "Lackland", Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan) — over the next thirteen years. Some time between 1168 and 1173, Eleanor instigated a separation, deciding that from then on she would mostly remain in her own territory of Poitou where she developed the rumored Court of Love, while Henry concentrated on controlling his increasingly large empire elsewhere. A small fragment of her codes and practises remain written by Andreas Capellanus.

In 1173, Eleanor took part in the Revolt of 1173-1174 against Henry, in league with three of their four surviving legitimate sons, although his other sons stood by him. Henry had, in 1170, had Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Beckett murdered and Europe was outraged. Eleanor was certainly incensed by Henry's numerous sexual dalliances leaving a division of family inheritance. She was annoyed with his attempts to control her patrimony of Aquitaine and the social progress of her court Poitiers. The rebellion was put down, and Eleanor was imprisoned by Henry at the age of 50 for the next fifteen years. A considerable amount of her imprisonment was in various locations in England. About four miles from Shrewsbury and close by Haughmond Abbey is "Queen Eleanor's Bower", the remains of a triangular castle which is believed may have been one of her prisons.

Upon Henry's death in 1189, she helped her son Richard inherit the throne and he in turn released his mother from prison. She ruled England while Richard went off to Crusade. She survived him and lived long enough to see her youngest son John on the throne.

Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey near her husband Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible.