Quick Facts
- NAME: Eleanor of Aquitaine
- OCCUPATION: Queen
- BIRTH DATE: c. 1122
- DEATH DATE: April 01, 1204
- PLACE OF BIRTH: France
- PLACE OF DEATH: Fontevrault, France
- AKA: Eleanor of Guyenne
- AKA: Éléonore d'Aquitaine
Best Known For
Eleanor of Aquitaine was queen consort to two kings and mother to two more, making her the most powerful woman in 12th-century Europe.
Eleanor of Aquitaine. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 08:52, Feb 09, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/eleanor-of-aquitaine-9285816
Eleanor of Aquitaine [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/eleanor-of-aquitaine-9285816, February 09
" Eleanor of Aquitaine." 2012. Biography.com 09 Feb 2012, 08:52 http://www.biography.com/people/eleanor-of-aquitaine-9285816
' Eleanor of Aquitaine', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/eleanor-of-aquitaine-9285816 [accessed Feb 09, 2012]
" Eleanor of Aquitaine," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/eleanor-of-aquitaine-9285816 (accessed Feb 09, 2012).
Eleanor of Aquitaine [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 Feb 09]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/eleanor-of-aquitaine-9285816.
Eleanor of Aquitaine, http://www.biography.com/people/eleanor-of-aquitaine-9285816 (last visited Feb 09, 2012).
Eleanor of Aquitaine, http://www.biography.com/people/eleanor-of-aquitaine-9285816 (last visited Feb 09, 2012).
Synopsis
Profile
(born 1122—died April 1, 1204, Fontevrault, Anjou, France) queen consort of both Louis VII of France (1137–52) and Henry II of England (1152–1204) and mother of Richard I (the Lion-Heart) and John of England. She was perhaps the most powerful woman in 12th-century Europe.Eleanor was the daughter and heiress of William X, duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitiers, who possessed one of the largest domains in France—larger, in fact, than those held by the French king. Upon William's death in 1137 she inherited the duchy of Aquitaine and in July 1137 married the heir to the French throne, who succeeded his father, Louis VI, the following month. Eleanor became queen of France, a title she held for the next 15 years. Beautiful, capricious, and adored by Louis, Eleanor exerted considerable influence over him, often goading him into undertaking perilous ventures.
From 1147 to 1149 Eleanor accompanied Louis on the Second Crusade to protect the fragile Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, founded after the First Crusade only 50 years before, from Turkish assault. Eleanor's conduct during this expedition, especially at the court of her uncle Raymond of Poitiers at Antioch, aroused Louis's jealousy and marked the beginning of their estrangement. After their return to France and a short-lived reconciliation, their marriage was annulled in March 1152. According to feudal customs, Eleanor then regained possession of Aquitaine, and two months later she married the grandson of Henry I of England, Henry Plantagenet, count of Anjou and duke of Normandy. In 1154 he became, as Henry II, king of England, with the result that England, Normandy, and the west of France were united under his rule. Eleanor had only two daughters by Louis VII; to her new husband she bore five sons and three daughters. The sons were William, who died at the age of three; Henry; Richard, the Lion-Heart; Geoffrey, duke of Brittany; and John, surnamed Lackland until, having outlived all his brothers, he inherited, in 1199, the crown of England. The daughters were Matilda, who married Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria; Eleanor, who married Alfonso VIII, king of Castile; and Joan, who married successively William II, king of Sicily, and Raymond VI, count of Toulouse. Eleanor would well have deserved to be named the “grandmother of Europe.”
During her childbearing years, she participated actively in the administration of the realm and even more actively in the management of her own domains. She was instrumental in turning the court
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Famous Queens
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