Eleanor of Aquitaine

The only woman to ever sit the thrones of both France and England and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right while still a child. Eleanor married Louis VII and effectively doubled the size of France by bringing her dower property under France’s umbrella.Eleanor accompanied Louis on the Second Crusade, leading her company of women who all wore cherry red boots. That Crusade was as doomed as their marriage, however, and after fifteen years, Louis was granted an annulment. Two months later, she married Henry II of England and gave birth to five sons and three daughters, most notably, Richard the Lionheart and his disastrous brother, John. Being the daughter of one of the foremost troubadours of their time, it should come as no surprise that Eleanor was herself, a great patron of the arts, sponsoring two of the great poetry movements of her time. The Courtly Love tradition was still an active part of European tradition well into the Tudor era and Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae is still a vital source for much of what we know about medieval history.Unfortunately, she was believed to have incited her sons to rise up in rebellion against their father three times and as a consequence, Henry had her imprisoned for sixteen years. This wasn’t the end of Eleanor’s career though. Richard freed her as soon as his father died and she was nearly eighty when she undertook a journey across the Pyrenees to bring Richard’s bride to England. She later negotiated with one her grandsons who was attempting to lay siege to the castle that she was visiting.Eleanor of Aquitaine finally passed away in 1204 at the age of 82. Mood: A crown in one hand, a dagger in the other.