Louis VII of France.

The pope tried to save Louis’ marriage to Eleanor by “playing Cupid” -- encouraging the couple to share quarters on a visit to the papal court. His efforts were in vain; in March 1152 the marriage was dissolved on grounds of consanguinuity.207

Countess of the rich provice of Aquitaine, queen of France, then queen of England, Eleanor was one of the most influential people in history. She was a prime patron of the chivalric poets who civilized brutal knighthood with the arts of “courtly love.” Brilliant, well-educated, and daring, she led a contingent of “Amazons” (aristocratic women dressed in costumes) on the Crusades with her then-husband Louis. Later she conspired with her sons against her husband Henry, leading him to imprison her in Old Sarum (1174) until his death (1189). She served as a wise counselor to both Richard and John, her sons who reigned after Henry.1

“She was at the very center of the rich culture and clashing politics of the twelfth century. Richest marriage prize of the Middle Ages, she was Queen of France as the wife of Louis VII, and went with him on the exciting and disastrous Second Crusade. Inspiration of troubadours and trovères, she played a large part in rendering fashionable the Courts of Love and in establishing the whole courtly tradition of medieval times. Divorced from Louis, she married Henry Plantagenet [Louis’ most powerful vassal], who became Henry II of England. Her resources and resourcefulness helped Henry win his throne, she was involved in the conflict over Thomas Becket, and, after Henry’s death, she handled the affairs of the Angevin empire with a sagacity that brought her the trust and confidence of popes and kings and emperors.

“Having first been a Capet and then a Plantagenet, Queen Eleanor was the central figure in the bitter rivalry between those houses for the control of their continental domains—a rivalry that excited the whole period: after Henry’s death, her sons, Richard Coeur-de-Lion and John ‘Lackland,’ fiercely pursued the feud up to and even beyond the end of the century. But the dynastic struggle of the period was accompanied by other stirrings: the intellectual revolt, the struggle between church and state, the secularization of literature and other arts, the rise of the distinctive culture of the great cities. Eleanor was concerned with all the movements, closely connected with all the personages; and she knew every city from London and Paris to Byzantium, Jerusalem, and Rome.”206

Claimed descent from Charlemagne206

In extreme old age, she retired to the abbey of Fontrevault, where she later died and was buried between Henry II and her son Richard I.205

From her were decended all subsequent English monarchs, as were all French monarchs from Louis IX (1226-70) to Louis Philippe (1830-48).205

The signature on her last royal proclamation sums up her spirit: “Eleanor, by the Wrath of God, Queen of England.”290