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Birth:          ABT 1121 prob. Chateau de Belin,  Bordeaux, France
Death:          31 Mar 1204 Mirabell Castle, Poitiers, Poitou, France
Burial:         Fontrevrault Abbey, Fontrevrault, Maine-et-Loire, France

Notes
heiress of Aquitaine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine (French: Aliénor d'Aquitaine, Éléonore, Latin: Alienora; 1122  – 1 
April 1204) was a Queen consort of France and England. As a member of the 
Ramnulfids ("House of Poitiers") rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the 
most powerful and wealthiest women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. 
She inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine from her father, William X, in 1137, and by 
successive marriages became Queen of France (1137–1152) and then of England 
(1154–1189). She was patron of literary figures such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-
Maure, and Bernart de Ventadorn. She led armies several times in her life and was a 
leader of the Second Crusade.

As Duchess of Aquitaine, Eleanor was the most eligible bride in Europe. Three months 
after she became duchess, she married King Louis VII of France, son of her guardian, 
King Louis VI. As Queen of France, she participated in the unsuccessful Second 
Crusade. Soon afterwards, Eleanor sought an annulment of her marriage,[1] but her 
request was rejected by Pope Eugene III.[2] However, after the birth of her second 
daughter Alix, Louis agreed to an annulment, as fifteen years of marriage had not 
produced a son.[3] The marriage was annulled on 11 March 1152 on the grounds of 
consanguinity within the fourth degree. Their daughters were declared legitimate and 
custody was awarded to Louis, while Eleanor's lands were restored to her.

As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to the Duke of 
Normandy, who became King Henry II of England in 1154. Henry was her third cousin 
and eleven years younger. The couple married on Whitsun, 18 May 1152, eight weeks 
after the annulment of Eleanor's first marriage, in a cathedral in Poitiers, France. Over 
the next thirteen years, she bore Henry eight children: five sons, three of whom would 
become kings; and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became 
estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting their son Henry's revolt against 
him. She was not released until 6 July 1189, when Henry died and their second son, 
Richard the Lionheart, ascended the throne.

Now Queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third 
Crusade; on his return Richard was captured and held prisoner. Eleanor lived well into 
the reign of her youngest son, John. She outlived all her children except for John and 
Eleanor.
Early life

Eleanor's year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her 
family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that 
Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124.[4] On the other hand, some chronicles 
mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor's 
fourteenth birthday in 1136. This, and her known age of 82 at her death, make 1122 
more likely the year of birth.[5] Her parents almost certainly married in 1121. Her 
birthplace may have been Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l'Autise, where her mother 
and brother died when Eleanor was 6 or 8.[6]

Eleanor (or Aliénor) was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, 
whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, 
Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault, and 
Dangereuse de l'Isle Bouchard, who was William IX's longtime mistress as well as 
Eleanor's maternal grandmother. Her parents' marriage had been arranged by 
Dangereuse with her paternal grandfather William IX.

Eleanor is said to have been named for her mother Aenor and called Aliénor from the 
Latin alia Aenor, which means the other Aenor. It became Eléanor in the langues d'oïl 
of northern France and Eleanor in English.[3] There was, however, another prominent 
Eleanor before her: Eleanor of Normandy, an aunt of William the Conqueror, who lived 
a century earlier than Eleanor of Aquitaine. In Paris as the Queen of France she was 
called Helienordis, her honorific name as written in the Latin epistles.

By all accounts, Eleanor's father ensured that she had the best possible education.[7] 
Eleanor came to learn arithmetic, the constellations, and history.[3] She also learned 
domestic skills such as household management and the needle arts of embroidery, 
needlepoint, sewing, spinning, and weaving.[3] Eleanor developed skills in 
conversation, dancing, games such as backgammon, checkers, and chess, playing 
the harp, and singing.[3] Although her native tongue was Poitevin, she was taught to 
read and speak Latin, was well versed in music and literature, and schooled in riding, 
hawking, and hunting.[8] Eleanor was extroverted, lively, intelligent, and strong-willed. 
In the spring of 1130 her four-year-old brother William Aigret and their mother died at 
the castle of Talmont, on Aquitaine's Atlantic coast. Eleanor became the heir 
presumptive to her father's domains. The Duchy of Aquitaine was the largest and 
richest province of France; Poitou (where Eleanor spent most of her childhood) and 
Aquitaine together were almost one-third the size of modern France. Eleanor had only 
one other legitimate sibling, a younger sister named Aelith, also called Petronilla. Her 
half brother Joscelin was acknowledged by William X as a son, but not as his heir. 
That she had another half brother, William, has been discredited.[9] Later, during the 
first four years of Henry II's reign, her siblings joined Eleanor's royal household.
Inheritance

In 1137 Duke William X left Poitiers for Bordeaux and took his daughters with him. 
Upon reaching Bordeaux, he left them in the charge of the Archbishop of Bordeaux, 
one of his few loyal vassals. The duke then set out for the Shrine of Saint James of 
Compostela in the company of other pilgrims. He died, however, on Good Friday of 
that year (9 April).

Eleanor, aged twelve to fifteen, then became the Duchess of Aquitaine, and thus the 
most eligible heiress in Europe. As these were the days when kidnapping an heiress 
was seen as a viable option for obtaining a title, William dictated a will on the very 
day he died that bequeathed his domains to Eleanor and appointed King Louis VI of 
France as her guardian.[10] William requested of the king that he take care of both 
the lands and the duchess, and find her a suitable husband.[7] However, until a 
husband was found, the king had the legal right to Eleanor's lands. The duke also 
insisted to his companions that his death be kept a secret until Louis was informed; 
the men were to journey from Saint James of Compostela across the Pyrenees as 
quickly as possible to call at Bordeaux to notify the archbishop, then to make all 
speed to Paris to inform the king.

The king of France, known as Louis the Fat, was also gravely ill at that time, suffering 
from a bout of dysentery from which he appeared unlikely to recover. Despite his 
impending mortality, Louis remained clear-minded. His heir, Prince Louis, had originally 
been destined for the monastic life of a younger son but became the heir apparent 
when his older brother, Philip, died from a riding accident in 1131.[11]

The death of William, one of the king's most powerful vassals, made available the 
most desirable duchy in France. While presenting a solemn and dignified face to the 
grieving Aquitainian messengers, Louis exulted when they departed. Rather than act 
as guardian to the duchess and duchy, he decided to marry the duchess to his 17-
year-old heir and bring Aquitaine under the control of the French crown, thereby 
greatly increasing the power and prominence of France and its ruling family, the House 
of Capet. Within hours, the king had arranged for Prince Louis to be married to 
Eleanor, with Abbot Suger in charge of the wedding arrangements. Prince Louis was 
sent to Bordeaux with an escort of 500 knights, along with Abbot Suger, Theobald II, 
Count of Champagne, and Count Ralph.
First marriage

On 25 July 1137 Louis VII of France and Eleanor were married in the Cathedral of 
Saint-André in Bordeaux by the Archbishop of Bordeaux.[7] Immediately after the 
wedding, the couple were enthroned as Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine.[7] However, 
there was a catch: the land would remain independent of France until Eleanor's oldest 
son became both King of the Franks and Duke of Aquitaine. Thus, her holdings would 
not be merged with France until the next generation. As a wedding present she gave 
Louis a rock crystal vase, currently on display at the Louvre.[7][11][12] Louis gave the 
vase to the Basilica of St Denis. This vase is the only object connected with Eleanor 
of Aquitaine that still survives.[13]

Louis' tenure as Count of Poitou and Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony lasted only a few 
days. Although he had been invested as such on 8 August 1137, a messenger gave 
him the news that Louis VI had died of dysentery on 1 August while Prince Louis and 
Eleanor were making a tour of the provinces. Thus he became King Louis VII of 
France. He and Eleanor were anointed and crowned King and Queen of the Franks on 
Christmas Day of the same year.[7][14]

Possessing a high-spirited nature, Eleanor was not popular with the staid northerners; 
according to sources, Louis's mother Adelaide of Maurienne thought her flighty and a 
bad influence. She was not aided by memories of Constance of Arles, the Provençal 
wife of Robert II, tales of whose immodest dress and language were still told with 
horror.[a] Eleanor's conduct was repeatedly criticized by church elders, particularly 
Bernard of Clairvaux and Abbot Suger, as indecorous. The king was madly in love with 
his beautiful and worldly bride, however, and granted her every whim, even though her 
behavior baffled and vexed him. Much money went into making the austere Cité 
Palace in Paris more comfortable for Eleanor's sake.[11]
Annulment

Even before the Crusade, Eleanor and Louis were becoming estranged, and their 
differences were only exacerbated while they were abroad. Eleanor's purported 
relationship with her uncle Raymond,[17] the ruler of Antioch, was a major source of 
discord. Eleanor supported her uncle's desire to re-capture the nearby County of 
Edessa, the objective of the Crusade. In addition, having been close to him in their 
youth, she now showed what was considered to be "excessive affection" toward her 
uncle. Raymond had plans to abduct Eleanor, to which she consented.[18] While 
many historians[who?] today dismiss this as normal affection between uncle and niece 
(noting their early friendship and his similarity to her father and grandfather), some of 
Eleanor's adversaries interpreted the generous displays of affection as an incestuous 
affair. Louis's long march to Jerusalem and back north, which Eleanor was forced to 
join, debilitated his army and disheartened her knights; the divided Crusade armies 
could not overcome the Muslim forces, and the royal couple had to return home.

Home, however, was not easily reached. Louis and Eleanor, on separate ships due to 
their disagreements, were first attacked in May 1149 by Byzantine ships attempting to 
capture both on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor. Although they escaped this 
attempt unharmed, stormy weather drove Eleanor's ship far to the south (to the 
Barbary Coast) and caused her to lose track of her husband. Neither was heard of for 
over two months. In mid-July, Eleanor's ship finally reached Palermo in Sicily, where 
she discovered that she and her husband had both been given up for dead. She was 
given shelter and food by servants of King Roger II of Sicily, until the king eventually 
reached Calabria, and she set out to meet him there. Later, at King Roger's court in 
Potenza, she learned of the death of her uncle Raymond, who was beheaded by 
Muslim forces in the Holy Land. This appears to have forced a change of plans, for 
instead of returning to France from Marseilles, they went to see Pope Eugene III in 
Tusculum, where he had been driven five months before by a revolt of the Commune 
of Rome.

Eugene did not, as Eleanor had hoped, grant an annulment. Instead, he attempted to 
reconcile Eleanor and Louis, confirming the legality of their marriage. He proclaimed 
that no word could be spoken against it, and that it might not be dissolved under any 
pretext. Eventually, he arranged events so that Eleanor had no choice[clarification 
needed] but to sleep with Louis in a bed specially prepared[how?] by the pope. Thus 
was conceived their second child – not a son, but another daughter, Alix of France.

The marriage was now doomed. Still without a son and in danger of being left with no 
male heir, facing substantial opposition to Eleanor from many of his barons and her 
own desire for annulment, Louis bowed to the inevitable. On 11 March 1152, they met 
at the royal castle of Beaugency to dissolve the marriage. Hugues de Toucy, 
Archbishop of Sens, presided, and Louis and Eleanor were both present, as were the 
Archbishops of Bordeaux and Rouen. Archbishop Samson of Reims acted for Eleanor.

On 21 March, the four archbishops, with the approval of Pope Eugene, granted an 
annulment on grounds of consanguinity within the fourth degree. (Eleanor was Louis' 
third cousin once removed, and shared common ancestry with Robert II of France.) 
Their two daughters were, however, declared legitimate. (Children born to a marriage 
that was later annulled were not at risk of being "bastardized," because "[w]here 
parties married in good faith, without knowledge of an impediment, ... children of the 
marriage were legitimate." [Berman 228.][why?]) Custody of them was awarded to King 
Louis. Archbishop Samson received assurances from Louis that Eleanor's lands would 
be restored to her.
Second marriage

As Eleanor traveled to Poitiers, two lords – Theobald V, Count of Blois, and Geoffrey, 
Count of Nantes (brother of Henry II, Duke of Normandy) – tried to kidnap and marry 
her to claim her lands. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to 
Henry, Duke of Normandy and future king of England, asking him to come at once to 
marry her. On 18 May 1152 (Whit Sunday), eight weeks after her annulment, Eleanor 
married Henry "without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank".[19]

Eleanor was related to Henry even more closely than she had been to Louis: they 
were cousins to the third degree through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou 
(wife of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais), and they were 
also descended from King Robert II of France. A marriage between Henry and 
Eleanor's daughter Marie had earlier been declared impossible due to their status as 
third cousins once removed. It was rumored by some that Eleanor had had an affair 
with Henry's own father, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, who had advised his son to avoid 
any involvement with her.

On 25 October 1154, Henry became King of England. Eleanor was crowned Queen of 
England by the Archbishop of Canterbury on 19 December 1154.[14] She may not 
have been anointed on this occasion, however, because she had already been 
anointed in 1137.[20] Over the next thirteen years, she bore Henry five sons and three 
daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan. John 
Speed, in his 1611 work History of Great Britain, mentions the possibility that Eleanor 
had a son named Philip, who died young. His sources no longer exist, and he alone 
mentions this birth.[21]

Eleanor's marriage to Henry was reputed to be tumultuous and argumentative, 
although sufficiently cooperative to produce at least eight pregnancies. Henry was by 
no means faithful to his wife and had a reputation for philandering. Henry fathered 
other, illegitimate children throughout the marriage. Eleanor appears to have taken an 
ambivalent attitude towards these affairs: for example, Geoffrey of York, an illegitimate 
son of Henry, was acknowledged by Henry as his child and raised at Westminster in 
the care of the queen.

During the period from Henry's accession to the birth of Eleanor's youngest son John, 
affairs in the kingdom were turbulent: Aquitaine, as was the norm, defied the authority 
of Henry as Eleanor's husband and answered only to their Duchess. Attempts were 
made to claim Toulouse, the rightful inheritance of Eleanor's grandmother Philippa of 
Toulouse, but they ended in failure. A bitter feud arose between the king and Thomas 
Becket, initially his Chancellor and closest adviser and later the Archbishop of 
Canterbury. Louis of France had remarried and been widowed; he married for the third 
time and finally fathered a long hoped-for son, Philip Augustus (also known as 
Dieudonne - God-given). "Young Henry," son of Henry and Eleanor, wed Marguerite of 
France, daughter of Louis from his second marriage. Little is known of Eleanor's 
involvement in these events. It is certain that by late 1166, Henry's notorious affair 
with Rosamund Clifford had become known, and Eleanor's marriage to Henry appears 
to have become terminally strained.

In 1167, Eleanor's third daughter, Matilda, married Henry the Lion of Saxony. Eleanor 
remained in England with her daughter for the year prior to Matilda's departure for 
Normandy in September. In December, Eleanor gathered her movable possessions in 
England and transported them on several ships to Argentan. Christmas was celebrated 
at the royal court there, and she appears to have agreed to a separation from Henry. 
She certainly left for her own city of Poitiers immediately after Christmas. Henry did not 
stop her; on the contrary, he and his army personally escorted her there before 
attacking a castle belonging to the rebellious Lusignan family. Henry then went about 
his own business outside Aquitaine, leaving Earl Patrick (his regional military 
commander) as her protective custodian. When Patrick was killed in a skirmish, 
Eleanor (who proceeded to ransom his captured nephew, the young William Marshal), 
was left in control of her lands.
Widowhood

Upon the death of her husband Henry II on 6 July 1189, Richard I was the undisputed 
heir. One of his first acts as king was to send William Marshal to England with orders 
to release Eleanor from prison; he found upon his arrival that her custodians had 
already released her.[7] Eleanor rode to Westminster and received the oaths of fealty 
from many lords and prelates on behalf of the king. She ruled England in Richard's 
name, signing herself "Eleanor, by the grace of God, Queen of England". On 13 
August 1189, Richard sailed from Barfleur to Portsmouth and was received with 
enthusiasm. Between 1190 and 1194, Richard was absent from England, engaged in 
the Third Crusade from 1190 to 1192 and then held in captivity by Henry VI, Holy 
Roman Emperor. During Richard's absence, royal authority in England was 
represented by a Council of Regency in conjunction with a succession of chief 
justiciars – William de Longchamp (1190–1191), Walter de Coutances (1191–1193) and 
finally Hubert Walter. Although Eleanor held no formal office in England during this 
period, she arrived in England in the company of Coutances in June 1191, and for the 
remainder of Richard's absence she exercised a considerable degree of influence over 
the affairs of England as well as the conduct of Prince John. Eleanor played a key 
role in raising the ransom demanded from England by Henry VI and in the negotiations 
with the Holy Roman Emperor that eventually secured Richard's release.

Eleanor survived Richard and lived well into the reign of her youngest son, King John. 
In 1199, under the terms of a truce between King Philip II and King John, it was 
agreed that Philip's twelve-year-old heir-apparent Louis would be married to one of 
John's nieces, daughters of his sister Eleanor of Castile. John instructed his mother to 
travel to Castile to select one of the princesses. Now 77, Eleanor set out from Poitiers. 
Just outside Poitiers she was ambushed and held captive by Hugh IX of Lusignan, 
whose lands had been sold to Henry II by his forebears. Eleanor secured her freedom 
by agreeing to his demands. She continued south, crossed the Pyrenees, and 
travelled through the Kingdoms of Navarre and Castile, arriving in Castile before the 
end of January 1200.

King Alfonso VIII and Eleanor's daughter, Queen Eleanor of Castile, had two remaining 
unmarried daughters, Urraca and Blanche. Eleanor selected the younger daughter, 
Blanche. She stayed for two months at the Castilian court, then late in March 
journeyed with granddaughter Blanche back across the Pyrenees. She celebrated 
Easter in Bordeaux, where the famous warrior Mercadier came to her court. It was 
decided that he would escort the Queen and Princess north. "On the second day in 
Easter week, he was slain in the city by a man-at-arms in the service of Brandin",[27] 
a rival mercenary captain. This tragedy was too much for the elderly queen, who was 
fatigued and unable to continue to Normandy. She and Blanche rode in easy stages to 
the valley of the Loire, and she entrusted Blanche to the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who 
took over as her escort. The exhausted Eleanor went to Fontevraud, where she 
remained. In early summer, Eleanor was ill, and John visited her at Fontevraud.

Eleanor was again unwell in early 1201. When war broke out between John and Philip, 
Eleanor declared her support for John and set out from Fontevraud to her capital 
Poitiers to prevent her grandson Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, posthumous son of 
Eleanor's son Geoffrey and John's rival for the English throne, from taking control. 
Arthur learned of her whereabouts and besieged her in the castle of Mirebeau. As 
soon as John heard of this, he marched south, overcame the besiegers, and captured 
the 15-year-old Arthur. Eleanor then returned to Fontevraud where she took the veil as 
a nun.

Eleanor died in 1204 and was entombed in Fontevraud Abbey next to her husband 
Henry and her son Richard. Her tomb effigy shows her reading a Bible and is 
decorated with magnificent jewelry. By the time of her death she had outlived all of 
her children except for King John of England and Queen Eleanor of Castile.
Appearance

Contemporary sources praise Eleanor's beauty.[7] Even in an era when ladies of the 
nobility were excessively praised, their praise of her was undoubtedly sincere. When 
she was young, she was described as perpulchra – more than beautiful. When she was 
around 30, Bernard de Ventadour, a noted troubadour, called her "gracious, lovely, 
the embodiment of charm", extolling her "lovely eyes and noble countenance" and 
declaring that she was "one meet to crown the state of any king".[10][29][30] William 
of Newburgh emphasized the charms of her person, and even in her old age Richard 
of Devizes described her as beautiful, while Matthew Paris, writing in the 13th 
century, recalled her "admirable beauty."

In spite of all these words of praise, no one left a more detailed description of Eleanor; 
the colour of her hair and eyes, for example, are unknown. The effigy on her tomb 
shows a tall and large-boned woman with brown skin, though this may not be an 
accurate representation. Her seal of c.1152 shows a woman with a slender figure, but 
this is likely an impersonal image.[7]

Popular culture
Art
Judy Chicago's artistic installation The Dinner Party features a place setting for 
Eleanor.[31]
Eleanor and Henry are the main characters in James Goldman's play The Lion in 
Winter, which was made into a film starring Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn in 
1968 (for which Hepburn won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA 
Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and was nominated for the Golden Globe 
Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama). The film was remade for television in 
2003 with Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close (for which Close won the Golden Globe 
Award for Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for 
Television and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead 
Actress - Miniseries or a Movie).

The depiction of Eleanor in the play Becket, which was filmed in 1964 with Pamela 
Brown as Eleanor, contains historical inaccuracies, as acknowledged by the author, 
Jean Anouilh.

In 2004 Catherine Muschamp's one-woman play, Mother of the Pride, toured the UK 
with Eileen Page in the title role. In 2005 Chapelle Jaffe played the same part in 
Toronto.

The character "Queen Elinor" appears in William Shakespeare's King John, along with 
other members of the family. On television, she has been portrayed in this play by Una 
Venning in the BBC Sunday Night Theatre version (1952) and by Mary Morris in the 
BBC Shakespeare version (1984).

She figures prominently in Sharon Kay Penman's novels, When Christ And His Saints 
Slept, Time and Chance, and Devil's Brood, and also appears briefly in Here Be 
Dragons.

Penman has written a series of historical mysteries in which Eleanor, in old age, sends 
a trusted servant to unravel various puzzles. The titles are The Queen's Man, Cruel as 
the Grave, Dragon's Lair, and Prince of Darkness.

Eleanor features as a more minor character in Lionheart and A King's Ransom, both of 
which focus on the reign of her son, Richard, as king of England.

Eleanor is the principal character of Beloved Enemy and Gilded Cages, the last two 
volumes of a trilogy of romance novels by Ellen Jones.

E. L. Konigsburg's young adult novel A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver takes 
place in Heaven of the late 20th century, where Eleanor of Aquitaine, Empress 
Matilda, and William the Marshall are waiting for King Henry II to be admitted to 
eternity at last. The Abbot Suger stops to chat with Eleanor and stays to wait, too. To 
pass the time, the four recall Eleanor's time on Earth. The flashbacks on earth are set 
during the Middle Ages in France and England, with a brief trip to the Holy Land. The 
flashbacks trace the highlights of Eleanor's life from 1137 (when she is 15 years old 
and about to wed Louis Capet, soon to be King Louis VII of France) to her death in 
1204. Her life encompasses the rule of England by her husband Henry II and by her 
sons Richard and John. Originally published in 1973, the novel was put back in print 
by Atheneum in 2001.

Eleanor is associated with Nicole des Jardins in Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee's 
follow-up series to Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama.

Jean Plaidy has written about her in several novels. Courts of Love is written from a 
first person perspective in Plaidy's Queens of England series, and in The Plantagenet 
Saga, Eleanor of Aquitaine is featured in The Plantagenet Prelude, Revolt of the 
Eaglets, The Heart of the Lion, and Prince of Darkness.

Eleanor is featured in a book in The Royal Diaries series, Eleanor: Crown Jewel of 
Aquitaine (2002) by Kristiana Gregory. The books in the series are written as fictional 
diaries of royal women in their earlier years; Eleanor's is set in the year 1136.

Christy English's historical novel, The Queen's Pawn, published in April 2010, depicts 
Eleanor of Aquitaine from 1169 to 1173, during her marriage to King Henry II of 
England and her relationship with Princess Alais of France. In April 2011 English 
published a second novel, To Be Queen, which is another historical novel centered on 
Eleanor of Aquitaine's life. This novel covers the years 1132–1152, from before she 
became Duchess of Aquitaine until the end of her first marriage to Louis VII of France. 
Also published in April 2010 was Alison Weir's novel, The Captive Queen, which 
details Eleanor's life from when she first met Henry II of England to her death in 1204.

Cecelia Holland's 2010 novel, The Secret Eleanor: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine, 
set in the years 1151–1152, is centered on Eleanor's relationship with her sister 
Petronilla; it narrates the meeting of Eleanor and Henry Plantagenet, the beginning of 
their love affair, Eleanor's annulment of her marriage to Louis VII, and Petronilla's role 
helping her sister in these events, in a fictional secret history concordant with the 
known facts of their lives.

In 2013 Elizabeth Chadwick published the first of three announced books about 
Eleanor's life, titled The Summer Queen. The second, titled The Winter Crown was 
published in 2014. Eleanor was a major character in Chadwick's historical novels 
about William Marshal especially The Greatest Knight.

Eleanor is one of four women profiled in Helen Castor's 2011 book She-Wolves: The 
Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth (Faber & Faber), and of the BBC 
documentary She-Wolves: England's Early Queens, presented by Castor.

Eleanor features in Susan Appleyard's novel of Henry II 'The First Plantagenet'.

In 2012, Mark Richard Beaulieu published the first of six books in the Eleanor Code 
series, titled "Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Young Life."

Eleanor featured as a supporting character in A. C. Gaughen's Lady Thief in 2014 and 
Lion Heart in 2015, which are re-tellings of the Robin Hood stories.

Eleanor has featured in a number of screen versions of the Ivanhoe and Robin Hood 
stories. She has been played by Martita Hunt in The Story of Robin Hood and His 
Merrie Men (1952), Jill Esmond in the British TV adventure series The Adventures of 
Robin Hood (1955–1960), Phyllis Neilson-Terry in the British TV adventure series 
Ivanhoe (1958), Yvonne Mitchell in the BBC TV drama series The Legend of Robin 
Hood (1975), Siân Phillips in the TV series Ivanhoe (1997), and Tusse Silberg in the 
TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood (1997). She was portrayed by Lynda 
Bellingham in the BBC series Robin Hood. Most recently, she was portrayed by Eileen 
Atkins in Robin Hood (2010).

In the 1964 film, "Becket" (1964), Eleanor is briefly played by Pamela Brown to Peter 
O'Toole's first performance as a young Henry II.

In the 1968 film, The Lion in Winter Eleanor is played by Katharine Hepburn, while 
Henry is again portrayed by O'Toole. The film is about the difficult relationship 
between them and the struggle of their t

Parents
____ William (Guillaume) VIII (X) (1099 - 19 Apr 1137)
DE CHATELLERAULT Aenor (Eleanor) (ABT 1103 - AFT 1133)

Siblings
D'AQUITAINE ET POITOU Eleonore (ABT 1121 - 31 Mar 1204)
D'AQUITAINE Adelaide (Adele) (ABT 1133 - )

Marriage To ____ Louis VII "the Young" (1119 - 18 Sep 1180)
    m. 25 Jul 1137 dv. 18 Mar 1152 his first

Notes

Parents
____ Louis VI "le Gros" ("the Fat") (1 Dec 1081 - 1 Aug 1137)
OF MAURIENNE (OF SAVOY) Adelaide (Alix) (ABT 1092 - 18 Nov 1154)

Children by ____ Louis VII "the Young" 1119 - 18 Sep 1180
OF FRANCE Marie (1145 - 11 Mar 1198)

Marriage To PLANTAGENET Henry II "Curt Mantel" (5 Mar 1133 - 6 Jul 1189)
    m. 18 May 1152 Bordeaux, Gironde, France

Notes
her second

Parents
PLANTAGENET Geoffrey V "Le Bon" (24 Aug 1113 - 7 Sep 1151)
____ Matilda (Maud) (ABT Feb 1102 - 10 Sep 1167)

Children by PLANTAGENET Henry II "Curt Mantel" 5 Mar 1133 - 6 Jul 1189
PLANTAGENET Maud (Matilda) (BEF Jul 1156 - 28 Jun 1189)
____ Eleanor (13 Oct 1162 - 25 Oct 1214)
PLANTAGENET John "Lackland" (24 Dec 1166 - 19 Oct 1216)

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