1122-1204
Queen Of France And England

Eleanor's Inheritance. The life of Eleanor of Aquitaine illustrates how the clever manipulation of family ties could enhance an aristocrat's power in the Middle Ages. Although the several regions of twelfth-century France were nominally bound to the Capetian monarch in Paris, all but a few of the king's vassals ruled their lands independently. The succession of the dukes of Aquitaine, the largest and most powerful of these regions, was therefore of great importance to the political balance of Western Europe. When William X of Aquitaine died in 1137 without a surviving male heir, his fifteen-year-old daughter, Eleanor, inherited the duchy, thus beginning her career as one of the most politically influential women of the Middle Ages.

Queen of France. On his deathbed Eleanor's father had entrusted her to the protection of King Louis VI, who promptly betrothed her to his...