The eldest daughter and heir of the Dukes of Aquitaine, she was born about 1122. She was brought up by her grandfather, the renowned troubadour Guillaume IX. In 1137 she inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine and married the French king, Louis VII.

Two daughters were born from this marriage. Eleanor accompanied her husband on crusade and was rumoured to have had an affair with Saladin and others. On their return to France, Louis VII had their marriage annulled on 18 March 1152 on grounds of consanguinity. Eleanor, then about 30 years old, wasted no time in seducing the nineteen-year-old Henry, Duke of Normandy, marrying him on 18 May 1152 in Beaux.

Over a period of fifteen years, five sons and three daughters were born. Eleanor and Henry then grew apart and, when their children had grown up, she supported first one son and then another against Henry. In 1189 Henry died and Eleanor lived long enough to outlive her son, Richard the Lionheart, and see her favourite son, John, become king before she herself died in 1204 at about eighty-two years of age, to be buried at Fontevrault.

Source: Leo van de Pas