Eleanor of Aquitaine (b. Poitiers 1122 - d. Fontevraud - l'abbaye 1204). It was Duchessof Aquitaine and Guyenne, Gascony Countess of its own right, and Queen of France and England.
Born in the city of Poitiers, in 1122, the largest of the three offspring of the marriagebetween William X, Duke of Aquitaine, and Eleanor of Chatellerault. Died in 1130 heronly brother, William, becoming the heir of her father. On April 9, 1137, William X diedduring a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and Eleanor took over the vast duchyof Aquitaine, which extended from the Loire to the Pyrenees and was greater than thedirect domain of the King of France.
On July 4, 1137 she married at age 15 in Bordeaux, with Louis VII of France, the future king of France, one year her senior. That same year amounted to the French throne on the death of King Louis VI. 8 years later, in 1145, was born the first child of Eleanor, Mary, Countess of Champagne.
Strains between the royal couple began very early, when the queen supported the unlawful marriage of her sister with Raul I, Count ofVermandois, while the king sent his brother Robert to invade Vermandois punishment for bigamy by the Earl of. In addition, her behavior independent and liberal was severely criticized by the ecclesiastical curia, and by her mother in law, Adelaide of Savoy. But none of this mattered to the French king, who was madly in love with his wife.
In 1147 the couple moved to the Second Crusade moved by the preaching of Bernard ofClairvaux. The king willingly allowed his wife to accompany him, but Eleanor, asDuchess of Aquitaine and, therefore, most feudatory of France, from stresses like otherfeudal lords.
During her stay in Antioch, the ratio of the queen with her uncle Raymond of Poitiers, gave rise to all sorts of gossip that alienated the king and queen. Luis forces his wife to return with him to force, but leave separately. On his way to France, stopping in Rome,where Pope tries to reconcile the couple actually the result of this effort was the Papalbirth of their second daughter, Alix, Countess of Blois born in 1151 - but the couple was hopelessly detached:
on March 21, 1152 get an annulment based on the relationship between them.
On May 18, 1152 he married Eleanor, at the Cathedral of San Andres de Bordeaux,with the soon to be Henry II of England, uniting her vast dominions in France whichalready had the heir to the English throne (owner of Anjou, Maine and Normandy, the Kingdom of England and Wales). Thus was formed called Angevin Empire. This couple had 8 children, five boys and three girls. In her court, established mainly in Poitiers, was booming chivalrous poetry, when she was patron of many troubadours.
The existence of a mistress of Henry II led to the confrontation between Leonor and King, and from 1173, Eleanor encouraged the rebellion of three sons of the king againsttheir father. After suppressing the rebellion, the king, Eleanor imprisoned, first in Chinonand then in Salisbury, where he remained under arrest until the death of Henry.
Recovered freedom, Eleanor, became the ruler of the Angevin dominions in during absences of his son Richard (King Richard I the Lionheart). After the return of King Richard the Third Crusade, Eleanor retired to the Abbey of Fontevrault. The death ofRichard, April 6, 1199, Eleanor made again leave her retirement until the coronation of his other son, John (better known as John Lackland), relegating his grandson, Arthur I,Duke of Britain, which she almost did not know.
In 1200, with nearly 80 years, Eleanor decides to travel to Castilla crossing the Pyrenees, to choose between her granddaughters, the princesses of Castilla-daughters of her daughter Eleanor and Alfonso VIII of Castile in what would become the wife of Philip II Augustus, the future Louis VIII of France. The chosen would Blanche of Castile, one of the most famous queens of France, regent of the kingdom three times and model of virtue and political ability.
Eleanor died on April 1 at the Abbey of Fontevrault, at 82 years of age, being buriedthere the same with her husband Henry and their son, Richard.
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