Elâeonore of Aquitaine
Other sources say she died 26 Jun 1202 and that she was born Chateau de
Belin. Burke thinks she died 1162. Countess of Saintonge, Angoumois, Limousin, Auvergne, Bordeaux, Agen.
Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine was an intelligent and emancipated woman living in the dark middle ages. Although it is a conventional rule that all ladies of high rank should be described as beautiful, all sources agree that Eleanor of Aquitaine really was beautiful. In addition, she was the richest heiress of France and became successively Queen of France and England.
Eleanor was a granddaughter of William IX of Aquitaine (1070-1127), who was one of the first and most famous troubadours. He was a cheerful man and an ardent lover of women, who joined the First Crusade. Later he "abducted" the wife of the viscount of Châtellerault, Dangereuse, and although he could not marry her, Dangereuse managed to have her daughter Aenor married to his eldest son William X (1099-1137) in 1121. They had two daughters, Eleanor and Petronilla, and a son, William Aigret. Eleanor resembled both William IX and Dangereuse; she possessed the same intelligence, gaiety, restlessness and will power. The court of William IX was the centre of western European culture: the ducal family was entertained by jongleurs, storytellers and troubadours. Unlike most of her contemporaries, male and especially female, Eleanor was carefully educated and she was an excellent student. Eleanor's happy childhood ended with the subsequent deaths of her mother, her little brother and - in 1137 - her father.
The orphaned Eleanor was the richest heiress in France thus a marriage was arranged for her to its King, Louis VII (1121-1180). Louis had been brought up for an office in the church, but he had become heir to the French throne after the death of his elder brother. He was a weak, dull, grave and pious man and he and the lively Eleanor were ill matched. Louis never understood his young wife, but he appears to have adored her with a passionate admiration. It wasn't until 1145 that a daughter, Marie, was born. Meanwhile, Eleanor was eager to govern her own duchy, since she knew the troublesome Aquitainians better than anyone. However, Louis' councillor, the Abbot Sugar, resented her influence in governmental matters.
When Louis went on the Second Crusade to Palestine, Eleanor raised a company of women to join her and thus she accompanied her husband to the Holy Land. In Antioch Eleanor was warmly received by her uncle Raymond, who reminded her of her happy childhood in Poitiers. Eleanor and Raymond were of the opinion that Jerusalem could best be secured by driving back the Turks in the north, but Louis VII rejected the plan and a quarrel followed. Quietly Louis began preparations for his departure and after dark Eleanor was forcibly conducted from Antioch. Soon the crusade became a complete failure and even Louis' brother Robert quickly rushed home. On their way back to France, Louis and Eleanor visited the pope to plead for a divorce. Instead, the pope tried to reconcile them and induced them to sleep in the same bed again.
Back in France their marriage was worse than ever and Eleanor was horrified to realise that she was pregnant. After the birth of a second daughter in 1150 and the death of Louis' chief minister, Eleanor was no longer the only one who wanted a divorce. She finally got it in 1152. She was still the richest heiress of France and on her way from Paris to Poitiers she had to outwit two would-be seducers. By then Eleanor had fallen in love with duke Henry Plantagenet of Normandy (1133-1189), who was her junior by eleven years. Their marriage, barely 8 weeks after her divorce, made Henry master of most of today's France. With Eleanor's support Henry became King of England too in 1154.
Although Eleanor's first marriage had resulted in only two daughters born in fifteen year, Eleanor bore Henry five sons and three daughters. As the children grew up and Henry openly took mistresses, the couple grew apart. Eleanor was 44 years old, when she gave birth to their youngest son, John Lackland. By then she had discovered the existence of Rosamund Clifford, the most famous of Henry's mistresses. Later Henry arranged a fiancee for his homosexual son Richard Lionheart. She was a daughter of Louis VII and his second wife. While she was educated at the English court, her fiancee ignored her and his father, Henry, seduced her.
In 1169 Henry sent Eleanor to Aquitaine to restore order as its duchess. Once more the ducal palace at Poitiers became the centre of all that was civilised and refined. Troubadours, musicians and scholars were welcomed at Poitiers. There, in 1170 Eleanor reconciled with her first born daughter Marie of France, countess of Champagne. Marie's protégé, Chrétien de Troyes, composed, at Marie's suggestion, the romance of Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. In addition, Marie had a "code of love" written down in thirty-one articles. They described feminist ideas far beyond the 12th century cult of chivalry. In addition, Eleanor sponsored the "courts of love" in which men having problems with the code of love could bring their questions before a tribunal of ladies for judgement. At Christmas 1172 Henry summoned his wife and sons to his court. When in 1173 their sons revolted against their father, Eleanor backed them and was subsequently imprisoned by Henry until his death in 1189.
By then three of their sons had already died and Henry's successor was Eleanor's favourite son, Richard I Lionheart (1157-1199), who appreciated his mother's advice. When he went on crusade, Eleanor became regent. Although Richard was a homosexual, he was supposed to provide England with heirs, so Eleanor escorted his bride-to-be to Sicily. When Richard was killed in 1199, he was succeeded by his youngest brother, John Lackland (1166-1216). Eleanor returned to Aquitaine and retired in the abbey of Fontevraud. She remained busy and active and personally arranged a the marriage of her Castilian granddaughter to the grandson of Louis VII. Thus she lived to be about 82, an extraordinary age in the middle ages.

Louis VII
b. c. 1120 d. Sept. 18, 1180, Paris
by name: Louis “the Younger”; French: Louis “le Jeune”, Capetian king of France who pursued a long rivalry, marked by recurrent warfare and continuous intrigue, with Henry II of England.

In 1131 Louis was anointed as successor to his father, Louis VI, and in 1137 he became the sole ruler at his father's death. Louis married Eleanor, daughter of William X, duke of Aquitaine, in 1137, a few days before his effective rule began, and he thus temporarily extended the Capetian lands to the Pyrenees. Louis continued his father's pacification program by building the prestige of the kingship through an administrative government based on trustworthy men of humble origin and by consolidating his rule over his royal domains rather than by adding new acquisitions. From 1141 to 1143 he was involved in a fruitless conflict with Count Thibaut of Champagne and the papacy. But thereafter his relations with the popes were good; Alexander II, whom he supported against Frederick Barbarossa, took refuge in France. But the major threat to his reign came from Geoffrey, count of Anjou and, briefly, of Normandy, and Geoffrey's son Henry, who later (1154) became King Henry II of England as well as ruler of both Anjou and Normandy. After Louis repudiated his wife Eleanor for misconduct on March 21, 1152, she married Henry, who then took over control of Aquitaine. Ironically, this act was probably to Capetian advantage because Aquitaine might have drained the resources of Louis's kingdom while bringing him little revenue. After the death of Louis's second wife, he married Alix of Champagne, whose Carolingian blood brought added prestige to the monarchy (1160); their son became Philip II Augustus.

Louis might have defeated Henry if he had made concerted attacks rather than weak assaults on Normandy in 1152. Anglo-Norman family disputes saved Louis's kingdom from severe incursions during the many conflicts that Louis had with Henry between 1152 and 1174. Louis was helped by the quarrel (1164-70) between Henry and Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, and a revolt (1173-74) of Henry's sons. Suger, abbot of Saint-Denis, who acted as regent in 1147-49 while Louis was away on the Second Crusade, is the primary historian for Louis's reign.

HENRY II
(1154-89 AD)
Henry II was born in 1133, the son of Geoffrey Plantagenet , Count of Anjou and Matilda, daughter of Henry I . He grew up in Anjou, but visited England as early as 1142 to defend his mother's claim to the disputed throne of Stephen ; educated by famous scholars, he had a true love of reading and intellectual discussion. Geoffrey of Anjou died in September 1151, leaving Normandy and Anjou to Henry. Henry's continental possessions more than doubled when he married Eleanor of Aquitane, ex-wife of King Louis VII of France. After a succession agreement between Stephen and Matilda in 1153, he was crowned Henry II in October 1154. Eleanor bore Henry five sons and three daughters between 1153 and 1167; the relationship between Henry, Eleanor and their sons Henry, Richard and John proved to be tumultuous and treacherous. The empire ruled by Henry and his sons was considerably larger than the lone English island - the French Angevin positions extended from Normandy southward to the Pyrennes, covering the counties of Brittany, Maine, Poitou, Touraine and Gascony, as well as Anjou, Aquitane and Normandy. Henry was extremely energetic and traveled quickly and extensively within the borders of his kingdom.
Henry revitalized the English Exchequer, issuing receipts for tax payments and keeping written accounts on rolled parchment. He replaced incompetent sheriffs, expanding the authority of royal courts, which brought more funds into his coffers. A body of common law emerged to replace feudal and county courts, which varied from place to place. Jury trials were initiated to end the old Germanic customary trials by ordeal or battle. Henry's systematic approach to law provided a common basis for development of royal institutions throughout the entire realm.
The process of strengthening the royal courts, however, yielded an unexpected controversy. Church courts, instituted by William the Conqueror , became a safe haven for criminals of varying degree and ability, for one in fifty of the English population qualified as clerics. Henry wished to transfer such cases to the royal courts, as the only punishment open to the Church courts was demotion of the cleric. Thomas Beckett, Henry's close friend and chancellor since 1155, was named Archbishop of Canterbury in June 1162. In an attempt to discredit claims that he was too closely tied to the king, he vehemently opposed the weakening of Church courts. Henry drove Beckett into exile from 1164-1170. When the Archbishop returned to England, he greatly angered Henry over his opposition to the coronation of Prince Henry. Exasperated, Henry publicly announced a half-hearted desire to be rid off Beckett - four ambitious knights took the king at his word and murdered Beckett in his own cathedral on December 29, 1170. Henry is perhaps best remembered for Beckett's murder, but in fact, the realm was better off without the contentious Archbishop. Henry endured a rather limited storm of protest over the incident, but the real threat to his power came from within his family.
Henry's sons - Henry the Young King, Richard, Geoffrey and John - were never satisfied with any of their father's plans for dividing his lands and titles upon his death. The sons, at the encouragement (and sometimes the treatment) of their mother, rebelled against the king several times. Prince Henry, the only man ever to be crowned while his father still lived, wanted more than a royal title. Thus from 1193 to the end of his reign Henry was plagued by his rebellious sons, who always found a willing partner in Louis VII of France. The death of Henry the Young King in 1183 and Geoffrey in 1186, gave no respite from his children's rebellion - Richard, with the assistance of Louis VII, attacked and defeated Henry, forcing him to accept a humiliating peace on July 4, 1189.
Henry II died two days later, on July 6, 1189. A few quotes from historic manuscripts shed a unique light on Henry, Eleanor and their sons.
From Sir Winston Churchill Kt, 1675 : "Henry II Plantagenet, the very first of that name and race, and the very greatest King that England ever knew, but withal the most unfortunate ... his death being imputed to those only to whom himself had given life, his ungracious sons..."
From Sir Richard Baker, A Chronicle of the Kings of England : Concerning endowments of mind, he was of a spirit in the highest degree generous ... His custom was to be always in action; for which cause, if he had no real wars, he would have feigned ... To his children he was both indulgent and hard; for out of indulgence he caused his son henry to be crowned King in his own time; and out of hardness he caused his younger sons to rebel against him ... He married Eleanor, daughter of William Duke of Guienne, late wife of Lewis the Seventh of France. Some say King Lewis carried her into the Holy Land, where she carried herself not very holy, but led a licentious life; and, which is the worst kind of licentiousness, in carnal familiarity with a Turk." 13

135Plantagenet: The name is derived from the Latin planta (“sprig”) and genista (“broom plant”), in reference to the sprig that Geoffrey [Henry’s father] always wore in his cap.