Here are ten of the most important.

1. Bertha of Kent

Bertha, a Frankish princess, was born in the early 560s to Charibert I, King of Paris, and a woman named Ingoberga. She was married off to King Æthelberht of Kent, an Anglo-Saxon pagan. In 597, St Augustine arrived in England to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.

Bertha is depicted in a stained glass window of the Chapter House, Canterbury Cathedral. Image source: Mattana / CC BY-SA 3.0.

It is widely believed that Bertha was instrumental in persuading her husband to embrace the new religion, as all accounts of St Augustine’s work named her as a prominent figure. Pope Gregory wrote to Bertha in 601, praising what “great succour and what charity you have bestowed upon Augustine”. She was compared to Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, who persuaded her son to convert to Christianity.

2. Æthelflæd

The eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, Æthelflæd was born in 870, a time when Viking invasions were at their height. By 878, East Anglia and Northumbria were conquered, meaning most of England was under Danish Viking rule.

Æthelflæd in the 13th century Genealogical Chronicle of the English Kings.

Æthelflæd’s father, Alfred, married her to Æthelred to cement a strategic alliance between the surviving English kingdoms. After Æthelred’s death in 911, Æthelflæd ruled Mercia as Lady of the Mercians, where she would transform the balance of power.

She embarked on a defensive rebuilding programme in towns such as Tamworth, Warwick and Bridgnorth, recaptured Derby and was offered loyalty by the Viking leaders of York.

3. Matilda of Flanders

According to legend, when the Norman Duke William the Bastard sent his representative to ask Matilda’s hand in marriage, she retorted she was too high-born to marry a bastard. Furious at this snub, William rode to find Matilda, dragged her off her horse by her long braids and threw her down in the street.

A statue of Matilda of Flanders in the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris. Image source: Jastrow / CC BY 3.0.

Whether such rumours are true or not, the marriage to William – who became William the Conqueror – seemed to be successful. Their 9 children were known for being remarkably well educated, and their daughters were educated at Sainte-Trinité in Caen.

4. Matilda of Scotland

Matilda was the daughter of the English princess Saint Margaret and the Scottish king Malcom III. After a messy succession crisis in Scotland, Matilda married the English king, Henry I, and steadied relations between the two nations.

Matilda of Scotland was the mother of William Adelin and Empress Matilda.

In England, she led a literary and musical court, embarked on building projects for the church and ruled in her husband’s name during his absence.

5. Empress Matilda

Matilda of Scotland’s daughter, also named Matilda, was married to the future Holy Roman Emperor, Henry V. When her brother, William Adelin, died in the White Ship disaster of 1120, Matilda returned to England to be nominated heir.

Empress Matilda in ‘History of England’ by St. Albans monks of the 15th century.

She was an unpopular choice in the Anglo-Norman court. When her father died the throne was taken by Matilda’s cousin, Stephen of Blois, who was backed by the English church. Civil war broke out, and the disorder which prevailed gave this period the name of ‘The Anarchy‘.

On one occasion, Matilda was trapped in Oxford Castle, and escaped across the frozen River Isis in a white sheet to avoid capture. Although never officially crowned Queen of England, Matilda was titled Lady of the English, and her son succeeded the throne as Henry II.

6. Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor was born into the House of Poitiers, a powerful dynasty in southwestern France. As a Duchess of Aquitaine, she was the most eligible bride in Europe. Her marriage to Louis VII of France produced two daughters, but was soon annulled on account of consanguinity.

A 14th century depiction of Eleanor marrying her first husband, Louis. On the right, Louis sets sail for the Second Crusade.

Just eight weeks later, she was engaged to the Duke of Normandy. He became Henry II of England in 1154, beaconing a period of stability after civil war had raged.

Eleanor and Henry had eight children, three of whom became kings. Their marriage broke down when Henry imprisoned Eleanor in 1173 for supporting their son’s revolt against him. After her husband’s death, she acted as regent while Richard the Lionheart went on the Third Crusade.

7. Queen Philippa of Hainault

Married to Edward III for 40 years, Phillipa acted as regent for her husband in 1346, and accompanied his expeditions to Scotland, France and Flanders. The eldest of their thirteen children was Edward, the Black Prince.

Her compassion and kindness made her a popular figure, especially in 1347 when she persuaded her husband to spare the lives of the Burghers of Calais. The Queen’s College in Oxford was founded in her honour.

8. Isabella of Valois

Miniature detailing Richard II of England receiving his six-year-old bride Isabel of Valois from her father Charles VI of France.

Isabella was the daughter of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria. At the age of six, she was married to Richard II, who was then 29.

Despite the union acting as a political exercise to improve French and English relations, Richard and Isabella developed a respectful relationship. He regularly visited her in Windsor and entertained her and her ladies-in-waiting.

Richard’s death cut the marriage short, leaving Isabella widowed at the age of 9. She went on to marry Charles, Duke of Orléans and died in childbirth at the age of 19.

Her sister, Catherine, would briefly marry Henry V and give birth to the future Henry VI. Through her second marriage to Owen Tudor, Catherine became the grandmother of the future Henry VII.

9. Anne Neville

As a daughter of Richard Neville, who was known as ‘Warwick the Kingmaker’, Anne was used as an important bargaining chip in the Wars of the Roses. She was originally betrothed to Edward, Prince of Wales, who was the son of Edward IV.

After the death of Prince Edward, she married the Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III. Anne bore a son, Edward of Middleham, who predeceased his parents. Anne also died of tuberculosis in 1485, and later that year Richard was slain at the Battle of Bosworth.

10. Margaret of Anjou

Margaret married King Henry VI, and ruled as Queen of England and France in accordance with the agreements made by Henry V at the Treaty of Troyes. After her husband suffered from bouts of insanity, Margaret ruled in his place.

The marriage of Henry VI and Margaret would break down when Henry suffered bouts of insanity.

Her provocative actions and position as leader of the Lancastrian cause made her a key player in the Wars of the Roses, although she would never enjoy much success. In her final years, she lived in France as a poor relation of the king, and died there aged 52.

But how much of what we believe about Eleanor is actually true? It seems a whole host of myths and misconceptions pervade discussions of Eleanor’s life, from her physical appearance to the role she played in medieval Europe.

Here are 7 enduring myths about Eleanor of Aquitaine.

1. Eleanor yielded exceptional power throughout her life

This is plain wrong, and there is now a lot of scholarship to prove it. The evidence suggests that Eleanor wielded next to no power in her first marriage to Louis VII of France. In the early years of her second marriage to Henry II of England things got slightly better; she wielded power subject to supervision. The same was true when she presided over her own lands in the years 1168-1174. But otherwise, prior to her captivity, Eleanor wielded about as little power in her second marriage as her first.

At the same time (and in the years immediately before her rule) there were actually other women yielding more power than her – including both her mothers in law and Queen Melisende of Jerusalem. Eleanor did wield huge power in her later years, but that was as a widow, and the wielding of power by widows was a perfectly conventional situation in the medieval world.

Tomb effigies of Eleanor and Henry II at Fontevraud Abbey in central France

Image Credit: ElanorGamgee, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

2. Eleanor was exceptionally beautiful

Was Eleanor blonde, brunette, red-headed? Was she beautiful? We simply don’t know. There is no contemporaneous description of her looks by anyone who saw her. One slightly later source describes her as “very beautiful” and a German balladeer (who almost certainly never saw her) speaks about her desirability; but none of the strictly contemporary ones say a thing. The nearest we come is Richard of Devizes, writing when Eleanor was in her late 60s; he refers to her “beautiful yet chaste”. The problem is this occurs in a passage which may well be tongue in cheek.

The best evidence that Eleanor was beautiful is very second-hand: a troubadour did write droolingly about the beauty of her daughter Matilda (whom he did actually meet). Since Henry II was famously not fabulously handsome this might well suggest Matilda inherited her looks from her mother.

We do, of course, have Eleanor’s own “authorised portraits”: her tomb effigy, the window in Poitiers Cathedral and the Eleanor Psalter. But it’s hard to gain anything from the stylised tomb effigy – and the others show her as a woman embracing middle-age, wrinkles and all. Ultimately, the evidence best reflects Eleanor as a very good-looking woman, but not an exceptional beauty. Interestingly, she seems to have attracted devotion more for her personal qualities than her looks.

3. Eleanor presided over the Courts of Love

Donor portrait in a 12th-century psalter in the Royal Library of the Netherlands, thought to depict an older Eleanor

Image Credit: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There were no ‘Courts of Love’, where women were said to rule over cases of romance based on medieval codes of chivalry. This is actually a joke that got out of control. There is no evidence Eleanor even met any of her fellow judges once they were adults. One Andrew the Chaplain, based at the Court of the Counts of Champagne, wrote a book in the mid-1180s (while Eleanor was imprisoned). It is full of “in-jokes” for a courtly audience.

One of said jokes is the Court of Love itself, which Andrew placed under the control of a range of women, many of whom never met at all – but all of whom had been in one way or another victims of the system of arranged marriages – and thus of the lack of female autonomy. This whole story stems from some scholars in the 20th century taking a spoof as being the real deal.

4. Eleanor dressed as an Amazon to aid crusade recruitment and rode bare-breasted into battle

Both of these delightful myths can be traced back to sources considerably after the event. There is not a whiff of them anywhere near the actual time. There is a mention in the chronicle of one Niketas Choniates (30 years after the crusade) of a woman with the crusaders who rode astride and was called by the Byzantines ‘Lady Goldenfoot’. But she wasn’t even with the French army; she was part of the German contingent.

As for the bare-breasted story… In the 1968 film The Lion in Winter – a production not renowned for its historical accuracy – Eleanor recounts the famous line: “I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn… but the troops were dazzled.” Hence, the myth was born.

5. Eleanor murdered Fair Rosamund

In fact, Eleanor was in prison when Fair Rosamund died in around 1176, not haring around the country offering poison to Henry’s latest mistress. No one even suggested this idea for centuries after Eleanor died. The facts: Henry seduced Rosamund when she was probably still in her teens, and kept her as his mistress for about a decade. Rosamund entered Godstow priory at about the time Henry II got another teenager – his ward (aka foster daughter) Ida de Tosny – pregnant. Rosamund died shortly after.

The story of beastly Elenor and Fair Rosamund was invented in the 13th century when foreign queens called Eleanor (especially Eleanor of Provence) were unpopular.

Queen Eleanor and Rosamund Clifford by Marie-Philippe Coupin de La Couperie

Image Credit: Marie-Philippe Coupin de La Couperie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

6. Eleanor’s favourite child was Richard, and she abandoned John

If there is one thing we all know about Eleanor, it is that Richard was her favourite child, right? Well, no. There is plenty of evidence that Eleanor was very proud of Richard, and she spent more time with him than her other sons for political reasons (he was made her heir in Aquitaine by Henry II). But there is no evidence he was her favourite. In fact, she opposed Richard in John’s favour on more than one occasion – notably in relation to John’s role while Richard was on crusade.

John’s childhood abandonment in Fontevraud is effectively a myth. He may have been at school there, but given that Eleanor was ruling a county prone to violent upheaval there were security reasons for this – and it was not far from her main residence. When imprisoned her chief jailer was also the man charged with John’s education. In both locations, she was likely to see John quite regularly and his later closeness to her suggests that they forged a very close bond. Actually, it is a fair bet that Eleanor was closer to her daughters than any of her sons.

7. Eleanor berated the Pope “by the wrath of God” for not helping her free Richard

The famous “Eleanor by the wrath of God, Queen of England” letters – in which Eleanor scolds the Pope for not aiding her in freeing Richard from captivity – were not written by Eleanor at all, but by ‘pen for hire’ Peter of Blois. He was not (as is often said) her secretary. They are not in the Vatican’s files; in other words, there is no evidence they were sent. Probably they were part of Peter’s marketing portfolio. They were found in his files and nowhere else.

Also, Pope Celestine (as Cardinal Bobone) had been a friend of Eleanor’s for years. She had met him repeatedly. She had corresponded with him, addressing him as a friend, speaking of the “sincerity of my affections”.

Sara Cockerill studied Law at Oxford University and practised as a barrister specialising in commercial law until 2017. Her lifelong interest in English history led to her spending her “spare time” researching the life of Eleanor of Castile – and then writing Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen, the first full length biography of Edward I’s beloved queen. As a long time admirer of Eleanor of Aquitaine, that great queen was the obvious next step… Sara continues to work in the legal world, and spends her time between London and the seaside.

Eleanor’s political and personal achievements were varied, but a turning point for her, and for the history of High Medieval Europe, was her marriage to King Henry II of England. As husband and wife they ruled over an Anglo-French empire which spanned from the south of France to Scotland.

Her marriage to Henry II was sudden, but it endured for three and a half decades. A fascinating series of events and some secretive courting (while she was still married to her first husband) brought the two together.

The Duchess of Aquitaine

Born in 1122, Eleanor was the heir to her father’s duchy of Aquitaine. The duchy was one of the largest estates in Europe, covering much of the French European landmass we know today. The huge fiefdom stretched from the Loire to the Pyrenees.

This made Eleanor the most eligible heiress in Europe. She grew up in a household of great wealth, and in Aquitaine women were granted liberties which were not common across Europe. They could mix freely with men (in other courts and kingdoms they would have been strictly chaperoned), and Eleanor was granted a liberal education in Latin and Provencal (the language of Aquitaine itself).

Her wealth and upbringing made her a confident and accomplished young woman. After her father’s death, she inherited his lands in Aquitaine aged just 15. She was married to Louis le Jeune of France in 1137; before long Louis was crowned King of France.

Detail of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Poitiers Cathedral. Image Credit: Danielclauzier / CC.

Queen of France

As the Duchess of Aquitaine, Eleanor had developed a reputation for style, luxury and patronage of the arts. Her wealth, education and confidence made her court famous. When she became Queen of France, her cultural interests flourished: she introduced to Paris Aquitaine’s fashion, language and respect for women.

She also developed a strong relationship with King Louis VII, and the couple shared each other’s artistic interests. She indulged his passion for Aristotle, while he encouraged her love of poetry and hunting. She also bore him a daughter, Marie.

Their court poets, troubadours, were the best in all of Europe, and even warlike French knights were converted to Eleanor’s ways. One account relates how Eleanor set up a mock trial in which the ladies of the court judged French knights while they read love poetry and dressed in elaborate outfits.

In 1147, Eleanor travelled with King Louis on the Second Crusade, but there the marriage began to show signs of strains. Rumours circulated that the attractive and charismatic Eleanor was drawing unnaturally close to her long-lost uncle, Raymond of Poitiers.

Raymond of Poitiers welcoming King Louis VII to Antioch. Image credit: Public Domain.

Louis and Raymond disagreed over the best strategy to reclaim the Holy Land. Eleanor made the unpopular decision of siding with Raymond, and her reputation suffered as she had also not produced a male heir.

She was sent back to France from the Holy Land in disgrace in 1149.

The Courting

When Eleanor and Louis returned to Paris in 1150, Eleanor gave birth to another daughter, Alix. King Louis and his queen had now been married for 13 years and their union had still not resulted in a son. Their marriage, once the envy of Christendom, was foundering.

In an attempt to restore stability to their family, Pope Eugene III and Abbot Suger intervened to try bring the two together. Neither of the religious leaders were successful.

In 1151, in the midst of these difficulties, Geoffrey Plantagenet and his son, Henry, travelled to Paris. They were present to negotiate over the duchy of Normandy, but their journey would change Eleanor’s life.

Geoffrey was a powerful figure as he was married to Empress Matilda, the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Geoffrey’s son Henry was 11 years younger than Eleanor, but had a strong claim to the throne of kingdom of England through Matilda.

During their stay at court more gossip circulated about Eleanor; this time it was whispered that she had struck up a relationship with Geoffrey, who was many years her senior. However, the rumours did not put off Henry. He ignored the hearsay about his father and made a dramatic arrangement with Eleanor.

In the midst of King Louis’ own court, Henry and Eleanor secretly agreed to marry. Eleanor prepared to break off her marriage with one of Europe’s most powerful men and elope with Henry.

Eleanor and Henry

In 1152 the failing marriage of Louis and Eleanor was annulled by the Pope on the grounds of consanguinity, since they were third cousins. Eleanor was now free to marry Henry, to whom she was (ironically) even more closely related.

Eleanor departed the French court for her home in March of that year. En route, Henry’s brother and another lord tried to kidnap her so they might marry her and claim the Aquitaine lands. Eleanor escape their clutches and reached Poitiers where she sent word for Henry to join her.

In May 1152, only two months after her annulment, Henry and Eleanor married in a modest ceremony at Poitiers cathedral. She then supported Henry as he campaigned in England and claimed the throne as part of the settlement between his mother, Matilda, and her cousin Stephen. Their Anglo-French domain was now vast, with territories in modern-day England, France, Wales and Ireland.

Eleanor’s marriage to King Henry II produced eight children: five sons and three daughters. Her residence in Poitiers became famous for developing the practice of ‘courtly love’, stylised and exaggerated displays of affection.

Family difficulties

However, Eleanor and Henry had a tumultuous marriage. Henry was often adulterous, and his rule was not without difficulty: his troubles with the church led to the death of Thomas Beckett.

The death of Thomas Becket.

Eleanor too had her own schemes. In 1173 she joined with her son in a revolt against King Henry, and spent 16 years in prison as a consequence.

After King Henry’s death Eleanor lived on for many years, even ruling England as Queen Dowager while her son Richard the Lionheart was on crusade. She later defended Aquitaine and Anjou from her own grandson, organising the defence of the city of Mirebeau against his armies.

Eleanor was the mother to five monarchs, and her progeny became kings, queens, emperors and archbishops. She eventually lived into her 80s, a rare feat in the High Medieval period, dying in 1204.

The chroniclers who documented the births and lives of medieval princes were celibate and misogynistic monks who showed little interest in the births of girls, which were often not even noted. So we know much about the sons of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II who founded the Plantagenet dynasty: Henry the Young King, Richard the Lionheart, Geoffrey of Brittany and Bad King John.

A 13th-century depiction of Henry II and his children, left to right: William, Henry, Richard, Matilda, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joan and John.

Of Eleanor’s little-documented daughters and granddaughters we catch only glimpses, dressed in silks and velvet, maybe wearing a crown on the day of their marriage to men often old enough to be their fathers and whose main interest was bloodshed, not family life.

While their brothers were raised to become knights and dukes and eventually kings, the princesses grew up knowing their destiny was to provide sons for their imposed husbands. They were often betrothed when little girls, to seal a treaty between their fathers and the husbands selected for them.

Although the Church theoretically ensured that conjugal relations did not start before puberty, many of them gave birth when barely 15 – at a time when puberty was later than today – although this was known to be a bad idea, with the baby liable to die and the immature mother liable to suffer the same fate.

Princess Matilda

Eleanor’s first-born daughter Princess Matilda was sent off to Germany at the age of 11, to wed Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony, a warrior who had to kneel at the wedding, to bring his head down level with hers.

Previously known as Mathilde in France and Maud in England, she had to get used to being called Mechtilde. Giving birth within the year in a room with a number of male courtiers present as witnesses, she did not see the father for months. He was far away spending her dowry on a trip to Jerusalem.

Princess Eleanor

Matilda’s younger sister, named Eleanor after their mother, was betrothed at the age of 3 to Prince Friedrich, infant son of the German Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, but the boy died before a wedding could be arranged.

Five years later she was betrothed to King Alfonso VIII and married to him when only 12 years old, at which point she had to modify her name to the Spanish form Leonor.

Like Henry the Lion, Alfonso was also absent much of the time in the long-running war to drive the Moors back from the huge tracts of Spain they had ruled for 700 years, and which would cost the life of Eleanor’s son. She more than fulfilled her queenly duty, bearing 12 children by Alfonso.

Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of Plantagenet delivering Castle of Uclés to the Master (“magister”) of the Order of Santiago Pedro Fernández.

As happened in those times, both sons and daughters died young. One who did not was christened Leonor after her mother and married at the age of 20 to King Chaime I of Aragon, known euphemistically as a homme de fembres because he spent most nights with other women.

After 9 frustrating years for Leonor, she was sent back to her father.

Princess Joanna

Eleanor of Aquitaine’s third daughter by Henry II, named Joanna, was barely 4 years old when she was betrothed to King William II of the regnu di sicilia – the Norman kingdom of Sicily. 10 years old when sent to Sicily for her wedding, she was a pawn in the struggle between Pope Alexander III and the German Empire, which ruled much of Italy.

If the wedding was a dazzling pageant of colour and luxury, her life in William II’s palace was lonely. He kept a harem of beautiful Christian and Muslim girls for his pleasure, and wanted Joanna only for her dowry.

A double seal of Princess Joanna (Joan). (Credit: Ealdgyth / CC).

Foreign princesses

The fate of foreign princesses marrying into the Plantagent family was similar. The French king Louis VII was tricked into sending his 9-year-old daughter Princess Alais to England, betrothed to Prince Richard. He was not interested in girls, so she ended, with no choice in the matter, in his father’s bed as one of Henry II’s many mistresses.

Alais spent 24 years as, effectively, a prisoner in a gilded cage before being sent back to France.

Sent abroad to strange lands with only a pair of handmaids who could speak their language and treated by their husbands’ courtiers with hostility as ‘that foreign girl’, a few of these child brides who had extraordinary toughness, political astuteness and very high intelligence later became regents when their husbands were away fighting.

Some also ruled great countries as regents for their sons after the father died, but the odds were stacked against them.

One such was Queen Leonor of Castile’s daughter Blanca, who was married at her grandmother’s insistence to the prince who became France’s King Louis VIII, and ruled the country as regent when he was on crusade, controlling also her son who came to the throne after her husband’s death.

Blanca (Blanche) of Castile.

Many of the others suffered in silence as privileged prisoners in palaces, eventually discarded when their childbearing years were over.

Douglas Boyd is the author of published works that include fourteen volumes of French and Russian history. Plantagenet Princesses: The Daughters of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II is his latest book and was published on 11 March 2020, by Pen and Sword Publishing.

Frequently romanticised by historians fixated on her beauty, Eleanor demonstrated impressive political acumen and tenacity, influencing the politics, art, medieval literature and the perception of women in her age.

Here are 10 facts about the most remarkable woman in medieval history.

1. The exact circumstances of her birth are unknown

The year and location of Eleanor’s birth are not known precisely. She is believed to have been born around 1122 or 1124 in either Poitiers or Nieul-sur-l’Autise, in today’s south-western France.

Eleanor of Aquitaine as depicted on the window of Poitiers Cathedral (Credit: Danielclauzier / CC).

Eleanor was the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitiers. The duchy of Aquitaine was one of the largest estates in Europe – larger than those held by the French king.

Her father ensured that she was well educated in mathematics and astronomy, fluent in Latin and adept at the sports of kings such as hunting and equestrianism.

2. She was the most eligible woman in Europe

William X died in 1137 while on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, leaving his teenage daughter the title of Duchess of Aquitaine and with it a vast inheritance.

Within hours of the news of her father’s death reaching France, her marriage to Louis VII, son of the king of France, was arranged. The union brought the powerful house of Aquitaine under the royal banner.

Not long after the wedding, the king fell ill and died of dysentery. On Christmas Day that year, Louis VII and Eleanor were crowned King and Queen of France.

3. She accompanied Louis VII to fight in the Second Crusade

When Louis VII answered the pope’s call to fight in the Second Crusade, Eleanor persuaded her husband to allow her to join him as feudal leader of Aquitaine’s regiment.

Between 1147 and 1149, she travelled to Constantinople and then to Jerusalem. Legend has it that she disguised herself as an Amazon to lead troops into battle.

Louis was a weak and ineffectual military leader, and his campaign ultimately failed.

4. Her first marriage was annulled

Relations between the couple were strained; the two were a mismatched pair from the very start.

Effigy of Louis VII on his seal (Credit: René Tassin).

Louis was quiet and submissive. He was never meant to be king, and had led a sheltered life in the clergy until his older brother Philip’s death in 1131. Eleanor, on the other hand, was worldly and outspoken.

Rumours of an incestuous infidelity between Eleanor and her uncle Raymond, the ruler of Antioch, aroused Louis’ jealousy. Tensions only increased as Eleanor gave birth to two daughters but no male heir.

Their marriage was annulled in 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity – the fact that they were technically related as third cousins.

5. She married again to avoid being kidnapped

Eleanor’s wealth and power made her a target for kidnapping, which at the time was seen as a viable option for obtaining a title.

In 1152 she was kidnapped by Geoffrey of Anjou, but she managed to escape. The story goes that she sent an envoy to Geoffrey’s brother Henry, demanding that he marry her instead.

And so just 8 weeks after the dissolution of her first marriage, Eleanor was married to Henry, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy, in May 1152.

King Henry II of England and his children with Eleanor of Aquitaine (Credit: Public domain).

Two years later, they were crowned King and Queen of England. The couple had 5 sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor and Joan.

6. She was a powerful queen of England

Once married and crowned queen, Eleanor refused to stay idle at home and instead travelled extensively to give the monarchy a presence across the kingdom.

While her husband was away, she played a key role in directing government and ecclesiastical affairs of the realm and particularly in managing her own domains.

7. She was a great patron of the arts

The obverse of Eleanor’s seal (Credit: Acoma).

Eleanor was a great patron of the two dominant poetic movements of the time – the courtly love tradition and the historical matière de Bretagne, or “legends of Brittany”.

She was instrumental in turning the court of Poitiers into a centre of poetry, inspiring the works of Bernard de Ventadour, Marie de France and other influential Provencal poets.

Her daughter Marie would later become patron to Andreas Cappellanus and Chretien de Troyes, one of the most influential poets of courtly love and the Arthurian Legend.

8. She was placed under house arrest

After years of Henry II’s frequent absences and countless open affairs, the couple separated in 1167 and Eleanor moved to her homeland in Poitiers.

After her sons tried unsuccessfully to revolt against Henry in 1173, Eleanor was captured while attempting to escape to France.

She spent between 15 and 16 years under house arrest in various castles. She was permitted to show her face at special occasions but was otherwise kept invisible and powerless.

Eleanor was only fully freed by her son Richard after Henry’s death in 1189.

9. She played a key role in Richard the Lionheart’s reign

Even before her son’s coronation as King of England, Eleanor travelled all over the kingdom to forge alliances and foster goodwill.

Funeral effigy of Richard I in Rouen Cathedral (Credit: Giogo / CC).

When Richard set out on the Third Crusade, she was left in the charge of the country as regent – even taking charge in negotiations for his release after he was taken prisoner in Germany on his way home.

After Richard’s death in 1199, John became King of England. Although her official role in English affairs ceased, she continued to wield considerable influence.

10. She outlived all her husbands and most of her children

Eleanor spent her last years as a nun at Fontevraud Abbey in France, and died in her eighties on 31 March 1204.

She outlived all but two of her 11 children: King John of England (1166-1216) and Queen Eleanor of Castile (c. 1161-1214).

Effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Fontevraud Abbey (Credit: Adam Bishop / CC).

Her bones were interred in the abbey’s crypt, however they were later exhumed and dispersed when the abbey was desecrated during the French Revolution.

Upon her death, the nuns of Fontevrault wrote:

She was beautiful and just, imposing and modest, humble and elegant

And they described her as a queen

who surpassed almost all the queens of the world.

Henry’s death by no means heralded Eleanor’s peaceful retirement. Instead, it welcomed her ‘golden years’ of industrious negotiation, long-awaited independence and an undisputed command of power.

Released at last

In July 1189, with the death of her estranged husband Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine was finally released from fifteen years of captivity.

She had been locked away by her husband since 1173, following her complicit involvement in her sons’ rebellions against Henry II. At this point, Eleanor was 49 – already deemed an elderly woman. By the time she regained her freedom she was 65 years old. Those around her must have been sure her life was about to draw to a close.

Effigies of Eleanor and Henry II in the church of Fontevraud Abbey. Image source: Adam Bishop / CC BY-SA 3.0.

But Eleanor was always one to swim against the tide. Far from enjoying her elderly years in a reclusive peace, Eleanor would make up for lost time, exercising unprecedented power and building her reputation as the most remarkable woman in medieval history.

Our first official glimpse of Eleanor in this period was given to us by William Marshal. Marshal was dispatched with Richard I to free Eleanor from prison and appoint her as regent. He was surprised to find her already released, and unsurprisingly, ‘much happier than she had been used to be’. Another vignette from this period has her ‘progressing with a queenly court’.

It emerged that Eleanor had not awaited the official tidings, but had impressed her custodians with the advisability of liberating her. The likely reason for this is ironic: Eleanor had, via her captivity, become the member of the royal family with the most secure ties to England, and the most respect amongst its nobility.

Other members of royalty, who were not so restrained by captivity, had less of a presence in England. Henry had been prone to flying visits, and Richard had barely set foot in the country since his early teens.

‘Eleanor the Queen’

But to England, Eleanor was simply ‘the Queen’ – and she resumed that role seamlessly.

Her first task was to prepare the country to welcome the stranger who was their new king. Eleanor focused on undoing some of Henry’s most unpopular actions, all in Richard’s name, and ruthlessly playing on her emotional capital.

The children of Henry and Eleanor.

When she released a bunch of prisoners, a statement was made that personally understood the troubles of those imprisoned – a touch worthy of a modern PR adviser. A glorious coronation was planned, music composed at Eleanor’s command to proclaim Richard as the King who would welcome an era of peace and prosperity.

Her popularity is well evidenced by the fact that the planned exclusion of women from the coronation was relaxed in her favour ‘at the request of the nobles of England’.

Yet this initial flurry was a gentle start to the industrious and challenging period of Eleanor’s golden years. When Richard was due to depart on the Third Crusade, Eleanor was left in charge of the country – again not as Regent, but as ‘the Queen’.

Negotiations on the continent

Yet she was too important to leave in one place – Eleanor was also needed to reconcile Richard to her youngest son John. It was at her insistence that John (the only other member of the family with a real link to England) was not barred from the country.

It was Eleanor who was needed to negotiate Richard’s last-minute marriage to Berengaria of Navarre, travelling there personally to undertake this role.

And then of course, she had to bring Berengaria to Richard – who was by now in Sicily. So off Eleanor set, in the depths of winter, across the Alps and down the length of Italy.

One might expect such an effort to be rewarded by a period of break and recuperation – but so vital was Eleanor’s influence that she was required to turn straight about and head back for France just the day after she rendezvoused with Richard.

On her way she was present at the installation of the new Pope, from whom she obtained orders. This would enable her to take Henry II’s illegitimate son Geoffrey Fitzroy out of the political equation by forcibly installing him as Archbishop of York.

A time for brisk measures

Detail of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Poitiers Cathedral. Credit: Danielclauzier / Commons.

Once returned, she fortified castles in France against the return of Richard’s former ally Philip Augustus – who was keen to take back custody of his sister Alys, Richard’s discarded fiancée. Eleanor kept hold of Alys – still a useful bargaining chip – moved to safety and superintended the local governor’s defiance of Philip.

She then moved to England where she held a series of meetings across the country, rallying support for Richard against John’s machinations. At the same time she enforced peace between Geoffrey Fitzroy and his neighbour the Bishop of Durham, by threatening to sequestrate their assets.

Similarly brisk measures brought to a swift end another church dispute between two bishops, which had left corpses rotting unburied in the streets of their dioceses. Eleanor held this precarious balance until 1192, when Richard commenced his return from crusade.

A precarious balance of power

Just as it must have seemed as if she could look forward to sharing power with her son, at Christmas 1192 came the news that Richard had been captured by vassals of the German Emperor, and was being held for ransom.

The obverse of Eleanor’s seal. She is identified as ‘Eleanor, by the Grace of God, Queen of the English, Duchess of the Normans’. The legend on the reverse calls her ‘Eleanor, Duchess of the Aquitanians and Countess of the Angevins’.

Once again the country looked to Eleanor. The record is clear – defensive measures taken at the time were done ‘by the order of Queen Eleanor, who at that time ruled England’. Under her direction John, who had looked to seize power, was forced to deliver up castles – again specifically to her.

The enormous ransom was collected following a council which Eleanor chaired, and every penny of it was locked up under her seal. When the time came to deliver it, Eleanor aged 69, set off over winter seas to Germany.

When the Emperor looked to set further terms late in the day, it was to Eleanor that Richard looked for advice. She was present when Richard performed homage to the Emperor and was finally released.

Peace restored

She travelled home with him – the pair processing in triumph through the city of London. Nor did her role end with Richard’s return. She remained at his side at the council which followed, his first progress and also at his second coronation in Winchester.

At this, her position on a raised dais facing the king must have given the impression that she was presiding over the ceremony. Only once Richard was truly secure in his reign in May 1194 did Eleanor, finally, leave England in his hands.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and England, Mother of Empires by Sara Cockerill will be released on 15 November 2019. Cockerill reassesses many myths which have arisen surrounding Eleanor’s life, making new ground on her relationship with the Church, her artistic patronage and relationships with her children. Published by Amberley Publishing.

He is often portrayed as the crusading “goodie” against his “baddie” brother (the aptly nicknamed Bad King John) – an image solidified in recent times by Hollywood, including by Disney’s famous cartoon version of the Robin Hood tale.

In reality, however, Richard the Lionheart was a far more complex character and certainly no angel. Here are 10 facts about him.

1. He was engaged at just nine years old

Richard’s father, Henry II of England (he was also the Count of Anjou and the Duke of Normandy), arranged for his nine-year-old son to become betrothed to French King Louis VII’s daughter Princess Alais, also aged nine. But the wedding never actually went ahead. Instead, Henry kept Alais as a prisoner for 25 years, part of which time he also used her as his mistress.

2. But he never had any children

Berengaria of Navarre is depicted here as showing alarm for Richard while he is away on Crusade.

Richard showed little interest in women and his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was the only woman to whom he showed much consideration. After ascending the throne at the age of 31 without a wife, Richard eventually married three years later.

But his marriage to Berengaria of Navarre was strategic – he wanted to obtain control of the Kingdom of Navarre – and the two spent very little time together, with no children being born.

3. He tried to depose his own father more than once

Henry died in July 1189, leaving the English throne and control of the Angevin Empire (which consisted of all of England, half of France and parts of Ireland and Wales) to Richard. But it wasn’t because Richard was his favourite son. In fact, the Lionheart is seen by many as having tormented his father to a premature death.

Just two days before Henry died, forces loyal to Richard and Philip II of France had defeated the king’s army at Ballans. It was only after this victory that Henry named Richard his heir apparent. And it wasn’t the first time Richard had tried to depose his father. He had also joined his brothers, Henry the Young and Geoffrey, in a revolt against him in 1173.

4. His chief ambition as king was to join the Third Crusade

This goal was prompted by the Muslim leader Saladin’s capture of Jerusalem in 1187. Three years later, Richard departed for the Middle East, having raised the funds for his trip through the sale of sheriffdoms and others offices. He finally arrived in the Holy Land in June 1191, a month before the fall of Acre.

Despite his legacy as the great “Crusader King”, Richard’s record during the Third Crusade was a bit of a mixed bag. Although he oversaw some major victories, Jerusalem – the Crusade’s main objective – always eluded him.

After a year of stalemate between the opposing sides, Richard agreed a truce with Saladin in September 1192, and began his journey home the following month.

5. He tried to sneak home in disguise

Richard’s return to England was far from plain sailing, however. During the Crusade he had managed to fall out with his Christian allies Philip II of France and Leopold V, Duke of Austria, and, as a result, found himself facing a trip through hostile lands to get home.

The king tried to travel through Leopold’s territory in disguise, but was captured and handed over to the German emperor, Henry VI, who then held him for ransom.

6. His brother John negotiated to keep him imprisoned

John, who had set himself up as an alternative ruler of England – complete with his own royal court – in Richard’s absence, negotiated with his brother’s captors to keep him imprisoned. When Richard finally returned home, he proved remarkably forgiving of John, deciding to pardon – rather than punish – him.

7. His reputation as “Good King Richard” began as a PR campaign

When Henry VI ransomed Richard for the weighty sum of 150,000 marks, his formidable mother, Eleanor, launched a PR campaign to raise the funds for his release. In an effort to persuade the citizens of the Angevin Empire to stump up, Richard was portrayed as a benevolent monarch.

Richard portrayed as the great Crusader.

8. He was crowned for a second time upon his return to England

Following the ransom payment, Richard was released in February 1194. But that wasn’t the end of his problems. The king now faced a threat to his authority and independence from those who had forked up the money to release him. So, in order to reinforce his position as England’s monarch, Richard immediately returned home and was crowned king once again.

9. But he left England again almost straight away

The tombs of Richard, right, and his mother, Eleanor, in Rouen, France.

Just a month after Richard’s return home, he left again for France. But this time, he would never return. After spending the next five years on and off warring with Philip II, Richard was fatally wounded while besieging a castle in central France and died on 6 April 1199. During a reign that spanned 10 years, Richard had only spent six months in England.

10. It’s unclear if he ever met Robin Hood

Despite what the Disney film, and others besides, would have us believe, it’s not known if The Lionheart actually met the legendary Prince of Thieves.