Biografia

Eleanor of Aquitaine: A powerful woman

Eleanor was duchess of Aquitaine and countess of Poitou in her own right. She also was queen of France as the wife of Louis VII, duchess of Normandy,countess of Anjou and Queen of England as the wife of Henry Plantagenet.
Eleanor of Aquitaine was born in 1122, the exact date is unknown, in Bordeaux in the country of Aquitaine.
She was the eldestdaughter of William, tenth Duke of Aquitaine, and Aenor of Chatellerault. Her formal education included Latin as well as Provencal, the language of Aquitaine.
Her grandfather, Guillaume IX ofAquitaine/VII of Poitou, was the first known provençal poet and Eleanor brought that rich cultural heritage.
In Aquitaine, women had liberties like nowhere in Europe and they can socialize with men freely, whichlater will be noticed in almost all aspects of her life.
In 1137, at the age of fifteen, she inherited her father’s lands due to his death during a pilgrimage in Compostella.
The same year she gotmarried to Louis, heir to the throne of France, bringing into the union her possessions from the River Loire to the Pyrenees. The couple had two daughters.
Eleanor joined Louis on the Second Crusade.It is said that she appeared in Vèzelay almost undressed galloping through the crowds on a white horse, asking them to join the crusade. In some time on the voyage the couple drew apart. It isbelieved that one reason of that was the Eleanor’s failure to have a son to heir the throne. Even the Pope intervention couldn’t help and in March of 1152 they get the annulment of their marriage.
Abouttwo months later Eleanor married Henry Fitz-Empress, heir to the throne of England. The couple had five sons and three daughters. Both sons who survived their father Henry, became kings of England afterhim: Richard I (the Lionhearted) and John (known as Lackland)
For the following two decades, Eleanor played an active part in the running of Henry’s empire, travelling through their territories in...