This biography tells the story of one of the most influential figures of the twelfth century, Eleanor of Aquitaine, successively queen of France and of England. Her marriage at fifteen to the young Louis VII was later annulled on the grounds of consanguinity. After her divorce, she married Henry II, then Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy. Henry became king of England in 1154 and Eleanor thereby became queen of potentially the most powerful leader in Europe, whose empire stretched from the Scottish borders to the Pyrenees. Eleanor bore Henry eight children, two of them future kings of England - Richard (the Lionheart) and John. Her behavior and political motives have always been open to question, not least her siding with her children against Henry. Although their revolt collapsed, Eleanor was kept in close custody in England for much of the next sixteen years. Then, after Henry's death, she lent her unflagging support to his successors Richard and, later, John.
In tracing Eleanor's life story, Professor Owen examines her part in public affairs during the reigns of Louis, Henry, Richard and John, and her role as a literary and cultural patron at the time of the great intellectual revival know as the Twelfth-Century Renaissance. Even in her own day, Eleanor caught the imagination of chroniclers and other writers. Professor Owen follows the development of the legend that built up around her life and considers her possible use as a role-model in the epic and romance of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.