Louis and his headstrong queen were mismatched, and the strain between them culminated at the court of her uncle, Raymond of Poitiers at Antioch. Unfortunately, this was no romantic adventure for the royal couple. (According to legend, she took along 300 ladies-in-waiting dressed as Amazons-but those tales have been debunked.)

Between 11, she traveled with her husband's party to Constantinople and then Jerusalem. When Louis VII answered the pope’s call for a Second Crusade to defend Jerusalem against the Muslims, Eleanor did not stay behind in France. She even paid Richard's ransom when he was imprisoned by the duke of Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor, traveling there herself to bring him home to England. When Richard set out on the Third Crusade, Eleanor took charge as regent, fending off her power-hungry son John.

Sign up to British Heritage Travel's daily newsletter here!īefore he was crowned King of England, she journeyed all over his future kingdom to forge alliances and foster goodwill. They feared her, so they made sure she felt too hopeless to act up. The King’s advisors despised Eleanor because she was an educated, opinionated woman. Louis’ subjects detested the prince’s new bride, and Eleanor hated life at the French palace.

Her life in France was not pleasantĪs though her forced marriage wasn’t bad enough, when Eleanor arrived in the French court, she had even more problems. The little girl became the Duchess of Aquitaine and was quickly placed under the “protection” of the King of France, “Louis the Fat.” The king wasted no time in pledging young Eleanor to be his son Louis’ bride.Īs a sign of his goodwill and not at all an intimidating show of power, the king sent his son, along with 500 men, to propose to 13-year-old Eleanor and bring her to the French palace. With her father’s death in 1137, Eleanor instantly entered the bewildering life of a bonafide world leader. She’d go on to live a life that ran the gamut from inspirational and groundbreaking to heartrending and utterly tragic. That alone would be enough of an achievement for most people, but Eleanor wasn’t satisfied. When Eleanor came into her inheritance, she became the first and only woman to rule her own duchy. From Harry Potter to Brideshead Revisited, some famous British film locations.

Eleanor & park de rainbow rowell