ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE
Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 or 1124 - April 1, 1204) is a woman whom we can not say was the queen of this or that because she went much further. She was Duchess of Aquitaine and Gascony, Countess of Poitiers, queen consort of France and England and matriarch of the Plantageneta Dynasty. She was the eldest daughter of William X, the Saint (1099 - 1137), whom she succeeded in 1137, and Leonor of Châtellerault. Her personal fortune and her keen political sense made her one of the most powerful and influential women of the Middle Ages.
She married in 1137 with King Louis VII of France, from whom she divorced in 1153. She then married King Henry II of England and had eight children, including Richard the Lionheart and John the Lackland (Henry left no land to John when he died so John was given the nick-name John Lackland), who were the kings of England between 1189 and 1199 and 1199 and 1216. In addition to her having been the mother of Leonor Plantageneta, queen of Castile (Spain to be), which made Leonor great-grandmother of St. Louis IX, King of France. On the part of his daughter Matilde of England, Duchess of Saxony, Leonor of Aquitaine was grandmothers of Otão IV, Holy Roman Germanic Emperor. And already on the part of its daughter Maria Capeto, was grandmother of King Henry II of Jerusalem.
In short. She was the first Duchess of Aquitaine, then queen of France as wife of the King of France, then Queen of England as wife of the King of England, divorced both and returned to be duchess of Aquitaine, to still die as queen of England alone. She was also the mother of two English kings and grandmother of several other kings and emperors.
Eleanor was born in the most learned and literate court of her time. Her grandfather had been William IX, the Troubadour (1071-1126), one of the first troubadours and vernacular poets. He was still an extremely learned man, who transmitted the taste for learning to the heir William X, who in turn offered an exceptional education to his two daughters. Eleanor and Petronilla who were fluent in about eight languages, learned mathematics and astronomy, and discussed laws and philosophy on a par with the doctors of the Church. This exceptional education for being women, and at a time when most of the rulers were illiterate men, allowed these girls to develop a critical spirit and political sagacity, especially useful to Eleanor who was to govern herself and was the most powerful person of the time. William X still had the taste of involving his heiress in the varied aspects of the government, taking it in several visits through its territories.
