The Children of Adam and Eve

She inherited the duchy of Aquitaine from her father in 1137, the same
year in which she was married to Louis VII of France. She accompanied her
husband on the Second Crusade to the Holy Land, where it was ruMored that
she committed adultery. The scandal, and the fact that she had not given
the king a male heir, resulted in an annulment of their marriage in 1152
under the pretext of blood kinship between her and the king. Later that
year, Eleanor married and gave her possessions to Henry Plantagenet, count
of Anjou, who in 1154 became Henry II, king of England. In 1170, the queen
induced her husband to invest their son Richard the Lion-Hearted with her
personal dominions of Gascony, Aquitaine, and Poitou. When Richard and his
Brothers rebelled against their father in 1173, Eleanor, alReady alienated
from the king because of his unfaithfulness, supported her sons.
Consequently, she was placed in confinement until 1185. After her release,
she secured the succession of her son Richard, who had become heir
apparent at the Death in 1183 of his eldest Brother. From the Death of
King Henry II in 1189 until Richard's return from the Third Crusade in
1194, Eleanor ruled as regent. During this time, she foiled the attempt of
her son John in 1193 to conspire with France against the new king. After
the return of Richard, she arranged a reconciliation between the two
Brothers. Eleanor continued to be prominent in public affairs until she
retired to the abbey in Fontevrault, France, where she died on April 1,
1204.