Eleanor of
Aquitaine was the ultimate
spitfire. She was the
Queen of both
France and
England in the 12th century. In 1137, she married
Louis the Fat's son, who would become the future Louis VII of France. Louis would add Aquitaine to the
royal lands, but the
marriage did not turn out as well as he hoped.
Eleanor was simply too much for poor Louis. She took 300 women on the 2nd
Crusade, traveled all over France, and incited a
civil war by convincing a nobleman to divorce his wife and marry Eleanor's sister. She was rumored to have had
affairs with her uncle and a
troubadour. In 1152, Louis finally gave her a
divorce.
Two months later, Eleanor married Henry Plantagenet of England, the future Henry II. He, in turn, received the duchy of Aquitaine. Unfortunately, this marriage did not turn out well for her, either. Henry was
notorious for his affairs. He even had an affair with his son's fiancee', a French
princess who was the daughter of Eleanor's former husband. She was so
fed up with another of his
paramours that she confronted the girl with a
dagger and a
poison cup and told her to choose the means of her own
death (Eleanor did not go through with her
threat).
In 1173, three of her sons rebelled against Henry with her support. Henry captured her and kept her
imprisoned for eleven years. When Henry died, her son,
Richard the Lionhearted, became King. He spent only six months of his
reign in England, and Eleanor was his
regent when he was away. Eleanor died in 1204.