Eleanor was repeatedly blamed for failures in the Second Crusade, while chroniclers suspected she was having an affair with her uncle
At 15, Eleanor of Aquitaine suddenly inherited her father’s vast estate after his death in 1137. She was the only heir following the earlier death of her only brother. The same year, she married Louis, who almost immediately became King Louis VII, making Eleanor the queen-consort of France.
After a decade of married life, Louis VII led the Second Crusade alongside King Conrad III of Germany. He was with Eleanor in Bourges when news of Pope Eugene III’s papal bull arrived. Eleanor joined her husband to take the cross before setting out for the Holy Land in 1147. Women from the Aquitanian nobility joined her. Her opponents constructed a legend of Eleanor leading women into the crusades as Amazonian warriors. Eleanor was also blamed by hostile chroniclers for the disastrous French defeat at the Battle of Mount Cadmus, claiming it had been caused by the enormous amount of baggage belonging to Eleanor and her companions. Official responsibility was placed on Geoffrey de Rancon’s shoulders, Eleanor’s vassal.
The surviving crusaders arrived in Antioch on 19 March 1148. Louis VII came into conflict with Eleanor’s uncle, Raymond, Prince of Antioch, over Louis VII’s desire to travel to Jerusalem. Raymond wanted a campaign in Syria. Despite Eleanor’s protests, the crusaders left Antioch on 28 March and reached Jerusalem in May. The shambolic siege of Damascus in July, lasting just four days, effectively ended the crusade. The growing rift between the couple during this time led chroniclers to hint at an affair between Eleanor and her uncle. She and Louis VII returned to France after Easter 1149 in separate ships.
On returning from the Second Crusade, still with no male heir, Eleanor and Louis began to seek annulment of the marriage. Eugene III initially demanded reconciliation. However, the annulment was granted in 1152, 15 years after the marriage. Louis VII received custody of their two daughters, while Eleanor’s lands were restored to her. While travelling south to her court in Poitiers, Eleanor narrowly avoided abduction and forced marriage attempts by two French nobles. Soon after, she married Henry II, the future King of England, which led to the emergence of the Angevin Empire.
The All About History Archive contains more than 600 images like the one above and hundreds of accompanying features examining world history from ancient Egypt to the Cold War. More assets and articles are being added all the time. To search and purchase images directly from the Image Archive, please register here.
Louis is the Staff Writer at History of War magazine, spending his time writing, interviewing historians, and leading the magazine’s social media output. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Exeter, where he became interested in military history while writing his dissertation on the Spanish Civil War.
Subscribe to
All About History now for amazing savings!
Follow All About History on…