April Queen: Eleanor of Aquitaine

Recreating the turbulent life of one of the most exciting women in European medieval history, this biography reveals a peculiarly "modern" queen

Eleanor of Aquitaine was the only person ever to sit on the thrones of both France and England. This account of the adventures of the extraordinary mother of Richard the Lionheart and King John takes us into the heart and mind of the woman who changed the shape of Europe for 300 years by marrying Henry of Anjou, making him England’s Henry II. Eleanor was a European with a continent-wide vision and a woman who rejected the subordinate female role decreed by the Church. Brought up in the comfort- and culture-loving Mediterranean civilization of southern France, she also refused to be a consenting victim of ethnic cleansing. Using French, Old French, Latin, and Occitan sources, this biography lays bare as never before Eleanor’s relationships and vividly brings to life the world she knew.