Aquitaine was one of Europe's greatest fiefs, therefore any heir or heiress to the duchy would be rather wealthy. Its lands extended in the southwestern regions of France. The Aquitaine court was influenced by the Spanish court of the Moors, and was a medieval trendsetter. Sophistication and luxury thrived there, and it encouraged art and poetry.
As for their relation to Eleanor, many troubadours were believed to be in love with her. She tried to shed the unruly ways of knights, so she invented a mock trial where the court ladies would judge the rough knights, who would attempt to act in a courtly fashion and read poems of homage.
A Brief Bio
Eleanor of Aquitaine, born in 1122, had an obscure childhood, but her teenager years were not so. Immediately she had a strong effect on feudal Europe. When she was 15, she inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine and Poitiers, and married Louis VII of France. Four years later, the 19-year-old Queen of France offered Abbe Bernard of Clairvaux went to Vezelay's cathedral to offer her vassals for the Second Crusade, apparently dressed like an Amazon riding a white horse. This was pleasant news, with the exception that Eleanor and her ladies were to accompany them!
Criticism followed Eleanor as she rode with her ladies, dressed in armor and armed with lances to "tend the wounded." In Antioch, she met with her uncle Raymond--hardly older than she was!--the appointed prince, and convinced her that they should recapture Edessa. However, Louis VII wanted to invade Jerusalem and insisted that his wife come with him. She retorted by saying that their marriage was invalid (since they were supposedly related in some way), yet was still forced to ride with him to failure. (Upon her return, Raymond was killed and his head given to the Caliph of Baghdad.)
Eleanor had her marriage to Louis annulled in 1152 and resumed control over her own estates. She had two daughters with Louis, and left them to be raised in the French courts. When she was 30, she married 20-year-old Prince Henry of Anjou, a perfect match! He became King Henry II of England in 1154. Together they earned themselves quite an empire.
They had five sons--notably Richard the Lionhearted and John, two future kings--and three daughters. A rocky relationship developed between the King and Queen of England. Eleanor disliked decades of his decision-making and cheating, as well as sharing her power and independence. In 1173 she led three of her sons in a rebellion against him, hoping to rule Aquitaine alone with Richard, her favorite son. For this, Henry imprisoned 50-year-old Eleanor for fifteen years in various places.
1189: Henry's death at last! Eleanor ruled for four years after that while Richard fought in the Holy Land, diligently defending his possessions and his life. Soon she was known as a skilled politician who wanted power.
After this last period of brief rule, Eleanor travelled across Europe. This was often at risk to her own life, to complete her various errands--managing her possessions, making marriage alliances, and keeping up the loyalty of her subjects. Some of her notable treks included going to Spain to marry her 13-year-old granddaughter Blanche of Castile to Louis VIII of France, the grandson of her first husband! (Blance earned as much fame and success as Eleanor, yet became a rival rather than an alliance.) And when she was 70, she rode across the Pyrenees Mountains just to collect Princess Berengaria of Navarre--the daughter of King Sancho the Wise--and traverse all the way to Sicily, crossing the Alps and the Italian coast in order for the Princess to meet and marry her son Richard on May 12, 1191.
Eleanor died in the abbey of Fontevrault in 1204, her favorite peaceful retreat. She had earned herself the title of "Grandmother of Europe" for her vast realm.
Why I Admire Her...
If you can become Duchy of Aquitaine as well as Queen of France at the same age, go straight into the Crusades as a heroine, become Queen of England, and do it all while retaining your independence and power? Well, anyone who can do all that is pret-ty admirable.