Description: Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine was married to King Louis VII of France and then King Henry II of England. In both cases they were not kings when she married them, but they soon became such. She went on the Second Crusade with Louis and caused mayhem. Her son King Richard the Lionhearted was the only prince of Europe to defeat Saladin and force the great warrior to make peace rather than war. Her son King John lost the empire built up by her and her husband King Henry II, which she had to witness in her later years. King John attempted unsuccessfully, to regain his continental possessions with the aid of his nephew, Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV. A major theme of the book is the rivalry between the Hohenstaufens and Welfs for the title of Holy Roman Emperor. The principal characters being Barbarossa and Henry the Lion (Eleanor's son-in-law). Eleanor died at Fontevrault Abbey in 1204 at the grand old age of 82. She outlived all but two of her ten children. After her death her grandchildren became kings and even emperors.
